Top Five Favorites for 2004

Mystery Ink polled over 50 fiction writers, reviewers and other assorted readers, asking them to name their five favorite books they read during the year. They didn't have to be new, didn't even have to be mysteries. We just wanted to know what people liked.

You can see the complete lists over on the website. The responses were very interesting, as you'd imagine. This is a well-read bunch!

Some interesting stats from the results:

Most-cited book: Scott Phillips' Cottonwood -- 7 picks
Second most-cited book (tie): Ken Bruen's The Guards and T. Jefferson Parker's California Girl -- 6 picks each
Most-cited author: Ken Bruen -- 11 picks
Second most-cited author: T. Jefferson Parker -- 7 picks
Third most-cited author: Lee Child -- 6 picks
Most-cited debut book: J.A. Konrath's Whiskey Sour -- 3 picks
Most-cited unreleased book (tie): Kent Harrington's Red Jungle and Ray Banks' The Big Blind -- 2 picks each
Most-cited non-crime fiction book: Pete Dexter's Train -- 3 picks
Book I most wish I could have included: Laura Lippman's Every Secret Thing -- I read it last year, thus it wasn't eligible.

The contributors were (in alphabetical order): Ace Atkins, Yvette Banek, Michael A. Black, Lawrence Block, James O. Born, C.J. Box, Steve Brewer, Lee Child, Oline Cogdill, Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Sean Doolittle, Barry Eisler, Aaron Elkins, Robert Ferrigno, Bill Fitzhugh, Jim Fusilli, Victor Gischler, Lee Goldberg, Maggie Griffin, Denise Hamilton, Steve Hamilton, Libby Fischer Hellman, Gregg Hurwitz, Julie Hyzy, J.A. Konrath, Harley Jane Kozak, Rochelle Krich, William Kent Krueger, Terrill Lee Lankford, David Montgomery, Chris Mooney, Heidi Moos, David Morrell, Eddie Muller, T. Jefferson Parker, George Pelecanos, Thomas Perry, Ralph Pezzullo, Gary Phillips, Scott Phillips, Rob Reuland, M.J. Rose, Julia Spencer-Fleming, Olen Steinhauer, Charlie Stella, James Swain, Duane Swierczynski, Fiona Walker, Robert W. Walker, Robert Ward, Sarah Weinman, Kevin Wignall and Brian Wiprud.