Books, 2024

Fewer books this year, twenty-two, because I moved across the country and started a company, and both of those turn out to eat evenings. But I read the ones I did read hard, mostly in my mother's spare room in the spring and on my own couch since. Here they are.

• The Underground Man, Ross Macdonald. On Jonah's word, from last New Year's Eve. A small boy goes missing while a wildfire comes down the hills, and Archer finds an old crime underneath, as he always does. Sadder than Chandler, and more patient. I've ordered three more.
• Iron Lake, William Kent Krueger. A murder in a small town in northern Minnesota in the dead of winter. My mother had it on her shelf for twenty-five years and handed it to me in March, saying "For your first winter back." It's set up the road from here, and it made me buy the boots.
• The Hunter, Tana French. Back to the village in the west of Ireland from The Searcher. Slow and deep and dreadful in the best way.
• James, Percival Everett. Huckleberry Finn, told by Jim. I read it in a day and then sat in the car outside the office for a while before I could go in.
• The Sentence, Louise Erdrich. A reread, now that Minneapolis is a drive away instead of a flight. A haunted bookstore in Minneapolis, in 2019 and 2020. I lived in that city for four years and knew every street.
• Farewell, My Lovely, Raymond Chandler. A reread, for reasons regular readers will understand.
• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Agatha Christie. A reread, my first since I was twelve. Knowing, I got to watch the trick being done, which is its own pleasure.
• Death at the Sign of the Rook, Kate Atkinson. Jackson Brodie, some stolen paintings and a country house. Funny, and kind about people, which is rarer than it should be.
• We Solve Murders, Richard Osman. A new set of people, and he's already made me fond of them.

What should I read in 2025?