Top Ten New-to-Me Authors Discovered in 2024

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's topic is New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2024. Last year, I read books by a total of 29 new-to-me authors, which accounts for about a third of the books I read. I suppose that number should not surprise me, but it does.

And here's my list of my 10 favorite new-to-me authors. The authors are not listed in any order.

Kate Wilhelm

I read The Hamlet Trap, the first book in the Constance Leidl and Charlie Meiklejohn mystery series, first published in 1987. Kate Wilhelm has written two mystery series and many standalone novels in the mystery and science fiction genres. She was married to Damon Knight, a very well-known author of science fiction. Kate Wilhelm's fiction was first recommended to me by Todd Mason at Sweet Freedom.

Willa Cather

My Ántonia is the first book I have read by Willa Cather and I now understand why other readers are so effusive in their praise for this book and its author. There are so many interesting aspects to this book: life on the prairies and in the small towns; the descriptions of backbreaking work on a farm; the difficulties of the immigrants who move to the Nebraska prairies, most of which cannot speak much English.

Gabrielle Zevin

I read Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Zevin in early 2024. That book was about two young people who worked together to create video games. The story does focus on video games and the process of creating them, but it is about many other things: relationships, families, judgement and misunderstandings, and ambition. Later in 2024 I read The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and enjoyed it too.

Catherine O'Flynn 

I read What Was Lost, the author's debut novel, which was published in 2007. A ten-year-old girl, Kate, lives with her grandmother; her goal is to be a detective, and run her own detective agency. She has few friends, hates school, and entertains herself with investigating cases that she has made up. One day she disappears and most of the story focuses on how this event affects other people in her neighborhood, over the following years.

Fredrik Backman

A Man Called Ove was Backman's first novel, published in 2012, but I did not read any of his books until 2024. Ove is an older man, nearing sixty, whose wife has recently died. He has decided that he does not want to go on living without her. This story is alternately humorous and sad, and I loved it. I will be reading more books by this author.

Joseph Kanon

Defectors was the first book I have read by Joseph Kanon, and it definitely won't be my last. The story focuses on a group of American and British spies living in and around Moscow during the Cold War, after defecting. Frank is a US spy who defected to Russia in 1949. Simon, his younger brother, had to leave his job in intelligence to work in publishing after Frank's defection. In 1961, Simon is in publishing and has been allowed to come to Moscow to work with Frank on publishing his memoirs. I loved the exploration of family relationships, but the story has plenty of action also. I have six more of Kanon's books on my shelves.

Young-ha Kim 

I read Your Republic is Calling You. Published in 2006, the setting is South Korea. It was a different kind of spy fiction and I liked it very much. The story takes place over the course of one day in the life of Ki-Yong, a South Korean with a wife and teenage daughter. Except that he is really a North Korean spy who has been in Seoul, working as a film importer for over 20 years, and has now been recalled to North Korea. 

Karen Joy Fowler

The Jane Austen Book Club was not what I expected but I liked it very much. The book was less about the Austen books than I would have liked, but I enjoyed the individual stories about the members of the book club. I liked the different way the story was told and how the back stories were worked into the story gradually. It made me want to go out and find more books by Fowler.

Anthony Trollope 

Until this year I had not read anything by Trollope. I chose The Warden, the first book in the Chronicles of Barsetshire series. I had gotten the impression that Trollope's writing was humorous but I failed to see the humor in this story at first. It seemed that all would end very sadly. As the story continued, it lightened up and I became immersed in it and did enjoy the humor of the situation. And I was happy with the ending.

Samantha Harvey

I read Harvey's Booker Prize winning book, Orbital, which depicts one day in the life of six astronauts on the space station, watching the sunrises and sunsets and monitoring a typhoon threatening inhabited islands. It is short, about 200 pages, and very meditative. The difference between Harvey and the other authors on this list is that I don't know if I want to read anything else she has written. I will certainly try other books by her and be interested to see what she writes in the future.

Top Ten New-to-me Authors in 2023

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's topic is New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2023. 

