Appendix: Top contemporary crime novels (In no particular order)

MALCOLM MACKAY: The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter

FRANCES FYFIELD: Blood from Stone

TANA FRENCH: In the Woods

ADRIAN McKINTY: The Cold Cold Ground

JAMES OSWALD: Natural Causes

VAL McDERMID: A Place of Execution

MARK BILLINGHAM: Sleepyhead

LEE CHILD: Killing Floor

PETER MAY: The Blackhouse

DENISE MINA: The End of the Wasp Season

JOHN CONNOLLY: The White Road

MO HAYDER: Tokyo

JOHN BURDETT: Bangkok 8

SOPHIE HANNAH: Little Face

STUART NEVILLE: The Twelve

ELLY GRIFFITHS: The House at Sea’s End

GENE KERRIGAN: Dark Times in the City

KEN BRUEN: The Guards

ANN CLEEVES: Raven Black

CRAIG RUSSELL: Brother Grimm

BELINDA BAUER: The Shut Eye

RJ ELLORY: A Quiet Belief in Angels

IAN RANKIN: Black and Blue

MINETTE WALTERS: Fox Evil

MICK HERRON: Dead Lions

MJ McGRATH: The Boy in the Snow

STUART MacBRIDE: Shatter the Bones

KATE ATKINSON: Started Early, Took My Dog

TOM ROB SMITH: The Farm

PAUL MENDELSON: The First Rule of Survival

MORAG JOSS: Half Broken Things

JOHN HARVEY: Flesh and Blood

MR HALL: The Flight