April 2009 - This is a selection from the mystery novels read from July - December 2008 that I rate most highly—a mix of familiar authors and a few new to me. The Other Side of Silence, by Bill Pronzini, and Cold in Hand, by John Harvey, are recent novels by masters of the genre. Pronzini sets his in Death Valley, California, and Las Vegas, Nevada. Harvey brings back his Nottingham detective inspector Charlie Resnick, nearing retirement.

In Angel's Tip, Alafair Burke continues her new series set in Manhattan, New York, The daughter of James Lee Burke, she already has five published and well-received novels, three set in Portland, Oregon, and the last two in New York, where she teaches criminal law at Hofstra.

Double Blank: An Inspector Llob Mystery, by Yasmina Khadra, is set in Algiers, a gritty noir work by Mohammed Moulessehou, an Algerian author and former army officer, now exiled. He originally chose the female pen name Yasmina Khadra to conceal his identity while still in the military.