Favorite Sons of 2020

 In 2020 I read more horror and biographies than PI fiction. Still, I read enough to have some favorites. So, as every year, here they are.

BEST PI NOVEL: Rolling Thunder (Hammerhead Jed Ounstead) by A.J. Devlin

BEST NEW PI: Arch Dixon (in One Mississippi) by Steve Ulfelder

Favorite Sons of 2019

I had some more time to read this year and managed to enjoy some great new PI writing. As I do every year I managed to pick my favorites again.

BEST PI NOVEL: Behind The Wall Of Sleep (Henry Malone) by James D.F. Hannah
BEST DEBUT: Cobra Clutch (Hammerhead Jed Ounstead) by A.J. Devlin
BEST NEW PI: Auggie Velez by Robert J. Randisi

Favorite Sons of 2018

I got divorced this year as most PI's seem to do as well. It kind of cut into my reading time and I had a little trouble concentrating on the written word. I didn't write a lot myself either. Next year I will probably be more active again.
Still, I managed to read and review enough to come up with my Best Of list again:


BEST PI NOVEL: Broken Ground (Jay Porter) by Joe Clifford
BEST DEBUT: August Snow (August Snow) by Stephen Mack Jones
BEST NEW PI: Marker by Marcus Pelegrimas
BEST ACTION SCENES: Miami Burn (Titus) by John D. Patten

Favorite Sons of 2017

Every year I let you all know what my favorite reads of the year were. This year is no exception. Competition was very tough but the list ended up like this...

BEST PI NOVEL: Invisible Dead (Dave Wakeland) by Sam Wiebe
BEST DEBUT: The Lost Ones (Norah Watts) by Sheena Kamal
BEST NEW PI: Dave Wakeland by Sam Wiebe
BEST ACTION SCENES: Exit Strategy by Steve Hamilton

Thanks for keeping me entertained again all you other writers that I reviewed.

Favorite Sons of 2016

Favorite Sons of 2016

This hasn't been my most active year as a writer or a reviewer, personal issues and work as well as my gig as rock journalist taking up a lot of my time. Still, I read some good stuff this year and here are my favorite PI reads of the year...


BEST PI NOVEL: An Empty Hell (Jackson Donne / Matt Herrick) by Dave White
BEST DEBUT: TThe Red Storm (William Fletcher) by Grant Bywaters
BEST NEW PI: Gus Murphy (in Where It Hurts) by Reed Farrel Coleman
BEST ACTION SCENES: The Second Life of Nick Mason (Nick Mason) by Steve Hamilton

Favorite Sons of 2014

Every year I tell you all what my favorite PI reads of the year were...
Well, here are my favorites again...

BEST PI NOVEL: Wolverine Bros Freight & Storage (Conway Sax) by Steve Ulfelder
BEST DEBUT: Silent City (Pete Fernandez) by Alex Segura
BEST NEW PI: Gypsy Moran (in Wink of an Eye) by Lynn Chandler Willis
BEST ACTION SCENES: Jianghu (Randall Lee) by Charles Colyott


I also want to thank Keith Dixon and Sean Dexter for helping me bring out my own stuff again.

Favorite Sons of 2013

Every year I tell you all what my favorite PI reads of the year were...
Well, here are my favorites again...

BEST PI NOVEL: Point Doom (JD Fiorella) by Dan Fante
BEST DEBUT: The Hard Bounce (Boo Malone) by Todd Robinson
BEST NEW PI: Mark Paris /The Professor (Subtraction) by Andrew Peters
BEST ACTION SCENES: One More Body (Moses McGuire) by Josh Stallings

Runners-up in various categories were:
Dirty Work (Gulliver Dowd) by Reed Farrel Coleman
Love Stories Are Too Violent For Me (Vic Valentine) by Will Viharo
A Small Sacrifice (Nick Forte) by Dana King

And an award should for WRITER WHO GETS BETTER EVERY YEAR should go to Steve Ulfelder for Shotgun Lullaby (Conway Sax).
And another one for WRITER WHO WORKS THE HARDEST should go to Nathan Gottlieb of the Frank Boff novels.

