Familiar names, mostly female, led the bestseller lists in mystery: Exit WoundsJanet Evanovich's bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum (To the Nines, St. Martin's); Sara Paretsky's private eye, V.I. Warshawski (Blacklist, Putnam); Nevada Barr's park ranger, Anna Pigeon (Flashback, Putnam); J.A. Jance's Arizona sheriff, Joanna Brady (, Morrow); Faye Kellerman's husband-wife-team, Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus (Street Dreams, Warner); and Amanda Quick's Regency sleuthing pair, Lavinia Lake and Tobias March (Late for the Wedding, Bantam).
Elizabeth Peters delivered the 15th entry in her Egyptian historical series featuring archeologist Amelia Peabody Emerson and her extended eccentric family, Children of the Storm, as well as a companion volume, Amelia Peabody's Egypt (both Morrow). Simon St. James and his wife, Deborah, took center stage in Elizabeth George's A Place of Hiding (Bantam), a contemporary whodunit with roots in the German occupation of the Channel Islands during WWII.
Cat cozy fans cuddled up to Lilian Jackson Braun's The Cat Who Brought Down the House, the 25th novel about irresistible Siamese Koko and Yum Yum and their pet human, Jim Qwilleran, as well as to Braun's story collection, The Private Life of the Cat Who... (both Putnam); and Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown's 11th Mrs. Murphy mystery, The Tail of the Tip-Off (Bantam).
After a six-year absence, Robert Crais's smart-aleck L.A. PI, Elvis Cole, made a welcome return in The Last Detective (Doubleday). Tony Hillerman's 16th Chee/Leaphorn adventure, The Sinister Pig (HarperCollins), provided deep intrigue involving oil pipelines and drug smuggling. In James Lee Burke's Last Car to Elysian Fields (Simon & Schuster), Louisiana homicide detective Dave Robicheaux took on a handsome, urbane war hero of a bad guy instead of his usual grotesque villain. Robert B. Parker came out with a couple of winners: in Back Story, veteran Boston PI Spenser investigated a 28-year-old murder with the help of Jesse Stone, the hero of Parker's newer series, while Stone (sans Spenser) pursued serial killers and a lot more in Stone Cold (both Putnam).
Other male contenders included Ed McBain, with his 52nd 87th Precinct novel, Fat Ollie's Book (Simon & Schuster); Donald Westlake, with the comic spy caper Money for Nothing (Mysterious); and Walter Mosley, with Fear Itself (Little, Brown), featuring timid Watts bookstore owner Paris Minton and his brave pal, Fearless Jones. Mosley's most famous character, Easy Rawlins, returned in a story collection, Six Easy Pieces (Atria).
From Britain came solid entries from two of the grand dames of the genre, P.D. James's The Murder Room (Knopf), her latest Adam Dalgliesh mystery, and Ruth Rendell's The Babes in the Woods (Crown), her newest Chief Inspector Wexford. In his eighth Inspector Diamond mystery, The House Sitter (Soho), Peter Lovesey demonstrated his mastery of intricate plotting. Finally, John Mortimer showed that his beloved if aging barrister, Rumpole of the Bailey, still had plenty of sleuthing life left in Rumpole and the Primrose Path (Viking).
Eye of the AbyssMarshall Browne (St. Martin's Minotaur/Dunne)
Aussie-based Browne takes a break from his series about a one-legged European police detective, Inspector Anders, to start what one hopes will be a new series, in which a one-eyed German banker, Franz Schmidt, secretly fights the Nazis in the late 1930s.
The GuardsKen Bruen (St. Martin's Minotaur)
In this outstanding debut set among Ireland's shadowy police force, the Garda Síochána (aka the Guards), Bruen flaunts genre clichés and shows his potential to become the standard bearer for a new subgenre, "Hibernian Noir."
Letter from HomeCarolyn Hart (Berkley Prime Crime)
Hart creates a fabulous two-in-one: an excellent mystery and a wonderful portrait of a small Oklahoma town in 1944.
Uniform JusticeDonna Leon (Atlantic Monthly)
In this outstanding novel, the latest in Leon's Commissario Guido Bennetti series, the Venetian police detective and family man investigates a murder at the exclusive San Martino Military Academy.
Dogs of Riga: A Kurt Wallander MysteryHenning Mankell (New Press)
Set against the chaotic backdrop of Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Mankell's novel delivers a unique combination of police procedural and spy thriller that also happens to be a devastating critique of Soviet-style communism.
The Distant EchoVal McDermid (St. Martin's Minotaur)
This absorbing psychological novel of revenge, which alternates between St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1978 and the present, shows British author McDermid at the top of her form.
Silver LiesAnn Parker (Poisoned Pen)
Leadville, Colo., during the 1879 silver boom provides the setting for this excellent debut featuring Inez Stannert, the poker-playing, straight-talking, gun-toting owner of the Silver Queen Saloon.
Death of a NationalistRebecca C. Pawel (Soho)
The immediate aftermath of the Spanish Civil War offers the bleak backdrop to this stirring first novel, which easily transcends the formulaic crime story.
First DegreeDavid Rosenfelt (Mysterious)
Clever plots twists, deft legal maneuverings and keen wit boost Rosenfelt's accomplished follow-up to his Edgar-finalist debut, Open and Shut (2002).
Charlie OperaCharlie Stella (Carroll & Graf)
For his third brilliant crime novel, full of funny and electric dialogue, Stella once again assembles a huge cast of made men, DEA and FBI agents, plus local cops and gangstas, hookers, even a woman on the run and the wife-beater chasing her.
Saw RedBob Truluck (Dennis McMillan)
PI Duncan Sloan explodes into action in Truluck's rapid-fire, tough-guy whirlwind of an adventure set in Orlando, Fla.
Maisie DobbsJacqueline Winspear (Soho)
This inspired debut novel is part mystery, part war story and part romance set in WWI-era England, featuring a humble housemaid who connives to climb the British social ladder to become a university student, nurse and private investigator.
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