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I was having a vague discussion about books with a colleague the other day and we turned to the topic of crime fiction.
I can't remember the last time I read any and I rather think I'd like it. After all, I love Waking the Dead. Although I appreciate that's a fairly specific type of crime fiction.
Anyway, your recommendations please...
Posts: 2176 | From: Baker Street | Registered: May 2002
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There was a good thread on this quite recently, DM. It was entitled Agatha Christie but it soon went onto other crime novelists, past and present.
A brief aside to everyone - be careful when searching for old threads on Google - I got a nasty virus trying to find something on D'Angelo the other day.
Posts: 1401 | Registered: Nov 2004
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Ah, thank you. I was going to search for it and then realised the search button had disappeared.
Posts: 2176 | From: Baker Street | Registered: May 2002
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Start with "Caught Stealing" by Charlie Huston. Absolutely cracking read, first in a trilogy.
Posts: 958 | From: Exeter, NY | Registered: Jan 2006
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Sara Paretsky is good, but make sure you don't miss Michael Dibdin.
Posts: 4145 | From: acts of manual sexual altruism | Registered: Mar 2003
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Elmore Leonard's as readable and reliable a novelist as any. Always a pleasure to read.
Posts: 12564 | From: The bus lane | Registered: May 2002
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At least Kid Dynamite mentioned my main man, Jim Thompson in the American Crime Fiction.
I could read 10 books in a row by him. His characters are the worst scum of the earth, and yet some how you end up cheering for them. Because even if they're murdering racist rapist hijo de putas, they're all American Individualists at heart who are bucking the system. It's like cheering for malaria-carrying blood-sucking mosquitoes, because they're always just one smack away from oblivion.
Posts: 9565 | Registered: May 2002
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I've started reading Ian Rankin's Rebus novels recently and I think they're pretty good. The Rebus character is almost cliched in a way - the hard drinking cop, with a strained relationship with his superiors, and a failed marriage etc, yet Rankin manages to pull it off, and make the character believable (although he isn't quite right in the first couple of novels). Rankin makes the most of Edinburgh as a setting too. Black and Blue is a good place to start (even though it's book 9 in the series)
James Ellroy is another good one. LA Confidential is brilliant, and well worth a read even if you saw the film. (I'm re-reading it now as it happens)
Posts: 2266 | From: the bottom of the barrel | Registered: Oct 2002
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Michael Connolly is brilliant. His Harry Bosch novels set in LA are always a great read. Try the concrete blonde.
Posts: 4815 | From: London | Registered: May 2004
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She said they were very well researched, and she recommended that I start with the one called "Brimstone". I bought a copy, but haven't read it yet.
Posts: 18278 | From: the cattery | Registered: May 2002
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Elmore Leonards the king of US crime fiction. Try the aforementioned Jim Thomson as well. Ross Mcdonald, Raymond Chandler, Dashiel Hamnet for private detective stuff. Daniel Woodrell for your US southern state maverick cop fix. James Crumley for PI texas/montana situated japes. Has anyone read "the yiddish policemans union" yet? Film Noir style cop novel set in a world where the allies gifted Alaska instead of Israel to the survivors of the holocaust?. Im tempted but not at hardback prices.
Posts: 1754 | From: The Magic Carpet. | Registered: Jun 2006
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Someones selling a set of 25 Elmore Leonard paperbacks on ebay atm. Therell be nothing better sold on ebay this century.
Posts: 1754 | From: The Magic Carpet. | Registered: Jun 2006
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