# Recommend me some decent crime novels? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 19, 2009, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759 "2009-09-19T23:29:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mrs.Cake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@Mrs.Cake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrs.Cake)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/21 "2009-09-20T20:01:16Z")
Virtually any of Donald E. Westlake’s crime novels, especially the Dortmunder series. Wonderful capers, excellent plotting, great characters, and also vastly amusing. There’s no need to start with any particular one, but my favorites are _What’s the Worst the can Happen_, _Good Behavior_, _Drowned Hopes_, and _Don’t Ask_. All of them are crime novels, not mystery novel. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/22 "2009-09-20T22:54:40Z")
I ADORE Robert Crais. And Jonathan Kellerman. Reginald Hill (Yorkshire England police). How about Ed McBain? He wrote a zillion books about a (made-up) NYC police station and the people manning it. If you liked NYPD Blue, Ed McBain’s books will be just your speed. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Ed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Just\_Ed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Ed)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/23 "2009-09-20T23:29:38Z")
No love for [Dennis Lehane](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Lehane)? He seems to be one of Hollywood’s favorites - _Mystic River_ and _Gone, Baby, Gone_ were both adapted into very good movies, and another one, _Shutter Island_ is forthcoming. I haven’t read all that much of his stuff, but I’ve greatly enjoyed what I have - _Mystic River_ and _Shutter Island_ among them. Those two are stand-alone works; _Gone, Baby, Gone_ takes place in the series involving private investigator partners Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, of which I’ve only read the first, _A Drink Before the War_, which I thought was very good. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/24 "2009-09-21T08:28:38Z")
This one works only if you have not seen the movie (which doesn’t work at all): **A Kiss Before Dying.** Very simple, but an oldie. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/25 "2009-09-21T08:35:12Z")
I’ve greatly enjoyed _The Man Who…_ books by Stephen R. Donaldson. The Man Who Killed His Brother (1980) The Man Who Risked His Partner (1984) The Man Who Tried to Get Away (1990) The Man Who Fought Alone (2001) Yes, this is the same SRD who wrote the Thomas Covenant books, but there aren’t any similarities at all. His writing style is different, the outlook of his characters is different, etc. These are hard-boiled, talking-with-fists types of stories. Bad things happen with alarming frequency to the good guys, and solving a case doesn’t always bring any kind of closure to the events in the book. Plus, for most of them, it’s very difficult to see the end before you get there, if you know what I mean. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/26 "2009-09-21T16:33:11Z")
Another vote for Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. “The Red-Headed League,” “The Speckled Band,” “Silver Blaze,” “The Greek Interpreter,” “The Norwood Builder,” “The Musgrave Ritual,” “The Blue Carbuncle” and “The Second Stain” are among my faves. Also, of course, you must read the Holmes novel _The Hound of the Baskervilles_. Clever mysteries, a compelling lead character, and Victorian atmosphere out the whazoo. Another vote also for the Spenser books (although I’ve missed the last few). Fun, more-or-less contemporary American detective stories. I really enjoyed _Gun Monkeys_ by Victor Gischler, about a crew of assassins in the midst of a gang war after their boss gets whacked. Funny, bloody and a real page-turner. ---
**Author:** ![Loisseau](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2bfe46/32.png) [@Loisseau](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loisseau)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/27 "2009-09-21T18:28:40Z")
\*\*Micheal Connelly’s \*\*books, especially “The Brass Verdict” with his protagonist, Det. Hieronymous Bosch, are fun reads. \*\*Henning Mankell \*\*from Sweden writes as good a crime novel as anyone. The Kurt Wallender series are great. Second **James Lee Burke.** \*\*Elmore Leonard’s \*\*writing is tight and real. **Lee Child’s** Reacher series is fun and fast ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/28 "2009-09-21T18:58:02Z")
Steig Larsson’s _The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo_ is (in translation, at least) an easy read, and a visceral and intriguing mystery novel. It’s the first in a trilogy. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/29 "2009-09-21T19:54:52Z")
Well, I’m afraid I’m going to be only half a help. I remember reading an extraordinary mystery story, but I remember neither the title, nor the author. Here’s how it went : the scene was set during the early Renaissance, inside of a British college if I’m not mistaken. The mystery was told through four sets of eyes. The first narrator tells the bare bones of the story - sets the scenery, the principal characters, etc… At the end of that story, a second narrator steps in, says “Well, this first narrator got it mostly right, but he lied a lot too, cause this is how it happened…”, and so on, for a third, then a fourth narrator. Even at then end of the fourth narration, you’re not exactly sure what really happened, on account of the multiple plots that happened all at once. Kind of a British _Roshambo_. Any Doper feel like giving away the title and author, feel free. As I recall, it was “something… of the Cross”. Then again, I read the French translation so the title"s translation might well be a full thesaurus away from the actual title 😕 Sorry to be of so little help. Once I’m sober, I’ll find the book I promise. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/30 "2009-09-21T20:23:13Z")
Should also have mentioned Robert Harris’s _Fatherland_, an alternative-history detective story set in the Third Reich in 1964. An SS criminal investigator looks into the mysterious deaths of several senior Nazi Party officials just before Hitler holds a summit meeting with President Joseph Kennedy. An intriguing and smart novel. ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/31 "2009-09-21T20:27:06Z")
