December was a bust for me, reading-wise. I started three books but only finished one of them. I gave up on the other two. So instead of “The Best Book I Read This Month,” I’m looking back at my favorite reads of the year.

Overall, I finished 38 books this year. There were 8 more that I started but gave up on. Of the 38 I finished, these were my favorites.

The Broken Girls and The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

Simone St. James is a master at crafting dual timeline stories that are part mystery and part ghost story. These two blew me away.

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

A heart-breaking exploration of William Shakespeare’s marriage and family.

Horseman by Christina Henry

An imaginative “sequel” to the Legend of Sleepy Hollow

The Dry by Jane Harper

A breathtaking mystery set in the Australian Outback

West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge

Part buddy road-trip comedy, part conservationist commentary, West with Giraffes imagines the Depression-era cross-country journey of the San Diego Zoo’s first giraffes.

Death in the East by Abir Mukherjee

The fourth of installment of one my favorite mystery series, Death in the East takes place in 1905 London and 1920s India. It focuses on two closed-room mysteries—and a detective who is detoxing from an opium addiction.

Murder on the Red River by Marcie Rendon

Set in 1970, Rendon’s book introduces us to Cash Blackbear, an Ojibwe woman who takes it on herself to solve the murder of a fellow Native American.