Other Great Mysteries:
How it started
Medieval mysteries
Victorian mysteries
don't forget spy books
Quite a lot of talented novelists have this mysterious quality: when you open the book, you cannot stop reading, even if you have no interest at all in the contents. I still remember the first time I had this experience: it was with a book called The Cardinal by Henry Morton Robinson, which was a bestseller in the 1950s (I guess it was the 50s equivalent of the successful Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough). The intimate life of Catholic priests does not attract me, but once I started, I still had to read the book to the last page. I try to keep in mind a list of talented authors that I should avoid, not because they are not good, but because I know I will read them and regret it. So, my list of favorite authors is a bit biased. For instance, I respect the talent of Robert Tannebaum, but I never buy his books anymore: the stories (and I guess the change of ghostwriter) leave me cold after I read them. Here come some names of bestselling authors in crime and mystery.
The most profound sense of justice
With the hundreds of lawyers who write good legal novels, you would think that several come to mind when you want to read about justice and injustice. Not so. The only author I know of who writes BECAUSE he is interested in justice is John Grisham. This is a writer with a number of causes and an intention to educate. It does not make his books and films less fascinating. I may disagree with some of his ideas, but I do not know of a more honest writer. If you did not read it yet, you should start with The Firm***It is the story of a young ambitious lawyer who discovers that the firm where he works is connected to the mafia. When you have read the book, you should buy the CD: the movie is great, and you will enjoy the differences between the southern morality of the author and the Hollywood adaptation (for instance: should the hero tell his wife that he cheated on her?)...I could write a thesis on the subject!
The Pelican Brief is about the murder of two Supreme Court justices. The law student who guesses who might have an interest in killing these justices is soon in fear for her life. I did like the movie too, with an interesting relation between Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts.
The Client This is a story about a young boy who has seen a crime and understands that he needs protection. Brilliantly played by Susan Sarandon.
The Street Lawyer (publ. in 1998) is certainly worth reading in 2009 when we have so many people losing their job. It is a compassionate look on homeless people and it describes a lawyer who changes his mind about what to do in life.
The other author I know who really cares about justice, about what is right (not just about making money with books where the good guy is winning at the end) is British-Australian author Colin Cotterill. The style and subjects and ideals are very different from Grisham's, but the same concern permeates his books. They are called blanc fiction (as opposed to noir) by David Langness: "Blanc fiction offers hope. Take a break from all the doom and darkness, and read some". In Laos-staged Dr Siri Paiboun series, the hero is a very old man who is still coroner in a very dysfunctional country in the 70s. The background is that Siri was educated in France where he became a nationalist and a circumstantial communist. He is now disappointed with the communist regime in Laos, but not quite willing to give up. In the end, Siri finds wisdom in "going for the small things and doing them well". It is in threads like this that I see that Cotterill cares for what is right, but the books are so funny you might not notice it. The foreground is full of crazy humor: Anarchy and Old Dogs, for instance, starts with the death of a blind man carrying a letter written in invisible ink. Cotterill has a sense of strong images, such as a "stogy cloud... hanging over them like soft bread". The Coroner’s Lunch,
Thirty-Three Teeth,
Disco For the Departed,
Anarchy and Old Dogs,
Curse of the Pogo Stick,
The Merry Misogynist, Love songs from a shallow grave (in press when I write this).
The best style
I vote for Martha Grimes The beautiful writing does not always compensate the gloom, at least for me. You can be sure that if you like one of her characters (and that does not happen in every book), Martha will kill it at the end. There is plenty to read and her books are of consistent quality.
The most Italian
You cannot go Italian without getting a bit intellectual. You have been warned.
Prize for the most opera goes to the intelligent books of Donna Leon with Commissario Brunetti. Start with Death at la Fenice.
Two Italian authors (Carl Fruttero and Franco Lucentini) had their hour of glory with The Sunday Woman. I have not read it in decades, but as I remember it, the commissario of the book was less faithful and less honest than Brunetti (and maybe more Italian too, unless Leon testifies that Italy has finally changed). Great book though.
The most British
I keep tender feelings for Dorothy Sayers and the stories of Lord Peter. Lord Peter suffers from traumatic stress disorder after the first world war, and when Sayers described it, it was still medically unrecognized.
I like Agatha Christie much more than her books. I understand her memory loss and her shyness, and her temerity, and her inability to deal with certain people. We would have been great friends. Divorce was a terrible shock to her: it was a cause of shame in her time. Although she does not say it in her autobiography, she felt guilty about it. You can see that in a most remarkable and totally underappreciated book: Absent in the Spring (written under the name of Mary Westmacott).
If you never heard of inspector Morse, go for Colin Dexter, you are in for a treat.
