Crime Fiction Dossier

The confines of the crime genre

I read Janet Maslin's laudatory review of Dennis Lehane's new book, The Given Day, yesterday in the Times. It's an interesting, thoughtful review and made me consider reading the book, although I haven't been overly enamored with Lehane's work in the past.

One line leapt out of me from the review and stuck with me: "He has written a majestic, fiery epic that moves him far beyond the confines of the crime genre."

I've been thinking about that statement since I read it, wondering exactly what the confines of the crime genre are. And near as I can come up with, a crime novel has to have a crime (either past or future) play an important part in the plot, or else it somehow has to deal with crime or the aftermath of crime in a significant way. Other than that, I think anything is fair game.

As I indicated, I haven't read The Given Day. But judging by the description and the reviews I've read, the book involves the lives of police officers, a terrorist attack, spying, bomb-throwing anarchists, suspense, corruption, anti-union violence...Well, damn, that sounds a lot like a crime novel to me.

It's almost like Ms. Maslin (and I wouldn't be surprised if other critics wrote something similar) is embarrased to admit that she really liked and admired a book of significant literary achievement -- that just happened to be a crime novel.

We saw some of this reaction earlier this year with Richard Price's superb Lush Life, another novel of literary prowess that, oh yeah, was a crime novel.

This idea seems particularly strange coming from Maslin, as she so often reviews crime fiction, frequently quite favorably. (And has even been known to gush in a somewhat unseemly manner over the novels she's particularly taken with.) So why the resistance at acknowledging that a book can be great, literary and a crime novel, with no contradictions inherent therein?

Hit that one on the head

Confirming my powers of prognostication, it has been announced that the latest pick of Oprah's book club is indeed The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. If only my handicapping skills were this acute when I go to the track...

In the comments section of that previous post, Michael P. asks:

Could someone explain to me why anyone other than the author and publisher would give a rat's ass what Oprah's latest pick is?

Because tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of ardent Oprahmaniacs are going to rush out and buy the book -- for no other reason than she recommended it. She is the single most powerful force in American publishing encouraging people to buy books.

Short of James Patterson and Dan Brown co-writing a sequel to The DaVinci Code, Oprah is top dog.

Robbing the literary grave

BBC News has announced that author Eoin Colfer (the Artemis Fowl series) has been hired to continue the uber-popular Hitchhiker series created by the late Douglas Adams. According to the article, Adams' widow has given approval for the project. And Another Thing will be published next October.

Adams died seven years ago at the much-too-young age of 49. His early death meant that there were many books he couldn't write -- and that's a damn shame. He was one of the most inventive and entertaining writers around. He even wrote two excellent pseudo-mystery novels (Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul). And the idea of someone trying to continue writing in the world he created saddens me.

In the BBC article, Colfer is quoted as saying, "My first reaction was semi-outrage that anyone should be allowed to tamper with this incredible series." And he should have stopped right there. Because his instinct was right. It is an outrage and nobody should tamper with this incredible series.

Authors die, and their books and their series die with them. Sometimes this is a crushing blow -- when Ross Thomas died, I felt like I'd lost a friend, even though I knew him only slightly. But I knew his books intimately, and it hurt to know that there would be no more. But you can't change the past.

Even if another writer comes along, they can't recreate what that original author did. They might play in the same world and with the same characters, but it will never be the same. And it's a mistake to try.

The most egregious example of this type of literary grave robbing in recent years was the offense done to the works of Roger Zelazny. One of the finest fantasy writers ever, Zelazny created the beloved Amber series, a ten-book magnum opus that represented some of the most inventive and engrossing storytelling ever created. (Yes, I really mean those superlatives.)

Zelazny also died at too early an age -- only 58. During his lifetime, Zelazny made it abundantly clear that he wanted no other authors to write in the Amber world. Author Neil Gaiman once approached Zelazny with the idea of publishing a book of Amber stories written by other authors -- and Zelazny put the kibosh on the idea.

Even so, in 2002 John Gregory Betancourt -- with the permission of Zelazny's literary estate, allegedly administered by a family member from whom the author was estranged -- began a series of Amber prequels. Apparently the books were garbage, but that's hearsay, as I refused to read them.

I can understand fans wanting to read just one more book featuring the characters and worlds that they loved so much. But it's not possible. Even if a talented writer creates something worthwhile in that existing universe, it will never be the same. This is especially true when the original creator was someone as uniquely talented and innovative as Adams or Zelazny.

Obviously when there is money to be made, deals like this will happen, and some of the curious will play along. But I'm going to decline. I think the true fan is satisfied with the exiting works, few though they may be. Why read an imitation when you can still go back and read the real thing?

Secret new Oprah book club pick -- revealed!

Oprah Winfrey has revealed that her book club will be announcing its next pick on September 19. It's a hardcover, published by HarperCollins.

But who wants to wait until then to find out what it is? Not me!

So I put my thinking cap on and started clicking around Amazon -- I even picked up the hotline to some of my top secret, deep background sources. It took me ten minutes, but I nailed it down.

The next Oprah pick is...

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski.

