A Year in Retrospect and Reading Targets for the Upcoming Year

My Favourite books, this year that is coming to an end, have been (in ascending order):

Death of Jezebel, 1948 (Inspector Cockrill #4) by Christianna Brand

Mortmain Hall, 2020 (Rachel Savernake Golden Age Mysteries Series # 2) by Martin Edwards 

The Red Right Hand (1945) by Joel Townsley Rogers

Besides I finished reading the complete series of Maigret mysteries.  Perhaps you may like to have a look at my favourite mysteries here.

Among the writers to which I’ll pay more attention next year are mainly: Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen and John Dickson Carr.

I completed reading Agatha Christie’s book series featuring Hercule Poirot. My ten favourite Poirots are here. I will continue reading other Christies, series or standalone, by the way The Pale Horse was a pleasant discovery as well as Superintendent Battle here. 

Have started to tackle John Dickson Carr’s Books. At this stage I have focused mainly on his  Henri Bencolin series. I very much enjoyed The Lost Gallows, 1931 (Henri Bencolin, #2) by John Dickson Carr and I’m looking forward to reading the fourth book in the series that is scheduled to be published in the first half of 2021, using its US title, The Corpse in the Waxworks. But I’ve not forgotten either Sir Henry Merrivale or Dr Fell.

And Ellery Queen books will be among my top priorities next year, as I’ve already announced, here.

Wish that Cecil John Street books were more easily available, though I have some of his novels written under his two best known pen names, Miles Burton and John Rhode, that I also look forward to reading soon.

Neither I forgot to read  some of J. J. Connington and Freeman Wills Crofts books. Particularly I enjoyed much The Case With Nine Solutions and Inspector French and the Starvel Tragedy. And I look forward to reading more books by this two authors in the coming year.

I wouldn’t like to forget mentioning other authors I’m interested in like E.C.R. Lorac, Christianna Brand, Christopher Bush, Anthony Berkeley, and Brian Flynn. Of whom I have read and enjoyed this year several of their books.

I hope to find the time to read some Honkaku mysteries which I’m still holding on my TBR pile.

And I still have to read Hake Talbot’s Rim of the Pit, the book with which I will inaugurate my readings this coming January.

In addition I intend to read most if not all the books included in John Pugmire’s Novels for a Locked Room Library and in Martin Edwards’ The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books, an ongoing project with no envisaged date for its completion.

And last but not least, some of the titles on my TBR pile which I hope I’ll soon be able to read:

Death Walks in Eastrepps, 1931 (An Inspector Wilkins Mystery) by Francis Beeding

The Great Hotel Murder (1935) by Vincent Starrett

Vultures in the Sky, 1935 (A Hugh Rennert Mystery) by Todd Downing

Catt Out of the Bag (1939) by Clifford Witting

Sealed Room Murder (1941) by Rupert Penny