December 12

My Ten Favourite Reads of 2023

It does not feel like twelve months since I last sat down to select my favourite reads of the year, yet here we are.

It hasn’t been the best of years in terms of getting reviews onto the blog. I’ve still been reading but I started the year on an extremely busy contract (the day job) and it was draining – at the end of a long day the last thing I could do was open up another laptop screen.  Then in the summer my crazy busy contract finished – I flew home early from my summer holiday to begin the second crazy busy contract of the year (day job part the second) – again lots of reading but, again, not so many reviews added to the blog.

This has made me even more determined to share my ten favourite reads of the year. There have been many cracking books which I shouted about as I read them but I want to showcase my favourites (particularly as there are still a couple of weeks to go until Christmas and I hope you may consider gifting some of these suggestions).

So without further ado (and in no particular order) I present the ten books which gave me the most pleaure in 2023

 

Paris Requiem – Chris Lloyd

I start with Paris Requiem. I read this back in February, had the pleasure of hearing Chris Lloyd speak about this book at September’s Bloody Scotland Festival and I have been recommending this particular title for 11 of the 12 months in 2023. It’s a crime thriller set in 1940s Paris. The lead character is a French cop and he is trying do do his job while the German army is occupying the city and putting their own leaders in positions of power in the city.

For Eddie Giral there’s just one question…why has a man he recently put in prison just turned up (very, very dead) in the office of a Parisian night club?

https://www.waterstones.com/book/paris-requiem/chris-lloyd/9781409190325

 

 

The Last Line – Stephen Ronson

It’s another book set during the Second World War but this time the action takes place in the South East of England and the hero of the tale is a former soldier who finds himself accused of a particularly nasty murder and has to prove his innocence. Along the way he will become embroiled in a mystery surrounding a missing refugee and also find himself facing off against some particulary dangerous “businessmen”.

A terrific debut novel from Stephen Ronson who delivers a perfectly paced, gripping thriller which I knew was a certain inclusion in this list as I rushed through the last few chapters. I was dying to see how this story ended but at the same time I really didn’t want it to end.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-last-line/stephen-ronson/9781399721233

 

 

The Darkest Sin – D V Bishop

It’s another historical crime thriller but this story takes place in Florence, Italy in the year 1537. The second of three Cesare Aldo books by D.V. Bishop that I read this year.  I could honestly have selected any one of the three (City of Vengeance, The Darkest Sin and Ritual of Fire) to make this list as I virtually devoured each story back to back..it got to the point I was beginning to develop an Italian accent!

The Darkest Sin got the nod due to the sinister nuns, the sublimely clever twist of getting a very different story for those that had read City of Venegance than those that had not read CoV and also Aldo being a terrific character I want to read about again and again.

If you haven’t read D.V. Bishop yet I implore you to get that put to right immediately.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-darkest-sin/d-v-bishop/9781529038842

The Sun Down Motel – Simone St James

Here is the best ghost story I read this year. A haunted motel? A small town with secrets? A dangerous predator? Yes please!

In 1982 Viv took a job as the night receptionist at the Sun Down Motel. But Viv vanishes one night and is never found again. In 2017 Viv’s neice, Carly, comes to the Sun Down Motel to try and discover what happened to her aunt – she discovers more than she could ever have expected.

This is a terrifically creepy tale and a damned good mystery too. If you don’t do supernatural then it’s not for you but miss out at your peril.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-sun-down-motel/simone-st-james/9781405962315

 

 

The Institution – Helen Fields

This book is not for the faint of heart. I do like my crime thrillers to be on the darker side but Helen Fields has delivered a particularly grim situation and (excuse the prison pun) but it’s shackles off on the dark and gritty narrative.

In the world’s most secure prison hospital a nurse is murdered, her child abducted and the clock is ticking to recover the infant and catch a killer. It’s a locked room mystery but with everything ramped up to the absolute maximum.

I’ve always enjoyed books by Helen Fields but this really raised the bar.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-institution/helen-fields/9780008533519

 

 

The Devil You Know – Neil Lancaster

Regular visitors will know that I generally favour reading about recurring characters than I enjoy stand-alone novels. The Devil You Know is the newest title in the terrific Max Craigie series (book 5). Having devoured each of the previous Craigie novels I feel this series is only going from strength to strength with The Devil You Know simply blowing me away with page after page of thrills and action.

At the risk of incurring your temporary wrath – I got to read an early copy of The Devil You Know and it’s not on general release until March 2024. But let me assure you…it is well worth the wait. Why not pre-order your copy so you don’t miss out.  Really….don’t miss out.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-devil-you-know/neil-lancaster/9780008551322

 

 

The Hotel – Louise Mumford

If The Sun Down Motel was the best horror novel I read this year, The Hotel is the best chiller. Not a full horror novel but suitably chilling and with a plot that had me thinking “Blair Witch” when the protagonists take video footage of their nocternal visit to an old, abandoned hotel high on the Welsh coastal clifftops.

Great characters, a clever mystery story and a hugely enjoyable read which just flowed from first page to last. Hunt this down and check out The Hotel

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-hotel/louise-mumford/9780008589943

 

 

Murdle – G T Karber

I love puzzle books. I love logic puzzles and I love murder mysteries. That’s Murdle in a nutshell. A collection of fun mystery puzzles which challenge the reader/player to solve the clues and discover the murderers.  Grab a pen, Grab This Book and enjoy something charmingly different.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/murdle/g-t-karber/9781800818026

 

 

 

 

 

The Silent Man – David Fennell

Another dark crime thriller and another absolutely cracking read. This thriller has a serial killer, a gangster with a vendetta against a cop and her family and it packs tension and twists into every chapter.

