Again, Frontlist is anything published in 2016 that I read in 2016 or 2017. Backlist is anything t I read after 2017.

Same notes for mysteries as for fantasies. 2016 ended up being a rough year, and I cut back on new books at the end of that year.

Frontlist

• When Falcons Fall by C.S. Harris (Sebastian St. Cyr #11) 8.5/10
• As Death Draws Near by Anna Lee Huber (Lady Darby #5) 8/10
• Inspector Montalbano series by Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli: A Voice in the Night #20 (2012/2016) 8/10, Montalbano’s First Case and Other Stories (2008/ 2016) 8/10
• London Gambit by Tracy Grant (Malcom & Suzanne Rannoch) 8/10

I’m current on the Lady Darby series, and did read the final Inspector Montalbano book. I listened to a lot of the Sebastian St. Cyr series in 2024, but needed to take a break after reading (listening) to 18 books in a row, and really need to get caught up there.

The Malcom & Suzanne Rannoch series fell off for a couple of reasons–one, it didn’t have a regular publishing schedule so I missed a lot of books when they came out, and secondly, the stories are all closely linked, so a couple years had passed, I felt like I needed to reread the previous books to get caught up and… that didn’t happen.

Backlist

• Model Bodyguard by Lissa Kasey (Haven Investigations #2) 8.5/10
• A Geek Girl’s Guide to Arsenic and A Geek Girl’s Guide to Justice by Julie Anne Lindsey 8/10

What is interesting about these two series is how surprised I am at how highly I rated these books. I’m not saying they were bad, because I remember that I tore through the Haven Investigations series. It’s simply that I haven’t felt a pull to reread either series, which is a bit unusual for books I enjoyed so much.

Unlike the fantasy books published in 2016, there isn’t much here that really stands out in my memory, aside from the Montalbano series, and that was in part because he was ninety, so I knew that series was going to be ending sooner rather than later.