Crime Fiction Recommendations - Page 30

poohbear_nc · 08-28-2011, 01:31 PM

Many of Marsh's books are set in the theatre - reflecting her life-long involvement with theatrical productions - in London and New Zealand. If you read her books in order, you'll encounter players from the company in later books - nice to encounter "old friends" that way.

All of her ebooks were pulled from the American market - those old geo restrictions again.

alansplace · 08-28-2011, 01:37 PM

Dana Stabenow The Kate Shugak Mysteries & The Liam Campbell Mysteries
John D. MacDonald The Travis McGee Series
Tony Hillerman The Navajo Mysteries (Leaphorn and Chee)
Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

SensualPoet · 08-28-2011, 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Many of Marsh's books are set in the theatre - reflecting her life-long involvement with theatrical productions - in London and New Zealand. If you read her books in order, you'll encounter players from the company in later books - nice to encounter "old friends" that way.

All of her ebooks were pulled from the American market - those old geo restrictions again.

But some are available in Canada.

In the US, "Felony & Mayhem" grabbed the rights and are about to re-release these in paper. Unfortunately, their website has been "coming soon" for months and there's no word about ebook editions. They've also got Margery Allingham and the Albert Campion all sewed up. And reprints of Reginald Hill.

benham · 08-28-2011, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alansplace

Dana Stabenow The Kate Shugak Mysteries & The Liam Campbell Mysteries
John D. MacDonald The Travis McGee Series
Tony Hillerman The Navajo Mysteries (Leaphorn and Chee)
Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

We happen to be doing a Travis McGee for our book review next month on a different forum, Bright Orange For The Shroud. Have you read it?

alansplace · 08-28-2011, 02:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by benham

We happen to be doing a Travis McGee for our book review next month on a different forum, Bright Orange For The Shroud. Have you read it?

oh yes, i've read all 21 of the travis mcgee books. hope you enjoy it as much as i did.

here's a short review off of amazon:

In BRIGHT ORANGE FOR THE SHROUD, knight errant McGee rights wrongs committed by an impromptu consortium which exists to defraud and destroy its victim utterly. McGee flushes out the book's ultra-villain, Boo Waxwell, and does what he can to rectify the wrongs done to an innocent man. All, I might add, without reference to the Cold War, Carnaby Street, Hippies, or anything else which would have identified the book as a product of the Sizties.

MacDonald's villains are the seven deadly sins, with an occasional personification of evil from the swamps like rapist-murderer-extortionist Waxwell thrown in. A wonderful read which I highly recommend.

benham · 08-28-2011, 10:54 PM

Sounds good. Looking forward to reading it, thanks!

JeremyR · 08-29-2011, 04:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

I've just started reading Ngaio Marsh's "Inspector Alleyn" novels. .

I've read all of them (in pbook), very enjoyable. Early on, Alleyn can be something of a pompous ass. And some of the dealings with his mother are weird (would a Scotland Yard detective really talk over his cases with his mother?).

But once he gets married he's less obnoxious.

Besides the theater, many of the books are somewhat art related...

NightBird · 08-30-2011, 08:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by benham

So far, I have read Vanishing Act and Death Benefits by Perry. VA is a Jane Whitefield. That was about a year ago and I can't say why I quit

them because I liked them.

for the reminder!

I just finished listening to Silence by Thomas Perry and really liked it. What I like about Perry is how well he develops his characters and lets you get inside their heads by means of back stories and what they are thinking at any given time. His characters are also unusual. Lots of suspense, twists and turns. The ending was funny (in a warped way).

Quote:

Product Description
Six years ago, Jack Till helped Wendy Harper disappear. But now her ex-boyfriend and former business partner, Eric Fuller, is being framed for her presumed murder in an effort to smoke her out, and Till must find her before tango-dancing assassins Paul and Sylvie Turner do.

The ebook is still $1.33 (US) at Amazon and B&N

I haven't read any of the Jane Whitefield ones yet but I want to. I read Death Benefits a few years ago and didn't consider it to be one of his better ones but I don't remember why.

My favorite so far is Pursuit. I read that one a few years ago and just started listening to the audiobook.

Quote:

Product Description
Thirteen bodies are discovered inside a small Louisville restaurant just after closing time. The ferocity and apparent randomness of the crime prompt the police to call in criminology professor Daniel Millikan-they want a profile of the murderer. Millikan determines that the crime was committed not by a psychopath but by a professional killer of consummate skill and total lack of feeling: “I think that the one who did it is one of the special cases. He’s somebody we can’t afford to have walking down a street where our families walk.” When Millikan learns that the investigation has come to a complete standstill, he commits himself to an unorthodox decision. The only hope of stopping this killer and ending the bloodshed is to employ Roy Prescott, an expert in the narrow specialty of hunting down murderers through methods the police can’t-and wouldn’t-use.

And so begins a stunning novel by Thomas Perry, “one of the most thoroughly satisfying writers around” (Lawrence Block), a death match fought from one end of the country to the other by two enemies who both understand that only one of them will be alive at the end.

benham · 08-30-2011, 02:37 PM

Those both sound good too. I have not tried an audiobook yet.

