I like crime Fiction ALMOST as much as fantasy. I have read some of the masters; Elmore Leonard, Ed McBain, Dennis Lehane, Robert Parker, Val McDermid but Michael Connelly takes the cake. He wrote the movie "Bloodwork" with Clint. Here is an excerpt from "The Black Ice":
" At western Bosch turned north and ahead he could see the flashing blue and yellow lights of the patrol cars and the lightening-bright strobes of TV cameras. In Hollywood such a display usually signaled the violent end of a life or the premiere of a movie. But Bosch knew nothing premiered in this part of town except thirteen-year-old hookers."
If you are going to read one, pick up "Darkness , take my Hand"
I think I too often fall victim to genre snobbery. I don't THINK of myself as a mystery reader, but when my wife is done with her latest Julie Smith novel, she passes it over to me and I read it. As a result, I read more mysteries than I think I do, but I tend to read more female-protagonist mysteries, since that's what my wife likes -- Sue Grafton, Julie Smith, etc.
And apparently watching "CSI" with her and reading these has paid off in terms of my ability to follow tropes and catch the out-of-place element. I bought one mystery in the airport, seeing good reviews and an illustrious sales record. On page 39, I turned to her and said, "I just figured out who the murderer is." On page 320, it was revealed who the murderer was, and I woke my wife up in her airline seat by shouting, "Duh!"
Not a BAD mystery, by any stretch -- I mean, I love watching "Monk", which often tells you who the killer is right at the beginning, and in some of Julie Smith's books, the reader knows who the perp is pretty early on. This one was just much less surprising than it thought it was.
I should probably go read those masters of yours... :)
I agree with you, Patrick on the cross genre snobbery. I will always buy a fantasy novel before a mystery but there's so few good fantasy writers out there and the ones that are just mass produce their first storylines. Take RA Salvatore and Terry Brooks, There's only so much I can read about Drizzt D'ourden and the Ohmsfords of Shannara. Are they the only ones in which adventures happen to in their worlds?I mean, these guys are obviously talented, why not create some new characters and breathe some new life into their writing? I guess they do what sells. But the detective genre can keep the same characters and put them in different situautions because that's what they do for a living. Every mystery is different.Dennis Lehane wrote "Mystic River", a step away from his usual characters and look what happened to him.The book is a classic. I know fantasy writers get caught in contracts and have to turn out so much for their publishers but isn't every man master of his own destiny? I gave up on most fantasy authors because I know I am going to get the same formula again.If RA Salvatore came out with some new characters in the same mold as Drizzt and his buddies I would buy up.Until then, I say "Nay"
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Connolly novels are one of my guilty pleasures. I know I shouldn't rush out and buy them in hardcover, and every time I finish one I can't help but pick nits, but I sure love the hardboiled detectives.
In theory, I love the period mysteries, too, but I've often begun one and set it aside. John Pickens wrote me a fabulous "Murder Medieval" article way back in Dragon 240, which I still dig out every now and again for recommendations. John B, you should consider hitting up the EIC of Dragon to see whether he thinks it's time for an update. I think it is!
I have turned away from crime fiction a long time, especially the Ellery Queen/Agatha Christie whodunnit variety. I do very much like classic Poe and hardboiled (Dashiel Hammett, Raymond Chandler, which definitely helped me enjoy William Gibson ;-), and can take in the odd Holmes pastiche, but not much beyond that.
Until CrimeWave 5. I basically bought it becasue I liked The Third Alternative, and Andy Cox edited CrimeWave as well. I started reading it with no particular high expectations (rather the contrary), but the first three stories completely blew me away.
In retrospect this was because I subconsciously expected the same old, cliche-ridden crime stories. CrimeWave 5 demolished all my preconceptions about crime fiction. All the stories were dark, gritty, visceral without reverting to gore, fresh, sharply written with a very modern sensibility.
Awesome. Superb.
I subscribed and bought all the back issues.
Quality-wise, CrimeWave 4 and CrimeWave 7 are probably better, but number 5 will always have a special place in my heart as it so spectacularly shattered my prejudices.
The thing with the CrimeWave series is that Andy Cox only releases a new one when he has enough top quality stories, meaning only about one per year is released. But when it comes out: joy, pure joy!
And while my main fiction diet is SF and fantasy, crime fiction sometimes crawls up on me from unexpected angles. For instance, I read a short story by Walter Mosley in F&SF, liked it so much I bought Futureland, and loved that so much I bought Blue Light and The Man in my Basement, although I haven’t found the time to read these two yet. I’ll probably wind up buying some of his Easy Rawlins novels, too
Kobold Press
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Yep, mysteries are great fun. I always think of them as light reads, though that's not always the case. I'm a fan of <b>Sarah Paretsky</b>'s work, partly because it's set in Chicago, my hometown, but also because so many of the plots are non-standard for the genre.
<b>Ian Rankin</b> is my other current fave, and his work also features a strong sense of place (Scotland).
Jetse, thanks for the tip. I'll look for the CrimeWave series.
I'm currently reading Caleb Carr's "Angel of Darkness", the sequel to the on-the-New-York-Times-Bestseller-List-for-a-year "Alienist", which is the mystery set in 1890's New York.
Very cool stuff -- as good a job at capturing the feel and flavor of the city as, say, China Mieville was in Perdido Street Station. Of course, China was making his stuff up, but I can't honestly say whether that makes it harder or easier. Likely a bit of btoh.
It was also a different read for me because I'm used to reading whodunnits -- most of my wife's mystery reads are whodunnits. In this case, not having a cast of likely suspects sitting around waiting for you to guess the right one gave it a different feel.
Anyway -- I'm sure others here have read it, too, but just to reiterate the "All genres are fun" statement, I'm likin' the mystery.
I read mostly scifi and fantasy, but I do pick up an occasional mystery. I tend to like the funny ones, though. I like Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody mysteries, starting with Crocodile on the Sandbank. A late 1800s pre-feminist goes traveling, picks up another Englishwoman in Italy and goes on to take charge at a dig site in Egypt that's caught up in a mystery.
I like the Plum novels by Evanovich. Those are really funny.
The Cat Who novels are about a bachelor and 2 siamese cats. Fun, but maybe a bit more on the cute side than I usually get.
The closest to a crime novel I get is the Nevada Barr novels. She writes about a national park ranger/widow who solves murder mysteries as she moves through different parks. She doesn't get quite so fluffy.
I've been reading a fair amount of crime fiction/pulp mysteries.
Max Allan Collins' War of the Worlds Murder is what I just finished. Hard Case Crime is putting out a lot of good pulpy stuff now, if you want to check them out... I believe Stephen King's book for them is out in September.
My favorites are the Nero Wolfe ("slash" Archie Goodwin) mysteries by Rex Stout.
I really enjoyed the Fanuilh series by Daniel Hood and the Lord Darcy stories by Randall Garrett.
Both the Garrett P.I. series by Glen Cook and the Nightside series by Simon R. Green are worth looking into, as well.
I liked Shadows Over Baker Street, as well as the tragically brief and sadly discontinued "Murder in..." series from TSR.
I have, but have not yet read, Murder by Magic: Twenty Tales of Crime and the Supernatural and Powers Of Detection: Stories of Mystery and Fantasy.
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I enjoyed James Ellroy's L.A. Quartet up until the last book, "White Jazz."
Up until that point, the first 3 books were great (disturbing, dark, and, at times, perverse, but still great.)
No matter how dark the characters and the stories get, Ellroy can really suck you into the under side of glamorous L.A. in the 1940s and 50s.
I adore mysteries, though quite a few of the books I'd call "mystery" but are often categorized in Fiction.
- Tess Gerritsen, who writes both medical mysteries, and good ol' fashioned murder mysteries with recurring characters Jane Rizzoli and Dr. Maura Isles.
- Lisa Gardner, who writes series and non-series thrillers, but whom, if you want to try a really good one, wrote 'The Survivor's Club' (a great story where four women, while toasting the arraingment of the DNA-proven rapist who assaulted them all, are considered as suspects when he is shot to death on the front steps of the courthouse - and then things get even more tense when another crime occurs - with the same DNA evidence).
- Martha C. Lawrence, who writes a psychic PI series named around the signs of the zodiac, and who really really gets under your skin by endangering (and, yes, killing) characters you like. (A la George R.R. Martin, in a way).
- Simon R. Green, the 'Nightside' series, which someone already mentioned (they're fun, gritty, really dark and morose, but with a supernatural bent that is interesting).
- Joseph Glass, who to the best of my knowledge, has only done two stories with a psychic psychiatrist, Dr. Susan Shrader (?) but both were great.
I'm sure there are more.
I'm a big Michael Slade fan. Currently I'm reading Swastika but I'd reccomend any of his 12 novels. If you're gonna start though, start with his first one called Headhunter,its got a doozy of an ending. Also, I recently read a movie of this is in the works. Go Sparky!
I have turned away from crime fiction a long time, especially the Ellery Queen/Agatha Christie whodunnit variety. I do very much like classic Poe and hardboiled (Dashiel Hammett, Raymond Chandler, which definitely helped me enjoy William Gibson ;-), and can take in the odd Holmes pastiche, but not much beyond that.
The armchair and/or old lady ones (Christie, Rex Stout, et al) and the "look at me, I'm a unique main character!" ones (Monk on TV, et al.) always seemed extremely silly to me. I'm in awe of Hammett's sense of realism and spare prose; Chandler was quite good, but overly convoluted and vaguely silly; Robert Parker is quite capable of literature-quality work ("All Our Yesterdays") but typically churns out crap instead (anything with Sunny Randall...). Elmore Leonard can't be beat for zany characters and crazed energy. John D. MacDonald's bajillion novels (Travis McGee and others) are always a pleasure, even desipte his penchant for recycled story lines (his current imitator Lee Child is pretty good, too). Robert Crais lacks originality altogether. Andrew Vachss' prose is absolutely hypnotic; anything he writes, I can't stop reading until it's over--even if it's unbelievably depressing. Jack Vance's SF mysteries ("Galactic Effectuator," etc.) are great fun.
Yes, I read a lot of mysteries!
The armchair and/or old lady ones (Christie, Rex Stout, et al) and the "look at me, I'm a unique main character!" ones (Monk on TV, et al.) always seemed extremely silly to me.
Pfui!