It’s been a great blogging and reading year, from the joy (and intense hard work) of Fahrenbruary to seeing the lovely folks at Red Dog Press go from strength to strength in their first full year. Red Dog are actually the only publisher from whom I can claim a full set in my collection.
I didn’t do a top 10 last year, I don’t think I’m going to again this year. I think it’s too difficult to rank what I’ve read in such a way. Plus, I don’t complete books I’m not enjoying, life’s too short. Although its getting rarer and rarer that I don’t complete a book.
I am going to share my 2019 reading list though, it’s the longest since I started keeping track in 2014, and reflects a wonderful reading year. So many great authors, books and publishers on this list. Its also one of the very few times that my non-indie tastes are given room on the blog. I compile this list as I finish a book, its entirely about what I’ve read this year. Its that simple. The first book may have been started in 2018, but if it was completed in 2019 it goes on this list. So in that vein, I want to give an honourable mention to Matt Wesolowski whose new novel Beast will very likely be the first book on the 2020 list, I’m about half way through and thoroughly enjoying another six stories tale.
I enjoyed each and every one of these sixty-five books and I’m looking forward to another exciting reading year in 2020. I have some ideas for pieces for the blog in the new year, a number of lovely people have already contributed to a piece I want to put together about Novellas. I also have an idea for a much longer post on Soho Noir by TS Hunter and what that’s meant to me as a gay man. Plus, the usual indie reviews will keep on coming.
So, here as promised is my 2019 reading list:
| Title | Author |
| The Lingering | SJI Holiday |
| Noirville | Various |
| Dead is Good | Jo Perry |
| Black Moss | David Nolan |
| Red Hands | Ariana D Den Blyker |
| Prey No More | Lee Matthew Goldberg |
| This Queer Angel | Elaine M Chambers |
| Tranquillity 3 | Linden Chase |
| Tainted Love | TS Hunter |
| The Lewis Man | Peter May |
| The Nest | Gregory A Douglas |
| The Chalk Man | C J Tudor |
| Daisy Jones and The Six | Taylor Jenkins Reid |
| Matilda | Roald Dahl |
| Burial | Graham Masterson |
| The Wounded and the Slain | David Goodis |
| Overkill | Vanda Symon |
| Force of Nature | Jane Harper |
| Redwall | Brian Jacques |
| A Bloody Business | Dylan Struzan |
| Bang Bang You’re Dead / Worst Laid Plans | Nick Qunatril & Aidan Thorne |
| Bad Bastards | Paul Heatley |
| The Lost Man | Jane Harper |
| This is What Happened | Mick Herron |
| When Darkness Loves Us | Elizabeth Engstrom |
| Dead is Beautiful | Jo Perry |
| Joe Country | Mick Herron |
| Who’s That Girl | TS Hunter |
| Good Samaritans | Will Carver |
| Death of an Angel | Derek Farrell |
| The Reaping | Bernard Taylor |
| Fade to Blonde | Max Philips |
| The Confession | Domenic Stansberry |
| The Tribe | Barri Wood |
| Careless Whisper | TS Hunter |
| Sweet Sorrow | David Nicholls |
| The Great Believers | Rebecca Makkai |
| Freeze Tag | Caroline B Cooney |
| The Touch | F Paul Wilson |
| The Sleepwalker | Joseph Knox |
| The Spirit | Thomas Page |
| Very Nearly Dead | AK Reynolds |
| In the Absence of Miracles | Michael J Malone |
| Changeling | Matt Wesolowski |
| The Cockroach | Ian McEwan |
| The Keep | F Paul Wilson |
| The Ringmaster | Vanda Symon |
| Paperbacks From Hell | Grady Hendrix |
| A Shot In The Dark | Neil Richards & Matthew Costello |
| 50 Years Legal | Simon Napier Bell |
| Crazy for You | TS Hunter |
| The Nickel Boys | Colson Whitehead |
| Twas The Nightshift Before Christmas | Adam Kay |
| The Institute | Stephen King |
| The Last Romeo | Justin Myers |
| Cruising | Alex Espinoza |
| Everything Happens / Death of a Sinner | Jo Perry / Derek Farrell |
| Killer Queen | TS Hunter |
| Stay Mad, Sweetheart | Heleen Kist |
| Gwendy’s Magic Feather | Richard Chizmar |
| Killing Quarry | Max Allan Collins |
| Full Throttle | Joe Hill |
| Smalltown Boy | TS Hunter |
| Six Stories | Matt Wesolowski |
| A Legacy of Spies | John Le Carre |
