As we welcome 2017, out of 177 reviewed books (!) in 2016, a listing of those that received Auntie M’s coveted HIGHLY RECOMMENDED status:

Colette McBeth: The Life I Left Behind (Minotaur)

Ausma Zehant Khan: The Language of Secrets (Minotaur)

Nicholas Searle: The Good Liar (HarperCollins)

Nele Neuhaus: I Am Your Judge (Macmillan)

Alison Gaylin: What Remains of Me (Minotaur)

Jeannette De Beauvoir: Deadly Jewels (Macmillan)

Elly Griffiths: Woman in Blue (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Noah Hawley: Before the Fall (Hodder & Stoughton)

Kate Rhodes: Blood Symmetry (Macmillan)

Laura McHugh: Arrowood (Spiegel & Grau)

Louise Penny: A Great Reckoning (Minotaur)

Sarah Ward: A Deadly Thaw (Minotaur)

Sharon Bolton: Daisy in Chains (Minotaur)

Tana French: The Trespasser (Viking)

Tony Parsons: The Hanging Club (Macmillan)