LJ's Top and Bottom Reads of 2005

Top Read:

Alexander, Tasha - And Only to Decieve

Block, Lawrence - All the Flowers are Dying

Box, C.J. - Out of Range

Bruen, Ken - The Dramatist

Burton, Milton T. - The Rogue's Game

Coben, Harlan - The Innocent

Coleman, Reed Farel - The James Deans

Connor, John - The Playroom

Crais, Robert - The Forgotten Man

Fowler, Christopher - The Water Room

Koryta, Michael - Tonight I Said…

SLEEPER (Amateur Sleuth-Italy-Cont) – G+

Adam, Paul – 5th book

Time Warner, 2005 – Paperback

Giovanni "Gianni" Castiglioni is a luthier--a violin maker--at whose home his friends--a policeman, Guastafeste, a priest, Father Arrigh, and a fellow luthier, Rainaldi--gather each month as an informal

string quartet. After one of their sessions,

Guastafeste and Gianni find Rainaldi murdered in his studio by.…

DEATH FROM THE WOODS (Suspense-France-Cont) – G

Aubert, Brigitte – 1st book

Berkeley Prime Crime, 2005, Paperback

As the result of a car bomb, Elise Andrioli is a blind, mute quadriplegic. Left by her caregiver, Yvette, in a park to wait, Elise is befriended by Virginie, a 7-year-old who

tells Elise she knows who is killing young boys. When Elise is attached, she is faced with

finding a way to communicate and to stay…

THE GREENWAY (Suspense/Police Procedural-England-Cont) – G+

Adams, Jane – 1st book

Macmillan, 1995- UK Hardcover

Cassie Maltham's cousin disappeared while they were taking a short-cut home through the Greenway, an ancient passageway in Norfolk. Cassie couldn't remember what had happened, but has suffered from

depression and nightmares ever since.

Now, 20 years later, Cassie has returned to Norfolk…

DIE TRYING (Suspense-Montana-Cont) – VG

Child, Lee – 2nd in series

Jove Fiction, 1998- Paperback

Jack Reacher, former MP and expert sharpshooter, just tries to be a nice guy to a woman having trouble holding her dry cleaning. In exchange, they both end up being kidnapped and taken to a paramilitary camp in Montana. The woman isn't just anyone; Holly Johnson is

an FBI agent with a very powerful father and godfather. The militarists…

WHITE TIGER (Police Procedural-Chicago-Cont/1970s) – VG

Dymmoch, Michael Allen – 5th in series

Thomas Dunne Books, 2005 – Hardcover

Detective John Thinnes views the body of a murder victim at the morgue, and realizes she was the Vietnamese wife of his best friend when serving as an MP during the Vietnam War. Upon meeting the late woman's son, he

remembers his friends' wedding night, waking up hangover and naked and…

ALONE AT NIGHT (Police Procedural, Minneapolis, Cont/1984) – Ok

Erickson, KJ – 4th book

St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2005- Paperback

In 1984, Chief of Police Sigvald "Sig" Sampson handled the case of a beautiful young clerk who disappeared from a convenience store where she worked alone at night.

That case was never solved. Now,

in 2003, Marshall "Mars" Bahr has reopened the case.…

DYING FOR REDEMPTION (PI/Fantasy-Cont) – G

Freeburn, Chris – Standalone

Quiet Storm Publishing, 2004 – Trade Paperback

Calamer "Callous" Demar is a private investigator. He also died in 1953. His agency, located in Limbo, helps the recently murdered find out who killed them.

Callous' secretary, Ann, has brought him the case of Wilow Flannery, a

millionaire businesswoman, who was killed in a car…

THE SUDBURY SCHOOL MURDERS (Amateur Sleuth-England-1817) – VG

Gardner, Ashley – 4th in series

Berkeley Prime Crime, 2005 – Paperback

Retired dragoon, Captain Gabriel Lacy, and his manservant, Bartholomew, have left London for the Sudbury School where Lacey has taken the post of secretary to the school's headmaster, Everard Rutledge. The school has been beset with pranks and

Rutledge wants Lacy to find out who's behind them. But…

AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE (Medieval Mystery-England-1300s) – VG

Gregory, Susanna – 2nd in series

Time Warner Paperbacks, 1997 – Paperback

The plague has passed and physician Matthew Bartholomew wants only to train his students and attend to his patients. As senior physician, he is called to examine a body mysteriously discovered inside the treasured, and supposedly secure,

University chest, which holds all the most valued, documents.…

PATHS NOT TAKEN (Fantasy-Nightside) – G+

Green, Simon R. – 5th in series

ACE Fantasy, 2005- Paperback

John Taylor is a private investigator in Nightside, a hidden part of London where it is always 3 a.m. and the residents are anything but ordinary. John has learned that his mother is Lilith,

the first wife of Adam. He, Suzie

Shooter and Tommy Oblivion travel back in time to learn how his mother created

Nightside and find…

URN BURIAL (Private Investigator-Australia-1920s) – G+

Greenwood, Kerry – 7th in series

Poisoned Pen Press, 2005- Trade Paperback

Phryne Fisher, her maid, Dorothy, lover, Lin Chung and his man, Li, are headed for a holiday at Cave House in the Austrialian countryside. One the way, they hear a

rifleshot and find a hysterical maid who has been molested. Later, Phryne finds the maid dead, but when

she returns with help, the body…

STILL RIVER (Private Investigator-Dallas-Cont) – G-

Hunsicker, Harry – 1st book

Thomas Dunne Books, 2005- Hardcover

PI Lee Henry "Hank" Oswald is a Gulf War approached by a former schoolmate to find her brother, a former drug addict and alcoholic. Hank's dying partner, Ernie,

asks Hank to help his niece, Nolan, also an investigator. The case evolves to include murder, violent

drug dealers and a major real estate…

DEAD IRISH (Pol. Proc/Ama. Sleuth- San Francisco-Cont) – G+

Lescroart, John – 1st in series

Signet, 2005 – Paperback

Dismas Hardy is a Viet Nam vet, former cop, and former attorney who works in a bar. Abe Glitsky is a homicide cop and Hardy's former partner. The son of a mutual friend is found dead and

it looks like suicide. Glitsky and Hardy

disagree and work to find the killer.

It's always…

JACQUOT AND THE WATERMAN (Police Procedural-Marseilles, France-Cont) – VG

O'Brien, Martin – 1st in series

Headline, 2005 – Trade paperback

Chief Inspector Daniel Jacquot is still recognized for scoring the winning try (touchdown) in a Five Nations final 20 years' earlier. He's facing a new challenge now

with a serial killer who is leaving nude, sexually abused dead woman in various

watery locations around Marseilles

and…