I've never even heard of it, which I realize makes me a bad, bad book critic. (Does this mean I have to go to bed without liquor?)

So, you heard it here first. I may be wrong...but that's your own fault for getting your news from blogs.

A book trailer that works

As I've written before, I'm generally not a fan of book trailers. I tend to find them amateurish, and for most authors (who aren't bestsellers), they're very difficult to bring to the attention of potential readers.

However, every once in a while, one will actually impress with its creativity and unique vision. The best one I've seen in quite a while is for Brad Meltzer's upcoming thriller, The Book of Lies.

I've never gotten into Meltzer's work before, but this video is intriguing enough to at least make me want to pick it up.

Mysteries on location

The Independent (UK) newspaper selects "80 of the best sleuths to escape with this summer," a list of crime novels set in a slew of destinations around the world. (Thanks to Sarah for the link.)

For years I've had a similar list on Mystery Ink (a list which hasn't been updated in years). A great many crime novels, especially mysteries, depend on their setting to bring the story alive. So here is a brief list of some of my favorite crime fiction locales, with a book that exemplifies its setting.

Baltimore: Laura Lippman's Every Secret Thing
As good as the Tess Monaghan series uses the city of Baltimore, Lippman's standalone novels are even more evocative. This powerful story of two girls, once accused of the murder of a young child and now under suspicion for a new crime, is a stunning, troubling novel. As fans of TV's The Wire know, Baltimore is a city beset with crime and racial strife; Every Secret Thing uses that backdrop to haunting effect.

Los Angeles: Michael Connelly's Angels Flight
All of the books in the Harry Bosch series use the city of Los Angeles as a vital component of their potent mix of elements -- and all of them are recommended. Angels Flight is high on my current list of favorites so I'm choosing it, in part due to its treatment of the L.A. riots, a seminal event in recent Los Angeles history. But it could have been any of them.

New York: Lawrence Block's When the Sacred Ginmill Closes
I don't think any author has used Manhattan in crime fiction as well as Block. His best creation, PI Matthew Scudder, just wouldn't work nearly as well in any other city. (I suppose that's true of all of these selections...but it feels even more true of Scudder.) There are several choices from the series that would work for this, but I'm selecting perhaps my favorite of them. When the Sacred Ginmill Closes showcases Block's considerable abilities as a writer: crisp prose, a wonderful character, an engrossing plot -- and, of course, a vibrant use of setting.

Washington, DC: George Pelecanos' Hell to Pay
It's almost impossible to pick just one Pelecanos novel to illustrate the remarkable job he's done of casting the city of Washington as a character in his plots. The Independent selected The Big Blowdown, which is a great book, but it's a period piece and I want to choose something contemporary. So I'm going with Hell to Pay, the second book in the Strange/Quinn series, for its powerful use of DC's black/white divide, legacy of crime and gritty reality of everyday life.

As you can see, this list reflects my preferences as a reader: urban American locales, with stories generally in the hardboiled tradition. (Note that this is by no means an exhaustive list. These are just a few I really like.)

How about you? What are some of your favorites?

Friday's Forgotten Books: Ross Thomas' "Chinaman's Chance"

Patricia Abbott asked me to write a contribution to her series, "Friday's Forgotten Books." If you're a regular reader of this blog, then my selection should come as no surprise.

When Ross Thomas died in 1995, twenty-four of his twenty-five books were out-of-print – the only one that was still available in a current edition was perhaps his best. (A few years back, St. Martin's Press undertook a program to return Thomas' novels to print. Sadly, it was discontinued after only a handful of titles were published.)

Chinaman's Chance (1978) introduced readers to Artie Woo and Quincy Durant, two of the best, most memorable characters ever to appear in fiction. Lifelong pals since they hooked up in a San Francisco orphanage, Woo and Durant were lovable grifters, con men with hearts of gold ever searching for their next big score.

The bent duo usually plied their trade somewhere on the Pacific Rim, and Chinaman's Chance finds them in Pelican Bay, a small, down-at-the-heels (fictional) town south of Los Angeles. You wouldn't know it at first glance, but Pelican Bay is the most corrupt American city outside of Washington, DC. Crooked politicians, bent cops, shadowy Company rejects and the Mob are all up for a piece of the action. In other words, the perfect setting for Woo and Durant to work their magic.

With his commitment to sharp and precise prose, Thomas raised the stakes for thriller writers, showing a generation of readers and writers that suspenseful writing could be lean, but still meaty. His keen eye for political chicanery and insight into the devious side of human nature helped him create stories that are as delightful to enjoy on the fifth reading as they are on the first. (That quality makes him among the rarest of genre writers.)

Thomas had a remarkable ability of making cynical characters likable and complex plots believable. His novels are "page-turners," but they're also insightful and poignant sketches of the human condition. He was truly an uncommon talent, and Chinaman's Chance ranks among his best. If you haven't read it...Well, now you know what you're missing.

The books I get

You see what happens when I leave for a few days?

A good reason to go to ThrillerFest -- free books!

A couple of these are books that authors gave me, but the rest were just being handed out. It was ARC city! As I was picking them up, I kept reminding myself: "They'll send these to you at home, Dave. You don't need to schlep them around." But it was nice to get several of them signed.

