It’s December and 2015 is ticking away, so it’s time for a slightly earlier Puzzly than usual – after all, I need to fit in my review of the year as well. Well, my review of my reading of the year, not the year itself. There are much better qualified people to do that – if you’re quick, then Charlie Brooker’s on tonight (if you get the BBC and if you get Charlie Brooker of course…)

But I digress – December first of all. A busier December than usual, with thirteen reviews. Admittedly one was an audiobook and one was for children, but a book’s a book in my… er, book. So what were they and which one gets to decorate the back of my blog for the next month?

The books in question were:

• Murder Of A Lady by Anthony Wynne
• Heads You Lose by Christianna Brand
• Smoke and Mirrors by Elly Griffiths
• The Mystery Of Monster Mountain by M V Carey
• Murder At The Old Vicarage by Jill McGown
• Murder At The Chronicle by Peter Bartram
• Hangman’s Curfew by Gladys Mitchell
• Comes A Stranger by E R Punshon
• Death Of Anton by Alan Melville
• All-Consuming Fire by Andy Lane and Guy Adams
• A Perfect Match by Jill McGown
• Crooked Herring by L C Tyler
• The Butcher Of St Peter’s by Michael Jecks

I was a little worried about the Puzzly this month. You see, I started composing my end of year round-up a few days ago and when it came to the Grand Puzzly – the Puzzly of
Puzzlies if you will – then with one exception, every month had at least one outstanding read. And while there were many highly enjoyable reads here – Smoke and Mirrors, the Jill McGown books, Death Of Anton, Heads You Lose – and only one utter stinker – Hangman’s Curfew, not helping my Mitchell-not-Marsh theory one iota – nothing leapt out as being truly outstanding. And then I read Crooked Herring and it quickly picked up the Puzzly and danced away with it. The Butcher Of St Peter’s came quite close to nicking it back, actually, but the mystery element wasn’t as strong as it has been in some of Michael’s other books, so not this time.

So congratulations to L C Tyler for his first Puzzly – there’ll be more from Len next month with the new John Grey mystery. But in the meantime, I’m off to put the wallpaper up and be back tomorrow for the 2015 round-up.