“I don't want to rank them, so I'm going to be announcing them in the order that I read them or the order that they went on sale.”
Kojima announced the Golden Dozen 2022 of "Hideo's Mysteries" on his unranked podcast, presented in the order he read them or their release: The Anomaly (Hervé Le Tellier), Blacktop Wasteland (S.A. Cosby), City on Fire (Don Winslow), Whatever It Takes (Michael Z. Lewin), Good Girl, Bad Blood (Holly Jackson), Rock Paper Scissors (Alice Feeney), The Apollo Murders (Chris Hadfield), We Begin at the End (Chris Whitaker), Principal (Kyo Nagaura, the only Japanese), The Maid (Nita Prose), A Line to Kill (Anthony Horowitz) and The Curator (M.W. Craven). Although he refused to rank them, he named The Anomaly as his undisputed number one and Blacktop Wasteland as his number one noir (he said he did not know Cosby before and now follows him); he also warned that many choices would coincide with rival lists and that he selected with consideration of which titles would be left out.
“The first one is The Anomaly by Herbie Tellier. […] Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby. […] City on Fire. Here he is, Don Winslow. […] Whatever It Takes. […] Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson […] Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney […] The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield […] We Begin at the End. […] Principal by Kyo Nagaura. […] The Maid by Nita Prose. […] A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz […] The Curator, written by M.W. Craven.”