It has become a tradition for me to list my top ten reads of each year since starting this blog (yes I know it’s only 2 and a bit years but traditions have to start somewhere) but it is becoming harder to do as I read more books each year (the official tally this year is 162 finished books and 8 DNFs) and a higher percentage of them are really very good. So this year I have the top ten list plus the honourable mentions/just missed outs list plus the ‘hey, we were good too’ list.

The top ten (in alphabetical order by author)

• Belinda Bauer, Blacklands (audio book)
• S J Bolton, Awakening
• Ken Bruen, The Dramatist (audio book)
• Ariana Franklin, Mistress of the Art of Death
• Elly Griffiths, The Janus Stone
• Adrian Hyland, Gunshot Road (Australian Author) (when pressed on most days I will say that this is my favourite book of the year, it is hard to separate from the others but the writing does set it slightly above – sheer poetry)
• Arnaldur Indridason, Hypothermia (translated) (this is the second book I have said on several occasions is my favourite for the whole year)
• Simon Lelic, A Thousand Cuts (a.k.a. Rupture) (this is the other book I occasionally say was my favourite for the year)
• Deon Meyer, Thirteen Hours (translated)
• Johan Theorin, The Darkest Room (translated)

These books missed out by the merest whisker from inclusion:

• Martin Edwards, Dancing for the Hangman (audio book)
• Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (audio book)
• Colin Cotterill, Thirty Three Teeth
• Chris Grabenstein, Whack a Mole (audio book)
• Sue Grafton, U is for Undertow (audio book)
• Reginald Hill, Midnight Fugue (audio book)
• Gene Kerrigan, The Midnight Choir (audio book)
• Rob Kitchin, The Rule Book
• Shona MacLean, The Redemption of Alexander Seaton (audio book)
• Jo Nesbo, The Redbreast (translated)
• Sara Paretsky, Hardball
• Peter Temple, Truth (no, I never wrote that review) (Australian author)

For those who care about such things you’ll note that my halfway through the year list was reasonably accurate, containing 6 books that ended up on the top ten for the year. The other four books were edged into the honourable mentions/just missed out list.

Between them the books in the above two lists were rated

• 4.5 (= Wow, I feel lucky to have discovered this book and will badger you to read it too so we can talk about it) or
• 5 (= Wow, I feel lucky to have discovered this book, will badger you to read it too and would want it with me if I were stranded on a desert island)

There are a further 43 that I rated 4 (= ‘wow I feel lucky to have discovered this book’) which I think you’ll agree is still pretty darned good. So if you are still looking for something to read…

• Linwood Barclay, Never Look Away (audio book)
• Nevada Barr, Borderline (audio book)
• Nevada Barr, Hunting Season (audio book)
• Bateman, Mystery Man
• Lindy Cameron, Redback (Australian author)
• Agatha Christie, Murder on the Orient Express (audio book) (oops, no review)
• Ann Cleeves, Red Bones (audio book)
• Rory Clements, Martyr
• Leif Davidsen, The Serbian Dane (translated)
• Martin Edwards, The Arsenic Labyrinth (audio book)
• Martin Edwards, The Coffin Trail
• Robert Engwerda, Mosquito Creek (Australian author)
• Barbara Fister, In The Wind
• Barbara Fister, On Edge
• Dick Francis, The Edge (audio book)
• Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza, Southwesterly Wind (translated)
• Leah Giarratano, Watch the World Burn (Australian author)
• Susan Hill, The Pure in Heart (audio book)
• Arnaldur Indridason, Operation Napoleon (translated)
• Margot Kinberg, B-Very Flat
• Rob Kitchin, The White Gallows
• Asa Larsson, The Black Path (translated)
• Karen Maitland, Company of Liars (audio book)
• P D Martin, The Killing Hands (Australian author)
• Colleen McCullough, Too Many Murders (audio book) (Australian author)
• Deon Meyer, Dead at Daybreak (audio book) (translated)
• Hakan Nesser, The Mind’s Eye (translated)
• P M Newton, The Old School (Australian author)
• Malla Nunn, Let the Dead Lie (Australian author)
• George Pelacanos, The Way Home (audio book)
• Glen Peters, Mrs Di Silva’s Detective Instincts and the Shaitan of Calcutta
• Claudia Pineiro, Thursday Night Widows (translated)
• Kwei Quartey, Wife of the Gods
• Caro Ramsay, Singing to the Dead
• Ruth Rendell, The Monster in the Box (audio book)
• Imogen Robertson, Instruments of Darkness
• Alex Scarrow, Last Light
• Yrsa Sigurdardottir, My Soul to Take (translated)
• Maj Sjowall & Per Whaloo, Roseanna (translated)
• Teresa Solana, A Not So Perfect Crime (translated)
• Michael Stanley, A Carrion Death
• Charles Todd, A Lonely Death (review will come next year when the book is published)
• Shuichi Yoshida, Villain (translated)

Just in case you haven’t had enough charts yet I shall display my ratings in a couple of final charts for the year.

Book Rating Breakdown 2009-2010

Rating groupings 2009-2010

I like this second chart because it shows more dramatically that overall, 81% of the books I read fell into the 3+ rating which means I was glad to have read them and would happily read more by the same author. This is up from 71% on last year.

What a wonderful year in books I have had and, as always, my sincere gratitude to the authors who make it all possible.

If you’d like your own top ten crime fiction reads for this year to be included in Kerrie’s Mega List of Awesome Crime Fiction (that might just be my name for it, hers is probably more sensible) please head over to her blog and leave your top ten.