LOOKING for a book to help you while away the hours on a flight, or to chill out with by the pool? Here are the ten books I’ve most enjoyed reading this year, ranging from a rock biography to a detective story like no other. There’s something for most tastes, and what they all have in common is that they’re great reads.

10. MICK WALL Dark Desert Highway

The remainder of the title of this Eagles biography reads “How America’s Dream Band Turned Into A Nightmare” and the story it tells is a compelling study of the way in which fame and fortune can sour sweet dreams. Written in 70s-styled conversational prose, it works best as an audiobook, which is the way I enjoyed it. It’s comprehensive, occasionally shocking and ultimately bittersweet as it traces the rise and fall of the Hotel California soft-rock icons.

9. JOHN CONNOLLY The Instruments Of Darkness

A welcome return for Charlie Parker, the private eye who may, or may not, have supernatural origins, this time looking into the case of a mother charged with the abduction and murder of her own child. Most believe she is guilty, but Parker isn’t convinced, and the trail takes him deep into the Maine woods, where he encounters a far-right survivalist cult, a twisted house that should never have been built, and what dwells beneath. Gritty and chilling.

8. PIP WILLIAMS The Dictionary Of Lost Words

I’m a sucker for books about books and was lured in by the title and back cover blurb. What I hadn’t expected was to be quite so moved by the trials and tribulations of Esme, whose life is measured by the compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary, and the words that fail to meet the cut. Loosely based on real life, we follow Esme from the late 19th century into the 20th, through the rise of the Suffragette movement and the unstoppable spiral into war.

7. STEPHEN KING Holly

When Holly Gibney first appeared in King’s Mr Mercedes, she was just the sidekick. Such was the reaction that she came back in two sequels, and played a prominent role in standalone The Outsider. Now, here she is taking centre stage in the chiller that bears her name. Blessed with a sixth sense that enables her to piece together snippets of evidence, even she doesn’t see the danger posed by husband-and-wife killers who are among King’s scariest.

6. SARAH BROOKS The Cautious Traveller’s Guide To The Wastelands

In an alternative steampunk Victorian era, the Wastelands is a vast expanse stretching between China and Russia, crossable only by the mighty train run by the Trans-Siberia Company. On a crossing feared to be the last is a cast of characters worthy of Agatha Christie’s Orient Express, but with a tantalising twist. Because nothing in the strange terrain outside the train is quite as it seems, there’s a mysterious stowaway, and literary genres to be blurred.

5. PHOEBE ROWE Swan Light

Separated by a century, two intertwining stories trace the trials of an octogenarian trying to maintain a lighthouse in the teeth of a 1913 storm, and of a marine archaeologist’s quest to find the ruins of the same lighthouse in 2013. As past and present collide, debut novelist Rowe delivers a bittersweet tale of hope, perseverance and love, but not at the expense of a thrilling narrative as each story builds to a page-turning climax. An unexpected gem.

4. ERIN KELLY The Skeleton Key

Inspired by the real-life Masquerade treasure hunt that was itself inspired by Kit Williams’ beautiful  1979 picture book, an author’s family reunion to mark the 50th anniversary of a similar puzzle, in which readers have to find the hidden bones of a miniature golden skeleton, ends in tragedy. Family skeleton secrets come tumbling out of cupboards, crazed fans search for the final treasure trove and the answer is hidden in plain sight. For fans of TV show Succession.

3. STUART TURTON The Last Murder At The End Of The World

Turton’s The Seven Deaths Of Evelyn Hardcastle was one of the most inventive whodunnits ever written, and his earlier The Devil And The Dark Water a subversive slant on Sherlock Holmes-style detective novels. Now, his latest outing combines sci-fi world building, dystopian drama and sleuthing skills as a murder rocks the few remaining people left on earth, who are eking out a living on a small island where nothing is quite what it appears to be. 

2. PAUL MURRAY The Bee Sting

Picked this up purely because I was attracted by the cover, and a subsequent read of the book jacket blurb – and so glad I was. It’s the story of a hapless, and hopelessly dysfunctional, Irish family that was shortlisted for last year’s Booker Prize. It’s a lengthy read populated by brilliantly drawn characters who you gradually come to understand and care deeply about. Be warned that the conclusion is inconclusive, leaving you to make your own mind up.

1. CHRIS BROOKMYRE The Cracked Mirror

If I thought that Stuart Turton’s Evelyn Hardcastle was clever, then this is on another level. Meet Penny Coyne, an 80-year-old Englishwoman who solves village murders, and hard-bitten LAPD cop Johnny Hawke. Both are investigating suspicious suicides on opposite sides of the Pond, until their worlds collide. Cosy crime and LA noir styles are executed, and alternated, perfectly, with a third genre (which I won’t spoil) to blur boundaries even further. No wonder the rave reviews by Ian Rankin, Mark Billingham, Richard Osman, Janice Hallett and, yes, Stuart Turton.

These are among the 50-plus books I read this year, and there are several others I thoroughly enjoyed too, among them the return of Harry Bosch, Renee Ballard and Mickey Haller in the ever-reliable Michael Connelly’s The Waiting and Resurrection Walk.

Fredrik Backman, another of my favourite authors, served up the excellent short story The Answer Is No and Ian Rankin revealed what happened next to John Rebus, who we last saw being banged up in jail, with the gripping Midnight And Blue.

I also enjoyed Mark Billingham’s The Wrong Hands – the second in his tongue-in-cheek dancing detective Declan Miller series – and Mick Herron’s slow-burning Slough House prequel The Secret Hours which snapshots an un-named Jackson Lamb’s early days.

Last, but by no means least, in this round-up are the theatrical antics of Patrick Stewart and Dame Judi Dench in Making It So and Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays The Rent respectively, both of which I enjoyed as audiobooks, read by the national treasures themselves.

Happy reading!

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