Thursday, August 15, 2013

What Crime Fiction Writer Do You Keep Meaning to Read?

For me, Denise Mina. She wins all the awards (Old Theakston the last two years)
and I keep meaning to read her. Have even started one or two of her early books and found them a bit hard to get into. I do not persevere much, demanding immediate accessibility to the world of the book.

Who should you have read but haven't?

33 comments:

George said...

Jo Nesbo. I have the books, but haven't gotten around to read it.

col2910 said...

Greg Rucka - Atticus, Mickey Spillane - Hammer, Hakan Nesser.....3 for starters!

Anonymous said...

George, I'm reading his first book now - THE BAT. It was jsut published here for the first time after a half dozen of his later ones so our timing is right.

I tried Denise Mina, Patti but just way too dark for me.

A partial list:

Louise Penny
Stephen Booth
Ann Cleeves
John Lawton
Zoe Sharp
Ace Atkins
Timothy Hallinan
Peter May
Tana French (got her first book)

Of course, there is no guarantee I will like them if I do read them, but I'll try. And there are definitely others.


Jeff M.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Haven't read Nesbo either. Phil read one.
Nor Rucka, Cleeves, Hallinan, Sharp, Lawton. Really liked the one Penny I read and loved the May and three of the French books. Read one Ace Atkins but not the new stuff.
THE BLACK HOUSE by May is amazing. Can't wait to read LEWIS MAN.

Anonymous said...

Patti - That's the thing. There is never enough time to read it all! I keep meaning to read some of Jack Vance's work besides his 'Ellery Queen' stuff. Still haven't... :-(

Todd Mason said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Charles Gramlich said...

Megan Abbott. I still haven't read one of her books, though I've been meaning to. I just very rarely read crime fiction, although I generally enjoy it when I do.

Anonymous said...

I read Chesbro's BONE (which I liked a lot, as far as I can remember at this late date) and his Roberk Frederickson short story collection, IN THE HOUSE OF SECRET ENEMIES.

From reading other Scandinavians and little things I read somewhere I was expecting the Nesbo book to be dark, but so far (despite the murder of course) it is anything but. Perhaps the fact that it is set in Sydney rather than Oslo helps, or maybe I haven't reached the dark part.

Jeff M.

J F Norris said...

Contemporary:
Karin Fossum
Timothy Hallinan
Linwood Barcaly
Lisa Brackmann

The Oldies:
Raoul Whitfield
Paul Cain
Lenore Glen Offord
Robert Reeves

pattinase (abbott) said...

Really liked TRUST YOUR EYES by Barclay.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Really liked TRUST YOUR EYES by Barclay.

Al Tucher said...

I'd be interested to hear what anyone else thinks about Paul Cain. I picked up his novel, whose title escapes me, when I read that Raymond Chandler extolled Cain's work.

Twenty pages in there were already enough indistinguishable characters to give me a headache, and I gave it up.

Randy Johnson said...

Ken Bruen.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Love the jack Taylor series!

Todd Mason said...

FAST ONE. Paul Cain. No time for certain things.

Anonymous said...

Ditto on Jack Taylor but I must admit his Brant & Roberts series is a guilty pleasure. I also liked TRUST YOUR EYES, though it was a little long.

I really like Whitfield's Jo Gar stories (originally as by Ramon Decolta). Crippen & Landru published JO GAR's CASEBOOK a few years back.

It's been 30 years since I read Cain's FAST ONE so don't remember much, Al. You might prefer his shorter stuff in SEVEN SLAYERS.

Jeff M.

Dana King said...

I have Charles Willeford, Bruse DaSilva, Craig Johnson, and Saniel Woodrell are all on my TBR list, but I haven't gotten to any of the yet.

Chris said...

Raymond Chandler.

I'm kind of burned out on crime fiction, to be honest.

Prashant C. Trikannad said...

P.D. James, Mary Higgins Clark, and Elizabeth George.

Rick Robinson said...

Firstly, I'm amazed at how many of the authors already listed that I have read. Barbara read (the UK edition) of HTE BAT and liked it, but not one of the others.

For my answer to the question, Saul Bellow, Flannery O’Connor, Jose Saramago, William Aird, Cyril Hare, Wilson Tucker and that's just after a quick glance at the shelves.

Gerard said...

I tried listening to a Linwood Barclay novel and the narrator was awful.

I read a Greg Rucka shoot-em-up spy novel and enjoyed it.

seana graham said...

For me there are a million of them, but the one that just popped into mind is Rob Kitchin. I read his blog frequently, and I even have one of his books, but I just haven't gotten to it yet.

TomCat said...

Josephine Tey. I've nearly all her mystery novels, but haven't read one of them till this day. Always end up picking something else.

Anonymous said...

I keep telling myself I'm going to read some of the popular Scandinavian mystery writers--but another book always seems to pop up and drag me away.

Deb

Bernadette said...

Loads of them - especially American male authors. Robert B Parker, Ed McBain....honestly the list is endless. I think my dislike of the few American authors I read - Hammett et al - put the idea in my head that they were all the same. I really should do something about this mental block

pattinase (abbott) said...

Good question! What US writers would you like? The answer would depend on which British Orwell Australian writers you like.

Anonymous said...

Deb, you could try Sjowall & Wahloo, the originals of all the Scandinavians who have followed.

Jeff M.

Todd Mason said...

My ability to imagine someone liking "Ed McBain" that much more than Hammett is limited. But I suppose there are those who like Michael Avallone better than either.

And speaking of the Avallones of the world, I'm still nagged by the notion that I'm confusing Rucka with someone else who writes prose and comics scripts...in fact, I probably owe Rucka an apology thus.

Todd Mason said...

I was, indeed, conflating Greg Rucka with Brad Meltzer...who wrote some of the worst prose I've ever seen professionally published in this one story/long excerpt I found in one magazine or another (I think at the end of a recent comic book, in fact, and not in the tradition of the mailing permit vignettes that Patricia Highsmith and Mickey Spillane wrote in the 1940s--the Metzger wasn't even That good), and I sure hope it was the worst he's ever allowed to escape.

Apologies to Rucka on two counts!

Meanwhile, as I noted before:
George Chesbro would be one I've been meaning to get to. Kit Reed's work as Kit Craig, as well.

As with Jeff and most of us, among many others. Including, I suppose, Rucka.

Bernadette said...

Patti my problem is I suppose I don't know where to start with American male authors. The non-American male authors I really like include Alan Glynn, Adrian McKinty, Peter Temple, Garry Disher, Deon Meyer, Geoffrey McGeachin, Reginald Hill, Adrian Hyland, Johan Theorin, Domingo Villar, Andrea Camilleri.

I don't really expect you to deduce from all of that the perfect American bloke for me to start reading but you've prompted me to write my own post about this subject

seana graham said...

Bernadette, I'm not really sure what to suggest, but I really like your list and I will benefit from picking up some of the writers on it that I don't know yet.

Gerard said...

Maybe this post is too belated for Bernadette to read it but if she is already reading Peter Temple and Deon Meyer she's reading a couple great dudes, American or not.

Victor Gischler is a favorite of mine.

Anonymous said...

Bernadette, I'm with you on Meyer, Hill and Camilleri. A few suggestions - Steven F. Havill (New Mexico, by the border of Mexico), Archer Mayor (Vermont), Bill Crider (Texas).

Jeff M.