Favorite Reads of 2024

Wishing you a Happy New Year and many good books in 2025! I read nearly 200 books in 2024 and quite a few were so compelling I kept recommending them to others or thinking about them myself. These are my top ten:

Mystery/Suspense

First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston (2024). This was one of my top reads of the year – a very suspenseful story about Evie Porter, a successful, outgoing young woman with a handsome boyfriend and everything going for her – except that she doesn’t exist. She is a con artist with a secret goal in mind, and somehow Elston makes the reader root for her. My review.

Going Zero by Anthony McCracken (2023). Imagine you are a meek Boston librarian who can win $3 million if you can stay off the grid for a month without the government and its surveillance experts finding you. In addition to rooting for Kaitlyn, I kept asking people if they would be able to vanish – which would include not just avoiding contact with any remote connection but also hiding from cameras everywhere.  My coworkers probably thought I was leading up to a grand disappearance.  My review.

The Various Haunts of Men by Susan Hill (2004). In this series launch, police detective Freya Graffham has relocated from London to the rural cathedral town of Lafferton, where she starts investigating missing women whose only connection is their interest in alternate-therapy practitioners. Freya unfortunately becomes a little too fascinated with her new boss, Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler, as she pursues a serial killer.  Extra points for the unexpected ending!  My review.

The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman (2023). In the fourth adventure of the Thursday Murder Club series, our group learns that a friendly antique dealer they know has been killed but as they spring into action investigating art forgers and drug dealers, Elizabeth is dealing with a serious situation at home.  This was so beautifully done I cried and defy you not to!

Historical Fiction

On a Wing and a Prayer by Helen Carey (2016). It’s 1941 in the third and so far my favorite in the series, set on a close-knit South London street during WWII. Lady Helen de Burrel works for Britain’s Special Operations Executive unit, assisting with the deployment of agents to German-occupied France – including Canadian Ward Frazer, now married to Katy Parsons, which is how she has become part of the Lavender Road community. When Britain’s espionage network in France is breached, Helen is asked to undertake a dangerous mission, bringing a letter from Churchill to the Admiral of the French Navy.  I particularly like Helen who makes mistakes and is treated badly by her colleagues. I do think it is a bit unusual for an author to use her own name for her heroine, don't you? I would have reviewed this but Interlibrary Loan wanted it back in a hurry!

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson (2024). I have greatly enjoyed each of Simonson’s books but I especially loved this one, in which orphaned Constance has a temporary job as a ladies’ companion in Hazelbourne-on-Sea and is swept into a group of young women who have defied society by forming a motorcycle and aviation club. My review.

Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane (2023). This gritty, violent book is set during Boston’s school desegregation case. The main character, Mary Pat Fennessy, lives in public housing and shares her neighbors’ negative opinions of black people. Her son has died of a drug overdose and when her daughter goes missing, Mary Pat goes to a Whitey Bulger-like character for help. When he refuses to help, she is on her own but determined to get answers.  I can't imagine rereading this but I couldn't put it down.  My review.

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn (2022). Quinn is a gifted writer of historical fiction but even so I was surprised by how fascinating she made this imagined account of Mila Pavilchenko, the female Russian sniper who had more than 300 kills in WWII. The book alternates between Mila’s wartime experiences and a goodwill tour of America with a Russian delegation during which Eleanor Roosevelt befriends her. This part must have been exaggerated because I don’t think Mila spoke English (and Eleanor seems unlikely to discuss FDR at all, let alone through an interpreter!) but it makes a very entertaining story! And Quinn was competing with herself - I read two other books by her this year, and particularly admired a cameo by Margaret Chase Smith in The Briar Club.  My review.

Fiction

Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge by Spencer Quinn (2023). Mrs. Plansky’s only flaw is doing too much for her unappreciative family, so when she gets a call in the middle of the night from a grandson who has been arrested, she wires money to rescue him. But it’s all a scam and when she wakes up, her bank accounts have been emptied by criminals. Humiliated and angry, she follows the only clue to Romania to seek her own justice.  Not many of my top ten were funny but this one was, along with some serious and suspenseful parts.  My review.

