Mystery writer Robert Parker died yesterday. I used to like “Spenser For Hire” on tv when I was a kid — are his books worth reading? I’m a huge Chandler-Hammett fan, but haven’t found anything else in the genre I consistently liked as much (I loved the “LA Confidential” books by James Elroy but found his other books tough to get through, was disappointed by Ross Macdonald, and like Elmore Leonard but not to quite the same degree). Any other stuff along these lines I should check out? Nothing with serial killers, please, that stuff creeps me out.
There’s nothing better than a great Chandler book on an airplane ride, but I’ve read them all!
Update. Hey, how about that guy wrote the book that became Ne le dis à personne. I loved that movie, though partly because of the great use of “Lilac Wine” (and I don’t even usually like Jeff Buckley).
MikeJ
Not really the same, but when I think of prolific crime writers like Elmore, I also think of Jim Thompson.
I think there’s also a crime writer of some note who posts here all the time who might speak up.
GReynoldsCT00
I’m crushed about this. I’ve read most of his books and will miss Spenser, Hawk and all the others. They are an easy and entertaining read.
Tomlinson
If you like Chandler and Hammett, you will probably love Spenser. Read them in order, very important.
You will probably also like John D. MacDonald, and I’d take a good hard look at anything by Max Allan Collins, but most especially the Nate Heller books.
GReynoldsCT00
<blockquoteNothing with serial killers, please, that stuff creeps me out.
Hmmm… most mysteries/police procedurals involve dead people Doug
DougJ
I also think of Jim Thompson.
Yeah, I like him and I like Cornell Woolrich (whom I often refer to as “Orlando Woolrich”) but they are a slightly different style than I like, a little too brutal, a little too violent. Though they are good!
Corner Stone
The early Spensers are great. Easy to read, enough action with more than a little macho thrown in.
If you liked the tv series then the first 20 or so Spensers will be right in your wheelhouse.
It’s when Spenser and Hawk get to be too much like an old married couple that they get in trouble.
And Parker starts getting a little too maudlin about Spenser and Susan’s romantic relationship toward the second half of the line of novels.
I recommend though for easy escape reading.
ETA – maybe “macho” isn’t the right word. More like “very confident smartass”.
vheidi
@Tomlinson: Absolutely, DougJ, read them in order- you are in for a treat.
DougJ
Hmmm… most mysteries/police procedurals involve dead people Doug
I like when they’re killed by their spouses and business partners, though.
Johnny Pez
Parker actually wrote two (well, one-and-a-half) Philip Marlowe novels. He finished an incomplete Chandler novel called “Poodle Springs” and wrote a sequel to “The Big Sleep” called “Perchance to Dream”.
harryp
The late, great James Crumley: Boys’ Life with guns, drugs and sex.
GReynoldsCT00
@DougJ:
Fair enough.
Have you ever read John Sandford? The “Prey” books? There are some serial killers here and there but not all of them.
Max
How about Rick Castle?
Kidding.
I’m a sucker for James Peterson and Patricia Cornwell. I also like David Balducci.
I still like John Grisham, so I’m sure I’m not literate enough for this crowd.
Linkmeister
Agree with the John D. MacDonald suggestion, but don’t stick exclusively to Travis McGee. His other books are equally good. For example, he wrote The Executioners, which became the wonderful and wonderfully terrifying “Cape Fear” film.
JohnMcF
Yes, the Spenser novels are terrific, especially the first half dozen or so. As Dennis Calero said on Sarah Weinman’s blog, Robert B. Parker “… wrote fun, yet deceptively complex, but easy to read crime fiction.”
Chuck Butcher
While he certainly is no Hammet or even Chandler, Ed McBain is fun. I’ve run through both author’s entire catalogue several times and I still don’t get tired of them though I admit the “mystery” certainly is gone.
Tomlinson
Yeah, it falls off fast after a certain point. You’ll know when.
The books are very authentic, BTW. You can find a lot of the places mentioned, and I don’t mean just the famous ones. The Giacomin house in Early Autumn, for example – follow the directions, bet you can figure out which one Parker meant.
GReynoldsCT00
Also check out Lee Child, he writes the Jack Reacher novels. They are a great ride!
ajr22
Motherless Brooklyn- Jonathan Lethem
Lush life- Richard Price
Yiddish Policemen’s Union- Michael Chabon
These are three good detective novels I have read recently.
MikeJ
Ok, looking over at my bookshelf, how about Clarence Cooper Jr or Iceberg Slim? Yes, different from those you named, but pulpy.
And for highbrow lit crit similar to the genre, Gun With Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem. The dust jacket says a mix of Chandler and Philip K. Dick, and everything Lethem writes is great.
PeggyAI
And Robert Crais – his Elvis Cole series is the best. Also, Harlan Coben’s Myron Bolitar & Dennis Lehane’s Patrick Kenzie series. Cannot go wrong with any of these.
jacy
James Lee Burke is great.
Walter Mosely’s Easy Rawlins series might fit the bill.
My favorite serial mystery/procedural writer is Carrol O’Connell, she does the Mallory series and also has a couple of stand-alone books. She’s a fantastic writer.
I also enjoy the Jonathan Kellerman books, as well as Stephen White, whose stuff is set in Boulder, CO.
All great mystery series, low on the gore/body count/serial killer stuff. I have another set of recommedations for those.
Chris
In a slightly different but related vein, I think you’d really like a set of atmospheric thrillers more suspense/spy than crime in genre, set in Europe against the backdrop of the looming world war II, by Alan Furst, an American journalist who was based in France.
If you like Furst, they’re the direct heirs to a similar set of books written in the thirties by Eric Ambler,
reality-based
The Easy Rawlins mysteries, by Walter Mosley – I love these
mellowjohn
i’ve become a fan of the brunetti series by donna leon, partly because it’s set in venice – one of my favorite cities – and partly because it grapples with the thorny issue of how to you enforce the law in a society (italy) where nobody pays any attention to the law.
plus signorina elettra is a hoot.
pdf
I’ve been reading Dennis Lehane and Harlan Coben lately. The former is a better writer than the latter, but both get the job done. I am currently reading my first book by Ian Rankin and it’s not bad. I liked a few books by George Pelecanos but eventually I got annoyed by the way his characters (and the narration) went on and on about their musical taste. A little of that makes a character realistic; too much of it makes it a music geek ranting at you in between gunfights.
Chris
I second the Lush Life, in fact read almost anything by RIchard Price. He was The Wire before there was The Wire. Clockers was amazing.
I love George Pelenocos as well, but that’s because I lived in DC for a decade. And he writes the full city, which is usually missed out.
dan
James Lee Burke, Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, the new Scorsese/DiCaprio movie Shutter Island and another good film came out of Gone, Baby, Gone), John D. McDonald, some Ed McBain and John Sandford (the first book of his that I read was a serial killer book so I didn’t pick him up for a couple of years, but they are not all serial killer books and the writing is consistantly good). Also, most Nelson Demille up until about 5 years ago.
James Patterson is shit.
Jimmm
For an entertaining take on the whole noir detective genre, I highly recommend Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files. Also entertaining are Glen Cook’s Garret Files.
They’re basically Chandler + magic (but not in an obnoxious way).
sam
Sorry you don’t like Ross MacDonald, I’ve always thought he was Chandler’s heir, but…. I really didn’t like the Spenser novels. I always thought the exchanges between Hawk and Spenser were laaaaaame. Maybe because I couldn’t imagine saying some of that shit to my black friends. (I do like Tom Selleck’s turn as Jesse Stone.) As someone said upthread, John D. MacDonald’s Travis Magee is well worth your time. I’ve read them all except the last. Can’t bring myself to read it. Here’s a nice piece on Chandler and why he’s still the one: Why Marlowe is still the chief of detectives. Hell, do what I do–just reread Chandler.
Randy P
My wife and I enjoy Parker books, and I’ve read pretty much all of them. That said, I can’t say they’re great mysteries or great literature. It’s junk food for the mind. You know where the formula is going, you know Spenser (with or without Hawk) is going to be tougher than anyone, you know how all the conversation with girlfriend Susan is going to go. Kind of formulaic in other words.
But for some reason a formula we’re hooked on. Well, except his last one. He did a pretty blatant “Of Mice and Men” ripoff.
He had a couple of other antagonists besides Spenser, but they don’t fall too far from the Spenser tree. However, I really enjoyed an adaptation (made for cable, I think) with Tom Selleck as Jesse Stone, and I’d watch more of those. It was a good role for Selleck. Lots of manly brooding.
Scratchie
I think he’s much more boring than Chandler. I tried to read one of his books and it read more like a travelogue of the Boston North Shore than a mystery.
You should read “Poodle Springs”, the Chandler novel he finished, if you haven’t already. The point where the writing switches from Chandler to Parker should be obvious.
PS; NOT TO SPEAK ILL OF THE DEAD, BUT YOU DID ASK!
Chad N Freude
I read and liked a lot of Parker’s books years ago but never was motivated to read every one. I also think Ross Macdonald’s books are outstanding. These days I’m less into noir and hard-boiled than unwinding puzzles. Am currently reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and loving it, even though the English translation (from Swedish) is clunky.
If you have not read Ruth Rendell, I recommend dropping everything else in your life to read all of the twisted psychological mysteries she writes under the pseudonym of Barbara Vine, probably the best mystery novels ever.
Tokyokie
Pick up the late Charles Willeford’s Hoke Moseley series, but read them in order. Miami Blues, New Hope for the Dead, Sideswipe and The Way We Die Now. Willeford died around the time of the publication of the last one, but if you read them sequentially, it’s clear that he didn’t plan another follow-up.
Thadeus Horne
Another MacDonald-Gregory- wrote the Fletch series, among others. Very entertaining. Any Elmore Leonard. Hell, even Dick Francis will do in a pinch.
I think Ross MacDonald wrote the Matt Helm series, one of which was The Executioners.
Cat Lady
Dennis Lehane, if you liked Gone Baby Gone and Mystic River.
George V. Higgins was the best of that genre.
Carrie
I just finished the Rebus series from Ian Rankin.
The stories are set in Edinburgh and DI John Rebus is a snarling, ill tempered and loveable drunk.