Steve Anderson · 09-03-2011, 03:41 PM

I recently read and recommend More Beer by Jakob Arjouni, a German crime noir classic from the late 80s out now in the US in translation from Melville House. Outsider Turkish detective Kemal Kayankaya navigates prejudice, eco-terrorists and Establishment corruption in staid West Germany with gruff DIY attitude. I'll have a review of it up soon over at Noir Journal.

I just started Lumen by Ben Pastor. In 1939, in Nazi-occupied Poland, a American priest from Chicago and a German army captain investigate a nun's death. It's good so far with well-drawn characters.

Stitchawl · 09-03-2011, 07:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by benham

Those both sound good too. I have not tried an audiobook yet.

I've never listened to one either... This made me curious so I just picked up four of them in different genres (mystery/crime, humor, adventure, and Sci-Fi) to give them a try, as well as a CD of old radio shows. I wonder....

Stitchawl

mikemc2 · 09-03-2011, 08:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raduz

(he was jockey to Queen Mother for some time).

I had no idea the Queen Mother was an athlete...

Oh, and if you don't mind your crime fiction a bit on the twisted side there's always my fave James Ellroy.

poohbear_nc · 09-03-2011, 08:36 PM

The Black Dahlia is one of my all time favorite crime reads.

poohbear_nc · 09-04-2011, 03:59 PM

Just finished Louise Penny's "A Trick of the Light" - more detailed comments are here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...ostcount=10723 and here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...35&postcount=2

I can't recommend this book highly enough.

SensualPoet · 09-05-2011, 04:14 PM

Parnell Hall is one of those mid-list authors who has churned out a book annually over the past three decades, making a decent living at it, without hitting any home runs. His mystery series include Private Eye Stanley Hastings and, more recently, The Puzzle Lady (currently enjoying a steady run at St Martins Press’ Minotaur Books). Like many authors, though a number of his recent books remain in print, most older ones have fallen by the wayside. None of the older titles included sale of electronic rights and Hall has seized on the opportunity to bring out his entire ouevre as ebooks, first for Kindle and now as Nook books as well. This also provided the opportunity to restore to print his first series, the adventures of Steve Winslow, struggling criminal lawyer, who is modelled somewhat on Perry Mason and Paul Drake. The first title, The Baxter Trust, was published in 1988.

Sheila Benton is a multimillionaire heiress to the Baxter fortune but there's a hitch: she doesn't get the money till she's 35 and, at 24, she's dead broke, living in New York city. She's got a very hot Wall Street broker as a "pretty boy" boyfriend, Johnny Dutton ... but then he's still married. Her uncle Max is sole executor of the Baxter trust and doles out just enough for Sheila to make the rent on a very basic apartment. It gets a little more complicated because she also has a fondness for cocaine, something Johnny can supply. So when Johnny takes a flight to Reno, Nevada one morning to begin divorce proceedings against his wife, Sheila is without her drug supply. Worse, in her mailbox that morning, a blackmail note appears and, though she visits the police, they seemed inclined to dismiss her. Distraught, she turns to Uncle Max for some spare cash (for a fresh hit of cocaine but Max doesn't know that) and, while she's out getting her score, a dead body is left on her apartment floor. Frantic, she mails herself the cocaine, disposes of other incriminating bits around the apartment and then leaves for a payphone to report the body to the police. When the police arrive there seems no doubt Sheila is guilty: the corpse has her kitchen carving knife in its back with only her finger prints on it. What to do? She looks through the yellow pages and finds "Steve Winslow, criminal laywer" and offers him the job. Having been out of work for a year (he doesn't tell her that), and driving a cab nights to make ends meet (he definitely doesn't tell her that!), he rushes to her aid looking decidedly more hippy than legal beagle. Oh, and he doesn't own a suit. Will she trust him to take the case? Can he prove she's not guilty?

This was a fun, breezy read that will lead me to read others in the series. Light-hearted, no gore, and with believable characters and a reasonablu entertaining mystery to unravel, it's hard not to smile at the antics -- like the court room scenes (this is the first time Winslow has actually been in court) or his ability to bluff his opponents out of the court room. It's not flawless, but it's also a first novel and hits the spot with delight to spare.

Available for Kindle and Nook for about $1. (The other four titles in the series at $2.99.)

08-28-2011, 01:37 PM	#437
alansplace Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,886 Karma: 464403178 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: 33.9388° N, 117.2716° W Device: Kindles K-2, K-KB, PW 1 & 2, Voyage, Fire 2, 5 & HD 8, Surface 3, iPad	check these out... Dana Stabenow The Kate Shugak Mysteries & The Liam Campbell Mysteries John D. MacDonald The Travis McGee Series Tony Hillerman The Navajo Mysteries (Leaphorn and Chee) Jim Butcher The Dresden Files Last edited by alansplace; 08-28-2011 at 01:41 PM.