Some of the authors on this list write crime fiction or spy fiction, but a good number of them write books in genres I read less of (fantasy, general fiction, science fiction). All of them were good discoveries, and I plan to read more books by every one of the authors on this list. 

My list is in no particular order.

Kotaro Isaka

Bullet Train is the first book I read by this Japanese author. I like Japanese books, but have read more mysteries and thrillers than other genres. It looks like this book was the 2nd in a series of three books that have been translated into English.

Robin Hobb

Robin Hobb is a  pseudonym used by Megan Lindholm. Assassin's Apprentice is the first book in a fantasy series, The Farseer Trilogy. I plan to read the 2nd book in the series this year. I discovered this book and author via Cath at Read-Warbler when she reviewed The Mad Ship, part of a different series.

Deanna Raybourn

Killers of a Certain Age is a story about four older women who have worked for years as assassins. The organization that hired and trained them is called the Museum, and now the Museum has turned against them and ordered their deaths. It is not exactly spy fiction, but it reads much like a spy thriller, so it was perfect for me. Deanna Raybourn has written several series in the historical fiction genre. 

Carson McCullers 

Carson McCullers was a well-known American author whose novels were mainly set in the Deep South. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is the first book I read by this author.

Helene Hanff

This author is best known for 84, Charing Cross Road, a book comprised of the letters between Hanff and Frank Doel, who worked at a book store on Charing Cross Road in London. The correspondence began in October 1949 and continued for the next 20 years.

Jesse Q. Sutanto

This author has written young adult fiction and some adult mysteries. The book I read was Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers.

Michael Christie  

Christie is a Canadian author. I read his second novel, Greenwood, set in Canada, from 1908 through 2038. It is a multigenerational family story with a focus on nature and ecology, especially trees. 

Becky Chambers  

This author writes science fiction, and my first experience with her writing was The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, a space opera. 

Rosamunde Pilcher

Pilcher was a very well known British author of romances and family sagas. Many of her books are set in Cornwall, but the one I read, Winter Solstice, is primarily set in Scotland in the two months leading up to Christmas. Luckily, I purchased The Shell Seekers at the book sale last year, so I have another to read sometime this year. 

Bob Cook

This was a new spy fiction author for me. Paper Chase is a humorous book about four old spies who retired years ago, and only get together at the funerals of other old friends who were intelligence agents. They are forbidden to publish their memoirs, but they decide to do it anyway. Felony & Mayhem reprinted Paper Chase and Disorderly Elements, but I am going to try to track down other books by this author.

New (to me) Authors - 1st Quarter 2016

At the end of every quarter, Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise hosts a meme for the best new-to-me crime fiction authors. Check out other posts for this quarter.

This quarter I read only two new authors, and I was impressed with both of them.


I read two books by Anne Holt: What is Mine, the first book in the Vik and Stubo series, and Blind Goddess, the first book in the Hanne Wilhelmsen series. Anne Holt is Norwegian and both of her series are set in Oslo.

What is Mine, first published in 2001 in Norway, is a book about child abduction, a very unappealing subject. However, the book does not relentlessly focus on that subject, and I found the story to center more on Johanne Vik, a former FBI profiler, and Adam Stubo, a police detective, and how they approach working on this case together. I enjoyed the story a lot, so much that I decided to read another of her books.

Blind Goddess, published in 1993 in Norway, was Anne Holt's debut novel. The heroine of the series is Hanne Wilhelmsen, a lesbian police detective. The book also features two other major characters, Hakon Sand and Karen Borg, both lawyers. This book was not quite as compelling as What is Mine, although the fact that I was reading on an e-reader may have affected my enjoyment. The story was very complicated, but I did eventually get pulled into the plot and enjoyed the ending very much.

