Best Books 2018 Publishers Weekly

American by Day

Derek B. Miller (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Chief Insp. Sigrid Ødegård travels from Oslo to upstate New York to look for her missing brother, Marcus, who’s the prime suspect in the murder of his African-American lover, a Syracuse State University professor. This incandescent exposé of European and American mores provokes disturbing questions about personal and societal values.

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The 8 Mansion Murders

Takemaru Abiko, trans. from the Japanese by Ho-Ling Wong (Locked Room International)

Insp. Kyozo Hayami, of the Tokyo Metropolitan PD, has to figure out how a construction company executive was killed by a crossbow bolt in the unusual figure eight–shaped house that he shared with his parents and two siblings. Abiko combines laugh-out-loud humor with an ingenious murder plot in this extremely clever impossible crime novel.

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City of Ink

Elsa Hart (Minotaur)

Set in 18th-century China, the superb third novel featuring librarian Li Du centers on the double murder of a factory owner and his wife. This entry solidifies Hart’s position as a top-notch historical mystery author.

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The Fox

Frederick Forsyth (Putnam)

MI6 employs an 18-year-old computer genius to deliver online attacks on Britain’s enemies, including the Russians, the Iranians, and the North Koreans. Bestseller Forsyth retires on a high note with this enthralling thriller detailing the nuts and bolts of modern espionage.

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The Man Who Came Uptown

George Pelecanos (Mulholland)

Michael Hudson spends a lot of time reading while awaiting trial for armed robbery in a Washington, D.C., jail. Meanwhile, a crooked PI secures Hudson’s release—and expects the former inmate to help him shake down drug dealers in return. Edgar finalist Pelecanos delivers an unforgettable novel of crime, redemption, and the transformative power of the written word.

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Nine Perfect Strangers

Liane Moriarty (Flatiron)

In bestseller Moriarty’s cannily plotted, continually surprising, and frequently funny psychological thriller, nine hurting but comfortably heeled Aussies go to a secluded resort. The pricey 10-day “Mind and Body Total Transformation Retreat” is nothing like the restorative reset they were anticipating.

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Our House

Louise Candlish (Berkley)

In her U.S. debut, British author Candlish movingly chronicles the decline of a marriage that once looked as solid as the couple’s stately red-brick London residence, which the husband succeeds in selling to another family while the wife is out of town. American fans of domestic suspense will want to see more from this talented author.

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Red, White, Blue

Lea Carpenter (Knopf)

A daughter tries to piece together the life of her late father, a successful banker who spied for the CIA for 30 years, in the face of accusations that he was really a spy for the Chinese. Carpenter skips the easy morality of guns, patriotic loyalty, and heroic action to slowly disclose the complexities of the secret world and how it relates to the human heart.

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Resurrection Bay

Emma Viskic (Pushkin Vertigo)

Australian author Viskic’s terrific debut introduces hearing-impaired PI Caleb Zelic, who must rely on his keen ability to read faces in his quest to solve the murder of a close friend, Senior Constable Gary Marsden. James Ellroy fans will relish this hard-edged crime novel.

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Savage Liberty: A Mystery of Revolutionary America

Eliot Pattison (Counterpoint)

Set in 1768, Edgar winner Pattison’s excellent fifth historical centers on the sabotage of a British ship in Boston Harbor and the related murder of a Native American Christian convert. Pattison has few peers in his ability to integrate actual events into a complex but plausible whodunit plot.

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The Widows of Malabar Hill

Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)

Set in India in 1921, this outstanding series launch introduces Perveen Mistry, Bombay’s first female solicitor, whose efforts to assist three widows in an estate case enmeshes her in a murder investigation. Thoughtful characterizations, especially of the capable, fiercely independent lead, bode well for future installments.

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The Word Is Murder

Anthony Horowitz (Harper)

In bestseller Horowitz’s metafictional crime novel, Horowitz himself joins forces with Daniel Hawthorne, a former detective inspector, in trying to solve the case of a well-to-do woman who scheduled her own funeral just hours before she was murdered in her London home. The author nicely balances deduction and wit in this tour de force.

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