We’ve read a lot of murder mysteries off the beaten track this year but by far Dinuka Mckenzie’s 'The Torrent' stood out to Herds as the closest to the beating heart of what we do here on Death of the Reader. The Torrent is such a fantastic tale with how it takes the typical tropes of a police drama and turns them on their head, we’re all familiar with the cop just one week from breaking retirement, but how many of us are familiar with the cop just one week from breaking their water?

2022 on your Murder Mystery World Tour featured more than our usual share of thrillers, both in our interviews with authors, and our full-features on the show. Coming in at 8th place for our 2022 recommendations is 'The Shadows of Men', Abir Mukherjee’s fifth Sam Wyndham and Surendrenath Banerjee novel. Sam and Suren have been through a lot, over their tenure together. Over the course of their series, from 'A Rising Man', to today’s novel, they’ve stood side by side at their best and worst moments, but never before, has Surendrenath been given the turbulent, tumultuous and terrific control of the narrative that he gets in The Shadows of Men, and by golly, Abir Mukherjee has given him one hell of a debut in the driver’s seat.

Coming in 9th place for our 2022 recommendations is RV Raman’s ‘A Dire Isle’, which must be said very slowly in an Australian accent to not sound like you’re reciting your vowels. RV Raman has been one of India’s best barely-kept secrets since his 2014 fiction debut ‘Fraudster’, one of a growing number of authors opening the door to their relatively young slice of our crime fiction world. The books this year on Death of the Reader have featured a lot of nostalgia for detective fiction, but no entry has imbued quite as much joy to that nostalgia as RV Raman does in his second Harith Athreya novel.

Our 2022 Honourable Mentions begin with Flex's first pick; 'When We Fall' by Aoife Clifford. They may thwart our escape by land or sea, but the sky is surely open to us: we will go that way. Under an oppressive sky, take the middle way, lest the moisture weigh down your wings, or the sun scorch them. Summoning the art of Dutch masters, ancient poets and present day foibles, ‘When We Fall’ is an elegantly modern small-town mystery painted in secrets, where the brushstrokes reward you for tracing them.

Thank you to ABC Radio National and Ultimo Press for providing copies of 'When We Fall' to Death of the Reader.

Agatha Christie’s The Body in the Library achieves a place amongst the top ten this year, bringing us the second full novel appearance of her famous detective the humble yet deadly Miss Marple. The story revolves around the titular Body in the titular library, a woman found dead in the morning by an unsuspecting household of seeming no relation to the poor girl. As this is a Christie murder mystery we are primed to suspect an elaborate connection, a plot which ties all things together, one which makes all the chess pieces line up like ducks for Mr. Bantry to shoot.

To not recommend ‘the first’ Golden Age Detective Fiction novel, on a show founded upon the tenets of the era, would be sacrilege. Coming in at 11th place for our 2022 recommendations is E.C. Bentley’s ‘Trent’s Last Case’, also published as ‘The Woman in Black’. Released in 1913 as a response to ‘The Man Who Was Thursday’ by Bentley’s friend G.K. Chesterton, the novel has been crowned by many with the impossible accolade of starting the Golden Age itself. To juggle the various layers of importance behind ‘Trent’s Last Case’ would, and has, been the subject of many a chapter of Golden Age Detection historiography. The book is a jovial, fondly familiar read, slightly overburdened with the technicalities that the genre’s detractors would come to bemoan. It would take you little imagination to picture how the fibres on this spinning wheel met the loom that would weave the tapestry we celebrate.

Here on Death of the Reader, it’s a rare stop on your Murder Mystery World Tour that gets a double-feature. Often it’s to show the stark contrast between two portrayals, sometimes over decades, and the chosen double for this year was Albert Campion. Coming in at 12th for our 2022 recommendations, Cargo of Eagles was the final Campion novel penned by the series’ creator, Margery Allingham, one of the oft-lauded four queens of Golden Age Crime. More spy-thriller than mystery, Campion’s novels snuck their way onto your Murder Mystery World Tour on account of the legend that the spytective was originally envisioned as a parody of Dorothy L. Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey, and also because there are some fantastic novels in the Campion catalogue.

In thirteenth place we have a bold novel, one that’s not afraid to challenge modern political issues while still remaining firmly entrenched in the politics of a post WWII world, it is 'The Ghosts of Paris' by Tara Moss. This was one of our favourite general reads on the show. Giving us the opportunity to drag close friend of the show Dom Romeo onto the stage and subject him to the interrogation of a lifetime was thoroughly entertaining. This novel being much closer to character drama with thriller elements than an outright murder mystery only lended itself to the entertainment of covering it, and truthfully this novel was difficult to place, with how strong its central cast and themes are, it definitely leans into the “story with the best message” criteria for this year’s lineup.

Thank you to Harper Collins for providing copies of 'The Ghosts of Paris' to Death of the Reader.

Easily our highest-profile inclusion for 2022, Death on the Nile by Kenneth Branagh comes in at 14th Place for our recommendations. Four and a bit years on from the release of the previous film in Branagh’s Poirot adaptation, Murder on the Orient Express, a pandemic-et-al turmoiled production gave us a hotly debated adaptation of Agatha Christie’s novel of the same name. Whilst there’s plenty of issues to be had with the massacre screenwriter Michael Green committed upon the source material, it still has a lot to say for itself, and could be worth your consideration.

Thank you to Disney for providing Death of the Reader tickets to 'Death on the Nile'.

Coming in 15th place for our 2022 recommendations is Dorothy L. Sayers with ‘Whose Body?’. One of the Golden Age of Murder Mystery’s four ‘Queens of Crime’, alongside Christie, Marsh & Allingham, it would be difficult to overstate the significance of Sayers’ contribution to the genre, as founding member and third president of The Detection Club, as well as a trailblazer in arts academia for women. Unfortunately, it would also be difficult to understate our enthusiasm for ‘Whose Body?’. There is a certain genius to its construction, a sharply poetic mind evident in its odd stylistic non-sequiturs and unusual if eloquent dialogue, but whilst that makes it fascinating to discuss, it doesn’t make it the easiest read to recommend.