Crime Fiction Dossier

3 Favorite Books of 2007

I did something similar to this a few years ago and it was a lot of fun, so I've resurrected it this year. I'm asking a slew of authors and other publishing people to name their 3 favorite books they read in 2007. The books don't have to be crime fiction, or fiction at all. They don't even have to have been published in 2007. The only requirement is that the person read it this year and it was one of their favorites.

I'll be posting the picks periodically over the next couple weeks as the responses come in and I get everything together.

Note: Agents and editors were barred from picking their own books.

Book of the Week: Sue Grafton's "T is for Trespass"

Several years ago, I read the first couple books in Sue Grafton's "Alphabet" series. I thought they were okay, but I wasn't impressed enough to want to read through a series of (at the time) fourteen or so books. Now she's up to twenty and I'm wondering if I made a mistake. T is for Trespass was a wonderful surprise, a gripping, entertaining mystery when frankly I was expecting less. Kinsey Millhone is a compelling character in this story and the villain -- a healthcare worker who preys on the elderly -- is evil and creepy. I've read in at least one review that this is Grafton's best book. If that's the case, I doubt I'll go back and fill in the gap by reading the rest of the alphabet. But I'm looking forward to letter U.

Nonsense from the literary elite

James Fallows, National Correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, writes on his blog:

Like most people who enjoy spy novels and crime fiction, I feel vaguely guilty about this interest...You feel a little cheesy when you see a stack of lurid mystery covers sitting next to the bed.

The piece overall is complimentary to crime fiction (sort of) and he posits a reasonable test to determine if genre fiction rises to the level of "real" fiction: if he can remember the book a month or six months or a year later.

So that's fine. But what I want to know is: Are there really people who feel guilty about reading genre fiction? And, if so, what the hell is wrong with them?

I can understand feeling embarrassed if you're reading porn on the subway. But feeling "cheesy" because you enjoy mystery novels is idiotic.

It's no wonder that people don't read much in this country when the so-called intelligentsia hold absurd ideas like this.

(hat tip)

Amazon's Top 10 for 2007

Amazon has released their Editor's Picks for the Top 10 Mysteries and Thrillers of 2007. I read 6 of them. Here's what I thought:

1. Chelsea Cain - Heartsick. The best book of the year? Most over-hyped book of the year, maybe. I couldn't even finish it. Dull and more than a little silly -- why read this when I could just read Silence of the Lambs again?

2. Charlie Huston - The Shotgun Rule. Excellent choice. This fine novel was my Book of the Week pick on 8/27. I don't know if it would make my Top 10, but it's damn good.

3. Tana French - In the Woods. Total head-scratcher for me. This book is so tedious it took me 25 minutes to read the first 10 pages. Thriller writers should hold their words dear. French uses them like she buys them on sale at Wal-Mart.

6. John Hart - Down River. Another excellent choice. Hart is a truly gifted writer. This one might be in my Top 10. I look forward to reading Hart for years to come. (I reviewed Down River in the Chicago Sun-Times.)

8. Laura Lippman - What the Dead Know. One of my favorite books of the year. I don't know that I could pick just one book as my favorite of 2007, but if I had to, this would be a strong contender. (I reviewed  this in the Philadelphia Inquirer, but the link to the newspaper's website is now dead.)

10. Joe Hill - Heart-Shaped Box. A very strong debut -- a terrific, scary thriller. Hill is the pseudonym for Stephen King's son, and he does the old man proud. (I reviewed it in the Chicago Sun-Times.)

So...4 good choices, 2 lousy ones. Not a bad average, all things considered.

Best wishes for Patry Francis

Author Patry Francis, a member of Killer Year 2007 whose debut novel came out earlier this year, was recently diagnosed with an "aggressive form of cancer." (She writes about it on her blog.) The good news is, she's just had surgery and reportedly it went well.

Our best wishes go out to Patry and her family. She's in our prayers.

Book of the Week: Henry Kisor's "Cache of Corpses"

Henry Kisor, former Books Editor for the Chicago Sun-Times, impresses with his third novel, an excellent mystery featuring Sheriff's Deputy Steve Martinez. Michigan's Upper Peninsula is being littered with corpses, hidden in obscure places as part of a twisted game of geocaching, and it's up to Martinez to track down the culprits. Well developed characters and an interesting plot combine to make Cache of Corpses a very pleasing read.

(Note: Henry gave me my start at the Sun-Times. But he hasn't done anything for me lately, so I'm telling the truth about his book.)

(Second note: Ignore that horrible cover. Cache of Corpses is not a light-hearted romp involving forest fauna.)

Review of Kevin Wignall's "Who Is Conrad Hirst?"

My review of Kevin Wignall's smart new thriller, Who Is Conrad Hirst?, appears this morning in the Chicago Sun-Times. I made this my Book of the Week pick last week and here you can see more of why I liked it so much.