For fast enjoyable “detective” novels, you can’t go wrong with the late Gregory MacDonald’s Fletch series (and the three Flynn books, kind of a spin-off from the former.) Try to read them in order (although I think they’re all out of print. Maybe you can find them in a library or on [PaperbackSwap.com](http://PaperbackSwap.com)). ---
**Author:** ![infinitii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e8c25b/32.png) [@infinitii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/infinitii)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/32 "2009-09-21T20:35:45Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Well, I’m afraid I’m going to be only half a help. I remember reading an extraordinary mystery story, but I remember neither the title, nor the author. > Here’s how it went : the scene was set during the early Renaissance, inside of a British college if I’m not mistaken. The mystery was told through four sets of eyes. The first narrator tells the bare bones of the story - sets the scenery, the principal characters, etc… At the end of that story, a second narrator steps in, says “Well, this first narrator got it mostly right, but he lied a lot too, cause this is how it happened…”, and so on, for a third, then a fourth narrator. Even at then end of the fourth narration, you’re not exactly sure what really happened, on account of the multiple plots that happened all at once. Kind of a British _Roshambo_. Any Doper feel like giving away the title and author, feel free. As I recall, it was “something… of the Cross”. Then again, I read the French translation so the title"s translation might well be a full thesaurus away from the actual title 😕 Sorry to be of so little help. Once I’m sober, I’ll find the book I promise. “An Instance of the Fingerpost” – Iain Pears? ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/33 "2009-09-21T20:36:41Z")
Carl Haaisen is colorful, fastpaced and pretty funny. If you hear Florida jokes over there in England and want to know what’s behind it, look no further. Avoid, at all cost, Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series. Unless you like reading books in which you’d like to choke the crap out of the main character. Plum is the epitome of stupid git. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/34 "2009-09-21T20:43:54Z")
> [@Sean\_Factotum](#): > > For fast enjoyable “detective” novels, you can’t go wrong with the late Gregory MacDonald’s Fletch series _Fletch_ is outstanding; the best ending of anything I’ve read. The others are good, but not nearly as good as the first. Perfection cannot be equaled, nor even approached. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/35 "2009-09-21T20:44:46Z")
Too late for edit. I also enjoyed 2 of Jonathan Kellerman’s Alex Delaware novels: When The Bough Breaks and Private Eyes. ---
**Author:** ![alexandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@alexandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alexandra)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/36 "2009-09-21T21:04:01Z")
> [@Just\_Ed](#): > > No love for [Dennis Lehane](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Lehane)? He seems to be one of Hollywood’s favorites - _Mystic River_ and _Gone, Baby, Gone_ were both adapted into very good movies, and another one, _Shutter Island_ is forthcoming. I haven’t read all that much of his stuff, but I’ve greatly enjoyed what I have - _Mystic River_ and _Shutter Island_ among them. Those two are stand-alone works; _Gone, Baby, Gone_ takes place in the series involving private investigator partners Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, of which I’ve only read the first, _A Drink Before the War_, which I thought was very good. I loved the film of Gone Baby Gone - Amy Ryan was fantastic. I might check the series out. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/37 "2009-09-21T21:50:42Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Raymond Chandler wrote several detective novels with the protagonist Phillip Marlowe, the classic hard boiled detective. True, if filming _The Big Sleep,_ he was unable to explain who did what to whom, but _The Little Sister_ (made into the James Garner movie _Marlowe_) and _The Lady in the Lake_ are very good. That’s a little unfair. In the book, it was very clear who did it. However, the movie changed things around because the chauffeur, in the book, was murdered by the Lauren Bacall character. The movie, of course, couldn’t have that, so switched around enough to make it thoroughly confusing. Howard Hawks, the director, said he wasn’t sure who killed whom either, but it’s a great movie anyhow. It’s not a whodunit, it’s a hard-boiled film noir with Bogart and Bacall, what more could one ask for? I agree, Raymond Chandler is the place to start. He invented the genre (although Dashiel Hammet helped, but I think Hammett is inferior in almost every way.) ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/38 "2009-09-21T22:03:46Z")
I’ve enjoyed reading the Charlie Parker Detective series by [John Connolly](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Connolly_(author)). ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/39 "2009-09-21T22:15:29Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > That’s a little unfair. In the book, it was very clear who did it. It was? 🙂 > [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > it’s a hard-boiled film noir with Bogart and Bacall, what more could one ask for? It is. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/40 "2009-09-22T14:14:11Z")
The Library of America produced two great collections, _American Noir of the 1930s and 40s_ and _American Noir of the 1950s_. The novels included are: _The Postman Always Rings Twice_ - James M. Cain _They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?_ - Horace McCoy _Thieves Like Us_ - Edward Anderson _The Big Clock_ - Kenneth Fearing _Nightmare Alley_ - William Lindsay Gresham _I Married a Dead Man_ - Cornell Woolrich _The Killer Inside Me_ - Jim Thompson _The Talented Mr. Ripley_ - Patricia Highsmith _Pick-Up_ - Charles Willeford _Down There_ - David Goodis _The Real Cool Killers_ - Chester Himes [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759.md?page=3)