crime fiction

slim jenkins

El Hombre Invisible
Right. How about Jean-Patrick Manchette? His 'Three To Kill' and 'The Prone Gunman' blew me away when I caught up with them this year. I'd never heard of him until then. Very good stuff.
 

Eric

Mr Moraigero
I think we had a thread on this before ... some good info there too.

Recently I have enjoyed (random selection):

George Pelecanos (DC)
Greg Rucka (very comic book)
Don Winslow (quick & stylish)

Ian Rankin remains enjoyable though the template is a bit tired now (as I read a copy of `Naming the Dead' or whatever it was copped from the used bookstore ...).
 

ether

Well-known member
thanks, i'm hitting the library today so i'll bear them in mind.

Just started reading 'the bullet trick' by Louise Welsh, really liked a book of hers a few years back 'the cutting room' definitely worth checking out.

I think Rankins killing of rebus is he not, or at the very least retiring him, couldn't come to soon imo didnt enjoy 'naming of the dead'
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
Thought I'd give this thread a bump as i've still got some xmas book tokens in my wallet (gawd bless you, gran) and want to read some good crime fiction.

I've worked my way through the obvious American ones (Ellroy, Chandler, Hammet, Highsmith, Hiaasen, Leonard, Higgins, Parestsky) and would actually like to read something contemporary and British - not Rankin (who I've read plenty of), not whodunnit Sunday night algebra fiction, and pref not one of those smart, media-savvy types (Hawes, Brookmeyer) who improbably throw smart media-savvy MC types into deals with Russian gangsters and international terroristas.

Any suggestions?
 

jenks

thread death
Not a brit, but I really like the French writer Fred Vargas who was interviewed in yesterday's Guardian.

Also I am very keen on the Maigret novels, which are so tautly written.

I see Gilbert Adair has turned his hand to the genre - a man for whom the adjective 'playful' seems to have been invented for.
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
Not a brit, but I really like the French writer Fred Vargas who was interviewed in yesterday's Guardian.

Cheers for that Jenks - saw her (assumed it was his) latest in Borders yesterday and almost bought it, but came away with Absurdistan and Philip Kerr's One From The Other iinstead.
 

Agent

dgaf ngaf cgaf
I haven't read any of his work (knee-deep in Russian Futurist poetry at the moment), but Paul Auster sounds like someone worth checking out, if you're looking for a non-traditional spin on the crime genre. Bernd Herzogenrath wrote a book about him that looks pretty rad also.
 

STN

sou'wester
Anyone read the John Banville ones as Benjamin Black? I haven't yet as the whole exercise seems a bit snotty to me and it's failed the Papa STN test (which is 'does my dad like it?', if the answer is 'yes' it's 85% likely to be balls). Tony Hillerman anyone?
 

stelfox

Beast of Burden
I'd read Pelecanos every time over pretty much any of these writers. I think he's as good as Ellroy and that's saying something. Hawes and Brookmyre are total trash, though. Big up Jenks for repping Maigret. It's amazing that Simenon turned out about one of those novels a week for a while. They're incredibly tightly written and evocative, even without considering that they were churned out at a rate of knots.
 

STN

sou'wester
I'd read Pelecanos every time over pretty much any of these writers. I think he's as good as Ellroy and that's saying something. Hawes and Brookmyre are total trash, though. Big up Jenks for repping Maigret. It's amazing that Simenon turned out about one of those novels a week for a while. They're incredibly tightly written and evocative, even without considering that they were churned out at a rate of knots.

Here speaketh the ultimate The Wire fan. I would like to read some Pelecanos...

Simenon is wicked. The only crime books I really read are by him, Derek Raymond, Iceberg Slim, Patricia Highsmith and Colin Dexter (who is a badman, and certainly does not dress like a girl or drink Snapple).

Anyone got any Scandanavian crime recs?
 

STN

sou'wester
Thought this was a different thread so didn't wade in and recommend Derek Raymond's Factory novels, republished by Serpent's Tail.
 

slim jenkins

El Hombre Invisible
Thought this was a different thread so didn't wade in and recommend Derek Raymond's Factory novels, republished by Serpent's Tail.

I'd recommend those too...very grimy, dark and 'English'. Saw him do a reading once...great character himself.
 

stelfox

Beast of Burden
Re: Pelecanos I really like Drama City, Hell To Pay and the whole DC Quartet series (The Big Blowdown, King Suckerman, The Sweet Forever, Shame The Devil).
 

stelfox

Beast of Burden
you all know my very warm feelings about derek raymond, i think. you don't get many better writers than him and, yes, he was a truly unique individual.
 
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