When it comes down to it, I like this sort of crime fiction best. Nothing too cozy, nothing too violent.
Good characters, interesting atmosphere, great writing.
I am looking for a few (in paperback) to take on a trip. What are some of your favorite books that feature a detective of some sort tracking down a killer.
41 comments:
William DeAndrea's two books about Lobo Black and Quinn Booker,THE FATAL ELIXIR and WRITTEN IN FIRE are both fun reads -- western detection homages to Nero Wolfe.
I've also found Steven Torress PRECINCT PUERTO RICO series to be very habit-forming.
There are many others, but these were the first two authors to pop into my head
I like Torres too. DeAndrea is new to me.
DeAndrea's reflexive rightwing politics used to annoy me (as they would be expressed around the edges of his reviewing in THE ARMCHAIR DETECTIVE, particularly), but, boy, he died too young. Four years younger than I am now.
I assume you've read through Marcia Muller?
Have you read John Straley's Cecil Younger series? I like those an awfully lot. Great prose style. Very character-driven and very human.
Marcia Muller
Bill Pronzini
Bill Crider
Archer Mayor
Michael Connelly
Lawrence Block
Stuart Kaminsky
Donald Westlake
Peter Robinson
Margaret Maron
S. J. Rozan
John Harvey
Reginald Hill
Tony Hillerman
Steven F. Havill
Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
Enough?
Jeff M.
I have read most of that list, Jeff.
But not the last two. I will look into them. I guess this is the area I have read most widely in so it's harder to find new ones.
Straley is new to me, too. Thanks.
Robert Crais' Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series.
I am betting Crais would be Naomi's recommendation too. I have read one or two of his. Top-notch.
Library doesn't have Straley/ Why? I think it's too late to order it.
Laurie R. King's Kate Martinelli series - A Grave Talent was an outstanding book.
And I recently read No Human Involved by Barbara Seranella which was just fantastic.
Ian Rankin and Rebus: may be colored by the fact that I spoke with Rankin on a radio call-in show.
Robert Crais and Elvis Cole/Joe Pike
A Grave Talent has to be one of the best first novels ever. Have never read Seranella though. Thanks.
I adore Rebus but have not read all of them.
You've probably read them, but John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series was awesome. Not always did he track down killers but there was a lot of danger in the books. The Green Ripper is a good later one in the series. earlier ones, Darker than Amber, the Turquoise Lament, THe Long Lavender look. But all were great.
Travis was my first great love. Thanks for the memories.
Have you read Rob Kantner's Ben Perkins novels, Patti? Good Detroit PI stuff.
Jon A. Jackson's Mulheisen novels are some great police detective stuff. Particularly GROOTKA. More Detroit, just in case you are unfamiliar.
Loren D. Estleman.
I love the Amos Walker series and, as a film fan, I especially love the Valentino series.
Ed McBain, Declan Hughes, Dennis Lehane, Robert Crais, Sean Chercover;s Ray Dudgeon books (especially TRIGGER CITY), James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux stories (especially those 5+ years old), lpus those too obvious to mention, just so they don't slip through the cracks (Chandler, Hammett, Simenon).
I felt that Donald Harstad's series set in Iowa was the best of the police procedurals in the past decade or so. I can also recommend KJ Erickson's books featuring Minneapolis detective Mars Bahr (don't be scared away by the name) and you can't go wrong with John Sandford's newest series featuring Virgil Flowers. If you want to go north to Canada, try Giles Blunt whose cop John Cardinal works in northern Ontario. While the books may be hard to find, Robert Sims Reid wrote some wonderful cop paperback originals set in Montana. And I agree with the other Kent in regard to Jon Jackson and Rob Kantner
Wow. I have me some reading to do.
I have read Amos Walker, I have a book of Amos Walker's Detroit in fact. I need to try some of these others I have missed though. My son is a big Sandford fan as was my mom.
I have a Declan Hughes book right on my shelf and will read that on the plane. Thanks for the reminder about Kantner. I think I have read almost every McBain. Been meaning to read Blunt too.
You can't go wrong with Ross Macdonald. Or Ross Thomas.
So true, George. Although I think there are some by Thomas I have never read.
I second Jeff's recommendation of Cynthia Harrod Eagles--look for the police procedurals featuring DI Bill
Slider and his team in the Shepherd's Bush (London) police department. They are best read from the beginning because the characters go through many changes in their personal lives. Eagles is a prolific writer who had written, among other things, a 30-plus volume series of books featuring one family through centuries of British history.
I'll always like He Who Hesitates by Ed McBain because he took he stood the idea of a police series on its head--his cops barely appear. The story unfolds through the eyes of the killer--and what a killer. Kin to Norman Bates.
I don't think I have read that one, Ed. Will look for it. Ed-so glad to hear from you!!
Luckily my library seems to have the Harrod-Eagles series. And I think the first one.
Two who write softboiled, endearingly inept PI's who muddle through in the end: Howard Engel (Benny Cooperman is his detective) and Parnell Hall (Stanley Hastings).
I've noted a strong preference in myself for PI and police detective novels also. Beside Crais, I love Earl Emerson's two series, Thomas Black, a PI, and Mac Fontana, a fire chief. Both are excellent but the Fontana went out of print and is now only available in ebook format. And I just read Jussi Adler-Olsen's first book, The Keeper of Lost Causes, about a police detective, and it is STELLAR. I have his second lined up and ready to go. All of these writers have something in common: their protagonists have a sense of humor.
have a couple of the Emerson's sitting in the fireplace, the only room left in this house.
So many books, so little time.
Just going to put in another plug for Barbara Seranella, especially that first one, No Human Involved. Another author who died too young.
The Carl Wilcox books by Harold Adams and the Mario Balzic books by K. C. Constantine.
My library must think I am insane. Eight books put on reserve today. Thanks!
Love the Constantine series. Look for the other.
Yes, the late Barbara Seranella's series was fantastic. And she wrote from her own experience.
Havill's books are set in a mostly rural county of New Mexico right at the Mexican border. Harrod-Eagles writes about British cops. Another small town "detective" is Oakalla, Wisconsin newspaperman Garth Ryland in a series by John R. Riggs.
I also like the first two series recommended by Kent Morgan, those by Donald Harstad (who was a cop for many years) and K. J. Erickson. More in the Twin Cities area: mother-daughter P. J. Tracy's series starting with MONKEEWRENCH and Elizabeth Gunn's Jake Hines series. And in nearby Wisconsin is Mary Logue's Claire Watkins series.
The last few Harrod-Eagles Bill Slider books are hard to come by here so I've had them sent from England.
Jeff M.
My library has the first among others so I will give it a go.
For a different flavour altogether, try the Indian detective Vish Puri. Stationed in Delhi and written by Tarquin Hall, Puri is (as my fellow-blogger Rishi calls him) a Punjabi Poirot.
Have you read the Nero Wolfe books? Everyone should.
Jerry mentioned the Carl Wilcox books by Harold Adams. That was a terrific series with a very unusual setting--Depression South Dakota. Adams was born in 1923, and I believe he was writing from his own experience.
I'm a HUGE fan of Dennis Lehane's Kenzie books, but everybody knows that :) I'm looking to get into Nero Wolfe, also :)
I really got a kick out of the Tarquin Hall books too. Very amusing. And Colin Cotterill's wonderful Dr. Siri Paiboun series, set in 1970's Laos, are surely among the best new series of the last decade.
Jeff M.
I have no hope of ever getting through these. I have meant to try the Cotterill especially.
michael dibdin's aurelio zen novels
Weren't they great. A terrific writer indeed.
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