Books of the year: 2024 edition
Well that's 2024 out of the way. Usually I do these roundups a week or so before christmas (to give you time to add things to your lists), but *waves hands* stuff happened.
So here we are. I read 64 books in 2024, down from 2023’s high point, but still more than a book a week. Let’s look at my favourites.
Let's kick off with some non-fiction. First up is Local by Alastair Humphreys.
I really enjoyed this (full review here) when I read it back in February, and got the chance to go listen to Al talk. Interesting guy, well worth checking out. I even got an OS map and started exploring, though in standard Dave fashion, immediately got distracted by something shiny instead. Anyway, it's a great book. Recommended.
Next up is Abroad in Japan by Chris Broad.
Which I listened to on audiobook. Twice. It's great fun and Chris is an entertaining host, chronicling his adventures as a young teacher in Japan and how he fell in love with the country. He's got an excellent YouTube channel too, which I realised halfway through listening to the book that I'd already seen a few of his videos.
Then there's There Is No Wall, by Allie Bailey. A no-holds barred look into the life of an ultra runner. If you're looking for fluffy tales of running incredible distances, this is not the book for you. Allie's brutally honest story covers her alcoholism and chronic depression, and how running is not the answer. Incredible book. Incredible woman.
Moving onto fiction, let's kick off with The Dog Sitter Detective Takes the Lead, by Antony Johnston.
I adored the first book (The Dog Sitter Detective). This is a fabulous cosy crime series. I’ve listened to the audiobook of both and Nicolette McKenzie is a brilliant voice for Gwinny Tuffel. Loved it.
A book of the year list wouldn't be complete with out one by Antti Tuomainen, and I'm delighted to add The Burning Stones to the list.
Tuomainen's signature wit is on display here as we delve into the murky world of Finnish sauna salesmen, with a bit of murder thrown in. Absolutely adore his books.
Looking for ghosts on a small island off Ireland? Then let me introduce you to Displeasure Island, by Alice Bell. Fabulous follow-up to Grave Expectations in which medium Claire and her dead-but-still-hanging-around BFF Sophie take a trip to a remote island and encounter ghost pirates, buried treasure and a bit of murder. Loved it.
If you loved Slow Horses (and who doesn't), then I can heartily recommend A Reluctant Spy, by David Goodman. Properly good spy novel to keep you up at night reading just one more chapter. Edge-of-your-seat action, and a cracking plot. Goodman is one to watch.
July was the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, and Killing Jericho, by William Hussey was on the shortlist for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and one of my favourites.
Having read a lot of crime fiction over the years, it’s always great to see something new and fresh in the crime writing world and I really enjoyed this one, featuring the first gay Traveller detective (albeit a disgraced one by the time we meet him).
My daughter bought me a copy of None of This Is True, by Lisa Jewell for Father's Day and I polished it off in a day. I can't remember the last time I'd read a book with quite so many twists and turns in it, and had to stop every other chapter to go OMG WHAT JUST HAPPENED. Brilliant stuff.
Regular readers of this blog will know that I'm a huge fan of AK Turner's Cassie Raven series, and the latest, Dead Fall is fabulous. One of Cassie's old school classmates dies in an apparent suicide, but everyone's favourite goth mortuary technician suspects foul play. I adore these books.
I also bloody loved Leave No Trace by Jo Callaghan, which I listened to on audiobook. Follow up to the excellent first book, we've got DCS Kat Frank and her AI detective partner AIDE Lock on the hunt for a killer who enjoys crucifying young men. This is shaping up to be a fantastic series.
Will Dean is a regular on my books of the year lists, and this year he's only gone and taken up two slots. I also got to meet him twice - once on the book tour for The Chamber in Brigg, then again in Harrogate where everyone was talking about Ice Town. More of that in a moment.
The Chamber is a classic locked room mystery, albeit in a very small, very locked room. Six experienced saturation divers are locked in a hyperbaric chamber, then one of them turns up dead in their bunk. No-one can get in, no-one can get out for another four days. Who will make it out alive?
Not for the claustrophobic, this is a super taut (tempted to say high pressure) thriller which will keep you guessing to the end. It will also leave you looking at raspberry jam in a new light.
And so from the North Sea to Sweden - Ice Town is a standalone Tuva Moodyson thriller. Again, it's not a book of the year list without everyone's favourite deaf reporter putting in an appearance. Here she's off investigating the disappearance of a deaf teenager in Esseberg, a small town cut off from the rest of Sweden by a tunnel which marks the only way in or out. We've gone from locked room to locked town, and Dean shows he's equally skilled at both.
Now, I read The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stu Turton late in 2023, but as it was published in 2024 (paperback out now!) it goes on the list. Full review is here. I have loved each of Stuart Turton's books - they're all very different and all to be savoured. We've gone from Will Dean's locked room, to a locked town to this - a locked island. It’s brilliant, it’s twisty, it plays with your perceptions and makes you question what it is to be human. It’s a shorter book than the first two, but packs so much into it. Turton was already one of my favourite authors and this book merely strengthens that.
And can we talk about that title? I was listening to a podcast earlier today (the excellent Quick Book Reviews by Philippa Hall) in which he said that in a world of one-word titles, he wanted something which jumps out and grabs the readers attention. The last murder? I’m in. At the end of the world?? I’m so in I can’t even see the way out. Genius.
Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra is an utterly tense, nerve-shredding, gripping page turner of a book. Single sitting read late into the night, then having to go upstairs with all the lights on. Superb.
Next, we have House of Bone and Rain, by Gabino Iglesias
I reviewed this earlier this year. If you’ll permit me a short outburst? (if you’re of a delicate nature, look away now)
Holy *fuck*. THIS BOOK. OMG.
Ahem.
Actually, if you’re of a delicate nature and that offends you, this book is not for you. Know only that you’re missing out on something incredible.
Brace yourselves, cos Iglesias has got a new one. He has a way with language and setting and you can just feel the thunderstorm rising and the shadows moving and what’s that in the corner OMG RUN RUN NOW RUN FAST.
It’s brutal and dark and heartbreaking and spiritual and tense and a whole load of other words that just end up with me, semi-crazed eyeball guy, going JUST READ THIS.
Add it to your list folks. Write it down in block capitals, in your best pen or pencil, and underline that title twice. Heck, make it three times.
Right, we're getting towards the end of this list. However, The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey should be at the very top of your lists.
If you have somehow missed everyone going OMG THIS BOOK, then you need to get yourself to a bookshop (or library, libraries are ace) and get yourself a copy. It's one of those books where you wonder if it can possibly live up to the high praise that everyone has been heaping on it.
Yes, dear reader. It can. It's absolutely superb, evoking a time and place that just leaps off the page. I've already started buying copies for friends, cos you're not getting mine.
Right, we made it! Last, but by no means least...
To absolutely no-one's surprise, it's All The Colours Of The Dark by Chris Whitaker.
Much like The List of Suspicious Things, it's one of those books that has been EVERYWHERE this year. I read it at the start of 2024 and have been trying to put into words how I feel about it ever since. Every review I've read has made me go yes! That! but also...
Another of my instant-buy, all time favourite authors (don't tell Chris, he'll get a big head). He just keeps getting better - I though that We Begin At The End was a masterpiece, but then he goes and drops this on us. It's staggeringly good, utterly heartbreaking and life-affirming and beautiful and one that you absolutely, definitely must add to your list.
Well, that was 2024. A grand selection of books. Have you read any of them? Agree/disagree with any on there?
What was your favourite book of the year? I'd love to know.