Crime Fiction Recommendations - Page 22

SensualPoet · 05-31-2011, 08:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wallcraft

In the US it is agency priced at $12.99 (on Kindle ASIN: B000OIZV7K).

Canadian displayed Kindle: ASIN: B003KVKRCC

Pity. What did that ex-President say? "I feel your pain." It's usually the other way around with the Canadian price being out of whack. Perhaps some others in the series are cheaper?

SensualPoet · 05-31-2011, 09:19 PM

Louise Penny, in her second Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novel, A Fatal Grace (published also as "Dead Cold"), is a brilliant follow-up to Still Life where murder returns to the cheerful village Three Pines in the eastern townships of Quebec, an hour's drive or so from Montreal.

It is a year later, and the austere, aloof Hadley home, had known such grief, has been purchased by CC de Poitiers and her husband Richard Lyon. CC is a glamourous, late forties bleached blonde with ambition far, far exceeding her talent. She annoys, belittles, betrays, and alienates everyone in her path, and in her circle: even her not-so-secret lover despises her. What a fine choice for a murder victim!

The great characters of the original novel return: Ruth Zardo, a curmudgeonly poet; Clara Morrow, a painter struggling to invest the real world with a shred of the beauty of her inner world and canvasses; her husband, Peter, also an artist by trade; Gabri and Olivier, the gay couple who run the B&B and popular bistro in Three Pines; Myrna, a black therapist who has settled here to recharge; Gamache himself, an immensely warm, thoughtful man who struggles every moment to do his best for those he cares about -- including murderers whom he inevitably comes to care about as he gets inside their heads and hearts; and the others of his crew, including the delightfully off kilter Jean-Guy Beauvoir and the return of Yvette Nichol and a new officer, Robert Lemieux. Penny's magic is to share each character's inner voices and asides, commenting on scenes from multiple perspectives.

These are murder mysteries, and there is endless delight trying to guess how the clues, sometimes obvious and sometimes not, fit together, only to have them confirmed, then dashed and a new solution presented in the nick of time as the tale comes to a close. This is virtuoso stuff and hugely pleasurable to read. Bravo!

Available for your Kindle in the US or Kindle in Canada (as "Dead Cold") for $10 and $8.50 respectively; the book appears temporarily withdrawn from Kobo in Canada.

Nicwas · 06-03-2011, 07:13 AM

Have you read George Pelecanos (co-writer of The Wire), Henning Mankel and Micheal Dibdin (now sadly deceased)?

SensualPoet · 06-03-2011, 08:36 PM

I just borrowed a Henning Mankel from the library ... and Pelecanos is annoyingly hard to find in ebook form ... and Michael Dibdin (a Guardian obit is here) is new for me ... and I love the titles. Thanks for the reco!

Can you suggest a favourite novel of among these men of yours? (And welcome to MR and the thread!)

SensualPoet · 06-03-2011, 08:38 PM

In Georges Simenon's 1942 novel, The Hotel Majestic, Chief Inspector Jules Maigret must solve the murder of an American tycoon's wife whose strangled body is found unceremoniously stuffed into an employee's locker in the basement of a Paris hotel. The tycoon, however, has an alibi (he's been dallying with the governess instead of his French-born wife), and if the tycoon's six year old son, with fiery red hair, happens to bear a striking resemblance to the accused murderer, a hotel employee named Prosper Donge, then it can only be because Simenon is up to his old tricks plotting a delightful yarn which needs serious unravelling.

If the year of the tale is a bit fuzzy -- there is no hint of a war in Europe -- there is no lack of clarity in Maigret's vision: the Inspector acts as if he's pieced the puzzle together long before the rest of us. Donge lives with a plump mid-30s woman, more roommates than lovers though they share a bed, and they both have some history with the murdered woman -- and another set of minor characters in Cannes which Maigret visits by train. But Donge has been unlucky in love, it seems, and his somewhat simple mental capabilities lead multiple characters to impose upon and take advantage of him. Ah, but he did have motive for the murder, as facts begin to come to light, and opportunity ... until a second strangled body turns up, in the same locker ....

