A debut whodunit novel topped the list of the most borrowed books last year in the Tri-Cities.
The Maid by Nita Prose, the vice president and editorial director at Simon & Schuster Canada, was the most checked-out book from the Coquitlam Public Library, Terry Fox Library and Port Moody Public Library, in the adult fiction genre.
The award-winning read zeros in on a 25-year-old maid named Molly Gray who works at a hotel. A movie adaptation, starring Florence Pugh in the lead role of the murder–mystery, is in the works at Universal Studios.
But the entertaining read isn’t the only thriller on the 2022 charts: In Coquitlam, Better Off Dead: A Jack Reacher Novel was the second-most borrowed book while Michael Connelly’s The Dark Hours took the third spot.
They were followed by The Midnight Sun by Matt Haig and Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
In Port Coquitlam, thrillers also dominated the Top 5 for adult fiction:
- The Maid by Nita Prose
- The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
- The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn
- Something to Hide by Elizabeth George
- Sparring Partners by John Grisham
Dean Kelly, manager of collections, access and digital services for the Fraser Valley Regional Library network that includes the Terry Fox Library in PoCo, suggested the trend toward thrillers and mystery novels “seems to reverse course from the early-pandemic popularity of non-fiction memoirs and issue-based titles,” he said in a news release.
“This year’s top titles reflect the immense popularity of genre fiction and a desire for escapism in difficult times.”
As for Port Moody, the Top 5 circulated books in 2022 were:
- The Maid by Nita Pose
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo: A Novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid
- It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover
- The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly
- Five Little Indians by Michelle Good
KIDS BOOKS
Meanwhile, books from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, penned by Jeff Kinney, were the top children’s books borrowed from Coquitlam last year.
And, for young adults, the Top 5 were:
- Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
- Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
- They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
- The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
