Well, as I’ve just created the Puzzly, an award for the In Search Of The Classic Mystery Novel book of the month, in line with Kerrie’s Crime Fiction Book of the Month meme over on Mysteries In Paradise, I thought it was a good idea to fill in for my missed months of January and February 2012. After all, a book of the month must lead to a book of the year, and I’d hate to have to have missed anything out. So, retroactively, here goes the Puzzlies for the missing months.

January 2012

I read thirteen books this month, which were, in order:

• Shroud for the Archbishop by Peter Tremayne
• A Tapestry of Murders by Paul Doherty
• World’s Greatest Sleuth! by Steve Hockensmith
• The Devil To Pay by Ellery Queen
• The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux
• Lady Killer by Ed McBain
• Cast, In Order Of Disappearance by Simon Brett
• Ashes of the Elements by Alys Clare
• Hue and Cry by Shirley McKay
• The Dead Room by Herbery Resnicow
• Enter Second Murderer by Alanna Knight
• Satan’s Fire by Paul Doherty
• A Cold Day For Murder by Dana Stabenow

Difficult to pick one of these ahead of the rest – honourable mentions for A Cold Day For Murder and The Mystery of the Yellow Room but I think that the Puzzly for January has to go to the book that I enjoyed reading the most, which has to be World’s Greatest Sleuth! Congratulations to Steve Hockensmith for winning the first ever Puzzly, albeit retroactively.

February 2012

Eleven books this month, not including the novella Exit Stage Left by Adam Croft – but if you read the review, you will see that it wouldn’t trouble the voting anyway. The books were:

• The Square Root of Murder by Ada Madison
• A Spark of Death by Bernadette Pajer
• Hoodwink by Bill Pronzini
• A Tournament of Murders by Paul Doherty
• Honk, Honk, My Darling by James Finn Garner
• The Devil’s Hearth by Philip DePoy
• The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie
• The Merchant’s House by Kate Ellis
• The Arsenic Labyrinth by Martin Edwards
• The Eye of God by C L Grace aka Paul Doherty
• The Ambush Of My Name by Jeffrey Marks

A surfeit of riches amd a difficult decision. Honourable mentions to The Ambush Of My Name for sheer audacity, Honk, Honk, My Darling for sheer bizarreness, Hoodwink for sheer class and The Arsenic Labyrinth, which might have won, if I hadn’t already awarded next month’s Puzzly to Martin Edwards for All The Lonely People – I know, wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey. Oh, and The ABC Murders is one of the best crime novels ever written, but it’s probably won enough awards, so it doesn’t need a non-existent one from me. But this month’s winner is the debut novel from Bernadette Pajer, A Spark of Death, the tale of an impossible murder inside a Faraday Cage.

Right, that’s the missing months taken care of. One month to go before the next Puzzly is awarded.