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2014 saw me drawn to "humorous crime" for my recreational reading. Yes - I know. Crime isn't funny and crime doesn't pay and men are more intelligent than women and the earth is flat. So that's that. (Same goes for cozy crime for sure)
For me the three best reads in 2014 were:
Colin Watson (1960) Bump In The Night (second of the Flaxborough Novels): A re-read after 30 odd years and highly enjoyable.
Lawrence Block (2013) The Burglar Who Counted the Spoons (11th of the Bernie Rhodenbarr series): I'm very partial to all of Block's books, and - even with one book like all the others - every Rhodenbarr is well worth the reading time. Verbal slapstick - oh yeah!
Alan Russell (1995) The Fat Innkeeper (second of the two-header Am Caulfield series): Found this one on the list of Lefty Award winners. Now I have read both books of the series and would buy a new entry for sure. Plot, characters, etc are imho the right amount - and this is but just - under the threshold of "over the top".
In most cases I wait for the paperback edition (or better: the paperback prized ebook) - so I haven't read many 2014 new releases. Some came highly recommended by friends and were bought anyway. Memorable was: W. Bruce Cameron (2014) The Midnight Plan of the Repo Man - but not many books of 2014 to compare it with.
Last but not least a mention of all the work done for the Patricia Clark Memorial Library. Last week I started Melville, Herman: Complete Works v.2.1 (done by pynch). Having finished "The Piazza Tales" I must count this one as one of the best reads of 2014.
Season greetings and a good start for 2015
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