Read all about them – the year’s best books for gifts

Our writers’ favourites would make ideal presents

Big Book of Christmas Mysteries, edited by Otto Penzler (Head of Zeus, £25) Past Tense by Lee Child (Bantam Press, £20)

A thumping doorstop of a book full of festive mysteries from the likes of Agatha Christie, Colin Dexter and Sara Paretsky. Given that it’s the best part of 800 pages in length, it should keep thriller fans entertained well into the New Year.

Because sometimes you want to believe there’s a hero like Jack Reacher out there who can make everything better, right?

Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami (Harvill Secker, £20)

The cultiest author in the world returns with a new novel. Hurrah.

When you’re busy wrapping presents and cooking Christmas dinner there’s no time to read 600-page epics. This anthology contains stories from the likes of Ali Smith, Sarah Hall, Irvine Welsh, Lucy Caldwell. All our favourite writers, in other words.

Travelling in a Strange Land by David Park (Bloomsbury, £8.99)

If there was any justice in the world this slim novel would be on everybody’s Christmas list. Northern Ireland’s David Park may well be the most underrated writer on these islands. This story of a wintry journey from Belfast to Sunderland via Stranraer is a beautifully crafted meditation on life and its damages. Up there with the best of Bernard MacLaverty.