A lot of musical references and just dark enough for me.
batgirl
Yes, they are great brain candy. The Spenser books are not story driven but character driven. You read them for Spenser (and Hawk) not for the mystery. And as others have said, read them in order.
harryp
@ajr22:
Without a doubt.
Jim Kakalios
There’s the other Parker – the anti-hero of the Westlake series of novels. The first one, The Hunter, was recently adapted into a graphic novel by Darwyn Cooke, and the reviews indicate that it is very faithful to the source novel. Good enough to add it to my burgeoning “to read” list.
Parts of The Hunter wound up in the Mel Gibson film Payback, which was ok, but based on the graphic novel, it seems they watered down Gibson’s character to make him likable. The character in The Hunter is a compelling SOB.
John S.
DougJ-
I don’t know if you like SciFi as much as Mystery novels, but Isaac Asimov did a great mash up of the two in the Robot Series pairing a human detective named Elijah Baley with a humaniform robot partner, R. Daneel Olivaw.
If you have never read the series (The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn, Robots and Empire) I definitely recommend it.
Chad N Freude
@Chuck Butcher: I am embarrassed. I failed to mention Ed McBain, all of whose books are really very good.
dan
Also agree that Robert Crais is very good.
Balducci writes overplotted nonsense. And James Patterson is shit.
I like Elmore Leonard, but his stuff is more like capers than mysteries.
Hey can anyone reccommend any good caper books besides Leonard?
benjallen
I really enjoy George Pelecanos. His books can get a little violent sometimes, but he’s got the whole noir thing down pretty well with some seriously flawed heroes (the Nick Stefanos series are a good introduction). His books are all set in DC — not the national-politics-DC, but the real DC. He also wrote some episodes of The Wire, if I;’m not mistaken.
WaterGirl
Doug, your delivery of bad news could really use some work! I love Robert B. Parker, and this is the first I’ve heard of his passing. I read your first line and heard myself saying “oh, no” out loud, even before I had consciously taken in what you’d written.
His books are some of my favorites, and he appeared to have a 50+ year love affair with his wife, which makes him a really good guy in my book. The article said he died at his writing desk at the age of 77, apparently without having been sick, so I guess to a certain extent we have to say “lucky bastard”. But still, his passing is a loss.
Maude
I got the latest Spencer novel from the library today.
The problem with the Spencer series is the that the violence escalates. Spencer commits murder in cold blood and Hawk is an enforcer/killer. Parker does very strange justifications for these actions.
The Spencer, Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall characters are all the same character.
The old Spencer novels are good.
The last Lee Child book was over the top in graphic violence.
sam
Well, damn that link is porked. Try this one:
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/reviewofbooks_article/7851
reality-based
oh, and – I second the James Lee Burke recommendation.
But for sheer elegance of writing and plot, nothing comes close to the John Le Carre Smiley books – the Spy Who came in from the Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Honorable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People– slightly off-genre, I know, spy rather than crime – but truly great!
Randy P
Gotta agree with the Moseley recommendation, another author I devour. Every one I can find.
I’m also fond of Lawrence Block (mostly) and right now I’m reading a lot of Donald Westlake, who does the “crazy bunch of characters pulling a caper” genre like nobody else.
Chad N Freude
@Chris:
George Pelecanos.
Thadeus Horne
@Chuck Butcher: Wasn’t Ed McBain a psuedonym of Evan Hunter? Wrote “The Blackboard Jungle”? Good writer.
freelancer
I haven’t read them, but I hear Gregory MacDonald’s Fletch books are pretty great. If they’re anything like the first film, they’d be worth looking at.
Vlad
As mentioned above, Jim Thompson is very, very good. Get a copy of “The Killer Inside Me”, and go from there.
You mentioned Hammett and Chandler – have you also read James M. Cain’s back catalog?
burnspbesq
@vheidi:
And read the other two series, the Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall books, as well.
Sad news. I am a huge Parker fan. And Avery Brooks as Hawk is the single coolest dude in the history of television. Amazing that the same actor could do characters as dissimilar as Hawk and Sisko, and do them both brilliantly.
Randy P
@Chad N Freude:
Another guy I like. I mentioned Donald Westlake (a current favorite) and I was going to say that Evan Hunter is a pseudonym for Westlake, but it turns out after a little googling that Ed McBain is actually a pseudonym for Evan Hunter.
One of those personas is supposed to be much darker than the other, but I forget which. Hunter, I think.
mr. whipple
My favorite crime junk food is Tim Dorsey.
http://timdorsey.com/home.html
Just by chance I got an email from him today announcing a free download of
Atomic Lobster:http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/_/R-400000000000000190011
Jack in CT
Yes, if you like Chandler, you ought to give a couple of the books in the Spenser series a try. I like Chandler, too, and Parker writes in his style. I think I’ve read nearly all of his Spenser novels. They’re usually entertaining, and they’re a quick read, too. An afternoon at the beach or in the back yard, and you can polish one off. I recommend the earlier ones over the later ones. But once you get started, they’re kind of addictive. You might end up reading all of them, too.
There can be some tedious passages in Parker’s books, however, in which Spenser discusses psychology or philosophy with his fearsome and fearless sidekick Hawk or his beautiful and intelligent girlfriend Susan, or both. When I come across these passages, I just turn the pages a little faster, especially if I’ve heard the same discussion in a previous book.
But if you’re looking for a good book for a plane ride, let me also recommend PD James’s detective novels featuring Adam Dalgliesh. These are not quick reads by any means, and you need to pay attention. James paints detailed portraits of her characters and settings, whereas Parker is content with quick sketches.
LM
Parker’s book imo lost vitality in the mid-1990s, so I wouldn’t recommend his later books or his later series, but his early Spenser books were very smooth. The Chandler books he finished, though, just show that no one else can fill those shoes.
As others have said, Dennis Lahane is a wonderful stylist whose characters have great depth. And Jeffery Deaver is another fine writer with nuanced characters, and his tight plots invariably have a big twist/payoff at the end.
And though his books also lost something as he aged, Dick Francis was at the top of his (or anyone’s) form in books like Whip Hand and Nerve, two of the very best novels in the genre.
norma
I loved the Spencer series, I laways thought Susan, was how he saw his wife. I have been reading Paul Doherty Egyptian mysteries with the judge I will miss Parker. Norma
theylivebynight
I second Richard Price, Charles Willeford, and Jim Thompson and would add Benjamin Black (pen name of John Banville), Edward Bunker and esp. George Simenon. Give James Crumley a shot. He’s hit or miss, often within the same book. The Last Good Kiss starts off with one of the best lines in a crime novel but has a crap second half.
Stefan
Oh no. What sad, terrible news. I loved Robert Parker and read one of his Spenser novels a year. Very, very worthwhile to get into, and some of the best snappy dialogue around.
This calls for some Irish whisky tonight…..
Vlad
New film version of “The Killer Inside Me” coming out this year, BTW – the trailer looks awesome.
Ed in NJ
As a teenager, I read every Spenser novel, and loved them. What impressed me as a teen was Spenser’s love of food and drink, and his committed relationship, which at the time was not considered “cool”. But like others have said, the later novels poured it on a bit too thick and I stopped reading them.
And while I also enjoyed the Sandford “Prey” novels, nothing beat Gregory MacDonald’s Fletch and Flynn books.
Vlad
Potentially NSFW, though, so caveat emptor.
burnspbesq
The late Tony Hillerman wrote a large number of wonderful mysteries set on the big Navajo reservation that straddles New Mexico and Arizona. His two main recurring characters, Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, are as well realized as any in any detective fiction I’ve read.
patrick
Will go with those who say the early Spenser novels were superior.
Roger Crais has his LA version of Spenser and Hawk with Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. Although clearly derivative, I just think Crais is a better writer and the characters more interesting. Plus, I never could take Hawk’s dialect.
I have a soft spot for Tony Hillerman. Hillerman is not a lyrical writer, but through his protagonists — Indian Nation policemen Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee give — he gives a sort of dual view, Indian/non-Indian, cultural take on the events and causes and effects involved in the mysteries they investigate that is the heart of the books.
At one time a map was published of the high western desert/four corners area Leaphorn and Chee work in with the different events in Hillerman’s novels marked (dead body found here in this canyon, police station, secret cave, etc). I once drove through the area and visited some of the marked places. It was a great trip.
Anyhow, those are two of my favorites.
Thadeus Horne
@Thadeus Horne: I was completely wrong on Ross Mac Donald writing the Matt Helm series..that was Donald Hamilton. Sorry. Damn a failing old mind.
forked tongue
Wait, wait, I’m going back to Ross MacDonald. You say you were “disappointed” by him–did you try “The Chill” or “The Underground Man”? IMO, “The Chill” is the best American detective novel (yes, I do mean better than anything by Chandler) at least of any prior to Ellroy’s LA Quartet.
You also might be interested in Philip Kerr’s “Berlin Noir” trilogy–very clever and compelling transplants of the hard-boiled Chandler ethos to wartime Berlin.
Peter VE
The two Chandler continuations are neither as good as Chandler, nor as enjoyable as Parker’s Spenser novels. You can feel Parker straining to change his style to match Chandler. The Spenser novels are fun, but not as memorable as Chandler.
I suggest Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder series. Scudder ages in the books, like Marlowe, so read them in order. (http://www.lawrenceblock.com/index_framesetfl.htm)
I also like Jan Willem van de Wetering’s Grijpstra and de Gier series, about a pair of cops in Amsterdam.
Chandler, Hammet and Elroy wrote about the world we actually live in, not the world we are told about. Block and van de Wetering write in the same spirit.
Rob in Denver
@Thadeus Horne: Yes.
Several have mentioned Lee Child. If hitman thrillers are your cup of tea, check out Barry Eisler’s John Rain series: half-Japanese/half-American assassin whose specialty is making his hits look like natural causes.
Dennis Lehane and Michael Connelly are the best at private detective/police procedurals. Read George Pellecanos if you like modern noir. Pellecanos wrote more than a few episodes of The Wire (as did Lehane, IIRC). Reed Farrell Coleman’s writing great crime fiction, and every crime fic fan’s TBR pile is complete with something — anything, really — by Ken Bruen.
Also, Duane Swierczinsky writes potato chip crime fic. Great stuff you can finish in a couple of hours. Fast and unrelenting.
