A few favorite crime books of 2022 and mystery recommendations for 2023

The Plot Thickens

Last month I asked for favorite legal thrillers, and apparently that’s not a very popular genre with readers of this column — what, you don’t all harbor secret dreams of being Diane Lockhart on “The Good Fight”? Am I alone in this fantasy of fabulous suits and husky-toned shoutings of “Objection!”? Anyway, in addition to some expected recommendations for John Lescroart and John Grisham, I was happy to learn of Joey Hartstone’s “The Local,” not least because Hartstone is a former writer for “The Good Fight.” Life is a flat circle, right?

His book, published this year, is a kick — a tale of small-town Texas court shenanigans told from the point of view of a local lawyer accustomed to seeing big-city legal teams breeze in and out of town. But when a beloved judge turns up dead, fingers get pointed in many directions, and our hero — accompanied by a crackerjack team known as Layla and the Leg (this would be an excellent name for a band, just noting) — gets busy investigating and objecting and sorting out who did what. The door’s wide open for a sequel at the end; here’s hoping.  

As we wrap up the year, I’ve got a few random recommendations for 2022 crime books I read this year that didn’t make it into previous columns, to wit:

• “The Verifiers” by Jane Pek. I’m knee-deep in this debut novel right now. Its irresistible premise: Heroine Claudia Lin is a constant reader (the phrase “The man is harder to read than ‘Finnegans Wake’” turns up on the book’s second page) who takes a job at a very secretive online-dating detective agency, i.e. an agency that investigates potential romantic partners found on dating websites. This is one of those rare mysteries that’s also a funny read; Pek gives Claudia a wonderfully wry voice and a rich inner life. I loved a reference to New Yorker short stories, the kind “where nothing happens but the characters are all thrumming with anguish.”
• “Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks” by Patrick Radden Keefe. Keefe, one of my favorite nonfiction writers (his “Empire of Pain” and “Say Nothing,” about the opioid industry and violence in Northern Ireland respectively, are both brilliant), here collects a dozen previously published profiles. Most are of criminals, and all are deep-dive fascinating, particularly a look at a notorious wine forger that, like all great writing, takes you into a world you never knew existed.
• “Nine Lives” by Peter Swanson. The Massachusetts-based Swanson is always good for a nice taut mystery/thriller (I also recommend “The Kind Worth Killing,” for which a sequel, “The Kind Worth Saving,” is coming out next spring). This one is a clever riff on Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None,” taking place across an entire country rather than on one isolated island. A clever federal investigator must figure out why nine seemingly unrelated people received a list of nine names — and why those people are turning up dead. You’ll get a good workout from the page-turning.

And here are a few mysteries I’m very much looking forward to solving in 2023:

• Rebecca Makkai, whose novel “The Great Believers” was a 2018 highlight, steps into the mystery genre with “I Have Some Questions For You” (publishing Feb. 21), in which a film professor and podcaster gets pulled into a cold case involving the long-ago murder of a boarding-school classmate.
• Many of you, I know, are big fans of Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs series, set mostly in World War II-era England. Winspear has a new stand-alone coming out in March, “The White Lady,” set in rural Kent in 1947 and featuring Elinor White, a woman haunted by her past as a World War II spy and trained killer.
• No one writes psychological thrillers quite like Megan Abbott (I’m still shivering over her 2021 ballet novel “The Turnout”). Her latest, “Beware the Woman” (May 30), takes place in a remote cabin, where a newly united family eyes each other warily. I can practically picture the movie already.
• Alyssa Cole, who mostly writes in the romance genre (with the occasional foray into graphic novels), made a wonderfully suspenseful debut into the psychological thriller genre in 2020 with “When No One Is Watching” — aptly described by its publisher as “’Rear Window’ meets ‘Get Out.’” She’s got another one coming next year: “One of Us Knows” (Sept. 5), in which the caretaker of a historic island home finds herself trapped with a murderer — and with ghosts from her past.

For next month’s column, let me ask you this: Is there a mystery novel that you’ve read multiple times? One that, while you already know whodunit, you like to keep revisiting for the pleasure of its company? Do let me know! And I hope all readers of The Plot Thickens have a healthy, happy and booked-filled holiday season. See you next year.