Miss Lemon's Top Ten for 2009

My dear readers, a new decade is upon us. To tidy up the one that went before, Ms. Kerrie Smith, of Mysteries in Paradise, made the splendid suggestion of drawing up a list of 'Favourite Crime 2009'.

And so Miss Lemon will do just that. Miss Lemon loves lists. Almost as much as she loves mysteries.

1. Taken at the Flood, by Agatha Christie. (Dame Agatha at her cleverest.)

2. Lonelyheart 4122, by Colin Watson. (Features the unparalleled Miss Teatime.)

3. A Pocket Full of Rye, by Agatha Christie. (Who can resist a nursery rhyme that ends in murder?)

4. The Small Hours of the Morning, by Margaret Yorke. (An underappreciated mystery novelist of formidable skill.)

5. The Sittaford Mystery, by Agatha Christie. (The perfect read for a wintry afternoon.)

6. Written in Blood, by Caroline Graham. (The Midsomer Murders at their apex.)

7. Gentlemen & Players, by Joanne Harris. (What one learns at school never ceases to surprise....)

8. Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days, by Jared Cade. (Not precisely a crime novel, per se –- but it reads as well as one and concerns one of Miss Lemon’s favourite principle characters.)

9. The Chinese Bell Murders, by Robert Van Gulik. (Featuring the inimitable Judge Dee, based on a real magistrate from the T’ang Dynasty.)

10. The Lodger, by Marie Belloc Lowndes. (Inspired by Jack the Ripper, this is the moodiest, most atmospheric mystery Miss Lemon has ever read.)

Best wishes to all and happy reading in 2010.