John Smallberries
I’m going to agree with the John MacDonald. if you do, read the Travis McGee series in order – it’s fun watching McGee change and not change as the series ran, and the end of the last book was as good a place to end the series as possible.
His other books, as others have mentioned, span a wide variety of topics, from hard boiled crime thrillers to science fiction, to books like “A Flash of Green”, which may be the saddest commentary on the destruction of Florida that has ever been written.
For good easy reading and a lot of fun, Donald Westlakes Dortmnuder books, going all the way back to “The Hot Rock” are a hoot. Some of his more serious books, such as “Kahawa”, can be pretty intense, and my favorite “Dancing Aztecs” is a pure joy. I always wanted to make a completely confusing movie out of that one.
Finally, take a look at Carl Hiassen. For one who finished growing up in Florida and is convinced that my “home” is one of the most demented places in the world, these books are some of the funniest stuff out there.
jose c.
SiubhanDuinne
@Corner Stone: This is pretty much what I was going to say, only Corner Stone said it better. I loved the first 15-20 books in the series but stopped reading them at least ten years ago. Still, I’m very saddened by Parker’s death. He gave a lot of pleasure.
One of my favourites (who has also been portrayed on TV, I believe in a BBC series shown in the US on “Mystery!”) is Lovejoy, an extremely funny antiques dealer-cum-detective. The series is by Jonathan Gash. AFAIK he is still alive but I don’t think he’s written anything since about 2002. I need to go back and re-read those books one of these times. The dialogue cracked me up, and the amount of antiquarian lore imparted was pretty amazing. I loved them first time around, and I really hope they hold up to a second reading.
Cathie from Canada
I would rank in this order:
1. Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch series.
2. Stephen Hunter’s Bob Lee Swagger series.
3. John D MacDonald’s Travis McGee series.
3. Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series.
4. Robert Parker’s Spenser series.
As is usually the case, the earlier books are the better ones — mainly, I think, because the authors had more energy for the characters then.
The misogyny in many many of these titles, particularly pre-1990s — is noticeable and aggravating. Male authors had great difficulty writing females who were not bitch or whore or goddess or some combination thereof.
mellowjohn
freelancer @ #45:
the fletch books are nothing like the movie. they’re much, much better (no chevy chase). gregory macdonald had another series about a boston cop named flynn. i recommend those, too.
dougj:
there’s a writer (dead and alas out of print) named ross thomas i absolutely love. start with “chinaman’s chance,” “twilight at mac’s place,” “missoionary stew” (a lovely title all by itself), or “the fools in town are on our side.” they’ll get you hooked.
second the recommendation of the reacher series by lee child.
also, in another vein, look into christopher moore.
Corner Stone
I like Dick Francis as well but you can only read one of them, then take a break with other novels, then come back to him, repeat.
If you read two or three back to back they lose something because all the plot lines and protagonists are the same.
Which isn’t saying anything brilliant as he wrote 95% of the time about horses/racing/jockeys.
But the affectations start to wear on you as you recognize what a character’s going to mumble before you turn the page and read it.
Still worth a read of some of the earlier ones.
Chad N Freude
@Randy P: Agree about Lawrence Block and Donald Westlake. Westlake’s stuff is unfailingly funny, and Block’s Bernie Rhodenbarr books are excellent. My favorite is The Burglar in the Library, a takeoff on an Agatha Christie country-house mystery in which the characters talk about how much their situation is like an Agatha Christie country-house mystery.
we can be heroes
Any of Phillip Kerr’s “Bernie Gunther” novels, but especially his Berlin Noir Trilogy.
And yes, Eric Ambler, the father of the modern espionage novel, is one of the greats.
birthmarker
James Lee Burke–New Orleans and Louisiana atmosphere. Read the older ones first and stay away from the ones set in the West. How many ways can one say someone is in the mob? Who else has a character wear a pork pie hat?
Besides Burke, I read every new Randy Wayne White and Carl Hiassen book as they come out. I don’t read much fiction, and as usual the older they are the better they are, but all three writers will entertain you and amuse you.
Chuck Butcher
@Thadeus Horne:
Evan Hunter – yes, exactly.
forked tongue
Oh yeah: Pelecanos for sure; I specifically recommend the ones featuring Derek Strange, a black PI with a white sidekick, working the parts of DC you never hear the Villagers talk about: “Right as Rain,” “Hell to Pay,” “Soul Circus,” and “Hard Revolution.”
SB Jules
Michael Connelly is the best mystery writer right now. He has a long back list, so you’ve got a bunch to read. His usual main character is Harry Bosch, LA police detective. Just very good.
Parker was quite good when he started but by the end, his books could be read almost in a single sitting. I loved the characters of Hawk & Spencer, hated Susan Silverman.
I love Dick Francis’ books too.
Corner Stone
@Peter VE:
The interesting thing to me about Scudder, as opposed to say Spenser, is that Scudder really goes through some significant change. Spenser does mature but Scudder really hits some high and low points as he muddles through.
They are both complex characters but I’d say you could always guess what Spenser would do in a situation. Scudder would sometimes surprise you.
Tom Hilton
For something fascinating and different, try Paco Ignacio Taibo’s detective novels (An Easy Thing, No Happy Ending, Return to the Same City, and a couple others). It’s the Chandler/Hammett tradition translated to Mexico City, which means even more corruption and a dash of magic realism. Highly recommended.
Chad N Freude
@Thadeus Horne: Yes. I’ve read that he was not happy that he was better known for the McBain 87th Precinct mysteries rather than his “serious” Evan Hunter novels.
Corner Stone
@PeggyAI:
Just could not get into Crais. I tried a few but the characters seemed boilerplate ripoffs to me.
SiubhanDuinne
@Chad N Freude:
Hear, hear! But don’t overlook the mysteries she writes under her own name. As Ruth Rendell she has a series featuring Inspector Wexford (it helps to read these chronologically) and since the early 1960s she alternated the Wexford books with probably 25-30 stand-alone psychological suspense novels. There are also several dozen short stories, some Wexfords and some not. And then there are, as Chad N Freude said, the incomparable Barbara Vine books. Really, she is one of the masters of the genre.
Tom Hilton
@Rob in Denver:
Yes, and so did Richard Price. All of which makes sense, since each season of The Wire was effectively a novel.
And here’s a third vote for Philip Kerr’s Berlin Noir trilogy. Picture Marlowe in a society where evil has infected everything, every person, every interaction, every choice. Compelling stuff.
JD Rhoades
@Corner Stone:
What Corner Stone said. The early Spensers are among the books that inspired me to write crime fiction. But once Spenser and Susan started referring to her little dog as ‘the baby” I bailed. All that said, even bad Parker is still pretty damn good.
I’ll second the recommendations for Dennis Lehane (of whom I am constantly in awe), Robert (not Roger) Crais, Lee Child, James Crumley, and Donald E. Westlake (especially when he’s writing as Richard Stark).
Laura Lippman’s PI series is amazing (it gets especially good about the fourth book), but her standalones will knock you on your ass.
Pretty much anything from Hard Case Crime is worth a read, and some of it is really incredible, especially Christa Faust’s MONEY SHOT.
John Connolly’s Charlie Parker books are way violent, with supernatural elements, and he’s such a great writer.
But finally, I have two last words to say: Ken Bruen. Ken. Motherfucking. Bruen. Check out THE GUARDS, and take the series from there. You’ll never read PI fiction quite like it again.
Stefan
Parts of The Hunter wound up in the Mel Gibson film Payback, which was ok, but based on the graphic novel, it seems they watered down Gibson’s character to make him likable. The character in The Hunter is a compelling SOB.
Payback is actually the second version of this filmed — the first was John Boorman’s 1968’s “Point Blank”, with Lee Marvin in one of his best parts and Angie Dickinson as the girl. Absolutely astounding.
aimai
I agree with S. B upthread: Michael Connelly, Michael Connelly, Michael Connelly. Another great writer is Thomas Perry. I love his series about a Native American woman who hides people who need to get lost. They are a bit dated, at this point, because they mostly take place pre-9/11 and the entire security theater about identities and runners that has come into being. But they are delicious explorations of what it takes to hide in plain site, to change your identity and appearance.
aimai
JD Rhoades
@forked tongue:
Yes. Pelecanos. Yes. yes.
forked tongue
I like Michael Connelly a lot, but I wish he was … funnier, a little. His heroes are real workhorses and real brooders. The plots are worked out with very satisfying thoroughness, but the books could use a few, I dunno, wisecracks.
qwerty42
@reality-based: …But for sheer elegance of writing and plot, nothing comes close to the John Le Carre Smiley books…
Agreed. But there was one book (which had Smiley in it) that was a “detective” novel. Can’t recall it now — was quite a few years ago, perhaps LeCarre was exploring the genre.
If you are interested in the spy novels, Len Deighton wrote a trilogy of trilogies that covers the end of the iron curtain, particularly East Germany (and always manages to go back to the last months of the war and life in Berlin).
Davis X. Machina
Seconding the suggestion. Higgins was a ADA and US Attorney for a while, and his criminals sound like criminals.
The Friends of Eddy Coyle is from a book of the same name by Higgins.
When I was homesick and alone in Atlanta, I read all of his novels, but only one a week, to make them last.
Deb T
Donald Westlake and his nom de plum, Richard Stark.
Westlake wrote The Hot Rock, but the book is better than the movie. I love his Dortmunder series and another book titled, The Ax – about a man who has been fired and decides to eliminate the competition by murdering all of them in the area. Funnier than it sounds.
Stark’s work is not funny. He wrote the book that all the Payback movies are based on. He’s ruthless, unsentimental and prose style carries you along like a flooding river. I started in the middle, but went back to read them in order. They are short and remind me a little of Hammete
aimai
Oh, and I love Lee Childs but after you’ve read them all–but not before!–you start getting ahead of his shtick which is to have his brilliant character reason his way to the only way something can have happened, and while you are standing around with your mouth hanging open thinking “brilliant, man” he turns around on the next page and unravels this argument and shows you how wrong it is. Still, great writing. Unputdownable. I highly recommend them all, especially the first one “Killing Floor” which I just reread the other day.
aimai
JD Rhoades
@Rob in Denver:
Rob, have we met?
Davis X. Machina
Call for the Dead, IIRC. Or A Small Town in Germany. The great Smiley trilogy — Tinker Tailor, The Honorable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People are all structured like detective novels, when you think about it.
CaseyL
My love for Parker began with “Godwulf,” peaked at “A Catskill Eagle,” and then steadily declined until I stopped reading/buying after “Small Vices.” Somewhere along the way his protagonists became unbearably smug and self-satisfied, and his contempt for other characters so huge that you saw the ending coming chapters away.
I never got into the Jesse Stone/Sunny Randall books; or, rather, I never made it past the first book of those series.
I second the Lawrence Bloch love, esp. the Hit Man stories, which I totally adore. I also like Ed McBain and Harlen Coban. Tried Connelly, couldn’t quite get into him; don’t know why.
ETA to add a “Gods, yes!” to the Thomas Perry love; and a strong recommendation for Gregory McDonald’s “Fletch” and “Flynn” series.
Dinah
I recommend Sarah Paretsky’s V. I. Warshawski series. The detective in these books is a woman, but she is intelligent and gritty.
Ray
I’ve been enjoying Scandinavian procedurals: Arnaldur Indrikason (Iceland,) Mandell (Sweden) and from the old days Gjpstra (sp?)
SiubhanDuinne
I am a big fan of Dick Francis, although with the now-familiar caveat that the writing/plotting fell off a bit as he got older. For years he pretty much co-wrote with his late wife Mary — she did all the research, and he actually strung the words together, apparently — but his publishers wouldn’t allow her name to appear as they evidently thought it would diminish the appeal. But the last two or three are co-authored with his son Felix Francis prominently sharing authorship billing.
He was a top jockey in the UK, so it’s natural that horses and racing would play a role in his novels. To me, that’s a feature, not a bug. He’s quite clever at working in the horse-racetrack connection. Sometimes it’s central to the story, as when the protagonist is a jockey or trainer or owner or turf accountant; sometimes it’s peripheral, and in those cases the protagonist usually has some interesting field of expertise — acting, or photography, or glassblowing, or banking, or piloting planes, or catering, or wine selling, or computers — these are the areas where Mary did the research for her husband, and I invariably came away knowing more about whatever the field was than when I opened the book. And while the writing is far from great, it’s very readable in a friendly sort of way, and his protagonists are always likeable, decent people — not heroes, but usually placed in situations where heroics may be called for.
Sorry about that, I know this is actually a Robert B. Parker/Spenser thread, not a Dick Francis thread. Got a little carried away. I’m still very sad (and shocked, in fact) over Parker’s sudden death.
HarleyPeyton
Check out Joe Lansdale’s novels, and the Hap and Leonard books in particular. Crazy Texas noir. And crazy like James Crumley books are crazy. Which is a good thing.
DFS.
I third the folks who recommend Donald Westlake/Richard Stark. It’s a good time to get into the Stark stuff especially, because his “Parker” series (which spawned Payback with Mel Gibson and Point Blank with Lee Marvin, among other films) are just coming out in new, reasonably priced editions from the University of Chicago Press. Most of ’em have been out of print for years, and mystery buffs snap them up out of used bookstores in no time flat, so for a while they were really hard to find.
Start with the first one, The Hunter, which is a viciously good crime story and also a really interesting period piece about New York a few decades ago. That sort of forms the a trilogy with the next two, but the series becomes more or less episodic from then on, so you can skip back and forth and read different ones.
The stuff he wrote under his own name is also really good. Of the Dortmunder series (comic heist yarns set in New York), I really like Bank Shot and Why Me. Also good is Kahawa, a long and dead serious novel that’s sort of a cross between a heist plot and an African war story. It’s about a group of soldiers for hire who hijack a train full of valuable coffee in Uganda…back when it was ruled by Idi Amin.
skippy
he’s (was) great. easy reads, mostly dialogue, and spenser’s macho man as philosopher schtick gets a little old for me, but i always read his stuff (now, alas, no longer!)
for a more complex character than spenser, try parker’s jesse stone series, about an alcoholic ex-lapd cop who gets the chief of police job in a small mass. town (up the coast from boston). jesse stone struggles w/his drinking, his on-again off-again relationship w/his ex-wife, and the town council who never enjoy his from the hip in your face style. plus he solves murders, you can’t beat that (and, more than a few recurring characters from the spenser novels appear in the stone stories).
i am crushed to hear of his death.
off-topic (massachusettes), but you might like sara paratsky’s v.i. warshovski series (set in chi-town, don’t let the kathleen turner movie scare you away, warshovski is a female private eye who is neither feminist nor a dainty flower).
MikeF
“A Murder of Quality”, probably. There’s a decent film adaptation, though nowhere near as good as the brilliant Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Smiley’s People miniseries with Alec Guinness.
JasonF
I’m another reader who loves early Spenser but fell off reading them about a decade ago. And now I’m sad to hear about Parker’s death.
harryp
I’d forgotten George Pelecanos – excellent, tho’ like many of these writers, overly fond of variations on a theme and remembered James Sallis – little fat on the literary bones, and at times poetic.
Peter VE
So many books, so little time…
SiubhanDuinne
@mellowjohn:
He’s the one who wrote Lamb, right? About Jesus and his best friend Biff? I had forgotten about that, but I really enjoyed it.
mellowjohn
“I recommend Sarah Paretsky’s V. I. Warshawski series. The detective in these books is a woman, but she is intelligent and gritty.”
BUT?!?! really.
i liked the first couple warshawsik books (i live in chicago), but they became very formulaic. of course, that becomes a real problem with almost any series.
i do like the bosch books, too, but sweet jeebuz, can’t connolly ever let anything good happen to the poor guy?
Barnard
The Nero Wolfe series by Rex Stout is a great mix of the sedentary brain, a la Sherlock Holmes, and the American man of action, with excellent evocations of New York from the 30s to the 60s. Some great titles include Some Buried Caesar, Not Dead Enough, and Over My Dead Body.
Davis X. Machina
Sjowall and Wahloo, the Martin Beck books, are the gold standard. Might be the best procedurals ever.
Never a good film made from one of them. The Laughing Policeman had the action moved to LA. Man on the Roof is so-so.
My wife describes them as what you’d get if Kierkegard wrote episodes for Barney Miller.
Jimmm
@SiubhanDuinne:
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal.
Good stuff.
aimai
Yes to the Lovejoy books, as well. If you are looking for something really funny that leaves you knowing a bit more than when you started out about antiques, these are them. Also, no one has mentioned the Judge Dee Mysteries by Robert Van Gulick–wonderful, detailed mysteries about a famous, real, Tang dynasty detective. Totally off the Robert b. parker beat but wonderful nonetheless. In this vein I’d also recommend the mysteries written by Eliot Patterson (yes, only one L) like “The Skull Mantra”. That’s the first of a wonderful series set in Chinese Tibet. The hero is a disgraced Chinese policeman who has been thrown away to die, for political reasons, in a Tibetan work camp filled with elderly tibetan monks. Pretty woo-woo and complicated but enthralling.
If you like finding out about lost worlds I’d also recommend a grotesque but fascinating series set in apartheid South Africa. But I can’t find a link to them and they are buried in a box upstairs. Anyone know what I’m talking about? The protagonists are a white afrikaans police officer and his black side kick and the books are grotesquely honest about the horrors of apartheid.
aimai
Ruckus
Haven’t read many of the heavy favs here but also haven’t heard Rex Stout mentioned with his Nero Wolf series. Sort of light reading detective mysteries. Can’t think of any offhand that didn’t involve murder. There was a cable show with Tim Hutton playing the right hand man that is available on Netflix. Not edge of the seat stuff, but fun to figure out.
burnspbesq
People tend to think of Scott Turow as a writer of legal fiction, but “Presumed Innocent” is as good a police procedural as has ever been written. And the movie is fabulous. I am dying a slow, lingering death waiting for the sequel, which is due to be published in May.
CDT
Try Jon Talton, who has a series of David Mapstone mysteries that use Phoenix as a backdrop. He’s a former Republic business writer now at the Seattle Times. He’s also got a great, tough-minded blog, Rogue Columnist, that is among my favorites. It’s a cross between Digby and Jim Kunstler.
mellowjohn
@ SiubhanDuinne:
yup, also “blood-sucking fiends” and “you suck”, only peripherally about vampires.
and in another another vein (sorry), i like stuart wood’s stone barrington stuff.
Dennis-SGMM
I very much enjoyed Janwillem van de Wetering’s police procedural novels about the two Amsterdam cops, Grijpstra and de Gier. Good writing, nice sense of place, well drawn characters and some nice plots.
Emma Anne
Beware – John D. Macdonald is really creepy.
I like Dick Francis, probably because I prefer cheerful thrillers. I read few V.I Warshawski and Sue Grafton, but got tired of their endlessly troubled personal lives.
Thomas Perry is good too, but can be on the gruesome side.
harryp
@aimai
“The Steam Pig” being one of the South African series, maybe? A good book, as I dimly recall.
blondie
When I heard that Parker died, I suddenly choked up a little – my father passed away a couple of years ago, and he was the person who got me interested in the Spenser series. Just about all the Parker books I have my father passed on to me after he finished them.
As I read everyone’s comments above, I couldn’t help but think of another writer Dad thought incredibly highly of – amazing there could be so many comments about good writers, yet no one mentioned Reginald Hill! British writer, his two main characters are police detectives Dalziel and Pascoe. There are 20 or so in the series; it helps to read in order, but you don’t have to. The quality of writing is incredible; my father’s and my favorite is . When he finished it, Dad said it wasn’t fiction, it was literature.
kommrade reproductive vigor
1. Phuck
2. Yes!
3. Reginald Hill’s Dalziel [sp?] series.
Dee Loralei
I’ll third or whatever James Lee Burke. Another mostly unknown guy is Ace Atkins. His detective is actually a musicologist or musical historian or musical anthropologist based out of Tulane. Imparts a bunch of blues knowledge and other music in each book. Physical violence, but no seriel killers. Crazy ass southerners and music music music. Fun books, not like Westlake or Leonard but fun. Moody and music-y and fun. And darned good mysteries.
And for god’s sake man, there are several published authors who comment here. They read you, you should read them.
GReynoldsCT00
Agreed! I love Hiassen’s books
Peter VE
@aimai
I think you may be referring to James McLure.
I second Barbara Vine, Philip Kerr; Alan Furst; Carl Hiassen and especially Walter Mosely.
Stan of the Sawgrass
Sorry I got here so late, but I scanned to see who mentioned Ross McDonald– seems to be just me and Forked Tongue.
He’s dead-on, though. ‘The Chill’ is great, but I think ‘The Underground Man’ is better, and ‘Sleeping Beauty’ is a masterpiece too. Lew Archer’s piercing observations and deep ..aloneness.. make for some of the best first-person detective narrations ever. Poetic but tough, not to be missed.
BTW- I had to give away ‘Sleeping Beauty’ because I’d start reading it again the moment I’d finished ‘just to check a plot point’ and then find I’d gotten almost to the end. Happened more than once.
Tommy
For a look at crime through the criminal’s eyes try the works of Patricia Highsmith – always a great read.
JD Rhoades
I’m a particular fan of The Doorbell Rang. Wolfe vs. the FBI. Very subversive stuff for the time.
And her politics are just the thing for this crowd. ;-). I once heard Paretsky complain about being described as “left-leaning” . She said there was nothing to the left of her to lean on.
gelfling545
The Spencer stories are very good “tough” school mysteries but not a great deal like the tv show (which I didn’t care for.) Remember that they go back through the 60’s and are very much of their time, so they may, in the earlier works, seem a bit dated and politically incorrect although Spencer grows and changes with the times.
feebog
Did not read the entire thread, but I have been reading this genre all my adult life, which is far longer than I care to admit. Here are my picks:
James Hall: the Thorn series, a charater similar to John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee.
As someone pointed our upthread, anything by John D. MacDonald, especially the Travis McGee series.
James Swain: If you like stories about gambling, casinos and murder, this might be your guy.
Steve Hamilton: Ex cop retired in Michican. Who knew there was so much crime in the upper peninsula?
Carl Hiaasan: Funny, quirky characters set in Florida. A couple of his books have been made into movies. I particularly recommend Skin Tight.
Michael Connely: the Harry Bosch series, and anything else. Clint Eastwood stared in a movie based on one of his books about five or six years ago.
James Lee Burke: The Dave Robicheaux series and every one of his other novels.
Sean Doolittle: New on the scene, like his stuff.
Steven Hunter: READ THE NOVELS IN ORDER OF PUBLICATION. Lots of action, and again, at least one movie made from his novels.
Mag
Fast One by Paul Cain. Right up your alley.
SiubhanDuinne
@Tommy:
There’s a new biography of Highsmith that’s just been published that I am
dyingeager to read.Linkmeister
@dan: I haven’t read all the way through, but asking about caper novels prompted me to add these: Lawrence Block’s Bernie Rhodenbarr series and Westlake’s Dortmunder series.
Bernie is usually in the midst of a burglary and finds himself suddenly at risk of being arrested for murder, so he has to solve the crime.
Dortmunder and his crew are usually found planning and trying to execute a burglary when things go terribly wrong.
Jim Once
@JD Rhoades:
A.Men.
Love Laura Lippman, Lehane and Burke, as well. A recent discovery is Adrian McKinty – read four of his books in the last four days. Violent – but his black Irish wit is the best.
SiubhanDuinne
@Jimmm: Thanks! That’s the one.
Stan of the Sawgrass
I was going to mention Hiassen, but I wasn’t sure he counted as a “mystery” guy– though he’s not to be missed or dissed, ever!
And as a Florida native, I have a dirty lil’ secret to share with you:
Hiassen exaggerates only VERY SLIGHTLY! Things really are that weird down here.
MikeJ
And if he won’t toot his own horn after being given an intro to do it, perhaps some people want to check out JD Rhoades. I was going to link to his site (the url on his name here) but it appears squatters have struck.
sheiler
I second Adrian McKinty. The Dead trilogy is excellent. Start with Dead I Well May Be. It’s not creepy serial killer stuff. Very action packed, very literary in the most gorgeous way possible.
Jim Once
I don’t see T. Jefferson Parker here – his “color” series is the best. Look for titles with a color – blue, red, black, etc.
JM
Must be at the right blog. Agreed with most of the recommendations:
Lee Child, the hottest (read the first page of “One Shot” and just try to put it down.) All of John Sandford, including the non-prey stuff. I read all of J.D.Macdonald’s 100 or so books long ago, though when I re-read one recently the sexism was hard to take. Yes, Lawrence Block, and of course Michael Connelly.
I would only add one – Peter Robinson. A Brit whose character really grows over the series. He’s also less gruesome than some of the Americans, though still plenty exciting.
JM
Must be at the right blog. Agreed with most of the recommendations:
Lee Child, the hottest (read the first page of “One Shot” and just try to put it down.) All of John Sandford, including the non-prey stuff. I read all of J.D.Macdonald’s 100 or so books long ago, though when I re-read one recently the sexism was hard to take. Yes, Lawrence Block, and of course Michael Connelly.
I would only add one – Peter Robinson. A Brit whose character really grows over the series. He’s also less gruesome than some of the Americans, though still plenty exciting.
Oh yeah – “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”, and the sequel “Girl who played with fire.”
Skepticat
Damn. I hadn’t heard that, and it makes me sad. I enjoyed Parker’s work even though it’s extremely formulaic. I think he fancied himself a poor man’s Hemingway. I liked the slightly fresh take on the characters with Sunny Randall and Jesse Stone, but–as someone mentioned–that are indeed all the same person. Part of what I enjoyed, of course, is recognizing the places he talks about (no matter what he calls them–find me one person in Massachusetts who doesn’t know Paradise).
Sara Paretsky (largely set in Chicago), Julie Smith (New Orleans), Sue Grafton (California) and Linda Barnes (Boston) all write good mysteries and have developed excellent characters.
All authors of the genre get somewhat predictable, especially once they run a string, but I read them for escape rather than intellectual advancement.
A Canadian friend introduced me to Anne Perry’s Victorian mysteries, and she’s the one writer whose endings never failed to surprise me. Very talented.
But damn, now I’m depressed. Why don’t I think that election results will make me feel any better?
Linkmeister
Stout’s Wolfe is wonderful. Archie Goodwin, Wolfe’s man of action, was played by Timothy Hutton with an ensemble cast in two A&E seasons. The TV shows are wonderful period pieces of NYC mid-1930s to mid-1950s.
There are about 45 novels and easily that many short stories.
Elizabelle
I do love Michael Connelly’s books.
Haven’t caught the thread, and she’s quite different, but you have to give P.D. James, British mystery novelist, her props. Were they not mysteries, she’d be included among literary writers. Great eye for characters. I always have to look up a new word or two.
Here’s Boston Globe magazine 2007 interview with Parker.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2007/10/14/man_of_mystery/?page=full
Raenelle
Try James M. Cain and Jim Thompson.
JD Rhoades
@MikeJ:
Thanks for the rec and for the heads up. I’ll contact the webmistress right away….
Carrie
@JM:
Yes, Peter Robinson, how can i forget to mention him and
Minette Walters, and Val McDermid and and and…..
Elizabelle
“Sick Puppy” by Carl Hiassen. “The blood of evanescing fools.” Not to be missed.
You all have some excellent suggestions!
And let’s hope we don’t all end up offline because we are too depressed to even contemplate modern US politics and the obstacles mounting for President Obama. Please let Coakley pull it out.
Understood where John was coming from with his respite.
For me lately: no TV and very little internet. One needs some sanity and a break from the fauxrages and media stupidity bites. (I think the American public is smarter and more patient than the mediacrity, but the fools have the mike.)
matt
james m cain
patricia highsmith
true crime stuff like education of a felon by bunker and you can’t win by jack black
david goodis
cornell woolrich
Jim Once
@Skepticat:
I agree, Anne Perry is very, very good. Ever since watching the movie Heavenly Bodies,however, reading her makes me squirm a little. (It’s the true story of two teenage girls who kill the mother of one of the girls – Perry was found guilty, but rather than imprisoned, told she had to live the rest of her life in Scotland, rather than New Zealand, where the crime occurred.) Shouldn’t affect my reading or response to her work – but there it is.
Elizabelle
Um, at 146 make that “the evanescing blood of fools.”
penpen
I’m thirding, I believe, The Friends of Eddie Coyle. Not a detective novel so much as a crime novel, but I’d never read anything like it before, and it was such a terse marvel. Check it out, It’s short!
phoebesmother
No one’s mentioned Martin Cruz Smith’s Russian novels. Or Smila’s Sense of Snow. Agree on the Scandinavians, especially Henning Mankell.
I dislike serial killers, nothing relevatory about them (there are so few in real life, unlike the merely criminal or killers pricked by greed or passion). I’m more of the puzzle and character, or character and puzzle reader.
No one here seems to read the Brits. Check out some of Reginald Hill’s Dalziel and Pascoe novels. Or Colin Dexter, or Minette Walters. And the early to middle P.D. James.
priscianus jr
If you’re not averse to European writers — Georges Simenon and Nicholas Freeling are top notch. Simenon’s early Inspector Maigret (1930s) is even the same era as Hammett.
DougJ
I just finished the Rebus series from Ian Rankin.
I liked “Black and Blue” a lot. But there was something about the denoument that I didn’t care for.
matt
dashiell hammett
Beej
It’s true that the Spenser novels fall off slightly in the middle, but they pick back up again if you can get through those two or three aberrations.
DougJ
Oh yeah – “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”,
Great, except the serial killer stuff. I just don’t like that. It’s not real, it’s cheap, it’s not about understandable motivations.
phoebesmother
Sorry. Redundant. Gotta. Jump. Faster. These threads accumulate swiftly.
forked tongue
Since the OP referenced Chandler, I’ve restricted my specific recommendations to MacDonald, Kerr, and Pelecanos, but — going well outside the detective genre — a favorite crime writer of mine that hasn’t been mentioned is Don Winslow: “California Fire and Life” is a damn fine, dark and funny novel with a surfing arson investigator as lead (My only caveat is that most of the stuff in it about arson forensics, which I found fascinating at the time, has probably been invalidated by more recent thinking as detailed in that New Yorker article about the poor bastard who got executed in Texas). “The Death and Life of Bobby Z” is a hoot about a total loser who is offered the chance to get out of life in prison in return for impersonating a legendary drug kingpin. “The Winter of Frankie Machine” is also great. “The Power of the Dog” is super epic, spanning twenty years of the Mexican drug trade — pretty violent in parts, but undeniably grand. However, his most recent, “Dawn Patrol,” returns to a surfing milieu, and it sucks.
Carrie
@DougJ:
I hope you’ll give him an other chance.
I actually cried a little when i finished Exit Music (the Last Rebus novel)
Jim Kakalios
Oh yes for Rex Stout/Nero Wolfe. The second novel – The League of Frightened Men – is one of the best constructed mystery novels, in my humble opinion, of all time. There was a film version which was pretty crappy, but the actor who played Paul Chapin was quite good in the role.
Really enjoying this thread. Reminds me of the cocktail thread a month ago.
WereBear
@dan: You can’t do better than Donald E. Westlake, with his Dortmunder series.
They are comic caper novels, with lots of everything; interesting characters, clever plots, lots of turns, and dynamite style.
And funny. Lots of funny.
Avery Brooks is brilliant, that’s why.
I did love Spenser, especially at first. Parker brought dialogue to life (which is why I think Spenser was such a smart-ass.) Great stuff, sorry to hear about his passing. But gee, dropping in the traces… he woulda have probably wanted it that way.
Zuzu's Petals
I’ll be sorry there won’t be anymore of Parker’s Jesse Stone or Sunny Randall mysteries. Have read ’em all, even though I sometimes had to leaf through all the psychobabble about their respective hangups on their exes.
Will also miss Hillerman’s Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee mysteries.
Other votes:
Martha Grimes, both for her (mostly) very English Richard Jury novels and her Hotel Paradise series, where the heroine is a precocious 12 yr old girl.
Yes on Paretsky, Grafton, Burke, and Hiassen. Also.
worriedman
Sandeford – Addictive, uniform high quality.
George Pelecanos – exceptionally meaningful genre fiction
Westlake – Parker is just the best, I also loved “The Ax”
Anything really. “Point Blank” is on TCM Thursday at 8 P.M.
Jonathan Valin wrote a series set in Cincinnati about Harry Stoner – My pick hit for a modern day Phillip Marlowe.
James Crumley – absolute must
John D. MacDonald – in the Fawcett paperback if you can.
Aunt Moe
Stuart Kaminsky just died also. His Liebowitz and Rostnikov series are gems.
And try John Lescroat.
RSA
@dan is a man after my own taste. I’ll second the recommendations for James Lee Burke and Michael Connelly. Also Carl Hiaasan. And Eric Ambler.
Not yet mentioned is Dan Simmons, who’s written some good hard-boiled mysteries.
@phoebesmother mentions Brits: I was passing through Cornwall a few years ago and got a recommendation from a bookseller for W. J. Burley’s Wycliffe mysteries; I liked them.
forked tongue
Re: James Lee Burke, I read his Katrina novel and hated it. Really hoping that one isn’t highly regarded by his fans–is it?
WereBear
Had to bail, I was editing and that countdown was driving me nuts.
One series I haven’t seen mentioned was the “Deadly Sin” series from Lawrence Sanders. Very big in the ’70s, and the first one, called The First Deadly Sin, introduced his NYC detective, Edward “Iron Balls” Delaney.
And that either makes you want to seek them out… or not.
Zuzu's Petals
@Skepticat:
I’ve read a couple, but can’t get past the fact that the author herself is a convicted murderer.
joeinoklahoma
I have always enjoyed Lawrence Block’s series of Matt Scudder police novels. Scudder struggles with his past and his drinking while solving crimes in NYC. Great reads.
start with When the Sacred Gin Mill Closes or Eight Million Ways to Die.
and I confess I really enjoy the humorous gore of Carl Hiaasen. (Skinny Dip, Native Tongue, Tourist Season for starters)
Zuzu's Petals
@forked tongue:
Meh.
William
Another vote for Henning Mankell’s police procedurals. Fantastic, and I have no idea why. My girlfriend loves ’em, too.
forked tongue
Zuzu, is that your opinion of the book or of me saying I thought it blew?
WereBear
@worriedman: Oh, Jonathan Valin is the tops. I must have read Life’s Work a dozen times.
I loved Joe Binney, the deaf detective invented by Jack Livingston. Great reads, very sensible about the plusses & minuses of his PI being deaf, and clever clever plots.
forked tongue
Re: the update. Harlen Coben wrote the book. I read it. It was OK, but didn’t make me want to read more by him. I think the movie was better.
rachel
One of the things I liked about the Spencer novels was the literary references. I read A Distant Mirror because of Spencer’s explanation of why he liked it.
Delia
I’m also sorry to hear of Parker’s passing. I liked the Spenser novels and agree with the consensus that the brightness eventually wore out. In general I find that most mystery writers eventually get bored with their protagonist and the novels become formulaic. Martha Grimes’ early Jury novels are a lot better than her later ones. Sue Grafton’s early novels are much better than the ones she’s been churning out as she nears the end of the alphabet.
I’ve read a lot of the ones mentioned. One that I haven’t seen that I’d like to add is a British writer, Robert Barnard. Don’t know if he’s still around or not. He tends to have a northern English setting and always involves interesting moral or social angles.
Anne Laurie
@SiubhanDuinne:
Yes, the BBC’s Lovejoy series ran for 60-some episodes (6 seasons) starting in 1986. All are available, and the Spousal Unit & I are working our way through them a little at a time. Sort of an 80s British version of Leverage, if you can imagine that — a team of grey-area professionals cracking wise during increasingly outlandish capers, done swiftly enough that only after the fact do you realise how many plot holes there are. Ian McShane stars as Lovejoy; in fact, it’s apparently the role that got him cast on Deadwood, and he’s extremely watchable even amid the horror of 80s fashion.
(Haven’t read the novels myself — apart from a childhood taste for Ross McDonald and Ed McBain, I mostly like “cozy” or at least comic mysteries — but the Spousal Unit adores them, and he’s not much of a mystery reader usually.)
dakota
I’d recommend:
Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch series and his standalones. Sometimes the Harry Bosch ones get a little too depressing. I have to intersperse them with something funny.
John Sanford’s Prey series and the newer Virgil Flowers ones.
Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series.
Robert Crais’s Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series and his standalones.
Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire series. Set in rural Wyoming with strong regional themes.
WereBear
@DFS.: I love Kahawa.
And it spawned my favorite review of all time, from the NY Times Review of Books, no less:
If you don’t like Kahawa, there’s something wrong with you.
Doctor Cleveland
He was fun, and he was part of Boston. I’ll miss him.
The best Spenser mysteries were written before 1988. Those are the mysteries where Spenser experienced himself in some kind of emotional or ethical jeopardy. By 1990, the character had become essentially untouchable; all of his problems were simply plot problems, and therefore nothing to worry about. (Of course, he’ll solve the crime. Of course, we won’t be killed in chapter eight.) But before that, he was a character who *could* blow his relationship, who *could* do the wrong thing and be angry at himself for it, who *could* find himself in a box where there was no perfectly right thing to do. And that made the character work.
There’s a moment in Mortal Stakes where a female character, who isn’t quite his client, loses patience with Spenser’s attempt to thread an ethical needle, and calls him an overgrown adolescent child. And part of Spenser clearly agrees with the criticism, and feels badly about it, even while he absolutely needs to play by the rules of his professional ethics. Later in the series, he’s never exposed to that kind of moral discomfort any more. But Parker was clearly reinvigorated by his newer characters, at least at first, and the first few Jesse Stone novels are worth reading, because Stone is flawed and messy and on some basic level struggling to hold on to his self-respect, the way Spenser was in the early days.
Tom Hilton
Since I seem to be the only person to have read Paco Ignacio Taibo, I’m just going to have to recommend him again. Really great stuff, combining the noir ethos/aesthetic with a lefty worldview (he also wrote biographies of Che Guevara and Pancho Villa) and a tragic sense of history.
PTirebiter
I haven’t seen any recommendations that I’d really disagree with, so I’ll second two that didn’t get much notice.
Do not miss James Crumley. The Last Good Kiss is one of my all time favorites from the genre.
Michael Connelly, George Pelecanos, Dennis Lehane, and others, site Crumley as a major inspiration.
Give Laurence Block’s Matthew Scudder a look, I think When The Sacred Gin Mill Closes is the first in the series. And another vote for T.Jefferson Parker, Laguna Heat etc.
If you’re open to Detectives and Mysteries out of type, consider Willard and His Bowling Trophies, and Dreaming of Babylon by Richard Brautigan. Fun Stuff.
PurpleGirl
Maybe someone has already mentioned but Parker had begun two other series — Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall. He had a bunch of others which were more stand-alones. His doctoral dissertation was about Hammet and Chandler. His last 3 or 4 Spencers were pretty decent, too, I think.
PurpleGirl
If you don’t want to read about serial killers stay away from the Dr. Brennan novels of Kathy Reiches. She is a very good writer. The novels I’ve read so far involve serial killers. One other point: the tv series Bones is really a cross between Reiches’ own career and the Dr. Brennan of the novels.
forked tongue
@Tom Hilton:
I’m down widdit. I love Mexico and am always looking for crime novels set there.
Re: Crumley, I loved “The Last Good Kiss” when I read it in my 20’s but I have to admit, last time I looked I didn’t think it had aged all that well. Lots of macho-sentimental bluster about drinking harder than strictly necessary, I thought.
worriedman
“Parker” first lines –
http://www.miskatonic.org/parker-first-lines.html
“When the guy with the asthma finally came in from the fire escape, Parker rabbit-punched him and took his gun away.”
The Mourner
Westlake was so good. You can’t boil it any harder than that.
Chuck
@RSA: re: Dan Simmons hard boiled books
I read these, and loved them (particularly the receptionist’s dig on the later Spenser novels, as I was getting to the same point with them she was), but initially thought he was parodying the genre.
When a second book came out, I was almost sure of it. All of the hints were there: preposterous situations, cliched characters (characters are usually a Simmons strong point), and a slight overarching plot from book to book. Sad part was, even if it was a parody, I loved them. I was upset when I found out the series was dead.
I recommend Kyle Mills (his series about FBI agent Mark beamon are very good), and and forked tongue is dead on about Don Winslow. Everything he writes is gold.
WereBear
@Chuck: Dan Simmons is really good. He had an arctic thriller, The Terror, that had meticulous research and it still scares me to think about it now.
So they were parodies? Dang, I loved them too. But you know, a genre like that… it’s really hard to tell :)
PTirebiter
@Doctor Cleveland:
I’ll miss him too. His perennial jacket photo always brought television’s Boston Blackie to mind. I don’t know why, I grew up in L.A. and I don’t think it was any kind of hit.
JD Rhoades
@Jim Once:
If it helps, I’ve met her, and she’s a lovely person. Unfailingly gracious, even though her signing line was 100 times the length of mine. :-)
sgrAstar
Scandinavian noir police procedurals pretty much rule the roost!
1. henning mankell [sweden]
2. arnaldur indridason [iceland]
3. jo nesbo [norway]
4. karin fossum [norway]
5. and last, but not least- the late, great stieg larsson
Also a big fan of Ian Rankin, Reginald Hill, Peter Robinson, Ken Bruen, Ruth Rendell, P.D. James, and the king, Michael Connelly.
Skepticat
@Jim Once: That’s fascinating, I had no idea. Makes me feel better that I’ve never bought any of her books, have gotten them only from the library! The things that I learn on this blog …
JD Rhoades
@WereBear:
Dan Simmons can write anything. His Hyperion Cantos are the type of big, galaxy-spanning SF that makes me remember why I read the stuff.
PTirebiter
@forked tongue:
I’m a fan of Burke, but I have to agree, it blew. I’m afraid the Robicheux series has run its course. Dave’s partner Clete has become as unbelievable as Hawk did in the later Spenser stuff. Some devices die harder thaqn others I guess. It’s too bad that was your first exposure to Burke, you may have liked his earlier stuff.
WereBear
@JD Rhoades: I’m planning to save up and get them all, hopefully on Kindle, but in any case, and work my way through them one vacation this year.
Such a versatile fellow, seemed to me. Thanks for confirming it.
Something Fabulous
Golly, although I am sad about the topic of the OP, I am glad to see this thread; I love when everyone chimes in. So interesting. She is not very hard-boiled, but as I just finished re-reading her last night, a shout-out to Josephine Tey. More in the detached British post-war mode, but since she wrote so few, they always felt fresh, to me.
Chuck
@JD Rhoades, Werebear: I don’t knot if the books were parodies, it was just a sense I got reading them. It would not surprise me.
I’ve read all of Simmons published work, and the Hyperion Cantos is incredible stuff. Carrion Comfort is simply one of the best vampire novels ever.
And since folks are now discussing the Burke Robicheaux novels, may as well chime in there, too: the first 15 or so are great, and he has a very lyrical quality to the writing that is at once beautiful and sad. As the books go on, you have to wonder how effective these 60 years old+ men are in certain situations (Clete should have died years ago, with the sheer number of people he’s pissed off), but there’s still life in the series if you suspend a bit of disbelief.
Has anyone mentioned Stephen Hunter yet? The Bob Lee Swagger books are fantastic, and show an admirable amount of consideration for the ravages of aging on an action-hero type. I often felt this was a majorly overlooked point in the Spenser novels (as well as the read-it-in-three-hours length of the later novels).
I see someone mentioned Joe Lansdale above; that’s a good series and lots of crazy fun. You may also wish to check out Andrew Vachss; not as fun, waaaayy more serious, but the man has a mission he believes in and gets the point across every novel. There are a few misses in the Burke series (the ones in Portland stand out), but overall, great books.
jrosen
AS a recovering alcoholic (21 years now) I am perhaps more fond of Jesse Stone — the self-exiled LA cop with a drinking problem that winds up in Paradise, a small town on the Mass. coast, than Spenser. I lived in E. Mass for 35 years (a transplanted Detroiter, now in NJ myself ) and always enjoyed figuring out what went where in Parker’s books. The Stone books are set in Marblehead BTW, home of John Glover and his boatmen, that carried Washington across the Delaware River to attack the Hessians on Xmas morning in 1776 — rescuing the Revolution from an early demise (while we are participating in its late demise…it’s especially a good thing that I don’t drink any more, or I might just do myself in after tonight in my former adopted state).
A rather different sort of detective is Alex Delaware, a shrink who works unofficially with L. A.’s only openly gay homicide detective in a long series by Jonathan Kellerman (who was a shrink himself). The LA decadence and generally nuttiness that shadows these books is a tribute to Chandler himself. I’m also partial to V. I. Warshawski, Sarah Paretsky’s female PI in Chicago.
Anne Laurie
@aimai:
James McClure — most of the Kramer & Zondi novels seem to be out of print at the moment, dammit, but they should be available through interlibrary loan (and of course at used bookshops). McClure did an amazing job of two smart, honorable, flawed professional cops working a long brilliant partnership within the confines of a hideously twisted racist authoritarian society. Just don’t read THE SONG DOG until after you’ve finished the others, because the ending will break your heart.
Aaron Baker
Hmm, the only Parker novel I’ve ever read was the (non-Spenser) Wilderness. It’s a very entertaining read about a law-abiding writer who witnesses a mob hit, then realizes he has to kill the mobsters before they kill him and his wife. The step by step transformation of a more or less normal human being into a killer is engrossing, and a little disturbing.
Tommy
@SiubhanDuinne: I saw it reviewed in the NYT and I put in a request at the library. still waiting….
we can be heroes
I forgot about the Martin Beck novels, written by Scandinavian couple Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall. I think there are like 10 novels in the series, all superlative.
And Belgian author Georges Simenon: some of his Maigret novels were adapted for a BBC series a few years ago which was quite good.
Aaron Baker
I second the high praise for The Terror by Simmons. Easily one of the best things he’s done. Reading it actually made me feel cold.
Bill H
Robert Parker is a big loss; no more Spenser and Hawk. I haven’t been so saddened since John D. MacDonald died and we lost Travis McGee.
Someone mentioned Patricia Cornwell who was good at one time, but her characters have all become psycho sad sack losers and the books consist almost entirely of their emotional distress at lost loves, lost in most cases by their own lack of emotional maturity.
Shell Goddamnit
Ross Thomas, The Fools In Town Are On Our Side is a treat. I believe I tried one or two of the others but didn’t find them as wonderful. I should go back & try them again.
Jim Thompson is amazing and creepy. Not the same genre as Parker at all, but whoooeee.
There’s some modern, lighter “noir” out there from the 70s & 80s but I’m drawing a blank at the moment.
frosty
@mellowjohn
I still have all my Ross Thomas novels. Great, great writer.
As far as other out of print novels, Gavin Lyall (English, ex-RAF) wrote a lot of good ones, most with a flying bent. “Shooting Script” was my favorite.
Second all the recs on (old) John D. MacDonald, Donald Hamilton, Dick Francis, (new) Lee Child, Alan Furst, Stephen Hunter, Carl Hiaisson, James Lee Burke, Walter Moseley, Harlan Coban.
Anne Laurie
Two other mystery writers not previously mentioned: Lindsay Davis, whose Falco is a hard-boiled dick at the beginning of Classical Rome’s decline. And Joseph Wambaugh, most of whose books are technically police procedurals set in modern LA/Hollywood, but his deeply mordant sense of humor mirrors the best of the hard-boiled-dick sensibility.
andynotadam
Agree mucho on Connelly, Child, Eisler, Mankell, Coben, Kellerman and Lescroart.
RSA
@Chuck:
I don’t know from parody; I just read ’em and liked ’em. :-)
(Okay, Terry Pratchett has some parodic mysteries in Disc World, I think, and there’s Douglas Adams’s Dirk Gently, but it takes a lot to clue me in.
Speaking of parody/pastiche mysteries, I’ll highly recommend Gahan Wilson’s Eddie Deco’s Last Caper, which has strong Cthulhu elements as well as great drawings, and Roger Zelazny’s A NIght in the Lonesome October, not coincidentally illustrated by Wilson.)
KevinNYC
Any of you folks hep to Charlie Huston?
His THE MYSTIC ARTS OF ERASING ALL SIGNS OF DEATH just got nominated by the mystery writers of America for best novel.
His website is pulpnoir.com
I believe a few of early novels were published for free on the web as way of generating publicity for his new work.
Also I just went to his website found his new book came out. You got love a guy who put this this quote on his website.
birthmarker
James Lee Burke’s Katrina book was terrible. It was named Tin Roof Blowdown. What a missed opportunity.
rhubarb
Many favorites already mentioned–esp. Rendell, Westlake, Block, Hiaasen. But if you’ve never tried Joseph Hansen, you should. LA scene, v. much in Chandler line, but Dave Brandstetter is gay. Extremely well-written with highly satisfactory development of ongoing characters. And Hansen (who died himself a few years ago), like Freeling, finally does kill off Dave.
jetan
@Davis X. Machina:
Actually, I think that would be the second book, A Murder Of Quality, which is a classic murder mystery with no espionage element.
grumpy realist
Not police procedurals, but check out the books by Phoebe Taylor. The Asey Mayo mysteries were written in the 1930s and 1940s and are set on Cape Cod. Murder-mystery-farce. Her other detective is Leonidas Witherall and the plots are best described as just one damned thing after another. Screwball murder mysteries to the max.
Also for those who think of Ray Bradbury as a fantasy-SF writer, he has also written several mysteries set in Hollywood in the 1950s. Absolutely delightful combination of nostalgia with hard-ass cop/narrator as sidekick. And gorgeous writing, as one would expect.
SMR
Re: Charlie Huston — I read one book and loved it, bought a second and hated it.
Great new mystery/thriller writer: Stieg Larsson’s trilogy, Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, Girl Who Played with Fire, and Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (not out in US or Canada yet, but can be bought thru UK sites). Read them in order. Sadly he died right after the books were accepted by a publishing house, so savour the books, there won’t be others.
My latest book love is Robert Crais, mystery/thriller/private detective stuff, lots of shooting. Easy reads, engaging characters.
If you Sherlock Holmes type detective stuff, Will Thomas’ “Some Danger Involved” (and many others in the series that follow) is good reading.
Robert Tanenbaum has a series with Butch Karp as the main character, cop/lawyer/mystery/thriller stuff, and it was great reading until the last two or three. Some theories floating around about ghost writers… Those are books that should be read in order to be appreciated, I think the first was published in the mid-late 80s.
Between Haiti and the hating politics in the US, I’ve been immersing myself in easy reads, and for the most part all of those above fit the bill, nothing too profound, Stieg Larsson’s stuff is probably the heaviest.
KevinNYC
I liked Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
PTirebiter
@jrosen:
I liked Jesse Stone for the same reasons, what about Block and his Matthew Scudder series?
Years ago, I met James Elroy at a meeting in Long Beach (21.52 years myself, yea, IPod has an app for that) and he turned me on to James Crumley. It was before Black Dahlia and all the attendant fame. BTW, he doesn’t protect his anonymity so I’m not telling tales out of school. I don’t live in LA anymore, but you can find most of Chandler’s locations. I actually had a few Gimlets at bar in the Biltmore. I think the Biltmore’s gone, it was over thirty years ago.
Common Sense
If you like Elroy try American Tabloid. I loved that book. Better than LA Confidential IMO.
Common Sense
@Aunt Moe:
I didn’t know that but it upsets me greatly. Kaminsky’s Russian novels were spectacular.
I also enjoy Donal Westlake’s more serious works. Kahawa was phenomenal.
Zuzu's Petals
@forked tongue:
Sorry, meant it just wasn’t one of my faves.
Zuzu's Petals
@PurpleGirl:
I have to admit one of my guilty pleasures is watching a glut of old Bonesepisodes at a time courtesy of my DVR.
eric k
If your a fan of The Wire you should check out Dennis Lehane, George Peleconos and Richard Price. All of them wrote for The Wire.
Zuzu's Petals
@worriedman:
Carl Hiaasen wrote one of my favorite intros ever:
Skinny Dip
joe radziszewski
Parker wasn’t a very good writer. I liked Spencer for Hire too.
satby
Looks like the thread’s dead, and great recs from everyone. I’m a big John D. McDonald Travis McGee fan, but otherwise love Brit mysteries: Ruth Rendall, Ngio Marsh, PD James. And lately I’ve been reading Laurie R. King’s recast of the Sherlock Holmes story as told by Holmes’ wife Mary Russell. Start with the first in the series, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice. King is a great writer and the plots are fresh.
JD Rhoades
@satby:
Check out Rennie Airth.
Gregory
I’m very, very late to this thread, but yes, if you like Chandler, you’ll like Parker’s Spenser novels. I’d also recommend his Jesse Stone books.
Rob in Denver
@JD Rhoades: Don’t think so. But I flutter around various and sundry crime fic and author blogs, dropping an occasional comment every now and then.
marge
Marjorie Allingham – one of the greats
athena
Gasp! I’m reading that one right now!
Have enjoyed many Parker novels in my day; I am sorry to hear he’s gone. I hope he and Tony Hillerman share a glass of something upstairs.
And for well-written, character-driven police procedurals set in England, I am a big fan of Elizabeth George.
Zak44
I devoured a bunch of Spenser novels, until his character began to seem overly self-righteous.
If no one has suggested Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series, you might give it a try.
And if you enjoy being quietly creeped out, any psychological thriller by Ruth Rendell—beyond her Inspector Wexford books, which are a bit more conventional. She also writes as Barbara Vine
I’ve been on a Scandinavian mystery kick for a while. For example:
Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander novels.
Arnaldur Indridason (set in Iceland of all places)
Stieg Larsson’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
And funny you should mention “Ne le dis personne.” We just watched it this past weekend, having already read the Harlan Coban novel. One of the few times I’ve found the movie better than the book. For some reason, a few of the plot twists in the novel seemed less contrived on the screen.
Fergus Wooster
Sorry to arrive so late at this one – George Pelecanos is not to be missed. The Derek Strange series (especially Hard Revolution); King Suckerman and The Sweet Forever.
All set in DC, all crime-oriented, but none are mysteries in the usual sense. Best crime fiction around.
forked tongue
If anyone’s still here: Where should one start with Henning Mankell?
Mako
Joseph Wambaugh
Barry Eisler
Lot of good authors mentioned here, and that Eisler guy is supposed to be good, too. I heard he’s such a fan of Balloon Juice that in his previous novel, Fault Line, he named a small character after John Cole (a bunch of other bloggers appear in the book, too) and mentions Balloon Juice in the story. Harper’s Scott Horton called the book “the first blogosphere thriller,” and Eisler’s forthcoming INSIDE OUT (June 29) is actually dedicated to bloggers.
That’s what I heard, anyway.
:)
Barry
CAM
@dan: Dan, if you are a fan of Elmore Leonard and/or “caper” books generally, you must check out Donald Westlake’s “Dortmunder” series, starting with “The Hot Rock,” which is more fun than humans should be allowed. The books follow the travails of professional burgler John Dortmunder and his hapless gang of thieves. Best to proceed chronologically, as recurring characters are added throughout the series. Westlake died within the past year or so. He was extremely prolific during his lifetime, writing a couple of different series and the screenplay for the film “The Grifters,” among other things. Check out http://www.donaldwestlake.com.
Mike Jones
A couple of off-center suggestions:
The Janet Evanovich series about Stephanie Plum. Definitely *not* hard boiled, but every one is a fun read.
Anything by Ridley Pearson, but especially any of the series featuring Lou Boldt, a Seattle cop. Talk about spooky…there’s a verisimilitude to all of his plots that can really get under your skin. I first heard of him from Dave Barry(!), who was talking about this weird friend of his. They were going through the grocery store, and this friend was saying that the coffee grinder would be the perfect way to kill a random person; you dump some poison into the grinder, the next person to use it dumps the beans on top and grinds it into their bag. They don’t get to the poison until they’ve used up the bag, and by that time any clues would be so cold you’d never get caught. I figured I’d have to read anybody who thought like that.
PurpleGirl
ZuZu Petal’s — If you come back here… Yeah, I like to watch Bones in batches too.
Steeplejack
@forked tongue:
I am a stickler for reading series in order. With the Wallander novels the first three are: Faceless Killers, The Dogs of Riga and The White Lioness.
I have found that Wikipedia is an excellent source for the chronology of most crime writers. Mankell’s entry here.
Steeplejack
@forked tongue:
P.S. I missed this thread because of work last night, which really pisses me off, because I am a crime fiction hound. Anyway, just wanted to add that as I am finally going through the thread I see that you and I have similar tastes. I think Pelecanos’s Derek Strange set is awesome, and I read all of Ross Macdonald back in the day. In fact, I have been wanting to go back and reread some of those to see if they hold up. Sleeping Beauty and The Blue Hammer seem to be the ones calling me.
James Lee Burke’s early novels are pretty good, but, as someone said above, the series runs out of steam later. The end for me was when I found myself thinking, “Damn, how much evil/crime/corruption can one little podunk town have?!” You might try the first Dave Robicheaux novel, The Neon Rain, and see if you like it better than the Katrina one.
forked tongue
@Steeplejack:
MacDonald! Pelecanos! Yes!
I’m glad to see that not even the Burke fans like that stinky Blowdown book much. As someone who grew up in a little podunk town, I have no problem with seeing them overloaded beyond plausibility with evil, and I didn’t even register a problem with Clete. What I hated about that book was that Robicheaux was so goddamn passive through the whole thing. He barely seems to do anything but brood, brood, brood around the house, even while he has time-sensitive investigations going on. He’s a dick on the domestic front, persisting in calling his stepdaughter by a nickname she makes clear she hates, and his self-righteous passivity ends up putting her in serious danger. At one point, he goes to question somebody who obviously has important information about a case he’s working on, and ends up not even asking the pertinent questions because he’s morally offended by the guy’s attitude. Oh, Brother, did that book suck out loud.
Thanks all for giving me an outlet to vent about something other than health care, even if nobody’s here to read it.
I’m getting on a plane in seven hours with nothing to read but the Mankell I picked up today, which I now see doesn’t come at all early in the series. Oh well.
Steeplejack
@forked tongue:
On the outside chance you get back to this thread . . .
In any long-running series, there’s the danger of the author getting slack and phoning it in. Whether you go on with it often depends on whether the author gets slack in a good way or a bad way.
You nailed it with Burke. At some point in the series you realize you’re just supposed to enjoy following Dave Robicheaux around while he ruminates on this and that, enjoys the unspoiled scenery of his little corner of the world, checks on the bait shop he owns and frets about deep, manly issues of honor, commitment, etc. Meanwhile you want to scream, “Hey, dude, those crimes aren’t going to solve themselves!”
But don’t let that stop you from trying the early books. The first five, maybe 10, are pretty tight. I started to lose the thread when it seemed like the archvillain in every new book was (a) someone Robicheaux went to high school with back around 1960 and (b) in control of all organized crime in the greater New Orleans area. WTF?!
On the other hand, John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee series is an example of one where the author got a little slack in a good way. In the later novels, MacDonald sort of phones it in about McGee’s lifestyle–the floating party scene around the Busted Flush, McGee’s sporadic but bottomless income as a “salvage consultant,” not to mention girls! girls! girls!–but once he sets the table MacDonald always gets down to a tight plot and some good characterization. Pale Gray for Guilt is one of my all-time favorite crime novels.
Also, I meant to ask last night: have you read any of Nicolas Freeling’s Inspector van der Valk novels? Those are really good. Classics from the ’60s. The first one, Love in Amsterdam, is a little atypical, as it was Freeling’s first novel, and he seemed to be trying to find his voice, but the series really gets going with Because of the Cats and Gun Before Butter (U.S. title: Question of Loyalty). Maybe a little hard to find, but recommended.
Zuzu's Petals
@PurpleGirl:
It’s sort of weird piecing the narrative together backwards. Or however the reruns run.
I also can’t believe the FBI guy used to play a vampire.
Zuzu's Petals
@Steeplejack:
I found myself marveling at how many wives the guy went through.