The 2014 Dead End Follies Year-End List

I've been asked a couple time since the beginning of December: ''Ben, what were your favourite novels of 2014?'' I've been working on it, but it's not out yet. For the past three years, I've been hosting the Dead End Follies Awards, which were a lot of fun, but too much effort and preparation for the actual level of interest it generated. 

2014 will feature a year-end list that will be deployed as follows:

2014 Dead End Follies Notable Reads: 10 books I've read this year that didn't quite cut the top 10, but that I'd still recommend very highly. (Projected publication date: 23/12/14)

2014 Dead End Follies Best Reads: The 10 best books I've read in 2014, minus my ultimate favourite that I'm keeping secret until the very end (Projected publication date: 26/12/14)

2014 Dead End Follies Book of the Year: I'm keeping the very best for the very end, of course. You'll have to tune in during the last days of 2014 to find out. (Projected publication date: 30/12/14)

I'd also like to announce my 2014 Holiday read, which will be the first book eligible for my 2015 year-end list:

It's a whopping 1,300 pages long, so it should take me about two week, maybe three to get through. I don't think it'll take me much longer than that, because I'll have a lot of time to read, King's prose is smooth and fluid, and that mass market paperback usually read quicker. That should kick-off 2015 in style.

Anyway, don't forget. Books eligible to the Dead End Follies Year-End List are the books I've read in 2014, which means they were NOT necessarily published in 2014. There will be 91 works eligible for this year's edition. Here they are:

Bill Simmons - The Book of Basketball

Megan Abbott - Dare Me 

Ben Tanzer - Orphans

Jim Thompson - Pop. 1280

John Dixon - Phoenix Island

Adam Christopher - Empire State

Trevor Ferguson - The River Burns

Richard Stark - The Man with the Getaway Face

Hilary Davidson - Blood Always Tells

Charles Bukowski - Post Office

James Rollins - The Eye of God

Johnny Shaw - Dove Season

Kiersan Shea - Koko Takes a Holiday

Dennis Lehane - Darkness, Take My Hand *2nd read, not eligible*

Mark Leyner - The Tetherballs of Bougainville

Dennis Tafoya - The Poor Boy’s Game

Richard Stark - The Outfit

Pete Strobl - Backspin

Donald Ray Pollock - The Devil All The Time

Jon McGoran - Drift

James M. Cain - Double Indemnity

Christopher Irvin - Federales

Richard Stark - The Mourner

Daniel Friedman - Don’t Ever Get Old

Johnny Shaw - Big Maria

Matthew McBride - A Swollen Red Sun

David Lipsky - Although, Of Course, You End Up Becoming Yourself

Benjamin Black - The Black-Eyed Blonde

Pete Dexter - The Paperboy

Jennifer Hillier - The Butcher

Richard Stark - The Score

Mike Offit - Nothing Personal

Ariel S. Winter - The Twenty-Year Death

Lori Rader-Day - The Black Hour

Neil Cross - Luther : The Calling

Brad Park - The Player

David David Katzman - The Kickstarter Letters

Samuel R. Delany - Dhalgren

Ray Banks - Matador

John Mantooth - The Year of the Storm

Paul O’Brien - Blood Red Turns Dollar Green Vol. 1-2

Bracken MacLeod - White Knight

Frank Zafiro & Jim Wilsky - Queen of Diamonds

Nele Neuhaus - Bad Wolf

Andrez Bergeron - 100 Years of Vicissitude

Benjamin Whitmer - Cry Father

Fernando A. Flores - Death to the Bullshit Artists of South Texas, Vol. 1

Joe R. Lansdale - Cold in July

Tom Pitts - Piggyback

Richard Stark - The Jugger

Joe Clifford - Wake the Undertaker

Tom Pitts - Hustle

American Nightmare (Anthology)

Joe Clifford - Lamentation

Archer Mayor - Three Can Keep A Secret

David James Keaton - Fish Bites Cop

Alden Jones - Unaccompanied Minors

Les Edgerton - The Genuine, Plastic, Imitation Kidnapping

Chelsea Cain - One Kick

Barry Graham - When it all Comes Down to Dust

James Clavell - King Rat

Richard Godwin - Meaningful Conversations

Max Booth III - The Mind is a Razorblade

Ted Scofield - Eat What You Kill

Blake Butler - 300,000,000

Michael Kazepis - The Long Lost Dog of It

Thomas Ligotti - The Conspiracy Against the Human Race

Joe R. Lansdale - The Drive-In

Stephen Graham Jones - The Least of My Scars

Ed Kurtz - Dead Thrash

Tom Piccirilli - The Walls of the Castle

William Boyle - Gravesend

Karl Wolff - On Being Human

Daniel Friedman - Don’t Ever Look Back

Jon Bassoff - Factory Town

Todd Robinson - The Hard Bounce

Chris Leek - Gospel of the Bullet

Nick Cutter - The Deep

Andrez Bergen - Who is Killing the Great Capes of Heropa?

Lawrence Block - A Stab in the Dark

Kira Peikoff - No Time to Die

Adam Aresty - Recovery

Chuck Klosterman - I Wear the Black Hat

David James Keaton - The Last Projector

Ryan W. Bradley - Winterswim

Ryan Sayles & Chris Rhatigan - Two Bullets Solve Everything

Jorgen Brekke - Where Monsters Dwell

Joe R. Lansdale - Prisoner 489

Fred Venturini - The Heart Does Not Grow Back

Roger Smith - Man Down

Tony Black - The Inglorious Dead (projected review date; 19/12/14)

J. David Osborne - Our Blood in its Blind Circuit (projected review date: 22/12/14)