As ever, December is the month of two summing-up posts – for the month and the year – so let’s get the year out of the way. Shall we look at my Christmas haul first of all? Look at all those lovely goodies – particularly looking forward to the Birmingham, Devine and Gray books, as I’ve not read those authors before, as well as revisiting Nigel Fitzgerald.

Right, on with this month’s reading – I’ve got a year to review as well!

Ten books – I hit my annual target of 120 books on the nose – and here they are:

• The Christmas Candle Murders By Benedict Brown – one of the numerous Christmas mysteries this year, and not the best.
• The Mysterious Affair Of Judith Potts by Robert Thorogood – shall I break the habit of fifteen years and give Rob the Puzzly in the summary or wait until the end? No, I’ll wait…
• Murder At The Black Cat Café by Seishi Yokomizo – Two translated novellas, both with some interesting ideas in them.
• The Mistletoe Murder Club by Katie Marsh – points off for the shameless cash-in title. A decent enough cosy, but there are better Christmas mysteries out there…
• Black Agent by Brian Flynn – an early example of an actual serial killer mystery with a clever hook.

• Montgomery Bonbon – Sabotage At Sea by Alasdair Beckett-King – a mystery for children with more plot packed in that most adult mysteries and some jokes about poop. What more could you ask for?
• The Three Investigators – The Mystery Of The Trail of Terror by M V Carey – another children’s book, definitely not picked so that I could hit my annual target. And it’s rubbish.
• The Black Dove by Steve Hockensmith – the Amlingmeyer brothers hit Chinatown as they hunt for the killer of a friend and try to find the mysterious Black Dove. Fun.
• Twice Dead by John Rhode – a very late outing for Dr Priestley and not a good one.
• Cyanide In The Sun ed. Martin Edwards – one of the strongest of the British Library short story collections – just not very seasonal.

Absolutely no surprise about this – every book he’s written has been a contender for the Puzzly, and he’s won a bucketload of them. If they actually had any physical presence, he’d need a new shelf! But none of them are as deserving as The Mysterious Affair Of Judith Potts. A magnificent piece of fairly clued misdirections. As I’ve said before, ignore any concerns you have about cosiness – this is a cracking mystery and well worth your time.

Right, that was easy. Now it’s time for the Review Of The Year…