Crime
Murder, mystery, detective, hardboiled, spy,
legal/courtroom
DOYLE, Arthur Conan
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 1892
Thoroughly enjoyable
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time 2003 Crime/Novel
Triumphant autistic fantasy. Authentic characters, engaging narrative and excellent structure
LARSSON, Steig
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium Trilogy 1) 2006
Satisfying, cold, intellectual, brutal, spare, engaging, original
A Drink Before the War (Kenzie/Gennaro 1) 1994
Thoroughly enjoyable
ISHIGURO, Kazuo
When We Were Orphans 2000
Fear of the Dark (Fearless Jones 3) 2006
Ahhhh, at last, someone who can write. Celebrates conventions, but still a distinctive voice
The Fencing Master 1999 (trans.)
Sophisticated. Stunning climax
CHANDLER, Raymond
The Big Sleep 1939
Great ‘hardboiled’ mood, powerful and witty figures of speech
Farewell My Lovely 1940
Original, dry humour with heart in the mean streets
The Lady In The Lake 1943
Great ‘hardboiled’ mood, powerful and witty figures of speech
The Long Goodbye 1953
Great ‘hardboiled’ mood, powerful and witty figures of speech
The First Casualty 2005 Historical Fiction/Crime
Alternate political characters enhance rather than overwhelm WW1 crime story
BANKS, Iian
Stonemouth 2012 Novel (almost crime)
Capable narration, strong characters deftly weaved into a cleverly paced non-linear crime-ish plot
A Drop of the Hard Stuff 2011 Crime
Bold deliberate dropping of some understandably popular conventions. Very capable, solid, impressive. Doesn’t soar.
The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, Book 1) 2001 SF/Humour/Crime/Action
As good as, worse and better than Adams or Pratchett
The Big Over Easy 2005 SF/Humour/Crime/Action
Another enjoyable excursion
DOYLE, Arthur Conan
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes 1893
Clever
ideas, engaging lead characters
The Return of Sherlock Holmes 1905
Clever
ideas, engaging lead characters
The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes 1927
Clever
ideas, engaging lead characters
Nightmare Town 1923-34 Crime/Short Stories
Capable, original Chandler precursor
The Glass Key 1931 Crime
Fascinating alternative world and spin on heroism
King of Lies 2006
The House of Silk 2011
Impressive, satisfying, but
falls into some of the Moffat/Gattiss
disappointments
LEHANE, Dennis
Sacred (Kenzie/Gennaro 3) 1997
Some nice pacing, humour and dialogue. Still problems of scale
Gone, Baby, Gone (Kenzie/Gennaro 4) 1998
Flawed, but not the scale problem
of previous novels in the series. Killer moral dilemma climax.
Prayers For Rain (Kenzie/Gennaro 5) 1999
Mostly a great ride, just skirts around another dealbreaking scale flaw, vigilantism oversimplified
Tears of the Giraffe 2000
Charming company in exotic
Botswana
In the ugly crime world, but not
of it
The Dumas Club 1993 (trans.)
Intelligent, interesting on medieval occult and books
The Flanders Panel 1994 (trans.)
Intelligent, interesting on medieval painting
The Seville Communion 1995 (trans. S. Soto, 1997)
Nice style, strong characters, able plot
Beggars Banquet 2002 (1990-2000) Crime/Short Stories
Capable, interesting
In the Best Families (A Nero Wolfe Mystery) 1950
Wonderful departure from conventions of series (but read a few other Wolfe’s first)
The Little Friend 2002 Crime/Novel
The Broken Shore 2007
Feels pretty authentic Australian, if keeping to pretty dark territory
WESTLAKE, Donald E.
God Save the Mark 1967 Crime / Humour
Capable enough humourous playing with crime conventions
The Burglar Who Counted the Spoons 2013
Much more about urbane, often flirtatious wit than car chases and suspense
Endangered 2015
Much more about urbane, often flirtatious wit than car chases and suspense
The Glass Rainbow 2010
Competent, but nagging moral flaws, plot weaknesses, and exaggerated characters
CHANDLER, Raymond
Playback 1948 Crime (Screenplay)
Competent, but not the best way
to enjoy Chandler
CHANDLER, Raymond/PARKER, Robert B.
