My Top Ten Favorite Novels of 2022
These are my favorite
novels published in 2022. I make no effort to read a bunch of books I
SHOULD read or which would make anyone else's top ten. Also, there are
no non-fiction or story collections.
The Lioness
by Chris Bohjalian
Tanzania, 1964. When Katie Barstow, A-list actress, and her new husband,
David Hill, decide to bring their Hollywood friends to the Serengeti
for their honeymoon, they envision giraffes gently eating leaves from
the tall acacia trees, great swarms of wildebeests crossing the Mara
River, and herds of zebra storming the sandy plains. Their glamorous
guests—including Katie’s best friend, Carmen Tedesco, and Terrance
Dutton, the celebrated Black actor who stars alongside Katie in the
highly controversial film “Tender Madness”—will spend their days taking
photos, and their evenings drinking gin and tonics back at camp, as the
local Tanzanian guides warm water for their baths. The wealthy Americans
expect civilized adventure: Fresh ice from the kerosene-powered ice
maker, dinners of cooked gazelle meat, and plenty of stories to tell
over lunch back on Rodeo Drive.
"God they’d christened themselves the lions of Hollywood at the wedding,
and raised champagne to the idea. The seven of them, minus Katie and
David, who were already in Paris, had greeted each other that way, half
kidding but also a little smug, when they’d rendezvoused at the airport
in L.A. a week later. The movie mags even called them that when they
wrote about the safari: the lions of Hollywood."
What Katie and her glittering entourage do not expect is this: A
kidnapping gone wrong, their guides bleeding out in the dirt, and a team
of Russian mercenaries herding them into Land Rovers, guns to their
heads. As the powerful sun gives way to night, the gunmen shove them
into abandoned huts and Katie Barstow, Hollywood royalty, prays for a
simple thing: To see the sun rise one more time.
The best thing
about this novel is the development of the relationships between the
characters, both before and after the attack.
I have learned to
give Chris Bohjalian a chance even when the subject and synopsis don't
always intrigue me. I am rarely disappointed.
Dream Team
by David Baldacci
1953 LA. Private investigator and World War II veteran Aloysius Archer
intends to ring in the New Year with an old friend, aspiring actress
Liberty Callahan. Screenwriter Eleanor Lamb interrupts to hire Archer.
After mysterious phone calls, the same car outside her house, and a
bloody knife in her sink, Eleanor fears for her life. A dead body turns
up inside of Eleanor’s home, then Eleanor disappears. To find both the
murderer and Eleanor, Archer asks for help from Liberty and from his
partner Willie Dash. The investigation takes him from mob-ridden Las
Vegas to glamorous Hollywood to the darkest corners of Los Angeles, a
city where beautiful faces can belong to cutthroat schemers and cops can
be more corrupt than criminals, and powerful people who might have
kidnapped his client may kill Archer if he stays on their trail. .
This
novel is the third in the Archer series by Baldacci who has several
different series including the King & Maxwell series, and series
featuring John Puller, a military investigator; Will Robie, a
government assassin; Amos Decker, a former NFL player hired by the FBI,
who obtained photographic memory and synethesia from a blow to the head;
and Atlee Pine, a female FBI agent in search of her sister kidnapped
when both were children.
Those other series are all set
primarily in the present. Aloysius Archer is a WWII vet and former
inmate of a California state prison. I sense Baldacci enjoys the shift
to a more historical setting where noir sensibilities are more naturally
invoked. Archer himself is a fascinating study of a flawed man with a
checkered past but a strong sense of moral responsibility.
One Step Too Far
by Lisa Gardner
Frankie Elkin, finder of lost souls, most often children, and most often
in urban environments, is sent linto the woods in search of a young man
lost in National forest--and the shocking truth about why he went
missing in the first place. Law enforcement has abandoned the search,
but a crew of people led by the young man's father are still looking.
Sensing a father's desperation, Frankie agrees to help, but soon sees
that a missing person isn't all that's wrong here. And when more people
start to vanish, Frankie realizes she's up against something very
dark--and she's running out of time.
Gardner, a bit like
Baldacci has several varied protagonists who carry her mutliple series,
many often crossover. Quincy & Rainey, FBI profilers; Detective D.D.
Warren; and State Trooper Tessa Leoni are all tied to their official
duties. Frankie Elkin is a more self-reliant character with her own code
of conduct guided more by her concern for those suffering the loss than
any rules or procedures. She also prides herself on her candid
assessments for success so they know she may not be bringing back a live
body.
