I've been having a browse back over my best reads selections for the last four years. There's three sub-genres of crime novel that I clearly like more than others: literary, noir, screwball noir, twentieth century history (esp. 1930s-1950s) - fiction that is
dark, humorous and philosophical.
Absolute Zero Cool by Declan Burke pressed all three buttons, as did
We are the Hanged Man by Douglas Lindsay,
The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston, and
Secret Dead Men by Duane Swierczynski. Two of those buttons are pressed by books such as
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin,
Brodeck's Report by Phillipe Claudel,
Field Grey by Philip Kerr,
Mixed Blood by Roger Smith,
The Cold, Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty,
The Holy Thief by William Ryan,
Small Crimes by Dave Zeltserman,
The Ones You Do by Daniel Woodrell,
Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan,
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M Cain,
Istanbul Passage by Joseph Kanon,
The Foreign Correspondent by Alan Furst,
Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada, and I could go on. Now I like lots of other types of crime fiction as well, but these kinds of books are consistently amongst my favourite reads.
What I'm after is suggestions for authors/books that fit the 'literary noir' label; books that make you think about life rather than simply being entertaining.
Recommendations?
10 comments:
The Sister Brothers (DeWitt) comes to mind. Go With Me, Castle Freeman as well. If I was home with my list I could come up with more but these two stand out. I prefer books that veer very close to literary.
Have you read Charles Portis? His books are amusing. Also the Hoke Mosely books from Charles Willeford. They are riotously funny.
The Leonid McGill books by Walter Mosley are terrific. Mosley is a superb writer. I never read any of the Easy Rawlins novels but I hear they are also very good.
The first Mcgill book, "The Long Fall" blew me away.
I have the Sister Brothers and Go With Me in my pile of next 10 reads. I read the first chapter of the latter the other night and it's next to go. I've only read one Walter Mosley book. I'm visiting LA in April so will get an Easy Rawlins book and save the Leonid McGill book for NY in August. I'll look up Charles Portis. Have read a couple of the Willeford books.
Rob, my 3 favorite reads of 2012 all fit that bill I believe. You already mentioned Crooked Letter Crooked Letter. Capture by Roger Smith and The Last Kind Words by Tom Piccirilli both blew me away on multiple levels. I love the way Smith uses similies, they are crazy ambitious but yet they NEVER take me out of the story because they fit the situation so well. I've liked Piccirilli's work before, but The Last Kind Words is a huge step up in complexity and quality for him. Speaking of stepping up, The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton elevated a very good writer to a great writer, at least for me.
Travis, two Roger Smith novels have made my top ten lists in the last couple of years - Mixed Blood and Wake Up Dead. Great books. Capture is on my list. I've only read one Piccirilli. Will give this one a go. Amazon and Goodreads both keep recommending The Lock Artist - maybe I should give it a try. Thanks for the recommendations, Rob
Rob, I'm excited that Preston, a friend mentioned your blog, this is going to be a great resource for me. Perusing your reviews we seem to agree on books we've both read. The most fun I had reading a book in 2011 was not literary noir, it was Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, just a delightful quest novel. One reviewer termed it nostalgia porn due to the emphasis on 80s culture.
Hi Rob,
Have you read any of J.Robert Janes' St Cyr and Kohler series. They're set in occupied France during World War Two and are very good. The two I've read are Madrigal and Beekeeper but the others are all on my list.
The other series you might enjoy if you haven't already tried them are Marius Krajewski's Breslau novels. Very darkly humorous, more than a little surreal and well worth a look
William, thanks for the suggestions. The Robert Janes' series were recommended to me on the crime and mystery friendfeed (http://friendfeed.com/crime-and-mystery-fiction). I've read the first Krajewski book, must try another. The other author recommeded on there was Jean-Patrick Manchette. Rob
Travis, I'll look up Ready Player One. Glad the site is proving useful and thanks for the comments on other posts. I also collect together other crime fiction reviews at http://www.scoop.it/t/blue-house-co-crime-novel-reviews which might be of interest or have a look at the friendfeed list in the comment above, Rob
I have been recently looking at many lists of books to get into as I have just finished R. S. Guthrie's Blood Land, and it was fantastic. He has a few others I found on his website rsguthrie.com if anyone is looking for some books to add to their list. Some of your last 35 look amazing, and I will surely be looking for a few of those!
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