09-04-2011, 03:59 PM	#449
poohbear_nc Now what? Posts: 58,865 Karma: 135181808 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Durham, NC Device: Every Kindle Ever Made & To Be Made!	Just finished Louise Penny's "A Trick of the Light" - more detailed comments are here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...ostcount=10723 and here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...35&postcount=2 I can't recommend this book highly enough. Last edited by poohbear_nc; 09-05-2011 at 10:33 AM.

09-05-2011, 04:14 PM	#450
SensualPoet Wizard Posts: 2,302 Karma: 2607151 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Toronto Device: Kobo Aura HD, Kindle Paperwhite, Asus ZenPad 3, Kobo Glo	Parnell Hall - The Baxter Trust Parnell Hall is one of those mid-list authors who has churned out a book annually over the past three decades, making a decent living at it, without hitting any home runs. His mystery series include Private Eye Stanley Hastings and, more recently, The Puzzle Lady (currently enjoying a steady run at St Martins Press’ Minotaur Books). Like many authors, though a number of his recent books remain in print, most older ones have fallen by the wayside. None of the older titles included sale of electronic rights and Hall has seized on the opportunity to bring out his entire ouevre as ebooks, first for Kindle and now as Nook books as well. This also provided the opportunity to restore to print his first series, the adventures of Steve Winslow, struggling criminal lawyer, who is modelled somewhat on Perry Mason and Paul Drake. The first title, The Baxter Trust, was published in 1988. Sheila Benton is a multimillionaire heiress to the Baxter fortune but there's a hitch: she doesn't get the money till she's 35 and, at 24, she's dead broke, living in New York city. She's got a very hot Wall Street broker as a "pretty boy" boyfriend, Johnny Dutton ... but then he's still married. Her uncle Max is sole executor of the Baxter trust and doles out just enough for Sheila to make the rent on a very basic apartment. It gets a little more complicated because she also has a fondness for cocaine, something Johnny can supply. So when Johnny takes a flight to Reno, Nevada one morning to begin divorce proceedings against his wife, Sheila is without her drug supply. Worse, in her mailbox that morning, a blackmail note appears and, though she visits the police, they seemed inclined to dismiss her. Distraught, she turns to Uncle Max for some spare cash (for a fresh hit of cocaine but Max doesn't know that) and, while she's out getting her score, a dead body is left on her apartment floor. Frantic, she mails herself the cocaine, disposes of other incriminating bits around the apartment and then leaves for a payphone to report the body to the police. When the police arrive there seems no doubt Sheila is guilty: the corpse has her kitchen carving knife in its back with only her finger prints on it. What to do? She looks through the yellow pages and finds "Steve Winslow, criminal laywer" and offers him the job. Having been out of work for a year (he doesn't tell her that), and driving a cab nights to make ends meet (he definitely doesn't tell her that!), he rushes to her aid looking decidedly more hippy than legal beagle. Oh, and he doesn't own a suit. Will she trust him to take the case? Can he prove she's not guilty? This was a fun, breezy read that will lead me to read others in the series. Light-hearted, no gore, and with believable characters and a reasonablu entertaining mystery to unravel, it's hard not to smile at the antics -- like the court room scenes (this is the first time Winslow has actually been in court) or his ability to bluff his opponents out of the court room. It's not flawless, but it's also a first novel and hits the spot with delight to spare. Available for Kindle and Nook for about $1. (The other four titles in the series at $2.99.)

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08-28-2011, 01:31 PM	#436
poohbear_nc Now what? Posts: 58,865 Karma: 135181808 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Durham, NC Device: Every Kindle Ever Made & To Be Made!	Many of Marsh's books are set in the theatre - reflecting her life-long involvement with theatrical productions - in London and New Zealand. If you read her books in order, you'll encounter players from the company in later books - nice to encounter "old friends" that way. All of her ebooks were pulled from the American market - those old geo restrictions again.

08-28-2011, 10:54 PM	#441
benham Guru Posts: 882 Karma: 5565888 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Townsend, WI Device: Palm TX, PRS-505 (BLUE)	Sounds good. Looking forward to reading it, thanks!

08-30-2011, 02:37 PM	#444
benham Guru Posts: 882 Karma: 5565888 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Townsend, WI Device: Palm TX, PRS-505 (BLUE)	Those both sound good too. I have not tried an audiobook yet.

09-03-2011, 03:41 PM	#445
Steve Anderson Addict Posts: 226 Karma: 260821 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Portland, Oregon USA Device: iPhone, laptop, more	I recently read and recommend More Beer by Jakob Arjouni, a German crime noir classic from the late 80s out now in the US in translation from Melville House. Outsider Turkish detective Kemal Kayankaya navigates prejudice, eco-terrorists and Establishment corruption in staid West Germany with gruff DIY attitude. I'll have a review of it up soon over at Noir Journal. I just started *Lumen* by Ben Pastor. In 1939, in Nazi-occupied Poland, a American priest from Chicago and a German army captain investigate a nun's death. It's good so far with well-drawn characters.

09-03-2011, 08:36 PM	#448
poohbear_nc Now what? Posts: 58,865 Karma: 135181808 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Durham, NC Device: Every Kindle Ever Made & To Be Made!	The Black Dahlia is one of my all time favorite crime reads.

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