The second new to me author was Quentin Bates, author of the Officer Gunnhildur series. I read Frozen Assets (titled Frozen Out in the UK), the first book in the series . The strength of that book is Gunna, or Officer Gunnhildur. She is a middle aged policewoman and is portrayed in a very realistic way; she is not glamorous, she tries to do a good job, and being there for her teenage daughter is as important to her as her job. This was another very complex plot, covering conspiracies in government and the financial difficulties in Iceland, but without the engaging central character, it would have been just another story for me.

I will be continuing reading books by both of these authors. After not buying any books for three months, yesterday I purchased the next in the series for each.

New (to me) Authors: April through June 2015

Today I am joining in on the meme for the best new-to-me crime fiction authors at Mysteries in Paradise. This meme runs at the end of each quarter. Check out other posts for this quarter.

This quarter I have read books by seven authors that I have never read before.

White Heat by M. J. McGrath
Double Indemnity by James M. Cain
Tainted by Ross Pennie
The Case of the Dotty Dowager by Cathy Ace
The Ways of the World by Robert Goddard
See Also Murder by Larry D. Sweazy
Susannah Screaming by Carolyn Weston

I have reviewed all of these book except for The Ways of the World and Susannah Screaming. I will be reviewing both books soon.

Robert Goddard has written over twenty mystery thrillers. They cover various periods in history. Per the author's website: "What they all have in common is the infinite capacity for intrigue and conspiracy in human nature - and the lengths to which some at least will go to combat them."

Publisher's Weekly describes The Ways of the World:

The Paris peace talks of 1919 provide the backdrop for Edgar-winner Goddard’s enjoyable first in a trilogy featuring James “Max” Maxted, “late of the Royal Flying Corps.” When Max’s father, aging diplomat Henry Maxted, is found dead outside his mistress’s Montparnasse apartment building, the police and some members of the British delegation maintain Henry simply fell from the roof or jumped. Yet the doggedly curious Max and his sidekick—former plane mechanic Sam Twentyman—spot a pattern of suspicious circumstances indicating otherwise.

Per Brash Books, Carolyn Weston is the author of the three, ground-breaking police procedurals that became the hit TV series The Streets of San Francisco. Susannah Screaming was the second book in that series. As a fan of the TV show starring Karl Malden and Michael Douglas, I was eager to give the books a try. Brash Books is releasing new editions of all three books.

New (to me) Authors, 1st Quarter 2015

At the end of every quarter, Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise hosts a meme for the best new-to-me crime fiction authors. Check out other posts for this quarter. 

In January, February, and March 2015, I read three authors that were new to me per month. All of the books by new authors that I read were entertaining. And there was a good variety in the settings.

These are the books by new authors that I read this quarter:

The 39 Steps by John Buchan
Villain by Shuichi Yoshida
The Calling by Inger Ash Wolfe
Cookie's Case by Andy Siegel
Murder in the Raw by William Campbell Gault
Too Late to Die by Bill Crider
A Killing at Cotton Hill by Terry Shames
The Hanging Shed by Gordon Ferris
Death Was the Other Woman by Linda L. Richards

From this list, these two books made the most impression on me this quarter:

Murder in the Raw by William Campbell Gault was the first in a series of novels featuring Brock Callahan, an ex-LA Ram football player, who becomes a private detective in Beverly Hills, California. That novel was first published under the title Ring Around Rosa (which is more descriptive). The cover of my edition describes the book as a hard-boiled classic. This book seemed to have less sex and violence than I had expected in that genre.

Too Late to Die by Bill Crider is the first book in the Sheriff Dan Rhodes series, which now totals 21 books.  Dan Rhodes is up for reelection to the job of Sheriff of Blacklin County, Texas. His jurisdiction covers small towns and rural areas, where everyone knows everyone.

The pacing of the story is slow but steady, until towards the end when the action speeds up. Crider combines good characterization of the Sheriff, and his family, friends and enemies, with an interesting picture of rural Texas. The story is told with dry humor.

New (to me) Authors: 4th Quarter 2014

At the end of every quarter, Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise hosts a meme for the best new-to-me crime fiction authors. Check out other posts for this quarter.

