Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A missing women is presumed dead but Henry can’t piece together the evidence to arrest a suspect.
Summary: It’s hard to summarize a complex plotted slow burn novel Bauman creates. This is by far his best writing. Begins with a general police procedural the the second half delves deep into slow burn character novel with a powerful ending. Think True Detective. Great writer. Support him.
https://www.amazon.com/Fateful-Mornings-Henry-Farrell-Novel-ebook/dp/B01M648NPU
Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A group of terrorists take over the English Channel and hold a group of people hostage. A loner military man must use his military skills to stop it.
Comments: Although the plot might sound familiar Mc Nab has a unique storytelling prose that captures most genre readers into a complex thriller of non stop sometimes brutal action. I’ve followed McNabs writing career since his Nick Stone books. McNab is best when writing from the trenches. Fans of Mitch Rapp and other thriller writers will love McNab. Add him to your list.
https://www.amazon.com/SAS-Notice-beneath-English-Channel-ebook/dp/B08Q4BXCXP
Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The 3rd book in a fine series featuring a loner cop, Henry Farrell, of a very small town in North East Pennsylvania’s hill country. A lone body is gruesomely found on a small ledge and Henry is baffled how it even got there, so remote.
Comments: Bauman has a very interesting style of plotting and word use. Unique and somewhat Woodrell esq. Sometimes it’s difficult to follow, but don’t give in, the rewards will come.
https://www.amazon.com/Bramble-Rose-Henry-Farrell-Novel-ebook/dp/B07TK43KX3
Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Peter Ash returns in book four. Peter is recovered, strong and antsy. He girlfriend June sense he needs to get out and move around asks him to help a friend in Memphis with her own war wounds. When Peter arrives he’s instantly walks into the middle of jewelry heist and a wild couple of brothers.
Comments: I made my goal to finish all the Ash novels, out of order, this year and I am glad I did. You will be too.
https://www.amazon.com/Tear-Down-Peter-Novel-Book-ebook/dp/B07CKFBW65
Preface: The following are my top reads for 2020, not all books were published in 2020.
1, City of Margins By William Boyle
Comments: Boyle creates characters and plots so vivid in tension that your skin crawls and also why I can’t let this blistering novel go from the must read novel of the year. Brooklyn NY has never been so gritty and vivid. You’ll be hard pressed to find another writer with his plotting and prowess to create emotion from the reader. Book of year, maybe decade!
2, Charlie 316, Four book series, by Colin Conway and Frank Zafiro
Comments: This four book series is by far the best cop drama set of books I have ever read. Think Homicide, Life on the Street crosses with Hill Street Blues. Characters feel real at each page. I felt like the characters sat with me and read with me. Each book ups the next in suspense and tension so much that I blasted the conclusion to see what has taken three previous novels to build up too.
Comments: It’s fairly obvious that Tana French can flat out create a powerful narrative that sends cold shivers of reader delight. Filled with tension, drive and characters that shake your core thoughts. Absolutely must read for crime or otherwise readers looking for wonderfulness.
4, The Last Thing to Burn by Will Dean
Comments: A true privilege to get an early opportunity to read this suspense filled, disturbing page turner. Dean just goes for it and just digs a hole of human depravity that shakes the reader with hate filled emotion at his protagonist. Incredible! I believe you can pre order for Deans first chance to show us Americans what we’ve been missing.
5, When These Mountains Burn by David Joy
Comments: What Boyle does for Brooklyn, Joy does the same gritty character slow burns for The mountains of North Carolina hill people. No fancy writing or heroics are found in a Joy novel. But they leave you stunned with people looking to seek revenge for wrongs done to them by societal prejudices.
6, More Better Deals by Joe Lansdale
Comments: Scoundrels and cons come alive in this wonderful crime novel by a master East Texas novelist. If you love reading characters each trying to double cross and triple cross this is a delight and fun to page turn. I couldn’t put it down.
7,Wyoming by J P Gritton
Comments: A gritty tale of family poverty, drug addiction, dysfunction. Unlike many crime novels you’ll read. I look forward to more soon. If you like a off the path heist novel, this is must read.
8, Lost River by J Todd Scott
Comments: A stand-alone novel by a rising star writer Scott. He delves into the raging drug crisis in a small border city between Kentucky and West Virginia. It feels very personal, because it was. Lots of emotions surround this novel and you can’t stop turning the pages. A heart breaker because without your knowledge this could be you. Currently Scott is active DEA agent. So he definitely puts the real in writing.
9, The End of October by Lawrence Wright
Obviously Wright wrote the novel prepandemic but oh boy do we see a similarity in today’s events. A blistering story of a virus and how it spreads while trying to find the cure and fight the denial of its existence. Complete dystopian future ahead.
Comments: Scott Phillips is the author no one knows about. And it’s a crime you don’t. He is an amazing underrated writer that can create a story that will swing you on the hilarious crime. He writes mostly about the heist from perspectives of wit. You should read all of his novels. Yes he’s written several and one made it to the big screen.
Honorable mention: Broken by Don Winslow
Comments: Broken deserves a higher place here and its entertaining as any book written this year. Winslow writes several short stories based on past novels that are equally great.
Last minute addition,
Cutter and Bone by Newton Thornburg
Comments: Two severely alcoholic men who drink excessively are obsessed with a scheme to threaten a man who Bone may have witnessed dumping a body while he walked home from a bar. Long periods of obsessive drinking lead me to almost dislike this crime novel, then the ending happened. Must read!
Rating: 4.5 stars
Summary: Two down trodden men with severe alcohol issues and PTSD are drawn into a recent murder that Bone may have witnessed in a drunken stupor.
Comments: It’s taken me a long time to find Thornburg. Again a big mistake on me. I was struggling with the long scene’s of drunken stupors but then the ending happened. Must read,
https://smile.amazon.com/Cutter-Bone-Newton-Thornburg-ebook/dp/B087WL5MDJ
Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Book four in the Charlie 316 series. Spokane Washington is being visited by the DOJ to find some answers to exactly what is going on inside the police department. Things begin to close in on the main players. Officer Tyler Garret senses the walls closing in and leads him to some desperate attempts to escape with his freedoms. A series of events leads all to grasp truths and realities in a attempt to CYA.
Comments: Another amazing cop drama in what I now consider the best cop drama I’ve read. You will not be disappointed. Highly recommended.
https://smile.amazon.com/Code-Four-Charlie-316-Crime-Book-ebook/dp/B08KGTKBK9
