As the year (this one was a doozy, no?) draws to a close, we’ve been delighted to see ARLA titles cropping up on Best-Of-2017 lists around the web! See the extensive but not comprehensive list of superlatives below:
The Real Book Spy’s Best Books of 2017: VICIOUS CIRCLE
C.J. Box is always one of the best reads of the year. For Vicious Circle, Box brought back one of his most popular and hated antagonists, rodeo cowboy Dallas Cates. The storyline that started in 2015’s Endangered finally comes full circle here, as Box holds nothing back on his way to giving readers another thrilling adventure with Joe Pickett, America’s favorite game warden. Nobody has done a finer job developing their characters over the course of a series than Box, the undisputed king of cowboy noir.
The Irish Times’s Best Crime Books of 2017: SINCE WE FELL
Dennis Lehane has written private eye novels, gangster novels and stand-alone thrillers. Since We Fell (Little, Brown, €16.99) offered another subgenre variation as Lehane delivered a wonderful blend of melodrama and domestic noir.
Barnes & Noble Best Books of 2017: SINCE WE FELL and VICIOUS CIRCLE
Publisher’s Weekly Best Books of 2017: VICIOUS CIRCLE
Edgar-winner Box’s 17th novel featuring Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett pits Joe against erstwhile rodeo star Dallas Cates—whom Joe helped put in prison 18 months earlier—now newly released and bent on revenge. This outing is the most suspenseful yet, setting a new standard for Box.
The Guardian Best Crime Books and Thrillers of 2017: SINCE WE FELL
Another author who likes to challenge generic expectations, Dennis Lehane seems to have abandoned the suspense form of his Mystic River and Shutter Island completely in the first half of Since We Fell (Little, Brown). At first it feels like a psycho-drama about Rachel, a TV reporter with PTSD and a controlling mother. Only in later sections detailing Rachel’s relationships is Lehane’s real Hitchcockian scheme revealed, with characteristically twisty action and crackling dialogue.
South Florida Best Mystery Novels of 2017: PARADISE VALLEY and VICIOUS CIRCLE
A double dose of C.J. Box this year. “Vicious Circle” looks at the cycle of revenge, violence and hate that Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett tries to keep from his family…“Paradise Valley” is an excellent finale to Box’s frightening The Highway Quartet novels that focus on the hunt for a serial killer who works as a long-haul trucker.
Booklist Best Literary Travel Books of 2017: WRETCHED
Welky’s revival of an obscure 1913 expedition has all the marks of the polar-adventure genre—the hero confronting nature, the pitiless extremities of that nature, and the psychological warping polar regions seem to induce.