I've already read the first 100 pages of Sean Chercover's Trigger City (the sequel to Big City, Bad Blood) and it's excellent.

First half of 2008

It's hard to believe that the first half of 2008 is already in the bag. Time flies, huh? I read 66 books during the first 6 months of the year. I was going to say that's off my usual pace, but I just looked and saw that I also read 66 books the first half of last year.

It seems like a so-so year thus far. I've read some good books, but nothing that's blown me away. If I had to pick, I suppose the best thing I've read in 2008 is Michael Connelly's The Brass Verdict, a book I enjoyed a lot. But it's not one of those books that makes you jump out of your chair.

Now that I think about it, I haven't jumped out of my chair in a long time. I was talking with a friend recently and he said the best book he'd read so far in 2008 was a book that came out almost ten years ago, that he'd already read a couple times before. I know how he felt. Either I'm getting pickier or the crime novels being published these days just aren't the best.

Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of good stuff out there (emphasis on good, not great). A lot of competent books with good writing and good stories. But the greatness factor seems to be lacking. Surely during a six-month stretch of time there should be at least one great crime novel published -- but if there was, I didn't read it.

What do you think? Have you read anything great so far this year? What am I missing?

Good things come in threes

Some of the reviewers I know read new books as soon as they come in, especially if they're by favorite authors. I usually don't do that, though. I'm perpetually behind in my reading, so I often can't get to a particular book for a while. I also like to save books I expect to be good for ideal spots in my reading schedule.

Over the past couple of months I received books by three of my favorite authors: Michael Connelly, Robert Crais and George Pelecanos. But I didn't read them right away. I put them in a nice little stack and saved them for just the right time.

Finally, about ten days ago, I was ready. I read all three in a row: Connelly's The Brass Verdict, Crais' Chasing Darkness and Pelecanos' The Turnaround. And I'm delighted to report that all three are excellent -- no disappointments here.

The Connelly book is the best of them -- a twisty legal thriller featuring Mickey Haller from The Lincoln Lawyer -- but the other two are also very good. It's books like these that made me want to be a mystery critic in the first place (and also remind me of why I keep doing it).

I know these won't be published for a while yet. But keep your eyes out for when they are. You won't be disappointed.

Too many books?

Liz Seymour, deputy editor of the Washington Post Home section, is struggling with the clutter in her house. Among her dilemmas is what to do with the 600 books she and her husband have accumulated.

This is a dilemma? 600 books??

In our house, we call that the dining room.

I don't know how many books we have -- we purge all the time, including a huge cull several years back when we moved -- but it's a lot. At least a couple thousand, I'm sure.

How about you? Do you have way too books in your house?

Depressing quote of the day

From the New Yorker's piece on Michael Seidenberg's secret bookstore in New York City...

After closing a previous iteration of his bookstore, Seidenberg tried selling books on the street.

“Once, a couple stopped,” he recalled. “And the man asked his girlfriend, ‘Do you want a book?’ She said, ‘No, I already have a book.’”

(hat tip)

Book reviews still matter

Random House and Zogby did a poll of the reading and book-buying habits of over 8,000 adults. They generated some interesting results -- for example, only 11% of respondents said they are comfortable reading books in non-traditional formats, such as online or with an e-book reader or PDA -- so it's worth taking a look at.

Here's one stat that I found especially interesting: "When asked what makes them want to buy a book, 60% said suggestions from friends and family members, while nearly half (49%) said they are influenced by book reviews." (emphasis mine)

So reviews are definitely still having an impact. If only the people running newspapers and magazines would listen.

New James Bond novel

The new James Bond novel, Devil May Care, written by British literary novelist Sebastian Faulks, is being released today. I haven't read it -- haven't seen a copy and don't know if I will. But I've been reading a few of the reviews.

I was never much of a fan of the Bond novels, although that opinion is based on an admittedly small sample. Some years ago, having seen and enjoyed the films, I tried reading a couple of the books, but found them tepid and not very interesting. I've meant in recent years to revisit them, but haven't ever gotten around to it.

I remain, however, an ardent fan of the films and the character. They've always been a bit silly, but still a lot of thrills and fun. So I'd like to try the new novel at some point.

In the meantime, check out Patrick Anderson's review. It's on the harsh side, but I suspect it will echo the reaction of many. (Janet Maslin is similarly unkind.)

Miss me?

I was on vacation for awhile, thus the lack of posts. But I'm back now. I read a few books on our trip: Jeffery Deaver's The Broken Window, Ken Bruen and Jason Starr's The Max and Victor Gischler's Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse. (I never read very much on vacation.) I also picked up a couple books that I hope to read soon, including James Rollins' adaptation of the new Indiana Jones movie (which I haven't seen yet).

How 'bout you? What you been reading?

Ask the Critic: Can you identify this book?

I couldn't... But maybe you can.

