There’s no mystery as to what makes a good crime novel: Tell a good story well and fill it with characters who readers can care about. It’s as simple as that, as these prove:

¢ “A Cold Treachery” by Charles Todd (Bantam, $25). Todd continues his Inspector Ian Rutledge series as Rutledge investigates the slaughter of a family in a rural English village. Chilling in every sense of the word, especially the description of the cold, bleak landscape.

¢ “Pardonable Lies” by Jacqueline Winspear (Henry Holt, $23). Maisie Dobbs is back in Winspear’s third book about the brave, nearly too-modern woman in 1930s England. This case begins with a disappearance during World War I and has Maisie coming to terms with her own war experiences and her place in society.

¢ “Suicide Squeeze” by Victor Gischler (Bantam, $23). Gischler’s debut is a guy book. There’s no sisterhood, but plenty of ya-yas in this cross-country chase after, of all things, a baseball card. Characters include members of the Japanese mob and a nymphomaniac named Tyranny Jones. Bloody and fun.

¢ “This Dame for Hire” by Sandra Scoppettone (Ballantine, $21.95). Faye Quick is Sam Spade in a dress: smart, smart-mouthed, tough and tenderhearted. A true original from the pen of an old pro.

¢ “Cinnamon Kiss” by Walter Mosley (Little, Brown, $24.95). No best-of list is complete without an Easy Rawlins novel. Easy contemplates a crime with his old friend Mouse in order to finance a cure for his daughter’s rare blood disease. Mosley’s blend of social commentary and great storytelling keeps his series going with intelligence and heart. And for those who have followed Easy through 10 novels, the last page is a heartbreaker.

¢ “Tilt A Whirl” by Chris Grabenstein (Carroll & Graf, $23.95). A resort town is turned upside down by the murder of a Donald Trump-like character. The main characters – a rigid cop and his assistant, a smart-aleck making up his own rules – make it a good ride.

¢ “In the Company of Liars” by David Ellis (Putnam, $24.95). Tells a thrilling tale backward in a unique novel. The gimmick never gets in the way; in fact it seems the only way to tell this particular story. Ellis keeps readers guessing until the end (beginning?). It’s a mixture of terrorism, murder and family love.

¢ “13 Steps Down” by Ruth Rendell (Crown, $25). Examines the mind of a loser fascinated by serial killers in Rendell’s typical understated and discomforting way.

¢ “Half Broken Things” by Morag Joss (Bantam, $22). Three sad lives come together and find a temporary paradise. Readers will root for the losers, even as they make the worst choices possible toward an ending that seems inevitable.

¢ “Friends, Lovers, Chocolate” by Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon, $19.95). The second outing in Smith’s Sunday Philosophy Club series is perhaps the year’s best mystery novel. Isabel Dalhousie looks into the odd visions of a man who has just had a heart transplant. Could they be the donor’s cellular memories of the man who killed him? The book is absorbing, profound, funny and moving.