SURELY it can’t be so close to Christmas? With only a handful of shopping days left until the big day, head to your local book shop to snap up a present that’ll linger long in the memory.

Here are the ten books I’ve most enjoyed reading this year, ranging from a football biography to a wartime detective story, and from a seriously surreal fantasy to a hard-nosed sports exposé.

The list leans towards crime fiction, but there’s something for most tastes – even an unlikely love story – and what they all have in common is that they’re great reads.

10. SATU RÄMÖ  The Clues In The Fjörd 

Finnish author Rämö lives in Iceland these days so little surprise that our introduction to policewoman Hildur Rúnarsdóttir is set in convincingly chilly surrounds. Haunted by the 25-year-old disappearance of her sisters – a mystery shrouded in local folklore – she has to work with idealistic young Finnish cop Jakob Johanson. To complicate matters, he’s fighting for custody of his son, and the theme of family dysfunction informs all that follows. It’s the first of a series, and I’ll be back for more.

9. KATE ATKINSON Death At The Sign Of The Rook

Private investigator Jackson Brodie is one of the great characters in detective series fiction, written with wry wit and wisdom. What seems a routine case of a stolen painting leads him down a twisty path to a country house hotel hosting Murder Mystery Weekends. And if the actors in the production play shameless stereotypes, then the real-life guests just happen to include a retired vicar, an invalided Army officer, and a down-at-heel aristocrat. Sharply funny, perfectly plotted and a criminally addictive page-turner.

8. NIGEL PROCTOR  Fire Damage

A detective story set in the Birmingham Blitz proved, quite literally, the year’s surprise package. I’d been gifted a Warwick Books subscription – you tell them your reading habits and they send you books they think you’ll like – and this was the first. Proctor’s debut captures Brum over eight days in November 1940 as Luftwaffe bombs rained down, and intertwines the mystery of a girl found dead in the rubble, illegal immigration and black market skulduggery. A sequel, Fire Break, follows next year.

7. DUNCAN FERGUSON Big Dunc

Opening with his incarceration in brutal Barlinnie Prison for head-butting an opponent on the pitch while playing for Rangers, Ferguson’s no-holds-barred autobiography traces his life from kickabouts in the streets of Stirling, through high-profile playing days, notably with Everton, to his coaching career. He emerges as a surprisingly shy individual with a chip or two on his shoulder. I’m a lifelong Everton fan, so this was a must, and it’s unbeatable as an audiobook read by Big Dunc himself.

6. MICK HERRON  Clown Town

The return of Jackson Lamb and his slow horses, the MI5 misfits and losers in his charge, had been eagerly awaited by a fanbase swelled by Gary Oldman’s performance as the flatulent spook in the Apple TV+ series. A cleverly planted clue in previous book Slough House sets River Cartwright off in search of a missing book from his late grandfather’s library and, of course, chaos ensues. The subject matter – British intelligence involvement in the IRA – recently came sharply into focus with the Stakeknife Inquiry.

Read more: The death of Jackson Lamb and the Slow Horses

5. JOHN CONNOLLY The Children Of Eve

Private eye Charlie Parker returned for his 22nd outing as Connolly, whose recent books had been more grounded, granted fans’ wishes by returning to the question of his hero’s purpose, which may, or may not, be divine. The abduction of four children from Mexico is, naturally, not all it appears, and places the detective in the path of both a drugs cartel’s brutal boss and a truly chilling female killer on a mission. Parker’s dead daughter sets up a postscript that suggests the end may soon be nigh.

4. JOSHUA ROBINSON & JONATHAN CLEGG The Formula

It is the billion dollar circus that travels the world, attracting millions of fans, A-listers and big brand sponsors. But Formula 1 wasn’t always huge and this account of its rise and fall (and rise again) is an eye-opener. Wall Street Journal writers Robinson and Clegg trace F1’s transformation from a dying sport followed by middle-aged nerds to today’s multimedia spectacle in a propulsive read that motors along like a thriller, taking in sleight of hand, industrial espionage, outrageous cheating and cut-throat double-dealing.

Read more: See my earlier full review of F1 exposé The Formula 

3. PHILIP PULLMAN The Book of Dust Volume 3 – The Rose Field

Lyra Silvertongue, who we first met as the youthful heroine of the  classic His Dark Materials trilogy 30 years ago returns to realise her destiny in the final part of the subsequent Book of Dust run. It’s a fantasy masterpiece, tying up all the loose ends while a rip-roaring adventure in its own right. Lyra, now in her 20s, shines in a charismatic cast of characters, some old, some new. Hearing Sir Philip reading an excerpt at Stratford-upon-Avon Literary Festival this year was beyond wonderful.

2. HARUKI MURAKAMI The City And Its Uncertain Walls

Nobody manages otherworldliness better than Murakami, and this surreal story of a library of dreams is a rare wonder that kept me enthralled from start to finish. At its heart is a love story but to label it simply as such would be akin to describingThe Lord of the Rings as just a fairytale. The author blurs the boundaries of reality and fantasy to the extent that you’re never quite certain which is which, while celebrating books and all those who care for them. One to lose yourself in.

1. JONATHAN COE  The Proof Of My Innocence

When an investigative news blogger is found murdered at a country house conference of far-right movers and shakers, there is no shortage of suspects. Summoned from her own retirement party, two days before her 65th birthday, DI Prudence Freeborne takes one last case – but this is Jonathan Coe, and this is no cosy murder mystery. Dark humour, scalpel-sharp satire and social commentary rub shoulders with wonderful wordplay and a literary mystery within a mystery. Never has having the carpet pulled from beneath your feet felt so delightful.

Read more: See my full review of The Proof Of My Innocence

Meanwhile, some of those titles that just missed the cut …

I enjoyed the return of Holly Gibney, the quirky private investigator we first met in Stephen King’s Mr Mercedes story arc. Never Flinch was a cleverly constructed thriller shot through with topical US debate, although it wasn’t as chilling as the hinky heroine’s previous outing, simply titled Holly and one of my 2024 picks.

Nick Harkaway’s Karla’s Choice found John Le Carré’s son finding the voice of his late father by setting a retired George Smiley on a collision course with future nemesis Karla in an atmospheric book set between The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. For full effect, brush up on the former first!

There was murder most foul in Stratford-upon-Avon thanks to Guy Hale’s entertaining Shakespeare Murders books – The Croaking Raven, All Our Yesterdays and Put Out The Light – in which an embittered actor turns serial killer, basing his killings on the Bard’s plays. Final part Sleep No More was published last month.

Shakespeare was on Howard Linskey’s mind, too, whose The Serpent In The Garden – the first in a planned trilogy – introduced us to a young Will just starting out on his career, and tasked with asking awkward, and dangerous, questions about a woman’s mysterious death by powerful rival nobles at Elizabeth I’s court.

There have been many others I have enjoyed, too, including belated reads of The Curfew by T.M. Logan; Be My Enemy by Christopher Brookmyre; Elizabeth Macneal’s Circus Of Wonders; Walter Cronkite autobiography A Reporter’s Life; Jon Sopel’s Trump commentary A Year At The Circus, and Hugh Howey’s Silo trilogy.

Whatever you’re reading, and however you read, enjoy the adventure that begins with the opening of a new book!