The main character is an L.A. detective (recently promoted, I believe), and the book starts quickly with him witnessing the murder of a criminal by his senior peers, iirc in a parking garage, and he is troubled by how to handle it. This is one plot, intertwined with that of a serial killer on the loose. I cannot recall how it all comes together, but basically the young detective winds up in a race to catch the serial killer before being killed or framed by his senior peer detectives, and also to catch the killer before the killer catches him. He tracks the killer to Europe, is helped by a detective over there (Russian I believe). Another sub-plot is this detective has an adult sister who had some trauma so he cares after her... and it turns out the killer is some sort of Duke or something who is about to marry her in Europe..and a big blazing shoot-out in a train garage was one scene. Also the end came together at a museum.

Sounds pretty silly the way I described it, but it actually was a pretty good read...kept me turning pages...

Any ideas?

Books I won't read, Part 2

Following on the last "Books I won't read"...

Any book in which the first chapter (prologue, etc.) is rendered entirely in italics. Won't read it.

If for some reason the chapter is so disconnected from the rest of the story that it needs to be set in italics, just eliminate it. Cut it out entirely. Chances are better than good it won't affect the story at all.

If you insist on including a superfluous prologue that only serves to delay the start of your story, at the very least print it in a regular font. Pages of italics are annoying as hell to read.

"One Book, One Chicago" selects Raymond Chandler

The Chicago Tribune reported over the weekend that Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye has been selected for the Chicago Public Library's "One Book, One Chicago"  program, an effort to promote the reading and discussion of books by all the city's residents.

I like programs like this -- I like anything that encourages people to read more -- and I'm especially pleased to see a crime novel chosen. (And it also helps that this is my favorite Raymond Chandler book.) Chicago is a great town for crime fiction, which is one of the reasons I like writing for the Sun-Times so much.

There's more info over at The Outfit blog, along with a statement read by author Sean Chercover at the press conference announcing the selection. (Chercover is also quoted in the Trib piece.)

So everybody get to reading! If you haven't yet had the pleasure of reading Chandler, this is an excellent time to start.

Edit (3/17): I should note that the Sun-Times ran a piece on this as well. But they didn't quote Chercover. (Or "Chercove" as the Trib calls him.)

Books I won't read

We all have books we're tired of, disgusted by or just won't read for one reason or another. (For example, I will no longer read any book with the word "Templar" in the title.)

Here's my latest addition:

Any book whose jacket copy contains the phrase, "not only was her head missing..."

Won't read it.

Dennis Lehane on literary fiction

From Dennis Lehane's appreciation of Richard Price (on the National Book Critics Circle blog):

I was in graduate school when Clockers came out. It was right at this point that I was growing disillusioned with where a lot of (though, by no means all) American literature seemed to be heading. It felt as if so many of the alleged "literary" works being produced at that time were excessively insular, navel-gazing affairs, more often than not centered upon some disaffected, overly verbose young asshole or his/her late-middle-aged counterpart, an academic of some sort having an affair with a student. The third type of book that predominated was the "homage," which involved grafting the plot of a Shakespeare play or some similarly pantheonic work over a contemporary setting, thereby proving the writer had read his/her classics and was therefore worthy of our attention and esteem but also wholly overlooking the small fact that he/she was too devoid of originality to tell a story that he/she had actually, you know, created.

He then goes on to say that Clockers is "one of the few Great American Novels in the North American canon."

Put that on the paperback

"Scooby-Doo-meets-The Sopranos."

From Entertainment Weekly's review of Lisa Scottoline's Lady Killer.

Do we all read a different book?

There's an expression that some readers like to use -- I just saw it earlier today -- and I've always found it a curious one: "We all read a different book."

I know what people are trying to say when they use that phrase, but it still grates every time I see it. One of the things that I think is most enjoyable about reading is that, to the contrary, we all read the same book. Thus it's a shared experience that provides a common point of interest and reference for fellow readers.

Books are immutable -- one of their most remarkable features, I think. While everything around us changes, the words on the page stay the same. When we pick up a copy of Huckleberry Finn, the story is the same as Twain wrote it over 120 years ago. And that's a wonderful connection to the past that is almost impossible to get otherwise. (How else can we have a direct experience of late-19th century American life and thought?)

Of course, we as readers are all different, and we bring our own thoughts, beliefs, knowledge, expectations, emotions, biases and everything else to a book -- so the way in which we experience it is different. But it is we that are different; not the book.

No matter how times change, and technology advances, and trends come in and out of fashion, the book remains the same. And thank God for that.

Get free books!

Those of you who know me know I love free stuff. I live for swag. The only reason I became a book critic was 'cause of the free books. I don't even like to read.

So this is something cool: Tor is giving away free books!

Okay, they're e-books. But still -- they're free. And one of them's actually good: John Scalzi's Old Man's War. (The others may be good, too. Dunno. Haven't read 'em.)

John has the details on his site.

"The Liar's Diary" Blog Day

Over 300 bloggers from the world of publishing are blogging today in support of the paperback release of Patry Francis' book, The Liar's Diary. Patry was recently diagnosed with cancer and has been frequently hospitalized. Since she's unable to do any promotion in support of her book, a few of her friends decided to help out.

Patry is blogging about her battle with cancer, in case you're interested in learning more.

To learn more about how she came to write The Liar's Diary, read her Backstory.

