Favourite Euro Crime Reads of 2012 - Terry

We've now reached the penultimate instalment of the Euro Crime reviewers' favourite reads of 2012. Here are Terry Halligan's favourite Euro Crime titles, in the order provided. He says that he "had an extraordinarily difficult time deciding what to keep in and leave out":

Top 5 Historical Mysteries

1. A Lily Of The Field by John Lawton
A stunningly detailed further novel from this very under publicised writer who writes sort of police procedurals in and around the Second World War and should be more widely appreciated.

2. The Final Sacrament by James Forrester
The final book of the Clarenceux trilogy set in Tudor England after the dissolution

3. Dorchester Terrace by Anne Perry
The 27th story in the Inspector Pitt Victorian mysteries and the quality is still as high here as in her first.

4. The Piccadilly Plot by Susanna Gregory
The seventh Thomas Chaloner murder mystery set in Restoration London, involving threats of assassination, a stolen corpse and a scheme to frame the Queen for treason.

5. Tom-All-Alone's by Lynn Shepherd
Takes place in the 'space between' two masterpieces of mid-Victorian fiction: Bleak House and The Woman in White.

Top 5 Non-Historical Mysteries

1. A Question Of Inheritance by Josephine Bell
A cot death--unexpected and shocking. Especially for the mother,who has to start a subterfuge which lasts until 22 years later when an unexpected death starts a series of difficult questions

2. Who Pays The Piper by Mackenzie Smith
Incredible military mystery that occurs in Sierra Leone in 1999 that is authentic, gritty and almost unputdownable.

3. Siege by Simon Kernick
A gritty and violent thriller about a West End of London hotel attacked by Al-Qaeda

4. The Dying Minutes by Martin O'Brien
Exciting police procedural set in Marseilles, France about a gold bullion robbery in 1972.

5. False Friends by Stephen Leather
Following the death of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan, Leathers protagonist Dan 'Spider' Shepherd is protecting the students who provided the details to MI5 of Osama's location but there are those who want to kill them.