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    #26
    Crime fiction

    I'd like to second the nomination for Aurelio Zen, and I can also recommend Gianrico Carofiglio, just read 'The Past Is A Foreign Country', it was superb, going to get his others.

    Henning Mankell is also really good, usually with an unfeasibly high body count.

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      #27
      Crime fiction

      So far I'd totally endorse what TCC says about Carofiglio - I'm about two-thirds of the way through The Past Is A Foreign Country and it's far beter than any book that looks like it looks ought to be.

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        #28
        Crime fiction

        As mentioned on the Current Reading thread, I finished The Maltese Falcon and wasn't that impressed. It finished strongly but I found it very hard to follow the flow of the story for 2/3rds of it. There are quite a few dodgy bits of language in there too, felt a bit contrived to me.

        This morning I finished my first Harlen Corben book, The Innocent. I really liked it, it moves along very nicely, has some good turns of pace. It was a shame that the absolute (and slightly unnecessary) ending was weak.

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          #29
          Crime fiction

          Did you know Chandler went to the same school as P G Wodehouse? Scope for a mashup there, I feel. (I actually started writing one, but as usual didn't finish it).

          Anyway, anybody that wants quality comedy crime fiction (a specialised market, I know) look no further than the Dortmunder series by Donald E Westlake. From whence cometh my nym.

          http://www.donaldwestlake.com/home.html

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            #30
            Crime fiction

            They were at the boys' school which is attached to my school. It was the only claim to fame we had.

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              #31
              Crime fiction

              Lyra wrote:
              They were at the boys' school which is attached to my school. It was the only claim to fame we had.
              Dulwich College, I do believe.

              My school can boast Paul Scholes, Steve Coogan, Clint Boon and Martin Alcock (who was in Fairport Convention). Not bad, actually. If a bit light on the academic side.

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                #32
                Crime fiction

                Just read Snowblind by PJ Tracy (who is a mother-and-daughter team). Set in wintry Minnesota, it is a real page-turner.

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                  #33
                  Crime fiction

                  I'd like a recommendation for a crime novel for Mrs Bafflin.

                  It has to be an atmospheric, well-written, old fashioned page-turner, ideally also including moody English locations. It needs to be available in French.

                  Any ideas?

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                    #34
                    Crime fiction

                    I'm on to another one of Gianrico Carofiglio's books, 'A walk in the dark'. It's unfeasibly good, in fact it's already forced me to stop reading to tell my girlfriend that I love her, like a great big soppy twat.

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                      #35
                      Crime fiction

                      Broken Clock wrote:
                      Im halfway through "The Power Of The Dog" by Don Winnslow. Its a Mafia/DEA/CIA/FBI/ drug smuggling one set in Mexico,NYC, LA and San Diego (so far). great stuff, its gonne make one helluva film as well.
                      I'd like to add my voice to the Winslow admiration. Just an excellent read that sets a terrific pace.
                      A movie/miniseries would hopefully be similarly awesome. For some bizarre reason I keep seeing the guy who played Nick Sobotka in season 2 of The Wire as Callan.

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                        #36
                        Crime fiction

                        Bafflin wrote:
                        I'd like a recommendation for a crime novel for Mrs Bafflin.

                        It has to be an atmospheric, well-written, old fashioned page-turner, ideally also including moody English locations. It needs to be available in French.

                        Any ideas?
                        I missed this before, sorry. Has she read PD James? I reckon she fits the bill. My favourite is The Skull Beneath the Skin, or An Unsuitable Job for a Woman. The Black Tower is good too. She always has locations like bits of the Norfolk coast that get cut off by the tide.

                        Otherwise, can't go wrong with Dorothy Sayers, but I expect she's read them all?

                        Also try Elizabeth George I think. Some of the Peter Robinsons are pretty good too. I've been assuming you mean country locations or village detectives; if you want cities there's so much choice, Ian Rankin, Mark Billingham, John Harvey, David Lawrence, all reliable serial detectives.

                        The best crime writer in England is of course Reginald Hill. If Mrs Bafflin has not tried him then she must, but I'm sure she will have?

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                          #37
                          Crime fiction

                          Just read Rebecca Pawel's 'Death of a Nationalist', set just after Franco wins the civil war in Madrid.