I considered skipping this meme this time ... as I am so far behind and my energy is lagging after the holidays. But then I checked out which new authors I had read in the last quarter of 2014, and there were so many wonderful authors I had tried for the first time. I had to write about them.

These are the books by authors that are new-to-me this quarter:

Siren of the Waters by Michael Genelin
The German Agent by J. Sydney Jones
The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill

Enigma by Robert Harris
Garnethill by Denise Mina
The Jasmine Trade by Denise Hamilton
The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville
Firecrest by Victor Canning
Holiday Homicide by Rufus King 
The Teleportation Accident by Ned Beauman

Several of the books are set in interesting locations (and times) that I have little familiarity with. Siren of the Waters is set in post-Soviet Slovakia and nearby countries. The Coroner's Lunch is set in Laos in 1976 following the Communist takeover of that country. The Ghosts of Belfast is set in post-Troubles Northern Ireland. These books provide historical and geographical insights and they are all well-written, compelling stories.

I found Garnethill by Denise Mina to be a dark and uncomfortable read. The story deals with tough topics: incest, patient abuse, drugs, unemployment, dysfunctional families. Yet it has a wonderful protagonist in Maureen O'Donnell, and I want to read more about her.

Enigma by Robert Harris is an espionage story and it is set during World War II -- perfect for me. The story, set at Bletchley Park in the UK, uses the code breaking efforts there as a background for a mystery. I am eager to try more of the author's books.

New (to me) Authors: 3rd Quarter 2014

At the end of every quarter, Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise hosts a meme for the best new-to-me crime fiction authors. Check out other posts for this quarter.

These are the books by authors that are new-to-me this quarter:

• World War Z by Max Brooks
• Death Has a Past by Anita Boutell
• The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths
• The Frozen Dead by Bernard Minier
• The Davidian Report by Dorothy B. Hughes
• The White Sea by Paul Johnston
• The Wine of Angels by Phil Rickman
• Coffin Scarcely Used by Colin Watson
• Lie in the Dark by Dan Fesperman

All of these authors wrote books that I enjoyed reading, and I will continue to read books by most of them. Often when I do these summaries for three months worth of reading, the most recently read books are the most memorable.

Most enjoyable was:

The Wine of Angels by Phil Rickman. This novel combines a mystery and the supernatural. The characterization is wonderful. All of the main characters are well fleshed out. The characters are realistic; all have flaws. They are mostly likable but far from perfect. Very, very long, though.

Not so enjoyable, but a very good book:

Lie in the Dark by Dan Fesperman. This book is a police procedural set in the midst of the siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian conflict. It describes the daily life of homicide inspector Vlado Petric as he tries to do his job. The siege has been going on for two years, and Petric's wife and child have escaped to Germany. His job seems to be useless in times of war when so many are dying and suffering.

Quotes from the book:

    The same two motivations which had kept him going before the war could still sustain him. Or at least he hoped they could.
    One was the small, slender promise that beckons to all homicide detectives-that someday, something worthy and noble would come of his work. For the clever and the persistent, perhaps something larger lurked behind the daily body count. In the way that an epidemiologist knows that a single autopsy can provide the key to a pandemic, Vlado clung to a belief that, now and then, one murder offered a portal to machinations far greater than the pulling of a trigger or the plunging of a blade.
    But could this still be true in wartime? ...
    Yet Vlado couldn't help but marvel at the enduring popularity of murder. He knew from his history texts what war was supposed to do to people. In Stalingrad they ate rats and burned furniture to stay warm, but they stuck together. Even in London, fat and soft London, suicides dropped and mental health soared. But now he wondered if it hadn't all been some great warm lie of wartime propaganda. Because, if anything, people succumbed more easily now to the passions that had always done them in. And as the siege grumbled on, spurned lovers still shot each other naked and dead, drunks stabbed other drunks for a bottle, and gamblers died as ever for their debts.

This is not the darkest book I have ever read, but it is not a fun read or uplifting.

