Well, other bloggers have been previewing their reading for 2023, so why not? I’ve not done any formal challenges since the early days of the blog but this is really just to keep me on track with my reading. Why twenty-three? Well, it makes a nice title, doesn’t it?

So, in no particular order:

New Releases

• The Mysterious Case Of The Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett

The Appeal was great, The Twyford Code was good, if a tad problematic. Angels seems to be going back to the messages/document style of the former book, so hopefully it’ll be great too.

• Dark Queen Wary by Paul Doherty

One of Paul’s lesser known series, focussing on Margaret Beaufort, mother of the exiled Henry Tudor, as she struggles to survive in the court of Edward IV, and the conspiracies surrounding her. A really interesting period of history and, well, it’s Paul Doherty isn’t it?

• The Murder Game by Tom Hindle

A Fatal Crossing was interesting, with a twist on the GAD format. Very curious to see what Tom does with a very traditional set-up, the murder mystery game.

• The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman

A Christmas gift, so better take a look. I’m curious – I enjoyed the first, despite the lack of clues in a “traditional mystery”, but thought the second was lacking a tad. Let’s see what number three is like…

• An Honourable Thief by Douglas Skelton

I do want to find more historical authors, so this would seem to be a good place to start, looking at the transfer of the crown after the death of Queen Anne – should it go to George I (as it did) or James the Old Pretender? Not sure how much this is mystery or thriller, but it looks very interesting.

• Black Drop by Leonora Nattrass

Another new historical author to me, this time 1794, a period that I know little about, and London is on the edge of revolution, inspired by the antics of the pesky French and Americans, and, well, there’s a murder…

• Once Upon A Crime by Fergus Craig

Never quite sure about mystery-thrillers that announce themselves as parodies, rather than sneaking it up on you, but Santa brought me this and as such, it’s on the reading list.

• Fearless by M W Craven

This isn’t particularly much of a challenge, as regular readers know how much I love Mike’s thrillers. This is the first in a new series (Poe and Tilly will be back soon) and very much looking forward to it.

• The Brutal Tide by Kate Rhodes

A very enjoyable series set in the Scilly Isles, for some reason I always seem to miss the new releases of this series.

• Death Shall Overcome by Emma Lathen

Recommended by TomCat. Don’t know much about the series, but let’s take a look… (Update: changed the choice of title based on Aubrey Hamilton’s recommendation)

Classic Crime

• The Footprints Of Satan by Norman Berrow

This has been sitting on my shelf for an age and while I gather Berrow is a bit variable, this is supposed to be a classic. Let’s see…

• Death Under Snowdon by Glyn Carr

The last unread Glyn Carr on my shelf – no way this isn’t getting read this year.

• Murder Is A Collector’s Item by Elizabeth Dean

Recommended to my by Victoria Dowd, so definitely worth a look. Bought it a while ago, this is my prompt to actually read it…

• Death Watch by John Dickson Carr

Haven’t read this for an age, mainly because it uses a SPOILER SPOILER which is very naughty, but people seem to like it, so time to look again.

• The Venner Crime by John Rhode

Despite my Rhode collection, it’s been an age since I’ve read one of the unread ones. This is probably the unread one with the best reputation, so let’s put it on the list.

• Death’s Old Sweet Song by Jonathan Stagge

A Secret Santa gift from a couple of years ago. No idea why I’ve left it so long to read it, but let’s correct that soon…

• The Man In The Brown Suit by Agatha Christie

Why? Because I’ve never read it. There are a few non-series titles that I’ve not read, but let’s start with this one.

• Man Overboard! By Freeman Wills Crofts

Just because I need to read more books by Crofts…

Don’t You Forget About Me…

In other words, authors who I’ve enjoyed in the past but then never went back to for no good reason…

• The Last Confession Of Thomas Hawkins by Antonia Hodgson

Really enjoyed the first of these, The Devil In The Marshalsea, so time to take another look.

• Hell’s Half-Acre by Jackie Elliott

The follow-up to Coffin Cove, set in a West Canadian fishing town.

• The Corpse Steps Out by Craig Rice

Eight Faces At Three was a strong start to this series, and I do want to read it in order.

• The Burglar In the Rye by Lawrence Block

Discovered the other day that there are three Bernie Rhodenbarr books that I haven’t read – this is the first one…

• Under Lock And Skeleton Key by Gigi Pandian

This has been on the shelf for a while – got an affordable copy of a book only published at the mo in the US and then never read the thing. Going to change this very soon…

There we go, twenty-three for ’23. Let’s see how many I actually read…