Simenon's gently eccentric characters, including Maigret who does some rather shocking things by current police standards, are delightful to spend time with. It's hard to dislike the bad guys, and the flaws of the good guys make them that much more charming. The wonderful thing about these stories is not the puzzle (although it can be torturous), nor the psychology (which is thoughtful and always humane), nor the language (which is evocative but never self-consciously clever) ... it is truly that the stories are comfortable and can be read over and over and still produce delight.

Available in Kobo and Kindle from Penguin for around $8 to $9.

poohbear_nc · 06-03-2011, 09:00 PM

I love Maigret! I have all the books in paperback. Penguin released 8 titles as ebooks and then stopped! Don't know what's going on there.

Also, Michael Dibdin's books look wonderful! I too had never heard of him! Great - just what I need - more authors to add to my "Must Read" list!

Also, the early Mankel titles are wonderfully dour bleak mysteries. The later ones get a bit odd - preachy. A lot of verbiage on why modern Sweden has so much crime.

Xanthe · 06-03-2011, 09:19 PM

The authors I would recommend are:

Carol O'Connell (Mallory series)
Linda Fairstein (Alexandra Cooper series)
Elizabeth M. Cosin (Zen Moses series)
Leslie Glass (April Woo series)
C.S. Harris (Sebastian St. Cyr series)
Tami Hoag
Richard Montanari (Philadelphia series)
S.J. Rosin (Bill Smith/Lydia Chin series)
P.D. James (Dalgliesh series)
Anne George (Inspector Lynley series)
Julia Spencer-Fleming (Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne series)
P.J. Tracy (Monkeewrench series)
Jeff Abbott
Carolyn Haines (Mississippi Delta series)
Katy Munger (Casey Jones series)

NightBird · 06-04-2011, 07:09 PM

I really like Richard Montanari, too. My favorite was The Violet Hour.

He has a new book coming out in September - part of the Kevin/Jessica series - by Random House, on pre-order at Amazon for $5.99:

The Echo Man

Quote:

Product Description
From internationally bestselling author Richard Montanari comes a smashing new thriller—available exclusively as an e-book.

LISTEN FOR THE SOUND OF MURDER

Tormented by the exquisite beauty of a concerto and the bloodcurdling cries of a dying woman, the Echo Man composes his own symphony in response: a string of artfully staged slayings—all of them linked to cold murder cases and designed to taunt the police of Philadelphia.

Detective Kevin Byrne hears sounds, too. They wake him in the night, haunt him by day, and remind him of the first homicide suspect he ever arrested: a gifted, beautiful classical musician who inexplicably went mad and became murderous. Now Byrne believes that Philly’s serial killings might be linked to that case. But his partner, Jessica Balzano, has too many bodies on her hands to worry about Byrne’s strange intuition or personal demons—until all the perfectly placed clues, all the evidence, all the deception point Balzano in one direction, and she discovers that the killer is closer than she could ever have suspected.

From the acclaimed author of Merciless, The Echo Man is a masterpiece of suspense that builds to a crescendo of terror and stunning surprise.

http://www.amazon.com/Echo-Man-Novel...7225798&sr=1-5

I read the first Mallory book but haven't decided if I like her yet or not.

orlok · 06-05-2011, 06:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NightBird

I really like Richard Montanari, too. My favorite was The Violet Hour.

He has a new book coming out in September - part of the Kevin/Jessica series - by Random House, on pre-order at Amazon for $5.99:

My wife and I age big fans - funnily enough the only one we haven't read is The Violet Hour, which is sitting in her TBR pile on her bedside cabinet (I may have to just get in there first). We have particularly enjoyed all of the Kevin/Jessica series.

Xanthe · 06-05-2011, 08:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NightBird

I read the first Mallory book but haven't decided if I like her yet or not.

I don't know if we are supposed to like Mallory or not. Mallory is like a force of nature, she just is what she is. It's the events and the characters around her that help to explain her, that humanize her (to a certain degree), and who handle the fallout from her that adds the depth to the novels. The books are as much about the core characters as they are about Mallory. As the series progresses, more and more of Mallory's backstory is revealed, and why she is how she is makes perfect sense. I have to say, I love the series.