I hadn’t read David Fennell’s earlier books and I am correcting that oversight already – this story just hit the ground running and I just kept turning the pages.  This is the kind of book I love to find – a story which immediately makes me feel I need to read all the other books by the same author.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-silent-man/david-fennell/9781804181737

 

 

The Stranger Times – C.K McDonnell

This was an audiobook listen and it made me laugh out loud so many times that I just could not leave it off this list. Falling firmly into the fantasy realms I loved the manic chaos of The Stranger Times (a weekly newspaper of odd, unexplained and the totally bonkers aspects of life). The boss is a sweary, drunk, the new reporter is making it up as she goes along, the tech support is a young teenager and the office manager tolerates them all (just).

Elsewhere a dark magician is breaking the rules and has a brutal monster under his control which he will unleash onto Manchester (and the World) if he can overcome those that would oppose him.

I’d bought book 2 of this series long before I heard the last chapters of book one. So Much Fun.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-stranger-times/c-k-mcdonnell/9780552177344

 

 

That’s my ten. I left out some really good books by authors I love to read and I wish I could have included more than ten books in my “Ten Favourite Reads” list but I work with numbers all day and to have a list of ten with more than ten books would make me positively antsy.

I shout about books every day of every week over on social media – I am @grabthisbook and if you follow me on Twitter/X I will endeavour to continue to flag up terrific reads through 2024 and beyond.

Enjoy what you read and share the booklove.

 

 

 

 

 

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February 23

Paris Requiem – Chris Lloyd

‘You have a choice which way you go in this war…’

Paris, September 1940.

After three months under Nazi Occupation, not much can shock Detective Eddie Giral. That is, until he finds a murder victim who was supposed to be in prison. Eddie knows, because he put him there. The dead man is not the first or the last criminal being let loose onto the streets. But who is pulling the strings, and why?

This question will take Eddie from jazz clubs to opera halls, from old flames to new friends, from the lights of Paris to the darkest countryside – pursued by a most troubling truth: sometimes to do the right thing, you have to join the wrong side…

 

My thanks to Orion for the opportunity to read an review copy of Paris Requiem

 

In late 202o I listened to the audiobook of The Unwanted Dead. It introduced Eddie Giral, the police officer who was determined to investigate a crime which nobody else wanted him to investigate. I absolutely loved the story, raved about it A LOT on Twitter and I was delighted to see it win the CWA Gold Crown for best novel of the year.

I have been patiently waiting for Giral’s return (well quite patiently) and when Paris Requiem landed on my doormat it went straight to the front of my reading queue. I know I shouldn’t have favourites but as much as I loved The Unwanted Dead, I think Paris Requiem takes this series to greater heights. Paris Requiem – five stars and if I could give it more I would.

What’s it about then?

Detective Eddie Giral is a member of the Paris police force. It is 1940 and the Germans have occupied the city. The police are still to enforce the law but they must do so working alongside the Germans who have their own control over the city. It’s a fractious dynamic and Eddie is far from happy with the current state of affairs. Although we first met Eddie in the award-winning The Unwanted Dead. You don’t need to read the stories in order to enjoy Paris Requiem but as I adored The Unwanted Dead I would strongly encourage you to seek it out.

We meet Eddie in a closed down Jazz Club. He is a big fan of jazz but not such a big fan of empty clubs which house a dead body. Unfortunately for Eddie the reason he is in a closed down club is because there is a dead body which needs his attention. Bound to a chair and left to be found, the victim has had their mouth sewn shut with twine. A message? But who could it be for? And an even bigger headache for Eddie is that he knows the victim…he arrested him some months earlier and the man should still be in prison – so why is he dead in a club?

Eddie’s boss, Commissionaire Dax, has paired him up with the irritating Boniface. Potentially a decent cop but Eddie feels Boniface spends more time chasing women than he does chasing crooks. Together the pair try to find out why a convicted criminal was walking the streets before he met his untimely and unpleasant death. Worse still it seems he may not be the only criminal no longer serving their sentence – some of the crooks the pair helped capture will hold a grudge too.

Unfortunately for Eddie there are other matters to contend with. His son is trying to escape France, Eddie has not seen him for several months but someone else knows of his flight to freedom and is trying to use this knowledge to get some leverage with Eddie. Will Eddie be able to assist an enemy if it means safe passage for his son? There’s another son to worry about too – not his own but an old friend is looking for Eddie to help find her son. A soldier on the run and hiding from the German army will not have it easy, but when the soldier has black skin it gets even more complicated. Even Eddie’s connections with Major Hochstetter – the German officer who “assists” Eddie and the French police will not use his influential support to track down a missing soldier.

There’s a lot going on in Eddie’s life but Chris Lloyd manages to keep three or four different story threads constantly weaving around the reader. Even when there’s not a crime to occupy his mind Eddie can be found trying to encourage his local butcher to let him have a slightly larger cut of meat or begging his baker to give him a single loaf of bread despite Eddie not having his ration book. Life in occupied Paris still goes on and Lloyd shows the day to day problems all Parisians faced – sourcing fresh meat and bread being one of them.

It’s the wonderful blend of historical fact, crime fiction and sheer reading enjoyment which made me love the time I spent with Paris Requiem. Chris Lloyd breathes life into history and has created a compelling cast of characters. The murders, the escaped criminals, Eddie’s need to appease his boss, appease the Germans and keep himself safe while unknown forces try to kill him – you will be drawn into this story and will not want to stop reading. Especially when you hear about Capeluche – he’s a scary one.

Don’t miss these books. Get to know Eddie Giral. He’s having a rough old time of it but you’ll root for him from first page to last.

 

 

Paris Requiem is available now in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/paris-requiem/chris-lloyd/9781409190301

 

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