A thousand books pass through The Jury Box every year. Of those, only a handful are chosen for review each month. I was asked how I select the books I review. Like any other mystery fan, I pick books that grab my attention. I look for themes among the books. And I try to seek variety.
The question that inevitably comes next is, how can I evaluate “fluffy” mysteries alongside “serious” crime fiction? Easy. I judge each book on its own merits. A novel featuring a crime-solving canine chef might be likely to have less literary merit than an epic coming-of-age novel with a serial killer or a work of historical noir. But I’d rather read well-written “fluff” that keeps its promise to the reader than a mediocre or pretentious version of either of the latter.
Every book is a promise made by the author to the reader. It’s a promise that the book is the author’s sincere attempt to tell a good story with integrity and skill. As individual readers, we may choose cozies or noir, historical or contemporary, humorous or starkly serious.
“A five-star book takes me completely by surprise
and raises the literary experience.”
It’s the mission of The Jury Box to place as many titles as possible before you under the wide umbrella of “mystery fiction” and let you choose. It’s also my goal to give my readers honest evaluations of the books I review. I’ve been finding that my star ratings have been sliding upward. I find myself less inclined to finish an average or below average book, so I’m less likely to review two- or three-star books. A three-star book is a solid novel that keeps its promise, while a four-star book exceeds it. A five-star book, of which I include two this month, takes me completely by surprise and raises the literary experience. With that in mind, this month we look at a very wide variety of titles, running the gamut of crime fiction.
Howard Shrier is my top find of the year. The Toronto-based author is not well known below the Canadian border, but his excellent P.I. series deserves much wider attention. Hired by an Orthodox Jewish couple to travel to Boston to locate their medical-student son, P.I. Jonah Geller and his partner Jenn cross paths with an evil but altogether believable criminal consortium. Geller is an exceptionally well-drawn character, a true man of peace who is forced to harness his own inner violence. — Steve Steinbock, The Jury Box, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, December 2012