NightBird · 06-05-2011, 09:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by orlok

My wife and I age big fans - funnily enough the only one we haven't read is The Violet Hour, which is sitting in her TBR pile on her bedside cabinet (I may have to just get in there first). We have particularly enjoyed all of the Kevin/Jessica series.

Oh, you will definitely like The Violet Hour, then. Lots of twists and turns. I hope they get all of his older books into ebook format, as I would like to replace my paper copies.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xanthe

I don't know if we are supposed to like Mallory or not. Mallory is like a force of nature, she just is what she is. It's the events and the characters around her that help to explain her, that humanize her (to a certain degree), and who handle the fallout from her that adds the depth to the novels. The books are as much about the core characters as they are about Mallory. As the series progresses, more and more of Mallory's backstory is revealed, and why she is how she is makes perfect sense. I have to say, I love the series.

I meant "her"=the author. lol. I was hoping it would be the case that the series would get better. I really found some of the ancillary characters interesting and different.

ReneAZ · 06-06-2011, 01:15 PM

Thanks for all the new writers to try!

Don't think I saw Reginald Hill mentioned (British police procedural). I really like his Pascoe/Dalziel series. Also - I like David Rosenfelt. His character "Andy Carpenter" is a witty/funny lawyer in New Jersey.

I am also a big fan of Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder series, and many others that have already been mentioned. I plan to get acquainted with many of these!

SensualPoet · 06-06-2011, 06:20 PM

Since we've all obviously run out of things to read (!!!), here's another suggestion.

David Ashton is the creator of Inspector James McLevy who first appeared on BBC Radio 4 in 2000.

Known as the father of forensics and a likely influence on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, real-life police inspector James McLevy is here reinvented by David Ashton in a thrilling mystery, Shadow of the Serpent. 1880, Edinburgh, Election fever grips the city. But while the rich and educated argue about politics, in the dank wynds of the docks it's a struggle just to stay alive. When a prostitute is brutally murdered, disturbing memories from thirty years ago are stirred in McLevy who is soon lured into a murky world of politics, perversion and deception - and the shadow of the serpent. Kindle or Kobo for just over $1.

The second in a new series of McLevy books, Fall from Grace revolves around the terrible Tay Bridge disaster. The story begins with a break-in and murder at the Edinburgh home of Sir Thomas Bouch, the enigmatic, egotistical builder of the Tay Bridge. McLevy is brought in to investigate. With the help of brothel madam Jean Brash, McLevy finds the murderer, but there is much, much more to unfold: murder, arson, sexual obsession and suicide. Kindle or Kobo for just over $2.

There's a nice backgrounder here about the character's origins.

benham · 06-06-2011, 08:48 PM

No lack of things to read but there is always room for one more, thanks!

wyndslash · 06-06-2011, 09:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

For fans of Colin Cotterill (Dr. Siri series) - the entire series will be available as ebooks (in the US) in July. I had contacted Mr. Cotterill a year or so ago as to why his titles were not available as ebooks (since Soho was converting most of its backlist titles to digital format) and he replied that at that time the ebook rights were being held up due to a contractural dispute with his (former) agent. I guess that's finally settled now - and look forward to reading/re-reading this marvelous series.

If you haven't discovered the wisdom of this oldest of coroners surviving in post-revolutionary regime in Laos, you're in for a treat.

definitely will check this out

06-03-2011, 08:36 PM	#319
SensualPoet Wizard Posts: 2,302 Karma: 2607151 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Toronto Device: Kobo Aura HD, Kindle Paperwhite, Asus ZenPad 3, Kobo Glo	I just borrowed a Henning Mankel from the library ... and Pelecanos is annoyingly hard to find in ebook form ... and Michael Dibdin (a Guardian obit is here) is new for me ... and I love the titles. Thanks for the reco! Can you suggest a favourite novel of among these men of yours? (And welcome to MR and the thread!) Last edited by SensualPoet; 06-03-2011 at 08:39 PM.

