And so, it’s that most important time of the month in the “worth absolutely nothing awards” calendar, yes, it’s time for the awarding of the Puzzly – the In Search Of The Classic Mystery Novel Book of the Month award – for May 2012.

Let’s have a look at the candidates. This month, apart from a number of first chapters that led to the books being abandoned, I’ve got through eleven books this month – they were:

• Burglars Can’t Be Choosers by Lawrence Block
• Wine of Violence by Priscilla Royal
• The Lord of Misrule by Paul Halter
• The Hangman’s Hymn by Paul Doherty
• A Fatal Thaw by Dana Stabenow
• The Midnight Man by Paul Doherty
• The Subtle Serpent by Peter Tremayne
• The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing by Tarquin Hall
• A Nice Class Of Corpse by Simon Brett
• A Murder in Thebes by Anna Apostolou aka Paul Doherty
• A Morbid Taste For Bones by Ellis Peters

Well, obviously it’s A Morbid Taste For Bones. And if you believe that, you haven’t read the review.

To be honest, it wasn’t a great month. Just glancing through this list, only three stand out as books that I really enjoyed as mysteries – namely The Subtle Serpent, The Hangman’s Hymn and A Murder In Thebes. Come to think of it, Wine Of Violence was pretty decent as well. Anyway, of those three, one of them was, in my eyes, a notch above the rest, so for the second month in a row, the much-desired Puzzly goes to Paul Doherty for A Murder In Thebes. Go on Abebooks for a second-hand copy and see if you agree.

If you want to see what other people have read this month, then check out the link to the Murder In Paradise meme.