Crime Fiction Recommendations

[SensualPoet]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

James Lee Burke, James Lee Burke................oh, yes.......... James Lee Burke.

Can you recommend one or two specific titles?

[carpetmojo]

Glad to.



I'd suggest , in the Robicheaux series, best to read in timeline order - although they are fine stand alone - so, "The Neon Rain" , followed by "Heaven's Prisoners". You'll know after "Neon.." if you're in it for the long haul !
There are at present 19 Robicheaux, all with Louisiana as a backdrop.The strangest is " In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead" but build up to it ! (Around 6th I think.)

His other works are absolutely on a par, " The Convict and Other Stories", "The Lost Get Back Boogie" (nominated Pullitzer), the Billy Bob stories......
This is his book list :-

http://www.jamesleeburke.com/bibliography.html

I wish you many hours of discovery - I find myself getting through the canon around every couple of years, and still enjoy them........
( I also do this with the Harry Bosch series, but not as often....)

Bon voyage !

[WillieMcIntyre]

Interesting to see so many Michael Connolly fans because I've been called Scotland's answer to Michael Connolly! True, it was my mum who called me that but everyone's entitled to an opinion.

Why not make up your own mind for a measly $1.40/99p?

Relatively Guilty
Follow the trials and tribulations of Scots criminal lawyer Robbie Munro as he heads up his fledgling law firm in the Royal Burgh of Linlithgow. Assisted by a keen, if inconveniently ethical, legal trainee and a formidable secretary, Robbie joins battle in the fight for truth and justice - hoping truth and justice don’t win too often or Munro & Co. will be out of business.

Now available on Amazon and Smashwords.

Oh, and I like Al Guthrie and the master: John Mortimer.

[benham]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

Can you recommend one or two specific titles?

Purple Cane Road is good. A couple years ago In The Electric Mist can out as a movie on DVD starring Tommy Lee Jones.

[SensualPoet]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

I highly recommend Debbi Mack's Identity Crisis concerning a lawyer, Samantha "Sam" McRae who gets mixed up helping a client suspected of stealing from the bank she works for ... that quickly turns into murder. Sam works on her own but finds a couple of sympathetic friends along the way ... and has a couple of mafia encounters she'd rather not repeat. Vulnerable but tough, Sam's sleuthyness gets her into and out of trouble as she pieces together clues that reveal a much bigger story than her client's original challenges. Available at Kobo, Kindle and Smashwords for abt $3.

Now listed on the top 35 of New York Times best selling e-book fiction (and new price: 99¢). See also: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...57&postcount=7

[orlok]

Robert B Parker and Spenser (sadly both no longer with us), Robert Crais and his Elvis Cole/Joe Pike characters, Harlan Coben and his Myron Bolitar/Windsor Horne Lockwood III teaming, Robert Goddard (English author who does Coben-like "buried family secrets that come back and bite future generations" style stories).

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by benham

Purple Cane Road is good. A couple years ago In The Electric Mist can out as a movie on DVD starring Tommy Lee Jones.

Yes, it was pretty good too - but is anything with Tommy Lee Jones in it not ?

I've never quite "got" why more Burke books haven't transfered to film.

[marshacanham]

Originally Posted by benham

I am a big Michael Connelly fan and have all his novels on ebook. Crime fiction is pretty much all I read. Anyone else have some favorite crime fiction authors?

I am a HUGE Michael Connelly fan and have been since I read his first book about 15 years ago. He and Wilbur Smith are the only two authors I buy in hardcover.

[edbro]

Originally Posted by orlok

Robert B Parker and Spenser (sadly both no longer with us),

Parker isn't but Spenser still is.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by edbro

Parker isn't but Spenser still is.

Agreed, but I mourn the fact that there will be no new Spenser, so in effect he is dead too.

[benham]

Originally Posted by marshacanham

I am a HUGE Michael Connelly fan and have been since I read his first book about 15 years ago. He and Wilbur Smith are the only two authors I buy in hardcover.

I have been reading him a long time too and most of them on ebooks, mostly on my Palm. Have you been to his forum? It is very active. You would probably also like Stephen J Cannell's Shane Scully series (and his stand a lones too) as I always describe him as a married Harry Bosch.

A new author for me to check out! What is Wilbur Smith like?

carpetmojo, I wonder that too. I don't know if the author gets a lot of say in the movie and if that might have something to do with it.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by benham

You would probably also like Stephen J Cannell's Shane Scully series (and his stand a lones too) as I always describe him as a married Harry Bosch.

Alas, Cannell is no longer with us either. He died in September 2010, of complications of melanoma.
______
Dennis

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by benham

I always describe him as a married Harry Bosch.

The mind boggles ...................

[/QUOTE]A new author for me to check out! What is Wilbur Smith like?[/QUOTE]

Well, at one period in my youth I read 3 of his, and thought they were pretty good, but was changing my opinion by the 3rd and didn't finish it. Very formulaic, obvious in a sort of easy "epic" manner, the mandatory mildly naughtie bits, and, when I last tried one, overblown and rather dated. Sorry, but that's just me - a lot of people read him. Suck it and see, I suppose !

[/QUOTE]carpetmojo, I wonder that too. I don't know if the author gets a lot of say in the movie and if that might have something to do with it.[/QUOTE]

I believe he wasn't that happy with it...... Authors have a difficult choice, I suppose - they'd probably like their work to enter a new medium, but the writer, especially in Hollywood, has always been the least important factor, which is changing a bit, but usually only after the first successful one. Often the price of a film can be to surrender artistic control, to all intents and purposes.
I'd love to see them filmed - but well, and with a lot of his input.

But do I ?
Would it ruin my regular re-reads, and the excited journey into whichever one comes off the stocks next ?

Mmmmmmmmmm........

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

I believe he wasn't that happy with it...... Authors have a difficult choice, I suppose - they'd probably like their work to enter a new medium, but the writer, especially in Hollywood, has always been the least important factor, which is changing a bit, but usually only after the first successful one. Often the price of a film can be to surrender artistic control, to all intents and purposes.

A film is not a book, and the medium has different constraints. Many books really can't be filmed "as is", and sometimes attempts to try are less than successful. (The first few Harry Potter films got criticized because they did try to adhere closely to the books, and might have been better films had they been less slavish in their adaptation.)

Meanwhile, film rights tend to go for significant sums. The price of a film is a lot of money. A popular author who sells film rights to a book is likely to make more money from that sale than on all of his written works combined. But that seems to be Hollywood all over: you surrender all artistic control, but you can make a lot of money. People who get work in films grit their teeth and deposit the checks.
______
Dennis

[benham]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Alas, Cannell is no longer with us either. He died in September 2010, of complications of melanoma.
______
Dennis

Indeed a great loss. Creator of Rockford Files, A-Team and Greatest American Hero, to name just a few. I have theorized that he was the author of the Richard Castle books, but we may never know. The only book of his that I did not thoroughly enjoy was at First Sight