I read 57 books in 2017, and here are the top 5. Only two of these books were from authors I had not discovered before. I will be reading more of their books in 2019.
An Engineered Injustice by William Myers (2018)
This is the second in the “Philadelphia Legal” trilogy, a loose set of three legal novels. In this one, an idealistic criminal defense attorney, Vaughn Coburn, takes on a personal case involving his cousin Eddy. Eddy is the surviving engineer of a massive passenger train crash in North Philadelphia. Despite being blamed for the crash, there is more to this case than meets they eye. And Vaughn finds himself in the targets of malicious attorneys, corrupt railroad men and a mob boss. With stakes sky-high, Vaughn is literally in the fight of his life.
King is a master storyteller and this one does not disappoint. This combines a mystery with the supernatural without resorting to horror. It starts with a boy killed and violated in a town park. Eyewitnesses and physical evidence point unambiguously to a popular citizen. Cut and dried case. Except the man, Terry Maitland, was in a different location with a clear-cut alibi. How can he be in two places at once? The Outsider delivers surprise after supernatural surprise to a shocking ending.
Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney (2018)
Amber Reynolds, the protagonist, wakes up in a hospital but is in a coma. She can hear everything but cannot communicate. What happened to her? What kind of accident was she in? What happened a week earlier that precipitated these events? What does she lie about? The book oscillates between the present and the recent past, with every chapter revealing a new secret until the very end. This is a brilliant psychological thriller that twists and turns until you’re left like a pretzel.
Vox by Christina Dalcher (2018)
The 49th Mystic / Rise of the Mystics by Ted Dekker (2018)I loved Ted Dekker’s Circle trilogy of Black, Red and White. But that was then climaxed in a fourth book, Green. Dekker brings a pair of books that continues that great series and brings it to a fulfilling culmination. Possibly the best books I read in 2018, to enjoy these you have to have read the earlier set. If you have, then you will thrill to find Raychelle Mathews can travel in her dreams to the future world of Thomas Hunter. And it is her destiny that will either free both worlds, present and future, or leave it in the evil hands of the Shatikai. To do so, she must find seven seals before the time runs out. A thrill ride for us and for the blind girl who can see once more.
