Amazon's Top 10 for 2007

Amazon has released their Editor's Picks for the Top 10 Mysteries and Thrillers of 2007. I read 6 of them. Here's what I thought:

1. Chelsea Cain - Heartsick. The best book of the year? Most over-hyped book of the year, maybe. I couldn't even finish it. Dull and more than a little silly -- why read this when I could just read Silence of the Lambs again?

2. Charlie Huston - The Shotgun Rule. Excellent choice. This fine novel was my Book of the Week pick on 8/27. I don't know if it would make my Top 10, but it's damn good.

3. Tana French - In the Woods. Total head-scratcher for me. This book is so tedious it took me 25 minutes to read the first 10 pages. Thriller writers should hold their words dear. French uses them like she buys them on sale at Wal-Mart.

6. John Hart - Down River. Another excellent choice. Hart is a truly gifted writer. This one might be in my Top 10. I look forward to reading Hart for years to come. (I reviewed Down River in the Chicago Sun-Times.)

8. Laura Lippman - What the Dead Know. One of my favorite books of the year. I don't know that I could pick just one book as my favorite of 2007, but if I had to, this would be a strong contender. (I reviewed  this in the Philadelphia Inquirer, but the link to the newspaper's website is now dead.)

10. Joe Hill - Heart-Shaped Box. A very strong debut -- a terrific, scary thriller. Hill is the pseudonym for Stephen King's son, and he does the old man proud. (I reviewed it in the Chicago Sun-Times.)

So...4 good choices, 2 lousy ones. Not a bad average, all things considered.

Comments

[Clea Simon]

I know you're more of a thriller, hard-boiled crime fiction person than a cozy or purely character-driven reader, David - "de gustibus non disputandum" and all that - but I can vouch for Lisa Lutz's "The Spellman Files." Very funny, very smart, very fun characters. The set-up is that a young woman has been raised in her family's PI business, and she's getting a little sick of it. Not much violence or action, but for those who go for characters over kills, a true winner - and a good pick by Amazon.

[Roddy Reta]

If you haven't read Cody McFadyen yet, give him a try. SHADOW MAN was an incredible debut, and I hear the sequel is even better.

[David J. Montgomery]

I like anything if it's good, cozies included. And I've heard good things about The Spellman Files. Just never got a chance to read it.

[David J. Montgomery]

I think I tried Cody McFadyen's first book and didn't care for it. I don't remember for sure, though.

[Cameron Hughes]

Heartsick is a glaring bit of WRONG on that list. Awful book, awful pedestrian writing, fails as torture porn(Seriously, this is nothing compared to movies like Hostel, which, by the way,works better as a thriller than Heartsick.) and has a butt-load of plot holes and leaps of logic and cliche's.

Awful awful book. And I am not the least bit surprised its the New Big Thing.

[Patti Abbott]

I don't know a single person who liked Heartsick so what made it catch on? Advertising, I suspect. It's sad when so many deserving books wilt on the vine to see this one get so much attention.

[karen terry]

I read Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill and you are right it is a strong contender. I really enjoyed his book.

[Roddy Reta]

I didn't like Heartsick at all either, but it has received a LOT of favorable reviews, including starred reviews from PW, LJ, and Booklist.

[David J. Montgomery]

"I didn't like Heartsick at all either, but it has received a LOT of favorable reviews, including starred reviews from PW, LJ, and Booklist."

I know -- and it boggles the mind! It struck me as a book that was written in a very calculated fashion, in an attempt to become a bestseller. (Obviously this is pure speculation, but I'm going with my instinct.)

It's like the author went down a checklist: proven high concept plot (check); serial killer (check); FEMALE serial killer (check); woman writing gruesome crime scenes (check); tortured, wounded protagonist (check); etc.

What's missing is the most important thing: a compelling original story.

[Sarah]

I still can't figure out if I liked HEARTSICK or not, but I'll say this: I remember it pretty well and I read it three months (and a good hundred books) ago. But like David, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was reading a book calculated to evoke a visceral reaction instead of a book stemming from a writer's visceral need to write it.

[Elaine Flinn]

Late to the party, but I agree with all of you about Heartsick. Talk about writing 'to the market'?? And 'checklist'? Perfect! I was thinking of 'paint by numbers'- kinda thing.l

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[supra shoes]

Was well written