                          Loved the references to locations I used to see every day (tho' she gets one street name wrong, I will add pedanticallY) and it's quite well written, suitably atmospheric etc

                          The 'cop' is a Guardia Civil sergeant who starts to realize his political certainties might be blinding hiom to who the real baddies are...

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                            #38
                            Crime fiction

                            Recently read Jean-Claude Izzo's Total Chaos - I was sucked in by the cool cover design. It's a fairly standard aging-cop-against-the-world novel, but set in the slums of Marseille. Not bad, although the narrator has an irritating habit of describing every meal he's cooking as if he's trying to impress Lloyd Grossman and describing every band he likes as if he's trying to Get Down With The Kids.

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                              #39
                              Crime fiction

                              It was called 'Total Kheops' when I read it in French, Kheops being one of the members of Marseille hip-hoppers IAM, and evidence of the 'down with the kids' aspect you mention.

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                                #40
                                Crime fiction

                                Yeah, he does go on a bit about IAM and how real they are.

                                Comment


                                  #41
                                  Crime fiction

                                  The Pepe Carvalho books by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán are great. They are a combination of detective novels, late 20th century Spanish social history class, and Spanish cuisine recipe books.

                                  There are loads of them, about 16 I think, but only a few have been translated into English.

                                  I’ve read ‘Tattoo,’ ‘Murder in the Central Committee’ which is about the self-destruction of the Spanish Communist party, and ‘An Olympic Death’ which is about the 1992 Olympics and the transformation of Barcelona.

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                                    #42
                                    Crime fiction

                                    They are great. But of the 3 you've mentioned, I found the Barcelona Olympics one very difficult to read (in Spanish) and found the Central Cttee one a bit predictable, so I think you've got all his best ones still to come...

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                                      #43
                                      Crime fiction

                                      I just read Denise Mina's three Paddy Meehan books. They're all decent thrillers, about corruption and grimness in 80s Glasgow and the way the Irish Troubles affected the city. I read her Garnethill trilogy ages ago and that was also very good. She's kind of like Glasgow's David Lawrence, or he's maybe London's Denise Mina.

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                                        #44
                                        Crime fiction

                                        "... and found the Central Cttee one a bit predictable.."

                                        You must be much more intelligent than me, Felicity.

                                        **

                                        I'd like to big up Jacob Arjouni's Kamakayan books.

                                        Kamakayan is a Turkish private detective in modern day Germany.

                                        'Happy Birthday Turk' and 'More Beer' are probably the blackest 'noir' books I've ever read. You could argue that the intensity of their pitch-blackness is a weakness, in that if all the characters are so dark, there can be no light and shade.

                                        Still, great books though.

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                                          #45
                                          Crime fiction

                                          Anyone read Peter (son of elmore) Leonard's debut "Quiver" yet? Nothing but good reviews so far BUT theres a recession on around these parts and £17 is way too much. Will wait untill paperback.

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                                            #46
                                            Crime fiction

                                            It's only £8.99 on amazon, with free UK delivery.

                                            I've just been re-reading a couple of early Le Carré novels, and although Smiley's in it, A Murder of Quality is basically a classic crime novel.

                                            It's all dank, bleak February nights in threatening West Country landscapes; unhappy, quietly desperate, public school masters and vicious snobbery type stuff. It's beautifully written and hugely atmospheric.

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                                              #47
                                              Crime fiction

                                              It's not crime fiction, but I'm currently reading Kate Summerscale's The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, and it's terrific - well worth a read for fans of detective fiction, I'd say. Not only is it the story of a real life whodunnit, it also has a mini-history of the genesis of detectives and detective fiction running through the narrative.

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                                                #48
                                                Crime fiction

                                                The Purple Cow wrote:
                                                **

                                                If there is still anyone around who hasn't read the 'Berlin Noir' books by Phillip Kerr 'March Violets' - 'The Pale Criminal' and 'A German Requiem' they are great, great books.
                                                Yup. The last two are also excellent.

                                                I've enjoyed all of Martin Cruz Smith's Renko series lately - and I'm not a little sad that I've come to the end.

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                                                  #49
                                                  Crime fiction

                                                  Is 'Stalin's Ghost' the last one then?

                                                  I've got it on my bedside table ready to read.

                                                  I thought the Chernobyl one, 'Wolves Eat Dogs' was really good.

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                                                    #50
                                                    Crime fiction

                                                    I only read the first two Renko books. Which is the one that comes after the one on the fishing boat? - i.e the third in the series, I suppose.

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