Wednesday, March 9, 2011 7:13 pm
Best-of-2010 Megalist: Crime Fiction and Thrillers

These eleven crime novels and thrillers have received the most mentions on best-of-the-year lists and awards as compiled in my Megalist of books published in the U.S. during 2010.

1. Room, by Emma Donoghue (46 votes to date)

The runaway winner in this category is narrated by Jack, a 5-year-old who readers come to realize has been kept in a single room with his mother for his entire life. Ma has done her best to make this seem like normal life, but as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that this imprisonment and the regular visits of Old Nick are something much more sinister.

2. Faithful Place, by Tana French (21 votes to date)

Frank Mackey avoided his home neighborhood for over 20 years after his girlfriend failed to show for their elopement. Discovery of her suitcase forces him to return to investigate what happened to the girl that he thought deserted him. French fashions a searing portrayal of Dublin past and present in a story of dysfunctional families, lost love, and impoverished lives.

3. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, by Stieg Larsson (19 votes to date)

Convalescing from her shooting and still under guard as a murder suspect, the slight tattooed hacker Lisbeth Salander works with journalist Mikael Blomkvist via computer to clear her name and track her lifelong tormentor. As the last of a trilogy, this one’s not much use for book groups unless they’ve read the first two.

4 (tie). Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, by Tom Franklin (11 votes to date)

Their interracial friendship was destroyed twenty-five years earlier when Larry Ott’s date failed to come home, but now as police constable, Silas Jones is forced to look up his old friend (whose guilt was suspected but never proven) when a similar crime occurs. Franklin has been praised for his atmospheric portrayal of Mississippi and the lingering ghosts of racism.

4 (tie). Our Kind of Traitor, by John Le Carré (11 votes to date)

The old master of espionage turns to international money laundering for the subject matter of his latest, which follows a Russian mafia oligarch, a businessman and money launderer, through his attempt to defect and the resulting MI-6 investigation.

Source: bookgroupbuzz.booklistonline.com