06-06-2011, 01:15 PM	#327
ReneAZ eBookaholic Posts: 79 Karma: 1071702 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Phoenix AZ USA Device: iPad Mini, Kindle Fire	Thanks for all the new writers to try! Don't think I saw Reginald Hill mentioned (British police procedural). I really like his Pascoe/Dalziel series. Also - I like David Rosenfelt. His character "Andy Carpenter" is a witty/funny lawyer in New Jersey. I am also a big fan of Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder series, and many others that have already been mentioned. I plan to get acquainted with many of these! Last edited by ReneAZ; 06-06-2011 at 01:36 PM.

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05-31-2011, 09:19 PM	#317
SensualPoet Wizard Posts: 2,302 Karma: 2607151 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Toronto Device: Kobo Aura HD, Kindle Paperwhite, Asus ZenPad 3, Kobo Glo	Louise Penny, in her second Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novel, A Fatal Grace (published also as "Dead Cold"), is a brilliant follow-up to Still Life where murder returns to the cheerful village Three Pines in the eastern townships of Quebec, an hour's drive or so from Montreal. It is a year later, and the austere, aloof Hadley home, had known such grief, has been purchased by CC de Poitiers and her husband Richard Lyon. CC is a glamourous, late forties bleached blonde with ambition far, far exceeding her talent. She annoys, belittles, betrays, and alienates everyone in her path, and in her circle: even her not-so-secret lover despises her. What a fine choice for a murder victim! The great characters of the original novel return: Ruth Zardo, a curmudgeonly poet; Clara Morrow, a painter struggling to invest the real world with a shred of the beauty of her inner world and canvasses; her husband, Peter, also an artist by trade; Gabri and Olivier, the gay couple who run the B&B and popular bistro in Three Pines; Myrna, a black therapist who has settled here to recharge; Gamache himself, an immensely warm, thoughtful man who struggles every moment to do his best for those he cares about -- including murderers whom he inevitably comes to care about as he gets inside their heads and hearts; and the others of his crew, including the delightfully off kilter Jean-Guy Beauvoir and the return of Yvette Nichol and a new officer, Robert Lemieux. Penny's magic is to share each character's inner voices and asides, commenting on scenes from multiple perspectives. These are murder mysteries, and there is endless delight trying to guess how the clues, sometimes obvious and sometimes not, fit together, only to have them confirmed, then dashed and a new solution presented in the nick of time as the tale comes to a close. This is virtuoso stuff and hugely pleasurable to read. Bravo! Available for your Kindle in the US or Kindle in Canada (as "Dead Cold") for $10 and $8.50 respectively; the book appears temporarily withdrawn from Kobo in Canada.

06-03-2011, 07:13 AM	#318
Nicwas Nicwas Posts: 4 Karma: 10000 Join Date: May 2011 Location: Bucks, United Kingdom Device: kindle	Have you read George Pelecanos (co-writer of The Wire), Henning Mankel and Micheal Dibdin (now sadly deceased)?

06-03-2011, 08:38 PM	#320
SensualPoet Wizard Posts: 2,302 Karma: 2607151 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Toronto Device: Kobo Aura HD, Kindle Paperwhite, Asus ZenPad 3, Kobo Glo	In Georges Simenon's 1942 novel, The Hotel Majestic, Chief Inspector Jules Maigret must solve the murder of an American tycoon's wife whose strangled body is found unceremoniously stuffed into an employee's locker in the basement of a Paris hotel. The tycoon, however, has an alibi (he's been dallying with the governess instead of his French-born wife), and if the tycoon's six year old son, with fiery red hair, happens to bear a striking resemblance to the accused murderer, a hotel employee named Prosper Donge, then it can only be because Simenon is up to his old tricks plotting a delightful yarn which needs serious unravelling. If the year of the tale is a bit fuzzy -- there is no hint of a war in Europe -- there is no lack of clarity in Maigret's vision: the Inspector acts as if he's pieced the puzzle together long before the rest of us. Donge lives with a plump mid-30s woman, more roommates than lovers though they share a bed, and they both have some history with the murdered woman -- and another set of minor characters in Cannes which Maigret visits by train. But Donge has been unlucky in love, it seems, and his somewhat simple mental capabilities lead multiple characters to impose upon and take advantage of him. Ah, but he did have motive for the murder, as facts begin to come to light, and opportunity ... until a second strangled body turns up, in the same locker .... Simenon's gently eccentric characters, including Maigret who does some rather shocking things by current police standards, are delightful to spend time with. It's hard to dislike the bad guys, and the flaws of the good guys make them that much more charming. The wonderful thing about these stories is not the puzzle (although it can be torturous), nor the psychology (which is thoughtful and always humane), nor the language (which is evocative but never self-consciously clever) ... it is truly that the stories are comfortable and can be read over and over and still produce delight. Available in Kobo and Kindle from Penguin for around $8 to $9.