The most Pro-British
Deborah Crombie (b. 1952) New York Times Book of the Year 1997 and Edgar nominee was born and lives in Texas. Her favorite hero is a Scotland Yard inspector. I read Dreaming of the bones.
Laurie R. King (b. 1952) received an Edgar for her first novel and lives in California. She has tackled Sherlock Holmes with a few twists. The beekeeper's apprentice starts memorably like this: "I was fifteen when I first met Sherlock Holmes, fifteen years old with my nose in a book as I walked the Sussex Downs, and I nearly stepped on him."
The most Wagnerian
No doubt, the title goes to John Connolly. Gore with a real Irish sense of doom combined with a German sense of tragedy. An excellent author nevertheless.
The perfect architect
Five stars go to John Sandford for novels constructed with the precision of Stravinsky. The quality is always good, and I will not blame for anything somebody who makes a living of writing and lives in Minnesota. I wish however that the bad guys sometimes finish on trial rather than be killed by police. Two things I like: 1. there is always a small thing to learn, because the author has a curious mind: somewhere in each book is something that I did not know before; 2. heroes and people evolve in each book, so it is worth reading them in order. You got a choice between two main series, The Prey series (Prey is in every title, starting with Rules of Prey) and the Kidd series (starting with The Fool's Run)
The foggiest
No doubt the award goes to Belgian author Simenon. I used to know him when I was a kid: he had been in love with the sister of my mom's professor of latin, so he and my mom always talked at social meetings. My mom remembered him writing a book in 3 days in the shop window of a bookstore in Liege when she was young. I intensely distrusted Simenon (I found out much later, reading his biography, that he was a sex addict). Simenon has heavyset intuitive inspector Maigret solving crimes; the books are mostly about atmosphere. They are still good reads. At the top of his glory, inspector Maigret had a cookbook (traditional French recipes from before the nouvelle cuisine, written by a serious amateur). The cookbook has disappeared, but you cannot read Simenon without a good French classic cookbook. I recommend Richard Olney
The best foreigners
In medieval China: Van Gulik***
In Amsterdam: Wetering (stories involve an old arthritic police chief and his cat) and Nicolas Freeling
(For Freeling, start with the Van der Valk mysteries)
In Sweden: Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo have a cynical view of a country that was considered at the time (70s) an economic paradise. You got to read the ten books in order, because the private life of Chief detective Martin Beck evolves in each book. I have reservations about the last book (The Terrorists), it is very long, and driven by unclear political views.
In Spain: I am eternally grateful to Montalban*** for a hero who lights the fire with pages of philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. Look for a Pepe Carvalho Mystery. The author wrote a superb cookbook; unhappily I could not find it in English.
In Turkey (by a British-Turkish author) Barbara Nadel has a whole series about inspector Ikmen. The series starts with Belshazzar's Daughter. Her books have all the qualities you want from a mystery novel, plus, they are very interesting! Not only the police protocol is different, but the motives for crime are often different, and the characters have flesh. What more do you want? The following books in this series are: A Chemical Prison, Arabesk, Deep Waters, Harem, Petrified, Deadly Web, Dance With Death, A Passion for Killing, Pretty Dead Things, River of the Dead.
The best bones
There has been a surabundance of bones these last years, due to the success of forensics. As it is no use to you that I detail the ones I don't like, I will tell you that the most delicious one is not the best known: try Aaron Elkins. The description of the academics by the author is so good that you keep thinking that he modeled so and so on your own colleagues! The information is different from what you have seen on TV, the hero is a likeable professor and the adventures are perplexing.
The funniest
This is a genre where it is difficult to be funny, and not many people succeed. There is Westlake and Janet Evanovich. I recommend a book that amused me: Only when I laugh, by Len Deighton. Colin Cotterill (see top of this page) is fun to read. And of course the burglar's adventures of Lawrence Block are always a lively treat.
The different
Qiu Xiaolong*** lives in the US with a Chinese soul. His hero, inspector Chen, lives in China and deals with corruption and the problems of rapid industrialization. Many aspects make the author precious. Inspector Chen is a poet, and many events remind him of ancient poems, when he does not write one himself. My father was like that: he was a professor of economics but he could quote a poem on every occasion; I clearly remember him quoting Baudelaire to our butcher. My father used to say that poetry had helped him survive the savagery of world war II.
Inspector Chen is also gripped by the rules of ancient cultures.
Because of Victorian times, Europeans are not supposed to ask for something directly (they do not risk/or impose on somebody to answer "no"). So they never ask for a cup of coffee, they say "Your coffee is excellent" or "Is there any coffee left", and the hostess understands that the visitor wants more coffee. China has different rules, but it is as complicated, and as a result, inspector Chen is often told what to do in a very symbolic and obscure language (I think this is linked to a principle of deniability). It amuses me. I loved A case of two cities.
How it started
Medieval mysteries
Victorian mysteries
don't forget spy books
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