Gilded Mountain
by Kate Manning
In the early 1900s, Sylvie Pelletier, a young teen, recounts leaving her
family’s snowbound mountain cabin to work in a manor house for the
Padgetts, owners of the marble-mining company that employs her father
and dominates the town of Moonstone, Colorado. Sharp-eyed Sylvie is awed
by the luxury around her; fascinated by her employer, the charming
“Countess” Inge, and confused by the erratic affections of Jasper, the
bookish heir to the family fortune. Her fairy-tale ideas take a dark
turn when she realizes the Padgetts’ lofty philosophical talk is at odds
with the unfair labor practices that have enriched them. Their
servants, the Gradys, formerly enslaved people, have long known this to
be true and are making plans to form a utopian community on the Colorado
prairie.
Outside the manor walls, the town is roiling with
discontent. A handsome union organizer, who also shows an interest in
Sylvie, enlists the help of labor leader Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, in
trying to stir the quarry workers to action. The editor of the local
newspaper—a bold woman who takes Sylvie on as an apprentice—is
publishing the truth about the Padgett Company. Sylvie navigates the
different worlds and struggles to find her way amid conflicting
loyalties. When the harsh winter brings tragedy, Sylvie decides to act.
The
labor movement, especially in the rural industries of farming, mining,
amd millwork, is often purposely ignored in history course in the United
States. Here, Manning does a fantastic job of relating the era and
conditions through the fascinating story of a young woman coming into
her own learning harsh lessons of life, love, and survival.
The Runaway
by Nick Petrie
Former Marine Peter Ash spent eight years in Iran and Afghanistan
searching buildings for insurgents and now, is fighting a condition
where he has trouble staying indoors without feeling a "white static", a
panic and claustrophobia which is almost crippling. While driving
through northern Nebraska he encounters a young pregnant woman alone on a
gravel road, next to a dead car. He offers her a lift, but what begins
as an act of kindness turns into a deadly cat-and-mouse chase across
lonely highways with the woman’s vicious ex-cop husband hot on their
trail. The pregnant woman has seen something she was never meant to see,
but protecting her might prove to be more than Peter can handle.
To save the woman and himself, Peter must use everything he has
learned during his time as a Marine, including his knowledge of human
nature, to escape a ruthless killer with instincts and skills to
match—and perhaps exceed—Peter’s own.
Nick Petrie's Ash character
seems like a familiar character readers have encountered in many other
intrepid loner stories, but he is much more nuanced than a stereotypical
replica. He is a bit more damaged, less directed and more in search of
a normal life. He has combat experience and has been schooled in
self-defense, but is far from invincible and at times, is not even more
formidible than his adversaries. I admire his efforts to overcome and
also admire Petrie's craft in bringing such a complex and compelling
character to life.
The Wheel of Doll
by Jonathan Ames
Although badly scarred and down to his last kidney after the previous
caper, Hank Doll, no longer a licensed P.I., now going by his given name
"Happy" is back in business. When a beguiling young woman turns up at
his door, it’s Doll’s past that comes knocking. Mary DeAngelo is
searching for her estranged mother, Ines Candle, a troubled woman, ten
years his senior, Doll once loved. The last he’d seen her she’d been a
near suicide, arms slit like envelopes. Although she survived, she
vanished shortly thereafter. Now, Mary claims Ines is alive and has
recently made contact, messaging her on Facebook and calling her from a
burner phone, only to disappear once again. Although he and his
psychoanalyst think it may be a bad idea, Doll takes the case, wanting
to see Ines again. But as the investigation deepens, there are questions
he can’t shake. What’s led the flighty Ines to reappear? Is Mary only
relaying half the truth? And who is Mary’s strange and mysterious
husband?
This is worthy follow-up to Ames' previous Doll book,
but Doll is a bit different in this one, less flippant and attempting to
bvecome more grounded. He is still dedicated to his beloved
half-Chihuahua half-Terrier, George. Although Doll is trying to settle
down a bit, this episode in his life still packs a wallop.
Sierra Six
by Mark Greaney
Before he was the Gray Man, Court Gentry was Sierra Six, the junior
member of a CIA action team. In their first mission they took out a
terrorist leader, but at a terrible price, a woman Court cared for.
Years have passed and now The Gray Man is on a supposedly routine
mission when he sees a ghost: the long-dead terrorist, remarkably
energetic for a dead man. A decade may have gone by but the Gray Man
hasn't changed. He isn't going to leave a job unfinished or a blood debt
unpaid.
As a religious reader of the Gray Man novels, I found
this one a welcome diversion as Greaney tells the story jumping
backwards and forwards in time to show how a certain episode in Court
Gentry's past played such crucial role in this current adventure. This
one filled a bit more of the Gray Man's backstory while keeping his
present in perpetual tension.
