BEST OF 2008: Tom’s picks

  Editor’s note: The following is part of an ongoing series of blogs throughout the month of December in which The Book Nook reviewers list a few of their favorite books published in 2008.

 
  Whatever criticisms you hear about the state of literature, bear in mind this is a special era for the mystery genre.
  Writers such as Agatha Christie and Dashiell Hammett made the mystery popular in the early 20th century, but the bar has been raised as authors find ways to put new spins on the genre. Every year, new mystery writers surface with original ideas and ways to make their books relevant.
  My favorite mystery of 2008 was “The Fifth Floor,” a hardboiled Chicago tale in the tradition of such mystery greats as Mickey Spillane and Robert Parker.
  Author Michael Harvey’s second novel featuring disgraced cop turned private investigator Michael Kelly gives the reader the gritty feel of present day Chicago and its reputation for shady politics. Kelly sees what appears to be a straightforward case of domestic abuse turn into a scandal rooted in the mayor’s office. Harvey’s mystery also has echoes in the past  as he connects the famous Chicago fire of 1871 to events in the present.
  Harvey knows how to write a powerful mystery with atmosphere. His narrative is intense and a treat to read. 
  Brooklyn writer and lawyer Justin Peacock enters the mystery novel arena big time with his first book, “A Cure for Night.’’ This is one of the top mysteries of 2008.
  Peacock, who has legal experience with death penalty and First Amendment cases, uses his background to craft a novel centered around the defense of a black drug dealer in the projects. His main character, Joel Devereux, is trying to redeem himself as a public defender after being kicked out of a high-priced law firm because of a drug scandal.
  Devereux must play second chair to Myra Goldstein, a shrewd, tough lawyer with issues. Devereux, who lost his previous girlfriend to a drug overdose, tries to romance the cynical Goldstein, but it’s not easy.
  He also has to deal with a complex cast of characters involved in the drug trade, one of whom uses his addiction against him. The case takes Devereux inside the projects and takes unpredictable twists. Peacock gives us realistic, sharp dialogue from the streets and a glimpse into a ruthless  world. 
  The case involves a white college student who is killed when he is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nothing is quite what it seems in this book, including the student’s motives. 
  No list of a year’s best books is complete without at least one spy novel. Alan Furst’s “The Spies of Warsaw” earns my vote for 2008 for its depiction of the precarious situation in Poland two years before the start of World War II.
  Furst is a master of the historical espionage novel, and this book may be his best. The story features Col. Jean-Francois Mercier, France’s military attache in Warsaw, who doubles as a spymaster.
  Mercier, at heart a decent man caught up in a dirty business, knows the Poles could never withstand a Nazi onslaught, and his country is unprepared and in denial about the dark clouds of war on the horizon.
  The atmosphere of the book evokes that of the classic movie “Casablanca.” Mercier’s night activities vary from soirees at the Warsaw Embassy where diplomats try to conceal their attempts to solicit information to the darker side of espionage, such as a night in a German forest observing military maneuvers.
  Furst fans should love this book as they await his next novel.