YA

The Maplin Bird by K.M. Peyton (1964). In this early and lesser-known historical novel set in the mid-19th century by the Flambards author, the orphaned Garland siblings escape from the abusive relatives who reluctantly took them in, and make new homes for themselves in a coastal fishing village in Essex. Toby becomes a fisherman and Emily secures a position as a housemaid with the Seymour family until Adam, the adult son of the family, involves the Garlands in a dangerous smuggling venture. Maybe this was a sentimental favorite but it felt good to read a new-to-me Peyton.  My review.

Runners-Up

Abigail by Magda Szabó (1970). In this unusual boarding school story, a rebellious teen is sent from Budapest to a remote boarding school by her worried father, a Hungarian general involved in local resistance efforts against the Nazis. Gina misses her father, her governess, the attractive young officer she has been secretly meeting, and is impatient with the girls at school, who bully her, in response. The girls all turn to Abigail, a statue in the school’s courtyard, to whom they share their troubles. Is someone behind the power of the statue? This was my most popular review of the year!

The Women by Kristin Hannah (2024). This historical novel follows a sheltered young woman into nursing and enlistment to serve as a combat nurse in Vietnam. The conditions and stresses are horrifying to Frankie and the reader but make a compelling read. The second part of the book describing her return to California and her family was realistic but depressing. I loved this book at least the first half while I was reading it but reflecting on it afterward, I was annoyed by all the coincidences and lowered it from my top ten. Still, it was completely engrossing and I think most readers learned a lot about the Vietnam War and its aftermath.  My review. 

Northern Spy by Flynn Berry (2021). One day, Tessa, a producer for a weekly political radio program at the Belfast office of the BBC, looks casually at a nearby television monitor and sees her sister Marian in the midst of an IRS robbery. Her life will never be the same.  Although the pace is slow, I was captivated by this atmospheric novel about a young woman struggling to reconcile what she sees as her sister’s betrayal, compounded by the need to protect Marian from the authorities. My review.

My Goodreads Year in Books for 2024

Lists from Earlier Years

Other statistics, mostly of interest to me:

Audiobooks: 15%

Mystery/Suspense: 37%

Historical Fiction: 15%

Children’s, Fiction, Fantasy, Historical: 19%

Romance, Contemporary and Historical: 16%

Fiction: 6%

YA: 6%

Nonfiction: Less than 3%

Of course, some books involve more than one genre so these percentages are arbitrary

Rereads: 13% but this was driven by Ozathon and ReadChristie24; I hadn't read any these books for many years

Library books: 73% vs. Personal copies: 23% and the rest were review copies, mostly for Publishers Weekly

Authors I read three or more books by in 2024:

Susan Hill – 8 (the Simon Serrailler series is somewhat uneven and the one I just finished was harrowing but I can’t stop reading them)

L. Frank Baum – 10 (these were all rereads for Ozathon 2024)

Agatha Christie – 6 (these were rereads for Read Christie 2024)

Ann Cleeves – 4 (I sort of lost interest in the Shetland series when she killed off a character I liked but I am still enjoying the books featuring Vera Stanhope and Matthew Venn)

Helen Carey – 3 (If the Lavender Road series were easier to find, I would probably have read all six books by now)

Gregg Hurwitz – 3 (I have read through book 6 of this series about an orphan turned secret government assassin but there are three more.  These do not make good audiobooks unless you can figure out how to fast forward past the torture.)

Shari Lapena – 3 (She is being hailed as the next Agatha Christie but there are no likable characters and the stories don’t really stay with you; however, they are good audiobooks for my commute)

Kate Quinn – 3 (You have to admire someone who tackles – successfully – so many historical timeframes!)