Jim Thompson. He wrote terrific noir (very noir) crime novels, many of which were republished by Black Lizard Press a few years ago. His most famous is The Grifters, which was turned into that movie with John Cusack and Anjelica Huston. The Nothing Man is a goood place to start; here’s the jacket blurb:
We find out very early in the book what he’s missing:
his penis.
This is taut, dark, vicious writing. Great stuff.
If you happen to start reading him, though, do NOT read The Rip-Off; he never finished it, and it was published posthumously. It is maybe the most appropriately titled novel I’ve ever read.
Connelly
Leonard
many of the other’s mentioned
but numero uno for mine is James Lee Burke. Lovely writing, loads of violence great characters both in his series books ,Dave Robicheaux (a cop)and Billy Bob Holland (a lawyer), and his non-series works. Strongly evocative of Burke’s home in New Iberia, Louisiana.
Barbara Seranella. She writes a series about “Munch” Mancini, a former hooker, junkie and motorcycle chick who is trying to stay sober and rebuild her life. Seranella’s own life isn’t that different from her character’s, so she brings a real sense of authenticity to the crime and to the struggle to get sober.
Yeah, Hiaasen definitely counts. He’s not only a talented dark humorist, but a pretty solid crime writer as well. It’s a shame none of his books have translated well to movies…
For #1 I have to go with this. Chandler established much of the tone and grammer of the genre. And he told a damn good story.
I agree with every word you wrote. Seriously darker than Chandler but clearly a descendent and one of my favorites.
This is why I jumped in here. HELL YES, Hiaasen counts. He represents a unique and wonderful voice clearly influenced by both of these writers. Chandler and Thompson make me laugh. Hiaasen makes me laugh more because Florida is that much more ripe for ridicule than California ever was.
I don’t know if you read his young adult novel “Hoot” but it was really good and the movie looks to be the best translation of his work to the screen yet.
This is great. Thanks to all. I haven’t read much of the genre (Leonard, Chandler) and wanted to taste a little more of it. And as someone famous once said: “Life is short, read the good books first.”
Admittedlty he is the only crime novelist (…or at least I assume him to be one) that I have read outside of Arthur Conan Doyle, but I quite like Andrew Vachss.
I just started reading Hiaasen in the last year and I’ve read several. The few I’ve read were a little uneven, but I just finished “Sick Puppy” and it was hilarious.
I like Elmore Leonard a lot, and Lawrence Sanders and Ed McBain. I was big into police procedurals for a while and I love the older 87th Precinct novels, the newer ones seemed so, I don’t know, modern or something. I find it slightly amusing that the cops go from tautly muscled super heroes in the older novels to middle-aged tubs in the newer ones. Which is only realistic, but it highlights the sillier aspects of the attitude behind the older novels (that the cops were super heroes instead of real people). Eugene Izzi (I think that’s the name) wrote some good ones too, before hanging himself, the SOB.
And I’ll pick up some of the other mentioned here.
I don’t miss a Michael Connelly book.
I love Harlen Coben’s stuff.
Robert Crais turns me on.
But I really LOVE Donna Leon’s Commissario Guido Brunetti mysteries, set in Venice, of course. (Does this make me a wuss?)
Although mostly set in Boston, there are a few of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser novels that take the lead into LA, and Parker is one of the masters of the detective story, which involves crime, right?