Hidden Pictures
by Jason Rekulak
Mallory Quinn, a former track star with a scholarship who is sidetracked
by injury and addiction, is fresh out of rehab when she takes a job as a
babysitter for Ted and Caroline Maxwell looking after five-year-old
son, Teddy. She is surprised how much she loves the job. She has her own
guest house, goes out for nightly runs, and has the stability she
craves. And she bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without
his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are the usual fare: trees,
rabbits, balloons. But one day, he draws something different: a man in a
forest, dragging a woman’s lifeless body. Teddy’s artwork becomes
increasingly sinister, his stick figures evolve into sketches well
beyond the ability of any five-year-old., and he draws them with his
door closed when he should be napping. Mallory begins to wonder if these
are glimpses of a long-unsolved murder on the property and if
paranormal may be at work.
This
was a fascinating, original story that kept me second-guessing the
seemingly supernatural elements with enough
possible explanations to keep up both the wonder and the intrigue.
I always enjoy a wrap-up where the explanations are important to
finishing a well-plotted story. In my opnion, Rekulak was
successful in pulling this one off.
Blown by the Same Wind
by John Straley
Things in the sleepy fishing town of Cold Storage, Alaska, are changing.
It’s the summer of 1968; the men are wearing their hair long, the
Vietnam War is at its height, and multiple assassinations have gripped
the country. But some things remain the same. Ellie’s bar is still the
place to catch up on the town gossip, and there’s a lot to talk about,
from the boys who have returned from the war (and the ones who haven’t),
to the robberies that are plaguing the locals, to the new guy in a
famous monk from Kentucky.Ellie, herself a fugitive of sorts, is curious
about this “Brother Louis,” and worries about his motives, but he seems
harmless enough. However, when a handful of other outsiders arrive to
town and start poking around the bar and asking questions, Ellie begins
to have reservations. Have they followed this mysterious monk, rumored
to be the famous author Thomas Merton, to Cold Storage? And what is it
that they want, particularly the inept FBI agent with the strange Boston
Corbett? Inspired by assassination conspiracy theories, the life of
Thomas Merton, and the changing tide of the ’60s, this novel
is a coming-of-age story for a major character and the town of Cold Storage itself.
I
am a fan of Straley's Cecil Younger series and an even bigger fan of
the Cold Storage, Alaska series which all tend to be a little cock-eyed
and somewhat surreal. I would highly recommend reading them in order.
They is a significant amount of time between each and having some
familiarity with the characters and the place might add some nuance.
However, I read them in a willy-nilly fashion and it worked out okay
for me, but then I tend to like how off-beat the stories and characters
were. Straley's style is to hold quite bit under wraps and letting
exposition out a little at a time as needed.
Sleepwalk
by Dan Chaon
Will
Bear, is a man with so many aliases that he simply thinks of himself as
the Barely Blur. At fifty years old, he’s been living off the grid for
over half his life. He’s never had a real job, never paid taxes, never
been in a committed relationship. A good-natured henchman with a
complicated and lonely past and an LSD microdosing problem, he spends
his time hopscotching across state lines in his beloved camper van,
running sometimes shady, often dangerous errands for a powerful and
ruthless operation he’s never troubled himself to learn too much about.
He has lots of connections, but no true ties. His longest relationships
are with an old rescue dog with posttraumatic stress, and a childhood
friend as deeply entrenched in the underworld as he is, who, lately,
he’s less and less sure he can trust. living and operating out of his
camper, the Guiding Star. His one companion is his dog, Flip.
Out of the blue, one of his
many burner phones heralds a call from a twenty-year-old woman claiming
to be his biological daughter, Cammie. She says she’s the product of
one of his long-ago sperm donations; he’s half certain she’s AI. She
needs his help. She’s entrenched in a widespread and nefarious plot
involving Will’s employers, and continuing to have any contact with her
increasingly fuzzes the line between the people Will is working for and
the people he’s running from. Cammie tells Blur she suspects his father is a cult leader named Harland
Jengling, who has fathered many and had embryos frozen. She explains
there is a cult whose agenda is to create a race of docile, strong
humans – in the mold of Blur – to function as a labor force in the
future, when there will be a superior race of disembodied humans who
exist solely as minds.
If
an author can make me care about a character, even a little, I am often
willing to go on a journey with that character even if both I and that
character appear to have not much idea where it is we are going.
That was surely the case for me when I joined Will on his road
trip through a worn and damaged America which is most likely not too
far in the future from our current present. Although upon
finishing the novel, I found the finale to be a less than satisfying.
On further thought, I have gone along with it the same way I went
along on the ride.
Honorable Mention:
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Racing the Light by Robert Crais
Every Cloak Rolled in Blood by James Lee Burke
Don't Know Tough by Eli Cranor