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
- Justice by Another Name by E C Hanes 5*
- The Devil Rides Out by Dennis Wheatley 2.5*
- The Buttonmaker’s Daughter by Merryn Allingham 4*
- The Dead of Jericho by Colin Dexter 4.5*
- The Quarry by Iain Banks 3.5*
- The 12.30 from Croydon by Freeman Wills Crofts 3*
- Missing Pieces by Heather Gudenkauf 4*
- If Ever I Fall by S D Robertson 4*
- The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff 5*
- Last Seen Wearing by Colin Dexter 4*
February
- Eyes Like Mine by Sheena Kamal 5*
- The Chalk Pit by Elly Griffiths 3.5*
- The Good People by Hannah Kent 5*
- All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr 3*
- Harriet Said by Beryl Bainbridge 3.5*
- The Cheltenham Square Murder by John Bude 4*
- Let the Dead Speak by Jane Casey 5*
- Everything But The Truth by Gillian McAllister 5*
- Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan 3* (a re-read) see this post on my thoughts
- The Witchfinder’s Sister by Beth Underdown 5*
March
- A Death in the Dales by Frances Brody 4*
- At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier 4*
- Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney 5*
- See What I have Done by Sarah Schmidt 4*
- Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen 4*
- The Spirituality of Jane Austen by Paula Hollingsworth 4*
- Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid 3*
- The Gathering by Anne Enright 1*
- The Idea of You by Amanda Prowse 2*
- The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd 5*
- The Legacy by Yrsa Sigurdardottir 5*
- The Lauras by Sara Taylor 2.5*
April
- Dunstan by Conn Iggulden 5*
- The Kill Fee by Fiona Veitch Smith 4*
- Fingers in the Sparkle Jar by Chris Packham 5*
- A Dark So Deadly by Stuart MacBride 5*
- The Stars are Fire by Anita Shreve 3*
- Night Falls on Ardnamurchan by Alasdair Maclean 3*
- Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell 4*
- Caedmon’s Song by Peter Robinson 3*
- The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien by Georges Simenon 4*
May
- Six Tudor Queens: Anne Boleyn: a King’s Obsession by Alison Weir 3.5*
- The Stroke Ward by Tricia Coxon 5*
- The Body in the Ice by A J MacKenzie 5*
- Alice in Brexitland by Lucien Young 2.5*
- A Place of Execution by Val McDermid 4.5*
- Vindolanda by Adrian Goldsworthy 4*
- The Unquiet Dead by Ausma Zehanat Khan 3*
- His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet 4*
- Desert Notes and River Notes by Barry Lopez 1.5*
- An Uncertain Place by Fred Vargas 4.5*
June
- Past Encounters by Davina Blake 4.5*
- The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy 2.5*
- Miraculous Mysteries: Locked Room Mysteries and Impossible Crimes edited by Martin Edwards 4*
- Beneath a Burning Sky by Jenny Ashcroft 3*
- How to Stop Time by Matt Haig 4*
- Our Spoons Came From Woolworths by Barbara Comyns 3*
- The Waters of Eternal Youth by Donna Leon 3.5*
- Last Seen Alive by Claire Douglas 5*
- The Escape by C L Taylor 3.5*
July
- The House by Simon Lelic 3.5*
- Gallows View by Peter Robinson 4*
- The Betrayals by Fiona Neill 4*
- A Dedicated Man by Peter Robinson 4*
- Present Tense by W H S McIntyre 4*
- The Distant Echo by Val McDermid 5*
- Long Road from Jarrow by Stuart Maconie 4.5*
August
- The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz
- The Secret of Summerhayes by Merryn Allingham 3.5*
- Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley 4*
- South Riding by Winifred Holtby 5*
- Yesterday by Felicia Yap 3*
- Did You See Melody? by Sophie Hannah 3*
- The Man Who Climbs Trees by James Aldred 5*
- Don’t Let Go by Harlan Coben 4*
September
- Katharina: Deliverance by Margaret Skea 4*
- The One That Got Away by Annabel Kantaria 2*
- The Break by Marian Keyes 2*
- Malice in Wonderland by Nicolas Blake 4*
- A Climate of Fear by Fred Vargas 5*
- The Taxidermist’s Daughter by Kate Mosse 3*
- The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver 5* (a re-read)
- Extraordinary People by Peter May 3*
October
- After the Fire by Henning Mankell 5*
- A Darker Domain by Val McDermid 4*
- The Vanishing Box by Elly Griffiths 3*
- Conclave by Richard Harris 4.5*
- The Last Hours by Minette Walters 3.5*
- Days Without End by Sebastian Barry 5*
- The Square and the Tower by Niall Ferguson 2*
- An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro 3.5*
- Fair of Face by Christina James 4*
November
- The Fear Index by Robert Harris 3*
- Trump’s Christmas Carol by Lucien Young 2*
- Fools and Mortals by Bernard Cornwell 5*
- Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore 4*
- The Hanged Man by Simon Kernick 2.5*
- The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson 5*
- The Corpse in the Snowman by Nicholas Blake
- The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid 3*
- A Necessary End by Peter Robinson 4*
- Past Reason Hated by Peter Robinson 4*
December
- Of Women by Shami Chakrabarti 3*
- A Maigret Christmas by Georges Simenon 4*
- White Bodies by Jane Robins 3*
- Property by Valerie Martin 4* (audio book)
- Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens