Books I Enjoyed In 2023

As 2023 comes to a close, I figured it was time to reveal what books I enjoyed this past year.

Before that, though, I should recap what I did in 2023, at least writing-wise.

I released only one book, The Killing Room, published by Blackstone Publishing in August. Those who have read it seem to have really dug it — it’s one of my best reader-reviewed books so far, hands down — but as there was pretty much no bookstore distribution and zero trade reviews, the book pretty much flew under the radar.

Anyway, I spent this past year working on two projects — a new Avery Bishop novel, which Audible will publish sometime next year, and the follow-up to The Killing Room, which Blackstone will release in August.

I also wrote a short story, which I haven’t done in a long time, and between working on edits for both of the projects mentioned above, I also started working on a new Avery Bishop novel (about a third of the way through so far; I hope to finish it in the next few months, then write a new standalone thriller under my own name, and then, if I find the time, write a new Holly Lin thriller).

So yeah, I’ve been staying busy (though obviously I haven’t been updating this blog because I’m pretty sure nobody reads it anymore), and I’ve been reading and listening to audiobooks whenever possible. I’ve read and listened to a lot of books, and I’ve enjoyed most of them, but only a few did I really enjoy. And so, without further ado (and in no particular order except which they were read), here are the books I enjoyed very much in 2023, which I think others might enjoy too. But as is the case with everything, your mileage may vary.

Novels

• THE CABIN AT THE END OF THE WORLD by Paul Tremblay

• LUTHER: THE CALLING by Neil Cross

• THE HOUSEMAID by Freida McFadden

• BLACK-EYED SUSANS by Julia Heaberlin

• AMERICAN CRIMINAL by Benjamin Percy

• COUNTDOWN by James Patterson and Brendan DuBois

• FOSTER by Claire Keegan

• EVERYBODY KNOWS by Jordan Harper

• CHILD OF GOD by Cormac McCarthy

• THE THIEF by Fuminori Nakamura, translated by Satoko Izumo and Stephen Coates

• 48 CLUES INTO THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MY SISTER by Joyce Carol Oates

• THE QUIET TENANT by Clémence Michallon

• NONE OF THIS IS TRUE by Lisa Jewell

• LION & LAMB by James Patterson and Duane Swierczynski

Audiobooks

• THE OVERNIGHT GUEST by Heather Gudenkauf, read by Brittany Pressley

• THE LAST ORPHAN by Gregg Hurwitz, read by Scott Brick

• TRUE BELIEVER by Jack Carr, read by Ray Porter

• HELLO, MOLLY! by Molly Shannon and Sean Wilsey, read by Molly Shannon

• NAMELESS: SEASON TWO by Dean Koontz, read by Edoardo Ballerini

• MY DARKEST PRAYER by S.A. Cosby, read by Adam Lazarre-White

• WHALEFALL by Daniel Kraus, read by Kirby Heyborne

• HOW CAN I HELP YOU by Laura Sims, read by Carlotta Brentan and Maggi-Meg Reed

• COME CLOSER by Sara Gran, read by Julie McKay

• HOUR OF THE ASSASSIN by Matthew Quirk, read by Will Damron

• THE SPY COAST by Tess Gerritsen, read by Hillary Huber and Brittany Pressley

• ALL THE SINNERS BLEED by S. A. Cosby, read by Adam Lazarre-White

• CONFESSIONS ON THE 7:45 by Lisa Unger, read by Vivienne Leheny

Stories

• FEN by Daisy Johnson

• LOT by Bryan Washington

• NIGHT OF THE LIVING REZ by Morgan Talty

• LUSH AND OTHER TALES OF BOOZY MAYHEM by Duane Swierczynski

• THE SECRET LIVES OF CHURCH LADIES by Deesha Philyaw

• LOVE AND OTHER STORIES by Jordan Harper

• WALK THE BLUE FIELDS by Claire Keegan

Now, what about you? Any books you read (or listened to) this past year you really enjoyed?

Books I Enjoyed In 2022

As 2022 comes to a close, I figured it was finally time to reveal what books I enjoyed this past year.

Before that, though, I should recap what I did in 2022, at least writing-wise.

I released two titles: one novel under my own name, Bullet Country, and a novella under my pen name that I released as an ebook and paperback which was initially released as an Audible Original.

What does 2023 have in store? Well, a couple of things, some of which I can’t announce quite yet, but there will be a new thriller by me that’ll be in bookstores, so that should be fun. Oh, and will there be more Avery Bishop? You better believe it!

So yeah, I’ve been staying busy, and I’ve been reading and listening to audiobooks whenever I can. And so, without further ado, here are the books that I enjoyed in 2022 which I think others might enjoy too. But as is the case with everything, your mileage may vary.

Novels 

• THE COLLECTIVE by Alison Gaylin 

• THE DAMAGE by Caitlin Wahrer

• NO EXIT by Taylor Adams

• THE LAST DAYS OF PTOLEMY GREY by Walter Mosley 

• THE SHINING GIRLS by Lauren Beukes

• ALL THE OLD KNIVES by Olen Steinhauer

• OCEAN STATE by Stewart O’Nan

• BLUE BILLY by Laura Ellen Scott

• THE SENTRY by Robert Crais

• CHILD ZERO by Chris Holm

• THE OBSERVANT by Ravi Mangla 

• NORTH BORDER by Benjamin Percy and Francesco Francavilla

• HEAT 2 by Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner 

• SLEEPWALK by Dan Chaon 

• THESE SILENT WOODS by Kimi Cunningham Grant

• RACING THE LIGHT by Robert Crais 

• EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU by Celeste Ng 

Audiobooks

• I AM NOT WHO YOU THINK I AM by Eric Rickstad, read by Steven Weber

• DARK HORSE by Gregg Hurwitz, read by Scott Brick 

• VERITY by Colleen Hoover, read by Vanessa Johansson and Amy Landon

• THE GRAY MAN by Mark Greaney, read by Jay Snyder

• COMEDY COMEDY COMEDY DRAMA by Bob Odenkirk, read by Bob Odenkirk

• ONE OF US IS DEAD by Jeneva Rose, read by Andi Arndt, Hillary Huber, Elizabeth Evans, Brittany Pressley, Cassandra Campbell

• WHY WE DID IT: A TRAVELOGUE FROM THE REPUBLICAN ROAD TO HELL by Tim Miller, read by Josh Bloomberg

• 56 DAYS by Catherine Ryan Howard, read Alana Kerr Collins

• THE SUMMER HOUSE by James Patterson and Brendan DuBois, read by Ari Fliakos

• TELL HER STORY by Margot Hunt, read by Dakota Fanning

• TELL ME LIES by J. P. Pomare, read by Aimee Horne 

• ON TARGET by Mark Greaney, read by Jay Snyder

• RAZORBLADE TEARS by S. A. Cosby, read by Adam Lazarre-White

• BEFORE SHE DISAPPEARED by Lisa Gardner, read by Hillary Huber.

Stories

• UNCLEAN JOBS FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS by Alissa Nutting

• TWISTED: THE COLLECTED STORIES OF JEFFERY DEAVER by Jeffery Deaver

Now, what about you? Any books you read (or listened to) this past year you really enjoyed?

Books I Enjoyed In 2020, Plus More

So 2020 was quite a year, huh? I obviously don’t blog much anymore (my last and only post for the year was 11 months ago) and I honestly don’t know who even checks by here anymore as, well, blogs aren’t really a thing these days, are they?

Anyway, this year I published two novels: END GAME, the final Man of Wax book, and another novel under a pen name that was published by Amazon Publishing.

First, let’s talk about END GAME.

When I initially wrote MAN OF WAX, it was intended as a standalone. Honestly, a very early draft (one that was shopped around to publishers by my agent at the time) had Ben and Carver raiding the Paradise Motel and killing Simon … only to then learn that they were too late and Ben’s wife and daughter were dead: the end.

Pretty dark, huh?

There was a period of time where I wanted my books to be “real” in that the good guys don’t always win in the end, and while that’s something that can be done effectively from time to time, for the most part readers don’t want to be super bummed out by a book, especially after they’ve invested several hours of their time reading it. So I figured, okay, let’s not kill off Ben’s family. Let’s leave the book open-ended. And with the setup of a grand conspiracy, that led me to consider turning the entire storyline into a trilogy.

So I did something very dumb — without having sold the first book, I started writing the second book in the series.

Why was this dumb?

Because again, I hadn’t sold the first book. And, well, I obviously never sold the first book. So I had an unsold first book of a trilogy as well as the second book with nowhere to go with it, and at the time, the idea of self-publishing just didn’t make sense because ebooks weren’t really a thing.

Fast forward several years and the ebook revolution really took off, and I started uploading some of my unpublished novels. I put up MAN OF WAX, and then a few months later published THE INNER CIRCLE, and then … went on to write and publish other books.

Why?

Well, because while sales were decent, they were nowhere close to making me drop everything and writing the third book. Plus, high expectations became a concern. A lot of readers seemed to love the first two books, and I was worried the third book might be a major let down.

So I always had the third book in the back of my mind while I worked on other novels, knowing that it would be a large chunk of time for me to write the book and that there would probably not be much return on that investment. I remember even saying as much on Brian Keene’s old podcast when he asked me about the final Man of Wax book, noting that the third book in a trilogy is always the worst seller, because, I mean, it’s a trilogy. People don’t buy the third book first. They buy the first book, and maybe they’ll buy the second book, and MAYBE they’ll even end up buying the third book.

Of course, then I had an idea for a thriller that I realized would tie nicely into the overall MOW universe, and that book is of course LEGION, which was a prequel novel that on its surface didn’t really seem like it was connected to the trilogy at all, despite vague references to past events in both MAN OF WAX and THE INNER CIRCLE. I always knew that John Smith and Ashley would show up in the final book of the trilogy, but it’s kind of hard to explain that to baffled readers, some of whom actually got upset that an advertised prequel didn’t seem to fit — plus it probably didn’t help that initially I marketed it as a standalone thriller.

During all this time, of course, I wrote and published other novels, and in 2019 I sold a novel to Amazon Publishing for a quite sizable advance. I don’t want to get into too many personal specifics, but the advance helped pay off debt and put me and my wife in a much better position financially, and I knew that it was finally time to complete the third and final Man of Wax book that I had been promising. Because, again, I knew the third book wouldn’t sell well and up until that point I had been relying on much of my self-publishing income to help make ends meet (or at the very least try to get those ends as close together as I could).

So I finally finished END GAME, and to be honest, I was very happy with how it turned out. I published it back in January of this year, and … it sold just as expected, maybe even less so. I mean, I always knew it wasn’t going to sell great. And I also knew that I wasn’t going to put much marketing into the book (i.e. Facebook ads and whatever else). Mainly, I just wanted to finish the trilogy because I had been promising to finish the trilogy, and I felt I owed it not only to my readers but also to the characters.

For the most part, feedback on the final book has been great. A good majority of those readers that actually read it really seemed to like it and felt it was a satisfying end to the series. Some other readers … did not seem as enthusiastic. For example:

Now, I typically ignore one-star reviews, which often criticize the book itself for whatever reason (my favorite is usually because the book contains swears), but this one really got under my skin. Because this reviewer essentially implied that I don’t care about my readers, which is the furthest thing from the truth. Without readers, I essentially wouldn’t have any reason to write. At the same time, publishing is a business. There’s a reason I write the books I write, beyond simply the fact that I enjoy writing them. I want to write books that readers want to read so that I can sell those books and (gasp!) earn money. Because while writing for me is a passion, it’s also a job. It’s how I pay the bills. So I need to look at all aspects of my writing as what it essentially is: a business. This isn’t a hobby for me that I do in my spare time; it’s my JOB, and so I need to approach every project considering the pros and cons. There have even been projects that I’d love to do which I had to put off because, ultimately, they weren’t something that would pay the bills.

Here’s the reality of being an indie writer: everything is on you. EVERYTHING. Not just the writing but the editing and copyediting and proofreading and cover design and marketing and everything else. I often outsource that stuff to other people, which means I pay them for their time and effort. This means that with every book I publish, I start in the red. Sometimes it takes no time at all to sell a lot of copies and start making a profit, while other times it can take quite a while.

MAN OF WAX was published in 2011. Since then, it’s sold about 23,000 units.

THE INNER CIRCLE, published one year later, has sold almost 9,000 units.

LEGION, published in 2014, has sold almost 9,000 units.

And END GAME, published earlier this year, has sold … just under 700 units.

Now, would that have been the case had I released END GAME in 2013? Impossible to say. One thing I’ve learned (the hard way, for sure) is that with series there needs to be a consistent schedule with a new book every year (or every few months if you can manage it). Otherwise, readers easily move on to other books.

Now, I should also note that this year I combined all four novels into one box set, and with the help of a Bookbub promotion, sold over 7,000 units. So while the individual sales for END GAME fell quite flat, when you combine it with the entire series in that box set, it did decently.

Oh, but that novel I also published this year under a pen name that came out only a few months ago? By this point sales for that are probably close by now to exceeding the combined sales for the individual Man of Wax books PLUS the box set. And again, that’s only for one novel that was released a few months ago. Granted, it got a major push by a publisher who also happens to own the entire platform, so that certainly helped a lot, but you can see why all this time I’ve also worked on writing standalone novels to try to sell to publishers. Because as much as I enjoy self-publishing, there’s only so much I’m able to do on my own, and having a major publisher stand behind a novel can really help give it quite a boost.

Anyway, so that was 2020. A lot of other stuff happened, which I’m sure you’ve read about in the news, but we don’t have time to get into all of that right now. So without further ado …

I never do a top 10 list, but every year I note the books that I really enjoyed and which I think others might really enjoy too.

Some were published in 2020, but many weren’t, and that’s okay, because again this isn’t a top 10 list of books published this year but instead a list of books I really liked.

I’ve put asterisks next to the titles where I listened to the audiobooks, and because of that I’ve included the narrators in parenthesis, as oftentimes the narrator really makes or breaks an audiobook.

FICTION

• THE DEBRIEFING by Jeffery Deaver

• THE SECOND HOSTAGE by Jeffery Deaver 

• MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER by Oyinkan Braithwaite

• MY LOVELY WIFE by Samantha Downing

• INTO THE FIRE by Gregg Hurwitz (read by Scott Brick)*

• THE SHUT-IN by Duane Swierczynski and James Patterson

• CAPE FEAR by John D. MacDonald

• THE BOY FROM THE WOODS by Harlan Coben 

• THE FAMILIAR DARK by Amy Engel

• DAISY JONES & THE SIX by Taylor Jenkins Reid (read by a full cast)*

• NORMAL PEOPLE by Sally Rooney

• THE WOODS by Harlan Coben (read by Scott Brick)*

• FAIR WARNING by Michael Connelly

• DEAD GIRL BLUES by Lawrence Block

• THE LAST HOUSE GUEST by Megan Miranda 

• THE LIST by Gregg Hurwitz 

• NAMELESS by Dean Koontz (read by Edoardo Ballerini)*

• LOVECRAFT COUNTRY by Matt Ruff

• YOU CAN’T CATCH ME by Catherine McKenzie (read by Julia Whelan)*

• BURIED by Jeffery Deaver

• SISTERS by Daisy Johnson

• GOOD GIRLS LIE by J.T. Ellison (read by Fiona Hardingham)*

• BUNNY by Mona Awad

• BURNER by Robert Ford

• THE HOUSE ON THE WATER by Margot Hunt (read by Taylor Schilling)*

STORIES

• SUICIDE WOODS by Benjamin Percy

NON-FICTION

• AMERICAN CARNAGE: ON THE FRONT LINES OF THE REPUBLICAN CIVIL WAR AND THE RISE OF PRESIDENT TRUMP by Tim Alberta (read by Jason Culp)*

• JUST MERCY: A STORY OF JUSTICE AND REDEMPTION by Bryan Stevenson (read by the author)*

• TOO MUCH AND NEVER ENOUGH: HOW MY FAMILY CREATED THE WORLD’S MOST DANGEROUS MAN by Mary L. Trump (read by the author)*

• HOAX: DONALD TRUMP, FOX NEWS AND THE DANGEROUS DISTORTION OF TRUTH by Brian Stelter (read by the author)*

• A PROMISED LAND by Barack Obama (read by the author)*

Now, what about you? Any books you read this past year you really enjoyed?

Books I Enjoyed In 2019

I never do a top 10 list, but every year I note the books that I really enjoyed and which I think others might really enjoy too.

Some were published in 2019, but many weren’t, and that’s okay, because again this isn’t a top 10 list of books published this year but instead a list of books I really liked.

I’ve put asterisks next to the titles where I listened to the audiobooks, and because of that I’ve included the narrators in parenthesis, as oftentimes the narrator really makes or breaks an audiobook.

FICTION

• THE HATE U GIVE by Angie Thomas

• A TIME TO SCATTER STONES by Lawrence Block

• NO DOORS, NO WINDOWS by Joe Schreiber

• OUT OF THE DARK by Gregg Hurwitz (read by Scott Brick)*

• WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING by Delia Owens (read by Cassandra Campbell)*

• SHELTER IN PLACE by Nora Roberts

• RUN AWAY by Harlan Coben

• THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD by Colson Whitehead

• THE SILENT PATIENT by Alex Michaelides

• THE BORDER by Don Winslow (read by Ray Porter)*

• THE NEVER GAME by Jeffery Deaver

• I AM WATCHING YOU by Teresa Driscoll (read by Elizabeth Knowelden)*

• THE CHANGELING by Victor LaValle

• DARK SITE by Patrick Lee

• NIGHT PASSAGE by Robert B. Parker

• EVIDENCE OF THE AFFAIR by Taylor Jenkins Reid (read by Julia Whelan, George Newbern, James Daniels, and Dara Rosenberg)*

• RECURSION by Blake Crouch

• HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE by J.K. Rowling (read by Jim Dale)*

• A DANGEROUS MAN by Robert Crais

• DOUBLE INDEMNITY by James M. Cain

• THE BREAKDOWN by B.A. Paris

• THE INSTITUTE by Stephen King (read by Santino Fontana)*

• I'M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS by Iain Reid

• THE FACES by Douglas Clegg

• THEN SHE WAS GONE by Lisa Jewell (read by Helen Duff)*

SHORT FICTION

• FRIDAY BLACK by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

• JESUS' SON by Denis Johnson

NONFICTION

• EDUCATED by Tara Westover (read by Julia Whelan)*

• ALMOST INTERESTING by David Spade (read by the author)*

• CATCH AND KILL: LIES, SPIES, AND A CONSPIRACY TO PROTECT PREDATORS by Ronan Farrow (read by the author)*

Now, what about you? Any books you read this past year you really enjoyed?

Books I Enjoyed In 2018

This isn’t a year’s best list, or a top 10, or any of those things.

This is just a list of books I read and enjoyed this past year, consumed either by hardcover/paperback or ebook or audiobook.

I don’t know when it happened, but I’ve started this awful habit of starting a book and then soon after starting another book before I’ve finished the first. Sometimes it snowballs, and I’m reading several different books at the same time. My hope in this upcoming year is to put a stop to that and only read one book at a time. Or maybe at least two books at a time. Okay, maybe three.

Anyway, again, these are books I read and enjoyed this year. Some were published in 2018, and some were not. I’ve put asterisks next to the titles where I listened to the audiobooks, and because of that I’ve included the narrators in parenthesis, as oftentimes the narrator really makes or breaks an audiobook.

Oh, and most importantly, these are in no particular order because, again, it’s not a year’s best list or top 10. Just books I read and enjoyed for one reason or another.

FICTION 

• PAST TENSE by Lee Child (read by Scott Brick)*

• THE DRY by Jane Harper (read by Stephen Shanahan)*

• THE COLD KISS by John Rector

• THE MAGICIANS OF ELEPHANT COUNTY by Adam Perry

• ON CHESIL BEACH by Ian McEwan

• HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN by J.K. Rowling (read by Jim Dale)*

• ECHOES IN DEATH by J.D. Robb

• TALES OF FALLING AND FLYING by Ben Loory

• THE OUTSIDER by Stephen King (Will Patton)*

• HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS by J.K. Rowling (read by Jim Dale)*

• THE HELLFIRE CLUB by Jake Tapper

• LITTLE FIRE EVERYWHERE by Celeste Ng

• HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE by J.K. Rowling (read by Jim Dale)*

• THE FIRST RULE by Robert Crais

• CROOKED HOUSE by Agatha Christie

• THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW by A.J. Finn

• HELLBENT by Gregg Hurwitz (read by Scott Brick)* 

• THE WANTED by Robert Crais 

NONFICTION 

• THE FIFTH RISK by Michael Lewis (read by Victor Bevine)*

• FEAR: TRUMP IN THE WHITE HOUSE by Bob Woodward (read by Robert Petkoff)*

• A HIGHER LOYALTY: TRUTH, LIES, AND LEADERSHIP by James Comey (read by the author)*

• A COLONY IN A NATION by Chris Hayes (read by the author)*

• RUSSIAN ROULETTE: THE INSIDE STORY OF PUTIN’S WAR ON AMERICA AND THE ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP by Michael Isikoff and David Corn (read by Peter Ganim)*

BOOKS I’M STILL READING AND ENJOYING

• SHELTER IN PLACE by Nora Roberts

• NO DOORS, NO WINDOWS by Joe Schreiber 

• WILD CHILD: STORIES by T.C. Boyle

• EDUCATED: A MEMOIR by Tara Westover (read by Julia Whelan)*

Now, what about you? Any books you read this past year you’d like to recommend?