Favorite Reads of 2017

I’m ba-a-a-ack.

You didn’t think you were rid of me forever, did you? You’re not that lucky. This blog takes a licking and keeps on ticking. I’ll also pop up on some other worthy blogs over the next several weeks in a delayed effort to get the word out about the fifth Nick Forte novel, Bad Samaritan, launching January 22 from Down & Out Books. (More on Bad Sam next time.)

                                                         

There’s no better way to look forward to 2018 than to tie a bow on 2017. I read 59 books all the way through last year. Stealing Seizing an idea from another blog (I’d say which but I genuinely don’t remember), I decided it was pretentious to name the best books I read because who am I to say what’s best? I can name my favorites, and I had quite a few. I didn’t read as many books last year as I usually do, but the level of quality was high. I’d rather mention all those I thought worthy than write reviews, so I broke them out by categories.

Titles are listed in the order read. All are more than deserving of your time.

Favorite Reads by Authors New to Me

Scent of Murder, James O. Born

Random Victim, Michael Black

Only the Hunted Run, Neely Tucker

Favorite Reads by Authors Already Known to Me

Razor Girl, Carl Hiaasen

80 Million Eyes, Ed McBain

The Promise, Robert Crais

Nasty Cutter, Tim O’Mara

Tomato Red, Daniel Woodrell

The Mexican Tree Duck, James Crumley

Crime Song, David Swinson

Six Guns at Sundown, Eric Beetner

Down & Out, The Magazine: Volume 1, edited by Rick Ollerman

Money for Nothing, Donald Westlake

Hollywood Moon, Joseph Wambaugh

Favorite Re-Reads

Jimmy the Wags: Street Stories of a Private Eye, James Wagner

The Kid From Tomkinsville, John R. Tunis

All the Dead Voices, Declan Hughes

The Walkaway, Scott Phillips

True Grit, Charles Portis

Deadwood, Pete Dexter

Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry

Hombre, Elmore Leonard

Appaloosa, Robert B. Parker

Homicide, David Simon

Favorite Non-Fiction

The Big Short, Michael Lewis

Moneyball, Michael Lewis

Deadwood: Stories of the Black Hills, David Milch

Dodge City: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson and the Wickedest Town in the American West, Tom Clavin

Bestseller Metrics, Elaine Ash

Famous Gunfighters of the Western Frontier, Bat Masterson

Age of the Gunfighter: Men and Weapons of the Frontier 1840 – 1900, Joseph Rosa

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Rise of the Warrior Cop, Radley Balko