New (to me) Authors, Second Quarter 2014

At the end of every quarter, Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise hosts a meme for the best new-to-me crime fiction authors. Check out other posts for this quarter.




This quarter I was going to just feature my favorites, but there were too many and I thought every one of these books was interesting and a very good read.

The Burning by Jane Casey
The Night the Gods Smiled by Eric Wright
Eleven Days by Donald Harstad
A Few Right Thinking Men by Sulari Gentill
In the Shadow of the Glacier by Vicki Delany
Skeleton in Search of a Cupboard by Elizabeth Farrars
9tail Fox by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
The Collini Case by Ferdinand von Schirach

Mr. Campion's Farewell by Mike Ripley
The Sea Detective by Mark Douglas-Home
Slow Horses by Mick Herron
A Hearse on May-Day by Gladys Mitchell

My top pick from this group is...

Eleven Days by Donald Harstad is a police procedural set in Iowa. The first person narrative by Carl is a very matter-of-fact, no frills delivery. The subject is grim, but there are some funny moments. The characterization is very good.

New to Me Authors January to March of 2014

Today I am joining in on the meme for the best new-to-me crime fiction authors at Mysteries in Paradise. This meme runs at the end of each quarter. Check out other posts for this quarter.

In the first quarter of this year I’ve read 10 books by authors that I have not read before.

A Case for Mr. Crook by Anthony Gilbert

The Danger Within by Michael Gilbert

Judgement Call by Nick Oldham

The Maze of Cadiz by Aly Monroe 

Behind the Night Bazaar by Angela Savage

Summer of the Big Bachi by Naomi Hirahara

The Indigo Necklace by Frances Crane

After the Armistice Ball by Catriona McPherson

In the Heat of the Night by John Ball

Locked In by Kerry Wilkinson

All of these books were very enjoyable reading. Rather than pick one favorite, I will chose one vintage mystery and one contemporary mystery.

Angela Savage, author of Behind the Night Bazaar, is an Australian author. Her series is about a private investigator, Jayne Keeney, living in Bangkok. Jayne becomes involved in a murder investigation while visiting a friend in the smaller town of Chiang Mai. Within this context, the author looks at social issues such as HIV and child prostitution.

The Danger Within, by Michael Gilbert, is a mystery set in a prison camp in Italy toward the end of World War II. The book, published in 1952, was based on the author's experiences during the war. This book combined a realistic view of life in a prison camp with an investigation of a murder.

New To Me Authors, October - December 2013

Today I am joining in on the meme for the best new-to-me crime fiction authors at Mysteries in Paradise. This meme runs at the end of each quarter. Check out other posts for this quarter.

Between October 1st and December 31st in 2013, I read eight books by authors that I had never read before.

1. Frantic by Katherine Howell
2. Dead Before Dying by Deon Meyer
3. The Last Clinic  by Gary Gusick
4. The Hanging Judge by Michael Ponsor
5. Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis 
6. The Man-Eater of Malgudi by R. K. Narayan
7. Mr. Ives' Christmas by Oscar Hijuelos
8. The Holiday Murders by Robert Gott

I liked all of these authors for different reasons, and it is very hard to make a choice of best new crime fiction author (for me). But that is the name of this game, so I will narrow it down to ... Katherine Howell, an Australian author.

Frantic (2007) by Katherine Howell is the first in a series of thrillers set in Sydney, Australia. There are two main characters per book (roughly, as I understand it from reviews). The detective, Ella Marconi, is a constant throughout the series. The second character in each book is a paramedic, and that character changes from book to book. I think this is a very clever strategy, because it allows for variety and spices up the mix of characters. But, most of all I liked the pace of the book. It just did not let up. The excitement level in the story kept me reading and I did not want to put the book down.

I think I first heard of this author at Margot's blog, Confessions of a Mystery Novelist... This In the Spotlight features a later book in the series.

I was also very impressed with both of the non-crime fiction authors I read in this time period: R. K Narayan and Oscar Hijuelos. I plan to read more books by both of them, so I am taking small steps toward broadening my reading choices.