Poodle Springs 1989
Parker completes an unfinished (married) Marlowe novel
Solid effort, beyond cliché characters, never soars
GRAFTON, Sue
C is for Corpse 1986
Down the line, capable
GRISHAM, John
The Partner 1997 Crime/Legal Thriller
Clever and well-paced heist story, really dumb final twist
A Murder of Quality (George Smiley investigates) 1962
Competent enough episode
Doctored Evidence 2004
Capable, avoids cliché, original dealing with bureaucratic context … but never soars
Bandits 1987
Leonard knows what he’s doing
Rum Punch 1992
OK
MACDONALD, John D.
Weep For Me 1951
Last Drinks 2000
Several capable elements, but profundity a bit contrived
A Little Yellow Dog (An Easy Rawlins Mystery) 1996
Potent, original, capable, sexually puerile
Rumpole of the Bailey 1978 Short Stories/Crime
Courtroom wit and detection
The Trials of Rumpole 1979 Short Stories/Crime
Courtroom wit and detection
California Girl 2004
The Leper of Saint Giles 1981 Crime/Historical Fiction
Competent medieval whodunnit
A Good Hanging 1992 Crime/Short Stories
OK, but short form feels like you’re on fast-forward
A Bitter Feast 1998 Crime
Definitely not second rate. But not quite first rate either
Ghost Hero 2011 Crime
Sum is less than its parts
Death of the Author 2012
Capable writing, cool idea, but the form works as much against as for the book
Still More Two-Minute Mysteries 1975 Crime/Puzzle
Find the clue to solve each page long case
And Be A Villain (A Nero Wolfe Mystery) 1948
Pleasant. Lightly comic
The Second Confession (A Nero Wolfe Mystery) 1949
Able without soaring. Touches on McCarthyism issues. Second book to refer to Wolfe’s nemesis Zeck – read it before ‘In the Best Families’
Champagne for One (A Nero Wolfe Mystery) 1958
Pleasant. Lightly comic
Dead Point (Jack Irish #3) 2000
Maybe good if I had have read in publication order, but not when I’ve already done a lot of Temple books and TV
White Dog (Jack Irish #4) 2003
Capable, gritty quasi-mythical Australian characters with crime staples (e.g. beaten down sleuth comfortable in high or low culture, knight rescuing swooning damsels). Interesting cultural marker: saw it as a movie before reading it, villain had been changed from standard industrialist to Hillsong preacher – society’s new whipping boy
Truth 2009
Intelligent, biting, capable – but perhaps only if you need a dark counter to recent overindulgence in things sentimental and twee
WAHLOO, Per
Murder on the Thirty-first Floor Crime / SF - Dystopia
Unengaging narration of bland urban dystopia within crime framework
BEDFORD, Jean
To Make a Killing 1992
Unsubtly PC, fairly shallow, set around Nowra
N or M? 1941 Crime / Spy
OK setup, but gets bogged down, hinges on some horribly implausible plot points, and adds insulting characterisation
Darkness Take My Hand (Kenzie/Gennaro 2) 1996
Disappointing: Lehane uses the same dodgy tropes he ridicules
The Man Who Smiled 1994
Starts with some promise, but ends in breathtaking stupidity
Full Measure 2014
Capable enough snapshot of a young Afghanistan vet returning to rural hardships and divided subcultures, but I couldn’t enjoy the consciously ugly crime (sub)plot
The Labyrinth Makers 1970
Competent plot, pacing; never soars; juvenile/puerile romance
C
CARCATERRA, Lorenzo
Sleepers 1995
Fails as either fact or fiction
COOK, Thomas
The Crime of Julian Wells 2012
Pretentious, bland
DAVIS, Lindsay
Scandal Takes a Holiday 2004 Crime/Historical Fiction
Some OK research maybe, but
overwhelmed by contemporary cliché characters and glib voice
GRIMES, Martha
Embarrassingly insecure/arrogant. Self-indulgent
HAMILTON,
Steve
Exit Strategy 2017 Crime
By the numbers utter movie cliché characters and plot
Down River 2007
C-
The Color of Law 2005 Novel/Crime
Definitive stereotype,
appallingly myopic
D
Dumbs down an already simple formula