Best of 2023

My top five in crime fiction and more

I used to be much more of a list maker. Back in my film/TV critic days, I would agonize over my year-end picks, but whenever I stumble on those old lists now, I feel like someone else must have made them. There are titles I barely recognize, movies and TV shows I can’t recall ever liking, and glaring omissions (often because I didn’t get a chance to see whatever it was before my deadline). So I offer this disclaimer for what follows: I didn’t read everything published in 2023. Your favorite that I omitted? I definitely didn’t read that one. But I did read these, and I’m glad I did.

Small Mercies, Dennis Lehane

Is it just me, or was this one somewhat overlooked in year-end roundups? For my money, it ranks with the very best of Lehane, which is to say the very best of contemporary crime fiction—and I’m not just saying that because it happens to take place during the same week in September 1974 as my own 2023 novel Lowdown Road. The bard of Boston takes on one of the most festering wounds in the city’s history: the busing crisis and its lingering legacy of racism. Lehane explores the issues raised by the historical event through a brutal crime story involving a missing Southie girl and a young Black man found dead in the neighborhood. The author has said this novel may be his last; if so he’s gone out on top of his game.

All the Sinners Bleed, S.A. Cosby

Strained race relations also play a major role in the latest from Cosby (Blacktop Wasteland, Razorblade Tears), who turns his considerable talents to the serial killer novel with impressive results. Cosby’s hero is Titus Crown, a former FBI man now the elected sheriff of his hometown of Charon County, Virginia. A school shooting leads Titus into a thicket of complications, including ritual killings, a true-crime podcast, and a controversy over a Confederate celebration. Cosby manages to keep all these balls in the air, reflecting the troubles of our times while delivering a heart-pounding thriller.

Sing Her Down, Ivy Pochoda

Set in the heart of the pandemic, Pochoda’s multi-viewpoint story may be the first crime novel to successfully integrate Covid into its narrative. Two women, Florida and Dios, are given early release from an overcrowded Arizona prison. Florida is happy to get away from Dios, who has been taunting her with some secret knowledge of her past, but it turns out she can’t shake her nemesis. When they both break parole, the third major character, a detective named Lobos, pursues them to locked-down Los Angeles. Pochoda maintains the tension as she delves deep into the violent psyches of her characters.

Dark Ride, Lou Berney

Berney’s first novel since 2018’s November Road is a slim but solid entry in the stoner noir genre. Berney’s hero Hardy “Hardly” Reed is an amusement park employee with few ambitions until he spots two young children bearing the signs of abuse. When Child Protective Services proves too overwhelmed to take a strong interest, Hardly stumbles his way into amateur private eye mode with the help of some slacker buddies. Berney expertly fuses the hangout moments with Hardly’s dogged determination to exceed his limits and deliver some justice.

Everybody Knows, Jordan Harper

I believe it was Shawn Cosby who described Harper as “your favorite crime writer’s favorite crime writer,” and as someone who knows a lot of crime writers, I can confirm that. This L.A. story isn’t even Harper’s best work of the year; that would be the incredible short story “My Savage Year” in the noir issue of the Southwest Review. That’s not to slight this propulsive tale of Hollywood fixer Mae going up against “The Beast,” the secret powerful forces that make the town dance to their tune, as Harper updates James Ellroy’s L.A. for the #MeToo era.

Honorable Mentions: Beware the Woman, Megan Abbott; A Likeable Woman, May Cobb; Ozark Dogs, Eli Cranor; Because the Night, James D.F. Hannah; Something Bad Wrong, Eryk Pruitt; Austin Noir, ed. Hopeton Hay, Molly Odintz, Scott Montgomery

Best Reads, Pre-2023 Division: Suttree, Cormac McCarthy; Generation Loss, Elizabeth Hand; The Devil All the Time, Donald Ray Pollack; Come Closer, Sara Gran; Winter Counts, David Heska Wanbli Weiden

News & Notes:

• My only short story of 2023 got in just under the wire, as Rock and a Hard Place published their latest anthology The One Percent: Tales of the Super Wealthy and Depraved this month. It includes my tale of a billionaire’s ill-fated high school reunion, “Most Likely to Succeed,” along with fifteen other stories by C.W. Blackwell, Curtis Ippolitto, James D.F. Hannah, and other leading lights of contemporary crime fiction.

• Speaking of lists, I’m thrilled that Lowdown Road made CrimeReads’ Best Noir Fiction of 2023! I’m in good company, including a few names that appear above.