You can watch a trailer for The Liar's Diary on YouTube:

Here's hoping that Patry's health improves soon!

Recommendations for reading Ross Macdonald

Ross Macdonald has been enjoying something of a renaissance in recent months, as Vintage Crime/Black Lizard has been reprinting many of his books.

I had a conversation recently with Tom Nolan, crime fiction critic for the Wall Street Journal and the acclaimed biographer of Macdonald, in which I asked Tom for his recommendations for a reader who is new to Macdonald's work. This is his reply:

The Underground Man, with its forest-fire motif, is an exciting work, as much of a thriller as a murder-mystery; the fire itself is almost a character, racing towards its own destruction.

The Chill is maybe RM's masterpiece, combining his particular themes with memorable characters, terrific sequences, and a surprising plot.

The Galton Case is what he called the fulcrum of his oeuvre, upon which the rest of his work would turn; it was the book in which he most explored his own past (fictionally), and when he consciously committed his most serious writing ambitions to the mystery-novel genre.

I think any RM book from the golden period of the 1960s, when he had come into his mature prose style, would be a good Macdonald to start with; The Zebra-Striped Hearse, The Far Side of the Dollar, and Black Money are all excellent.

Then again, those who prefer a more hard-boiled approach might favor a '50s book. The Way Some People Die or The Barbarous Coast are among my own favorites.

I'm woefully unfamiliar with Macdonald's work, having only read (that I can recall) one novel and a couple of short stories. So I've definitely got some catching up to do.

TBR Stack

Here is a snapshot of my current to-be-read stack. (Along with some that I've read recently but haven't gotten around to filing yet.)

Every couple of months, I go through and remove the ones I never got around to reading, in order to make room for the new batch.

If you think this is bad, you should see the basement...

Gary Phillips' serialized online novel

Gary Phillips, the excellent writer of such under-appreciated novels as The Jook* and Bangers, is writing a serialized novel for The Nation.

Here's the description:

Political fact marries political fiction in Citizen Kang, an online serialized novel that unfolds in weekly installments on The Nation.com throughout Campaign 08.

I haven't read it yet, but Gary is a fine writer, so it's worth checking out. It's a shame Gary isn't still writing and publishing crime fiction.

*If you're a fan of George Pelecanos, I recommend you read The Jook. It's a book that most people aren't familiar with, but it's very good.

Edit: It turns out my impression of Gary's publishing hiatus was, fortunately, exaggerated. He has two anthologies coming out later this year: Politics Noir, which he edited, from Verso, featuring stories from the likes of Ken Bruen, John Shannon and Sujata Massey; and The Darker Mask, edgy prose superhero stories from Tor, which he co-edited with Chris Chambers, featuring stories from Walter Mosley, Naomi Hirahara, Lorenzo Carcaterra and others.

Gary has also written another serialized online story, the novella The Underbelly, which can be read on FourStory and will be published in hardcover later this year by PM Press.

Top 10 Mysteries/Thrillers of 2007

I know I'm late with this. I wasn't going to make a list at all, but then I decided I'd bite the bullet and put one together. Part of the difficulty is that my list has changed several times. It would probably be more accurate to make a Top 20 list and then I could include all the books I was considering. That seems like cheating, though, so I went ahead and narrowed it down to just ten. (Note: the books I selected for my Top 5 Debuts were not considered for this list.)

All of these were books that delighted me during the year. But I'll be honest and say that there were several others that I enjoyed very nearly as much, and that could reasonably have been included here instead. But ten seems to be the magic number, so here they are, in alphabetical order:

Robert Crais - The Watchman
Joseph Finder - Power Play
Robert Harris - The Ghost
John Hart - Down River
Gregg Hurwitz - The Crime Writer
Charlie Huston - The Shotgun Rule
David Ignatius - Body of Lies
Laura Lippman - What the Dead Know
M.J. Rose - The Reincarnationist
Daniel Silva - The Secret Servant

I reviewed most of these, and wrote about the rest here on the blog, in case you're interested in learning a little more about why I liked them.

If anyone else has a list, I'd like to see it. Please share in the comments section.

Sean Chercover's "Big City, Bad Blood" to be adapted for television

It was announced awhile ago that my friend Paul Guyot was hired by Fox to adapt Sean Chercover's PI novel Big City, Bad Blood for a possible television show. Crimespree Cinema has some more details.

Guyot is a good writer, despite his limitations as a human being. So this project actually has some potential.

Of course, the strike killed all that. But hopefully things will get back on track once the labor strife is resolved.

Top 5 Debuts of 2007

I've been tinkering with some lists of the best crime fiction of 2007. Since Roddy requested it, here is my list of the best debuts of the year.

Like every year it seems, 2007 was a so-so year for first novels. There were a handful that showed promise and too many that disappointed. The ones I picked, though, are all strong.

In alphabetical order:

Gordon Campbell: Missing Witness (Book of the Week selection; Chicago Sun-Times review)
Brent Ghelfi: Volk's Game (Book of the Week selection)
Philip Hawley, Jr.: Stigma (Chicago Sun-Times review)
Joe Hill: Heart-Shaped Box (Chicago Sun-Times review)
Nick Stone: Mr. Clarinet (Book of the Week selection)

Honorable mention: Jennifer Lee Carrell: Interred with Their Bones (Chicago Sun-Times review)

What's on your list?

