A (Subjective) Sojourn Through Crime Fiction
Contemporary, Part One
The following is a revised and updated list that I put together for a program a few years ago. Having also greatly enlarged it, I’ve decided to break the list up into several posts.
I have read all the books I’m recommending in this post. Have I liked them all equally? Well, some are indeed are more special to me than others. Those that I consider real standouts I have marked with an asterisk.
International Settings
Louise Penny. Inspector Gamache series, set in the (fictional) village of Three Pines, somewhere in deepest Montreal! Recommendation: Still Life
Donna Leon’s Commissario Guido Brunetti series, set in Venice, Italy. Recommendation: Death at La Fenice (lighter fare), *Waters of Eternal Youth and *Girl of His Dreams (darker)
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Martin Walker’s Bruno Chief of Police series, set in the Dordogne region of France. Recommendation: Bruno, Chief of Police. This is yet another case in which an ensemble cast of characters really grows on the reader. (And Bruno, by the way, is an outstanding cook. Bruno’s Cookbook features some of the mouthwatering recipes that appear in the novels.)
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Jean-Luc Bannalec’s Georges Dupin series, set in Brittany, in France. Recommendation: Death in Brittany
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Jane Harper’s Aaron Falk series, set in Australia. Recommendation: The Dry and/or *The Lost Man (non-series)
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Kwei Quartey’s Darko Dawson series (Ghana) Recommendation: *Wife of the Gods
Emma Djian series. Recommendation: The Missing American
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Jussi Adler-Olsen’s Department Q series (Denmark) Recommendation: The Keeper of Lost Causes
Qiu Xiaolong’s Inspector Chen series, set in China. Recommendation: Death of a Red Heroine.
Comments on the above:
I liked Still Life so much – I read it when it first came out in 2005 – that I emailed Louise Penny to express my delight. (She favored me with a gracious reply.) Since then, she has become wildly popular. I must admit that her books don’t always work for me. My favorite among them is Bury Your Dead.
Donna Leon’s Guido Brunetti novels appeared erratically in this country during the 1990s. Apparently publishers were not confident in their appeal. Hah! Were they ever wrong. Crime fiction cognoscenti love this series, and with good reason. The Venice setting is beautifully realized; the plots are intriguing, the writing is excellent, and best of all, the characters are extremely appealing. Brunetti, his colleagues on the police force, and his wife and two children – I care about all of them, and I always look forward to spending time with them.
Martin Walker’s Bruno Chief of Police series has steadily gained readers since it began in 2008. Like Donna Leon, Walker is excellent at evoking a vivid sense of place. Jean-Luc Bannalec does the same for Brittany. His excursions into the myth and lore of that region – something I knew virtually nothing about – have really fascinated me.
Jane Harper does a wonderful job of evoking the country of Australia. And The Lost Man, in particular, features an amazing and very memorable opening scene.
Kwei Quartey’s novels bring Ghana to vivid life. I especially enjoyed the Darko Dawson series. I think both of the series Quartey writes would be great on television.
Regionalism in American settings
–C.J. Box’s Joe Pickett series, set in Wyoming. Recommendation: Wolf Pack
–Paul Doiron’s Mike Bowditch series, set in Maine. Recommendation: Stay Hidden
–Archer Mayor’s Joe Gunther series, set in Vermont. Recommendation: *Three Can Keep a Secret
All three of the above mentioned series feature an ensemble cast whose doings are in some way germane to the novel’s plot. These recurring characters become like old friends; I look forward to spending time with them and finding out how they’re doing. This is particularly true of Archer Mayor’s Joe Gunther novels.
–Laura Lippmans’s Tess Monaghan series, set in Baltimore and environs. Recommendation: *What the Dead Know (nonseries), By a Spider’s Thread. Lippman’s books are particular favorites among my Baltimore area friends (from my former life – sigh…)
–Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch series, set in Southern California. Recommendation: *Desert Star. Michael Connelly doesn’t need praise from me to burnish his already stellar achievements in the realm of crime fiction. Nevertheless, I want to humbly add my own kudos. Connelly just goes from strength to strength., writing with precision and authenticity in the great tradition of Southern California crime fiction.His plotting is expert; his characters are real and memorable – I could go on, but I think I don’t need to!
–Anne Hillerman’s series featuring Joe Leaphorn, Bernie Manuelito, and Jim Chee, set in New Mexico. Recommendation: *Spider Woman’s Daughter This is a continuation of the series created by her father Tony Hillerman. His novels are the basis of the TV show highlighted below:
Tony Hillerman’s novels of Navajo country are mesmerizing; his daughter Anne has done a terrific job of continuing this series into the present time.
Stay tuned! Next up: Thrillers and Historical Mysteries…
Sources:
—Deadly Pleasures Online Mystery Magazine
—Stop, You’re Killing Me!
If you have tears, prepare to shed them now: A Day in the Life of Abed Salama, by Nathan Thrall
I was having a hard time figuring out how to write about this book. So I am going to say the bare minimum.
The book’s subtitle is exactly apt. The tragedy referred to involves a school bus and a tractor trailer. If the previous sentence fills you with dread – it should.
(I first encountered this title in the feisty little weekly called, rather unimaginatively, The Week. This magazine’s book coverage is only two pages in length per issue, but they cram a great deal of worthy material into that space.)
This book is specifically about the tragedy named in the subtitle, but it is also about what daily life is like for Palestinians in East Jerusalem. (For an explanation of the current status of East Jerusalem., see the Wikipedia entry.) This depiction of an existence fraught with all kinds of bureaucratic restrictions is beyond dismaying. These conditions had an unavoidable impact on the outcome of the catastrophe at the heart of the book.
I felt that in reading this book, my eyes were opened to many things concerning the Israelis and the Palestinians of which I was previously unaware. What is now happening in the Middle East is of course, terrible. The concurrent outbreak of antisemitism, both here and abroad, has been, for me at least, heartbreaking. Much as I miss my parents, and will always miss them, I am glad that they did not live to see this.
I did not need more sadness in my life; nevertheless, I am glad that I read A Day in the Life of Abed Salama.
Books to the Ceiling