My favorite books of 2009

Here is a list of the nine best mysteries and thrillers I read since January 2009. (Sorry, but I just couldn't come up with one more!) Do you agree? Were there books you read that you think were outstanding?

1. Safer, by Sean Doolittle (Delacorte Press; $24). A newcomer who refuses to kowtow to the demands of the head of the neighborhood watch committee finds his life in ruins in this harrowing tale of suburbia at its ugliest.
2. Spade & Archer by Joe Gores (344 pages; Knopf; $24.00. The back story of Sam Spade’s life and career, told through his earliest cases.
3. The Birthday Present by Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine (Shaye Areheart Books; $25). A fantasy kidnapping meant as a birthday present for a woman with unusual tastes goes terribly wrong.
4. Road Dogs by Elmore Leonard (Morrow; $26.99). Three characters from earlier Leonard mysteries plan joint capers and individual double crosses.
5. Gone Tomorrow by Lee Childs (422 pages; Delacorte Press; $27). Jack Reacher tries to stop a woman he suspects of being a suicide bomber, only to learn that she’s part of a larger plot with international security implications.
6. The Defector by Daniel Silva (Putnam; $26.95). Israeli art restorer/spy Gabriel Allon must again face the Russian arms dealer who blames Allon for his lost fortune and family.
7. Wicked Prey, by John Sandford (Putnam; $27.95). Lucas Davenport has his hands full dealing with thieves targeting moneyed conventioneers at the Republican National Convention, and an evil pimp out for revenge.
8. Hardball by Sara Paretsky (Putnam; $26.95). V.I. Warshawski’s latest case promises little money, lots of headaches, and the risk of permanently destroying her family.
9. Risk, by Colin Harrison (Picador; $13.00; paperback). A New York insurance company lawyer’s life goes from staid to perilous when he investigates the death of a man involved with a Czech hand model and the Russian mob.