2007 year-end statistics

As many of you know, I'm a compulsive list maker. I not only record all the books I review, but all the books I read. Here are my stats for last year:

Books read in 2007: 144

That was down slightly from 2006 (150 books read) and down quite a bit from 2005 (175 books read). It is more, however, than 2004 (125 books read).

Books reviewed in 2007: 60*

That is very close to the 2006 total (59 books reviewed), down from 2005 (72 books reviewed), and up slightly from 2004 (57 books reviewed).

The newspapers I reviewed for were:

Chicago Sun-Times: 56 books reviewed
Philadelphia Inquirer: 6 books reviewed
Washington Post: 2 books reviewed
Philadelphia City Paper: 1 book reviewed

(The reason this adds up to 65 is because I reviewed 5 of the books twice.)

Of the books I reviewed for the Chicago Sun-Times, 50 of them were included in round-up columns (10 of them) and 6 in single-book reviews. All the other newspaper reviews were single-book pieces. (That represents a total of 25 separate articles in newspapers.)

I also reviewed some books on here and had several Book of the Week picks. I'm nothing if not prolific!

*I also reviewed one book for the New York Times, but the piece never ran.

Chicago Sun-Times contributors' favorite books of the year

The Sun-Times' contributors, including myself and Dana Kaye, reveal our favorite books of the year.

I won't keep you in suspense: mine was the new Harry Potter. I know it doesn't make me look high-brow like most critics try to do, but I was being honest. I flat out loved that book to pieces.

The Sun-Times' Books Editor, Teresa Budasi, also discusses the cutbacks in the paper's books coverage with an essay titled "How the Grinch stole the Books section." The amount of space devoted to books will be cut at least by half. Sad news for all.

Support a good cause -- First Book

First Book's mission is to give disadvantaged children the opportunity to read and own their first new books. They were named a Gold Star Charity by Forbes Magazine and received a Four Star rating (the highest) from Charity Navigator.

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.

Book suggestions?

I'm looking for a good book to read...  Something published between now and the end of October. Preferably by a woman. Hardcover, paperback, whatever. Nothing self-published, though.

Any suggestions?

Up all night on the edge of your seat

Last night I was reading in bed before I went to sleep, as I do every night. The book is a modestly-hyped new thriller that the publisher seems to be putting some energy behind. (I'm not going to mention the name, since this isn't a review; it's about a larger point.)

I've been reading this book for a couple days now and have been enjoying it overall. Interesting plot, good characters, and it's a little different from the run-of-the-mill thriller plot that frequently gets utilized these days. If I end up reviewing it, I'll have positive things to say.

Yet, I found myself last night with only 20 pages left in the book, and decided to put it down and go to sleep. I wasn't overwhelmingly tired, although it was past the time I usually turn in. I certainly could have kept reading for another 15 minutes or whatever it took to finish the book. But I didn't. And I think that's a telling reaction.

There's a certain almost ineffable quality to finely-executed thrillers that makes us want to keep reading them no matter what distractions arise. Sometimes it's a result of the pacing (as in Joe Finder's work), sometimes it's the intricacies of the plot (Ross Thomas), sometimes it's the compelling nature of the characters (Lee Child), sometimes it's the invigorating action (Barry Eisler). Whatever it is, the books have us obsessively turning the pages, hungry, desperate to find out what happens next.

This book didn't have that. It's a pleasing story, entertaining, well written even. But it lacks that "edge of your seat," "stay up all night" quality that the blurbmasters love to tout. As a result, it is less effective overall as a thriller.

As much as anything, I think it is that compulsive page-turning quality that separates the truly fine thriller from the merely good ones. And it is that quality which is hardest for authors to capture, which separates the masters from the pretenders.

If you can easily put a thriller down at any time, read it a little here and a little there, not really care what happens in the end...Well, that is as good a description of an ineffective thriller as you're likely to find.

The final Harry Potter novel -- no spoilers

I've just finished a whirlwind reading of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I don't want to say too much, as I don't want to spoil anything. But I will say that I enjoyed the book immensely and it was everything I hoped for. The seventh (and, regrettably, closing) installment in this brilliant series is a magnificent and fitting end.

J.K. Rowling's achievement with this set of 7 books -- which really comprise one big story -- is nothing short of astounding. She deserves every bit of praise, every ounce of hype, and every million dollars. What a truly gifted and rare talent.

Brava, Ms. Rowling.

Post-9/11 books

In the comments section to a post below, writer Patti Abbott writes:

I've been reading Second Hand by Micahel Zadoorian, a book written around 2000 and set in Detroit. I wonder if a case can be make that novels written pre-9/11 have a completely different feel to them. This is leisurely and the angst in it manageable rather than apocalyptic. Do you see a difference?

I've been thinking about it, and I can't say that I've seen any major differences between the books I've read that were written before and after 9/11. Obviously there are some subject matter differences (in some books, at least), but in terms of themes, style, etc., I can't point to anything.