06-03-2011, 09:00 PM	#321
poohbear_nc Bah! Humbug! Posts: 63,447 Karma: 135239851 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Durham, NC Device: Every Kindle Ever Made & To Be Made!	I love Maigret! I have all the books in paperback. Penguin released 8 titles as ebooks and then stopped! Don't know what's going on there. Also, Michael Dibdin's books look wonderful! I too had never heard of him! Great - just what I need - more authors to add to my "Must Read" list! Also, the early Mankel titles are wonderfully dour bleak mysteries. The later ones get a bit odd - preachy. A lot of verbiage on why modern Sweden has so much crime.

06-03-2011, 09:19 PM	#322
Xanthe Plan B Is Now In Force Posts: 1,894 Karma: 8086979 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Surebleak Device: Aluratek,Sony 350/T1,Pandigital,eBM 911,Nook HD/HD+,Fire HDX 7/8.9,PW2	The authors I would recommend are: Carol O'Connell (Mallory series) Linda Fairstein (Alexandra Cooper series) Elizabeth M. Cosin (Zen Moses series) Leslie Glass (April Woo series) C.S. Harris (Sebastian St. Cyr series) Tami Hoag Richard Montanari (Philadelphia series) S.J. Rosin (Bill Smith/Lydia Chin series) P.D. James (Dalgliesh series) Anne George (Inspector Lynley series) Julia Spencer-Fleming (Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne series) P.J. Tracy (Monkeewrench series) Jeff Abbott Carolyn Haines (Mississippi Delta series) Katy Munger (Casey Jones series)

06-06-2011, 06:20 PM	#328
SensualPoet Wizard Posts: 2,302 Karma: 2607151 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Toronto Device: Kobo Aura HD, Kindle Paperwhite, Asus ZenPad 3, Kobo Glo	Since we've all obviously run out of things to read (!!!), here's another suggestion. David Ashton is the creator of Inspector James McLevy who first appeared on BBC Radio 4 in 2000. Known as the father of forensics and a likely influence on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, real-life police inspector James McLevy is here reinvented by David Ashton in a thrilling mystery, Shadow of the Serpent. 1880, Edinburgh, Election fever grips the city. But while the rich and educated argue about politics, in the dank wynds of the docks it's a struggle just to stay alive. When a prostitute is brutally murdered, disturbing memories from thirty years ago are stirred in McLevy who is soon lured into a murky world of politics, perversion and deception - and the shadow of the serpent. Kindle or Kobo for just over $1. The second in a new series of McLevy books, Fall from Grace revolves around the terrible Tay Bridge disaster. The story begins with a break-in and murder at the Edinburgh home of Sir Thomas Bouch, the enigmatic, egotistical builder of the Tay Bridge. McLevy is brought in to investigate. With the help of brothel madam Jean Brash, McLevy finds the murderer, but there is much, much more to unfold: murder, arson, sexual obsession and suicide. Kindle or Kobo for just over $2. There's a nice backgrounder here about the character's origins.

06-06-2011, 08:48 PM	#329
benham Guru Posts: 882 Karma: 5565888 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Townsend, WI Device: Palm TX, PRS-505 (BLUE)	No lack of things to read but there is always room for one more, thanks!