Books Read in 2017

Books are listed in the chronological order I read them. This year I’m giving each book a rating, based purely on my reaction to the book, with five stars being the highest. The links in this list are to my reviews – some ‘reviews’ are mini reviews/notes or as parts of composite posts (not all books will be reviewed).

January

  1. Justice by Another Name by E C Hanes 5*
  2. The Devil Rides Out by Dennis Wheatley 2.5*
  3. The Buttonmaker’s Daughter by Merryn Allingham 4*
  4. The Dead of Jericho by Colin Dexter 4.5*
  5. The Quarry by Iain Banks 3.5*
  6. The 12.30 from Croydon by Freeman Wills Crofts 3*
  7. Missing Pieces by Heather Gudenkauf 4*
  8. If Ever I Fall by S D Robertson 4*
  9. The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff 5*
  10. Last Seen Wearing by Colin Dexter 4*

February

  1. Eyes Like Mine by Sheena Kamal 5*
  2. The Chalk Pit by Elly Griffiths 3.5*
  3. The Good People by Hannah Kent 5*
  4. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr 3*
  5. Harriet Said by Beryl Bainbridge 3.5*
  6. The Cheltenham Square Murder by John Bude 4*
  7. Let the Dead Speak by Jane Casey 5*
  8. Everything But The Truth by Gillian McAllister 5*
  9. Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan 3* (a re-read) see this post on my thoughts
  10. The Witchfinder’s Sister by Beth Underdown 5*

March

  1. A Death in the Dales by Frances Brody 4*
  2. At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier 4*
  3. Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney 5*
  4. See What I have Done by Sarah Schmidt 4*
  5. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen 4*
  6. The Spirituality of Jane Austen by Paula Hollingsworth 4*
  7. Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid 3*
  8. The Gathering by Anne Enright 1*
  9. The Idea of You by Amanda Prowse 2*
  10. The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd 5*
  11. The Legacy by Yrsa Sigurdardottir 5*
  12. The Lauras by Sara Taylor 2.5*

April

  1. Dunstan by Conn Iggulden 5*
  2. The Kill Fee by Fiona Veitch Smith 4*
  3. Fingers in the Sparkle Jar by Chris Packham 5*
  4. A Dark So Deadly by Stuart MacBride 5*
  5. The Stars are Fire by Anita Shreve 3*
  6. Night Falls on Ardnamurchan by Alasdair Maclean 3*
  7. Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell 4*
  8. Caedmon’s Song by Peter Robinson 3*
  9. The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien by Georges Simenon 4*

May

  1. Six Tudor Queens: Anne Boleyn: a King’s Obsession by Alison Weir 3.5*
  2. The Stroke Ward by Tricia Coxon 5*
  3. The Body in the Ice by A J MacKenzie 5*
  4. Alice in Brexitland by Lucien Young 2.5*
  5. A Place of Execution by Val McDermid 4.5*
  6. Vindolanda by Adrian Goldsworthy 4*
  7. The Unquiet Dead by Ausma Zehanat Khan 3*
  8. His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet  4*
  9. Desert Notes and River Notes by Barry Lopez 1.5*
  10. An Uncertain Place by Fred Vargas 4.5*

June

  1. Past Encounters by Davina Blake 4.5*
  2. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy 2.5*
  3. Miraculous Mysteries: Locked Room Mysteries and Impossible Crimes edited by Martin Edwards 4*
  4. Beneath a Burning Sky by Jenny Ashcroft 3*
  5. How to Stop Time by Matt Haig 4*
  6. Our Spoons Came From Woolworths by Barbara Comyns 3*
  7. The  Waters of Eternal Youth by Donna Leon 3.5*
  8. Last Seen Alive by Claire Douglas 5*
  9. The Escape by C L Taylor 3.5*

July

  1. The House by Simon Lelic 3.5*
  2. Gallows View by Peter Robinson 4*
  3. The Betrayals by Fiona Neill 4*
  4. A Dedicated Man by Peter Robinson 4*
  5. Present Tense by W H S McIntyre 4*
  6. The Distant Echo by Val McDermid 5*
  7. Long Road from Jarrow by Stuart Maconie 4.5*

August

  1. The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz
  2. The Secret of Summerhayes by Merryn Allingham 3.5*
  3. Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley 4*
  4. South Riding by Winifred Holtby 5*
  5. Yesterday by Felicia Yap 3*
  6. Did You See Melody? by Sophie Hannah 3*
  7. The Man Who Climbs Trees by James Aldred 5*
  8. Don’t Let Go by Harlan Coben 4*

September

  1. Katharina: Deliverance by Margaret Skea 4*
  2. The One That Got Away by Annabel Kantaria 2*
  3. The Break by Marian Keyes 2*
  4. Malice in Wonderland by Nicolas Blake 4*
  5. A Climate of Fear by Fred Vargas 5*
  6. The Taxidermist’s Daughter by Kate Mosse 3*
  7. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver 5* (a re-read)
  8. Extraordinary People by Peter May 3*

October

  1. After the Fire by Henning Mankell 5*
  2. A Darker Domain by Val McDermid 4*
  3. The Vanishing Box by Elly Griffiths 3*
  4. Conclave by Richard Harris 4.5*
  5. The Last Hours by Minette Walters 3.5*
  6. Days Without End by Sebastian Barry 5*
  7. The Square and the Tower by Niall Ferguson 2*
  8. An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro 3.5*
  9. Fair of Face by Christina James 4*

November

  1. The Fear Index by Robert Harris 3*
  2. Trump’s Christmas Carol by Lucien Young 2*
  3. Fools and Mortals by Bernard Cornwell 5*
  4. Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore 4*
  5. The Hanged Man by Simon Kernick 2.5*
  6. The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson 5*
  7. The Corpse in the Snowman by Nicholas Blake
  8. The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid 3*
  9. A Necessary End by Peter Robinson 4*
  10. Past Reason Hated by Peter Robinson 4*

December

  1. Of Women by Shami Chakrabarti 3*
  2. A Maigret Christmas by Georges Simenon 4*
  3. White Bodies by Jane Robins 3*
  4. Property by Valerie Martin 4* (audio book)
  5. Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens