Mystery Novels

[Dirt]

Wanted to see if anybody is reading anything else besides fantasy novels or comic books. I was going to subject this Hard Boiled Fiction but figured I'd leave it more open.

Just finished Dan Simmon's book Hardcase after reading raves for it on yahoogroups. Not a bad few hours read but not nearly as good as it's been hyped. I believe he has a new one out with the same guy called Hardfreeze.

Finished Dennis Lehane's 2nd book in the McKenzie and Gennaro series. WOW. It's been a long time since a book has sent shivers down my spine and left me jumping at shadows; very different from the first book in the series.

Picked up Pelecano's book (I can't remember his PI's name). Gonna start it now that I'm done with Lehane's.

If anyone out there knows anymore good PI writers, I'm always open for suggestions.

[Thierry Nguyen]

Dashiell Hammett's Continental Op series. Can't really go wrong with those.

I've heard really good things about Donald Westlake and his various pseudonyms. I plan on going after both The Ax and The Hook by Westlake soon, and also get into his Parker novels that he did as Stark.

[Jeff Green]

I think we've discussed James Ellroy around here before. His "LA Quartet" novels are brilliant.

I plowed through a huge pile of Elmore Leonard novels a bunch of summers ago. Like 'em a lot. I haven't read anything he's written in the last few years though---I think Get Shorty was the last one.

Walter Mosley's "Easy Rawlins" novels are also very, very good. They made a sorta-semi-decent movie with Denzel out of the first one, "Devil With a Blue Dress." But the book, and all those that followed, are much better.

And Jim Thompson's "Pop 1280" I think is still the most fucked-up book I've ever read. Which I mean in a good way.

[Thierry Nguyen]

Jesus, Walter Mosley is another one of those dudes on my list, but I always end up forgetting to grab a book of his when I'm either at the bookstore or on the Amazon checkout screen. DO YOU HAVE ANY STARTING RECOMMENDATIONS, MISTER SMARTYBOSSMANFUCKTARD?

[Jeff Green]

Man, I gotta go talk to HR or something.

You need to read the Easy Rawlins books in order, because certain story elements continue throughout. Each book takes place about 5 years after the previous one. Great stuff.

Asshat!

[Gordon Cameron]

And Jim Thompson's "Pop 1280" I think is still the most fucked-up book I've ever read. Which I mean in a good way.

Heh, no kidding.

I am not a fan of crime/mystery fiction but I read a fair amount in my job. I enjoyed James Ellroy's "Black Dahlia" and especially Chester Himes's "Real Cool Killers." The latter is one of the tightest and grittiest bits of crime prose I've encountered.

[Lloyd Heilbrunn]

Yea, Lehane's Patrick and Angie are great, wish he'd revisit them.

If you like similar hardboiled stuff, try Micheal Connelly and John Connelly(no relation).

For a little more humor, try Harlan Coben(Bolitar series)and Robert Crais(Cole series).

For character drive police procedurals, try John Sandford and Ian Rankin.

I need to try Pelecanos myself, I hear he is very good.........

[Shady]

Picked up Pelecano's book (I can't remember his PI's name). Gonna start it now that I'm done with Lehane's.


Oh yeah, Pelecanos. His latest (Soul Circus) wasn't my favorite; I think he was trying to get a little too fancy with the plot and the social commentary and not concentrating enough on the characters, but I liked it a lot regardless. And it heralds the comeback of my fav character of his, his alter ego I believe, Nick Stefanos. But I strongly recommend the 2 previous books, Right as Rain and Hell to Pay. And of course King Suckerman--don't know if this is good or bad, but Puffy evidently owns the movie rights.

Check out Motherless Brooklyn too, by Jonathan Lethem. Good hardboiled modern NY gangster action. Protagonist has tourrettes.

And seeing your reading selections and the subject of this thread, it makes me think you should read The Simple Art of Murder (Chandler). Talks about the difference between mysteries and detective fiction.

"Down these mean streets a man must walk..."

[Mark Asher]

The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley I enjoyed quite a bit.

One of the best mysteries I've read in the last few years is The Church of Dead Girls by Stephen Dobyns.

[Toddy]

I'd also recommend The Church of Dead Girls. It's a really good characterization of small-town life and seriously creepy in spots. And unlike so many mysteries, it doesn't fall apart in the conclusion.

All this talk about Jim Thompson makes me want to wander downstairs and dig out my copy of The Killer Inside Me. I don't think I've ever read Pop. 1280. Man, I've gotta start buying those great Black Lizard trades again.

[Kevin Grey]

Michael Connelly is outstanding. I'll buy everything he writes without even reading the jacket. His main series is the Harry Bosch series (starts with the Black Echo). I recommend reading them in order because the character evolution is pretty important. All of his standalones are excellent too, with The Poet being my favorite.

John Connelly is also very good (and very dark), as mentioned earlier.

For anyone tackling James Ellroy- make sure you start with the Black Dahlia. His prose goes through a very stylistic deconstruction as the books progress and by the time you get to White Jazz he isn't even forming full sentences anymore. Black Dahlia is much more accessible than his later novels. Incredible series....

Another recommendation for Church of the Dead Girls, though it felt more Stephen King than hardboiled mystery. Dobyn's next book, Boy in the Water, is also good but not up Church IMHO.

[Robert Sharp]

I don't read mysteries, but my wife enjoys them a lot. Lately she has been reading Michael Jecks, who is an English writer (I have only found them used or expensive because they are imports..well, $10-$15). He writes about a medieval monk who solves crimes. I guess it would be lighter than what most of you are talking about though. But if you like Cadfael mysteries, it may be an interesting series to pick up.

[Bub, Andrew]

He writes about a medieval monk who solves crimes.

Umberto Eco lite?

[Robert Sharp]

He writes about a medieval monk who solves crimes.

Umberto Eco lite?

I suppose so, but like I said, I haven't read them. She enjoys them though, and she reads LOTS of mysteries. She tends to like more "academic" style mysteries, perhaps because she is an English prof. You know, things like Inspector Morse, Cadfael, Anne Perry, etc. She's also a huge fan of Martha Grimes, though she thinks the older books are MUCH better than the newer ones.

[dannimal]

I'm not entirely sure they qualify as mysteries as currently being discussed, but I love the Spenser novels by Parker.

[Miramon]

I really like the Continental Op, and what's not to like about Marlowe. Grumpy as he was about other writers, especially about those who accepted unrealistic plots into their books, even Chandler grudgingly admitted that Hammett knew something about writing.

I also like Rex Stout. Nero and Archie are not exactly hardboiled realistic heroes a la Chandler, but those books are all fun reading, and it's also interesting to look just at the writing. You can be pretty sure that Stout's novels were written very quickly with the minimum rewriting, but it's interesting to see how well written they are at a basic technical level. The early Doc Savage novels, silly as they are, are also interesting from that point of view, you can be sure they were not rewritten at all, and the author (the first guy to assume the name Kenneth Robeson, I forget his real name) probably didn't even review galleys, but still, somehow he cranked out the prose, really really fast, and with fun characterization, and even the occasional interesting plot device. Anyway, getting back to Rex Stout, I also approve of his politics and what he did with his life when not writing potboilers, so that's just another plus....

Other mystery writers I like include Ross Thomas for his many con-man heroes, especially Wu and That Fucking Durand. I like Ross MacDonald (or is it McDonald) for Lew Archer, who is if anything a more realistic Philip Marlowe. The other McDonald (or is it MacDonald), the Travis McGee writer, I also like, but those McGee books are so formulaic in plot I can't read more than one at a time, more frequently than just once in a while -- kind of like the Sherlock Holmes stories, the best part of a Travis McGee novel has to do with the characterizations and the down time from the main plot.

I like some current mystery writers too, but none of them as much as the dead guys mentioned above.

[XPav]

Not really a mystery, but if anyone hasn't read Crytonomicon yet, go do that.

[Miramon]

Eh, Cryptonomicon is Stephenson's worst novel. It's not all that bad, I guess, and it has its moments, but IMO it's silly, weak, overlong, and annoying, and the writing quality isn't that good.

Ross Thomas did Pacific Rim intrigue much better (and in fact he even covered the missing-Japanese-gold-in-the Philipines better.)

Scott Adams does tech/corporate humor better.

Uhh, I can't think of anyone else who does gay WW II romantic comedy offhand. That is certainly an original theme, anyway.

Mix all three of those things together in a single book, and you have a tour-de-force, which Stephenson specializes in, but you also have a serious mess.

Plus, fwiw, it isn't even slightly a mystery.

[dwinn]

I'm working my way through Ellis Peters' Cadfael mysteries. Good stuff.

[deadguy]

Hardcase and Hard Freeze aren't among Simmons' best work, no, but they're fun fluff. Darwin's Blade is much better if you want to try his contemporary stuff. Then again, the man set his bar so high with Song of Kali, it's hard for anything to measure up.

I highly recommend Joe Lansdale's work, especially the Hap and Leonard books. They're fast reads, but they're a lot of fun, they're anything but predictable, and they're the most gleefully obscene things I've read in ages. The Bottoms is also one hell of a read, though slightly more, err, somber.

In the "older stuff" pile, let me toss out the name Cornell Woolrich, the man who gave us Rear Window. I'd also recommend Bradbury's stab at mystery writing, _Death is a Lonely Business_.