I think the differences between individual authors and books are so great that it's difficult to generalize much in terms of how books overall might have changed. I'm sure that some authors have changed, or some books have changed, but I haven't seen any widespread differences in the genre as a whole.

It's an interesting subject to think about, though.

So, what are you reading?

I just started Power Play by Joseph Finder last night. About 15 minutes before that, I finished Beyond Reach by Karin Slaughter.

I've been on an excellent streak of good books lately.

Can you identify this book?

A reader writes in, asking if we can help identify a book she read:

The book is unusual in that it makes use of a lot of first person journal entries, the killer's being among them.  There are also journal entries from one of the main characters, a high school English teacher who is having her students do a lot of journal writing.  The story revolves around who is killing young women.  One is a local high school student, very popular, etc.  Another is a young runaway.  The third to be victim is the daughter of the teacher.

Ring any bells?

Novels about assassins

I wrote this up for another website and thought I'd share it here as well. Obviously it's not an exhaustive list, but these are some of my favorites.

Lawrence Block -- Hit Man, Hit List, Hit Parade
Barry Eisler -- Rain Fall, Hard Rain, Rain Storm, etc. (6 books in the John Rain series)
Frederick Forsyth -- The Day of the Jackal
Geoffrey Household -- Rogue Male
Robert Ludlum -- The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Matarese Circle, The Matarese Countdown
David Morrell -- The Brotherhood of the Rose, The Fraternity of the Stone, The League of Night and Fog
Warren Murphy & Molly Cochran -- Grandmaster
Thomas Perry -- The Butcher's Boy, Sleeping Dogs
Daniel Silva -- The Kill Artist, The English Assassin, The Confessor, etc. (7 books in the Gabriel Allon series so far)
Trevanian -- The Eiger Sanction, The Loo Sanction, Shibumi

What are some of your favorites?

(Considering that my novel also features an assassin as the protagonist, this is clearly a topic that I enjoy too much.)

Congrats, Mr. Eisler

Congratulations to Barry Eisler, whose latest John Rain thriller, Requiem for an Assassin, debuts at #19 on the New York Times bestseller list. This is the first time that one of Eisler's books has cracked the extended list, so kudos are in order.

It's nice to see that someone can still build a career the old fashioned way, with talent, hard work and persistence. Way to go, Barry!

(My review of the book will be running soon.)

New York Magazine's The Best Novels You've Never Read

New York magazine put out a call for critics to submit their favorite novels and authors that they believed had been unfairly overlooked. I responded with George Pelecanos.

I don't remember exactly what I wrote (had I known it would make the magazine, I probably would have worked harder on it), but here's my annotation they used:

"Few authors can write about race and the urban landscape with his nuance and insight—and nobody else can do it while telling such a damn good story."

Pelecanos is hardly an unknown writer, but given how good he is, he should be a much bigger name.

If you'll allow me a brief ego stroke

Here's an ad for Lee Child's latest book that ran this morning in the New York Times:

If you click on the image, you can read the fine print at the bottom, where they include blurbs from Janet Maslin and myself. Publishers use blurbs all the time, of course, but it's nice when they include the critics' names with the quotes.

We deserve a little recognition for our words, don't we?

Cracking the Top 10

Laura Lippman's superb new novel, What the Dead Know (which I reviewed last weekend), debuted this week at #11 on the New York Times bestseller list. Now comes word that next week it will be moving up one slot to #10.

Due to some changes in my reviewing work lately, I've been paying more attention to the bestseller lists than I usually do. But even if I weren't, this is something worth noticing.

What the Dead Know is an excellent book, one of my favorites of the year so far, and its success is further proof that a crime novel doesn't have to be style-less or overly simplistic in order to be a bestseller. (Robert Crais' fine The Watchman is also on the same list, coming in at #8.)

Congrats to Ms. Lippman! If you haven't read the book yet, I recommend you give it a try.

Will you read my book?

Sure. Just add it to the pile.

This is one day's haul.

Books I'm looking forward to this year

Philip Hawley Jr.'s Stigma -- I read this in manuscript form 2 years ago and have been waiting eagerly for the book ever since.

Lee Child's Bad Luck and Trouble -- I always look forward to a new Reacher book. They never disappoint.

Barry Eisler's Requiem for an Assassin -- The last book in the John Rain series (unless something changes). I think this is going to be a killer and hopefully be the book that really breaks Eisler out to a larger audience. 

M.J. Rose's The Reincarnationist -- Another book I read in manuscript form. This is going to blow a lot of people away.

Laura Lippman's What the Dead Know -- Lippman is at the top of the mystery genre in terms of talent and execution. Every book she writes is an event to look forward to.

Joseph Finder's Power Play -- Finder is writing some of the best thrillers of anyone right now, so this should be another winner.

Robert Crais' The Watchman -- The first Joe Pike novel has the potential to be very good. This is a series that once had real magic. Let's hope it's back.

Jason Starr and Ken Bruen's Slide -- The sequel to Bust, one of the best crime novels of 2006. I'm also looking forward to Bruen's Priest. The Jack Taylor novels are probably the best thing going in the PI genre today.