I also want to thank Keith Dixon and Sean Dexter for helping me bring out my own stuff.

Favorite Sons of 2012

It is the end of the year again, so time to tell you about my favorite PI reads of the year...

BEST PI NOVEL: Whiskey Island (Milan Jacovich) by Les Roberts
BEST DEBUT: Frame Up (Fenway Burke) by James Phoenix
BEST NEW PI: Randall Lee in Changes by Charles Collyot
BEST ACTION SCENES: Ressurected (Adam Wolf) by Steve Trotter

Special mention to Jim Cliff's Jake Abrahams who was a close runner-up for Best New PI.

I'm pleased that Les Roberts still manages to put out books that are quite traditional PI but still feel new and fresh.
James Phoenix just blew me away with his debut that is so full of love of the genre.
Charles' Randall Lee is just one of the coolest characters in genre fiction and I'm enjoying his second outing (Pressure Point) right now. I love the guy and his girlfriend even more.
Steve Trotter managed to put out a great action movie in Kindle form with the first Adam Wolf novel that has me longing for a second one.

I was really pleased to see Tom Lowe return to crime fiction with The Butterfly Forest and to finally interview Charles Knief.

Special thanks this year to O'Neill DeNoux, Sean Dexter and Phillip T. Duck for helping my books become better and James W. Hall for writing a fantastic blurb for me.

And of course a great, great thanks for all of you buying the Noah Milano and Mike Dalmas stories and reviewing them!

Double-D Doublecross (Butch Fatale) by Christa Faust

Loyal visitors to my blog know that every year I pick out my favorites in PI fiction of the last year. It just might be the case my Favorite New PI is already known... Butch Fatale rocks!
Roberta "Butch Fatale" is a lesbian Mike Hammer / Shell Scott... In fact, she has sex with more women in this novel than Hammer, Scott and Travis McGee combined!
Butch is hired to track down the missing girlfriend of a woman called Mickey. Soon she gets to tangle with the Armenian mob and a beautiful killer.
There's a lot in this book to enjoy: Armenian gangsters, hot killers, lots of well-figured babes, car chases and nude skateboarding (no, really!). Oh, and quite a lot of graphic sex. If you're bothered by that kind of thing just skip those scenes... There's a good, pulpy PI story between those (by the way, well-written and hot) scenes. The writing is very tight and clean. Butch is a tough girl with a good heart you will get to like for sure.
I really enjoyed the LA setting and fast-paced plot.
I hope to see more of Butch Fatale soon.

Favorite Sons of 2011

As I do every year I want to share with you my favorite PI-stuff of the year.

BEST PI NOVEL: 13 Million Dollar Pop by David Levien
BEST DEBUT: Pocket-47 by Jude Hardin
BEST NEW PI: Conway Sax (in Purgatory Chasm) by Steve Ulfelder
BEST ACTION SCENES: Kiss Her Goodbye by Mickey Spillane & Max Allan Collins

Honorable mentions go to Timothy Hallinan whose first novel featuring Junior Bender, Crashed, was my favorite book I read this year. It came out in 2010, so it didn't really belong on this list.

Favorite Sons of 2010

As I do every year I want to share with you my favorite PI-stuff of the year.

BEST PI NOVEL: Big Bang by Mickey Spillane & Max Allan Collins
BEST DEBUT: Rogue Island by Bruce DeSilva
BEST NEW PI: Jimmy Boone (in This Wicked World) by Richard Lange
BEST ACTION SCENES: The Taking of Libbie, SD by David Housewright

Honorable mentions go to Lori Armstrong for her new series featuring Mercy Gunderson that promises to be as good as the Julie Collins books and Nick Quantrill for the most exciting non-US novel of the year.