I Read 120 Books in 2023. These Were My 10 Favorite Fiction Titles: Part 2

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A few days ago, I shared Part 1 of my 10 favorite fiction reads of 2023. Below are the remaining five titles on the list. But, first, a few reminders:

• Full-length reviews of all 120 books are available on my goodreads.com page.
• Not all of these books were published in 2023 — I just happened to read (or reread) them last year.
• As was the case with the five titles in Part 1, the following five titles are not ranked in any way. They simply are listed in chronological order, beginning with the most recent read to the year’s earliest read.
• My fiction reading tastes trend toward mystery, thrillers, and historical fiction, so this list reflects that bias.

6. The 9th Man by Steve Berry

I have always been a fan of Steve Berry’s Cotton Malone series. And one of the highlights of a trip to northern Europe a few years ago was exploring Malone’s Copenhagen. That included climbing to the top of the Round Tower — the nine-story structure from 1642 that featured so prominently in the beginning of the very first Cotton Malone book (The Templar Legacy).

In fact, if you’ve read some of my reviews of that series, you know I secretly want to BE Cotton Malone. Although, if I publicly admit that I want to be him…