M Y S T E R Y P L A C E S . N E T
mystery novels with a sense of place


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This site now includes 345 authors, 64 countries and multi-country regions, 45 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia.

Featured Authors
Around the World | In the USA

Read and Recommended
For a few months, I had time to note specific books that I read and recommended. I had to stop for lack of time. If time is available, this section will resume.
2010: Jan|Feb|Mar
2009: Jan-Feb|March|Apr|May|Jun|Jul|Aug|Sep|Oct|Nov|Dec
2008: Jul-Dec

Read & Recommended 2010: Jan | Feb | Mar
2009: Jan-Feb | Mar|Apr | May|Jun | Jul | Aug|Sep|Oct|Nov | Dec
2008: Jul-Dec

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.

Finally, two genre-bending works that excel both as mysteries and in another genre are The Automatic Detective, by A. Lee Martinez (science fiction with a robot detective in an imagined future "Empire City"), and The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon (alternate history in a Jewish state set up in Sitka, Alaska).

More about these Authors

Alafair Burke on Amazon UK | Bookmooch | Wikipedia
John Harvey on Amazon UK | Bookmooch | Wikipedia
Yasmina Khadra on Amazon UK | Bookmooch | Wikipedia
Bill Pronzini on Amazon UK | Bookmooch | Wikipedia