Harlan Coben's The Woods -- I don't know anything about this book, but Harlan can write a page-turner with the best of them. 

New books from Michael Connelly, George Pelecanos, Lawrence Block, Robert Ferrigno, Denise Hamilton, Thomas Perry...whenever they have them. These are all must reads for me. They may not have books out this year, though.

(Now that I think about it, Connelly is coming out with The Overlook, the serial novel he wrote for the Times coming out. I don't know if you count that as "new" or not.)

These are the books I was able to think of off the top of my head. There are, of course, many others that I'll read as soon as I lay my hands on them. Here's hoping 2007 will be a great year for crime fiction.

What about you? Which books are on your must-read list for 2007?

Mail call

I've mentioned often on this blog that I get a lot of books. Well, yesterday was a banner day here at Crime Reviewing Central. I got packages from the USPS, UPS, FedEx and DHL. Here's the breakdown:

Hardcover books -- 10
ARCs for hardcovers -- 4
ARCs for trade paperbacks -- 1
ARCs for paperbacks -- 2
Manuscript -- 1
Total books: 18

Here's what I plan to read:

Hardcovers -- 3 (Including 1 I've already read)
ARCs -- 2 (Including 1 I've already got)
Manuscript -- 1 (If I have time)
Total books planning to read: 6

That's actually a fairly high percentage of good stuff for this batch. The book I'm most looking forward to reading of these is Lee Child's new one, Bad Luck and Trouble.

2006 Statistics

As regular readers of this blog know, I'm a compulsive list keeper. So here are my collected stats for 2006.

Books read: 150
Most books by 1 author (Lawrence Block): 7
Second-most books by 1 author (Rex Stout): 5

Book reviews written (including multi-book columns): 26
Books reviewed: 59
Books reviewed more than once: 7
Total books reviewed: 66
(Note: The above stats include only my print work, not online-only.)

Newspapers reviewed for: 5
Chicago Sun-Times reviews (including columns): 12
Philadelphia Inquirer reviews: 8
Boston Globe reviews: 2
South Florida Sun-Sentinel reviews: 2
Philadelphia City Paper reviews: 2

I can do the breakdown by publisher, too, in case anyone's interested.

Not bad output overall. It appears that this year my review output will increase substantially, too. By the end of 2007, you're going to be sick of me!

Debut novels

Two of the books I was planning to review in my column on debut novels had to be dropped. (I recommended to my editor that they get the feature treatment instead, and apparently she listened!)

So I'm still looking for first novels to review. Anything published between January 1 and March 15 (or so). No vanity, POD, PublishAmerica, etc. The paper won't allow them.

The last time I ran this message, an author helpfully wrote in, and I'm now reviewing his book. But I only heard from a few people. (I thought I would be deluged, but apparently my traffic isn't what it used to be.)

You can email me or leave a comment.

Thanks!

Is it just me?

Every Sunday morning, I go to Sarah Weinman's blog to check her round-up of all the major mystery reviews. When I see a book that looks interesting (something I've read, something I plan to read, something I'm curious about), I'll click through and read the review. (Note: I don't usually do this if it's a book I plan to review -- but by the time someone else's review runs, mine would probably be done anyway.)

Lately I've been noticing how much I disagree with the reviews I'm reading. The same thing goes for the PW reviews that I see on Amazon. Reviewers are heaping praise on books that I find to be, at best, merely average -- and often they're much worse than that.

This leaves me wondering: are reviewers getting soft or am I just turning into a grumpy old man?

I don't think I'm being any more curmudgeonly than before. I still find plenty of books that I enjoy and that I would feel comfortable giving glowing reviews, too. But I can't help but be surprised at all the crap that people are heaping praise on.

Same thing for many of the Best of 2006 lists that I read. I thought that last year was just okay for crime fiction; hardly a banner year. There were a lot of good books, but few great ones -- and an awful lot of truly bad ones.

But when I've looked over the lists that people put together, I've seen plenty of titles that that were disappointing, if not mediocre; lots of books that I simply gave up on reading.

So all of this makes me wonder: are reviewers getting soft? Are people becoming reluctant to pan books (or, at least, give mixed reviews to books), unless they're written by Michael Crichton or Thomas Harris?

I know the temptation to over-praise books, subconsciously or otherwise, and I know some of the reasons why it happens. But it seems to me that the plaudits being doled out lately are above and beyond.

Win free books!

International Thriller Writers is giving one lucky winner autographed copies of 150 novels by some of the biggest and best thriller authors in the business, including people like Joseph Finder, Tess Gerritsen, John Lescroart, Gayle Lynds and David Baldacci. To enter the contest, visit http://www.150thrillers.com/ before February 15th and sign up to get the free ITW newsletter.

In related news, if you haven't already done so, consider making plans at attend ThrillerFest this summer in New York. Last year's inaugural conference was so much fun, it would be a crime to miss this year's.

(And I say that even though I'm not involved with the planning or programming this time around. It's still going to be a blast.)

Charlie Huston rocks

If anyone knows Charlie Huston, tell him, from me, that his books kick ass.

I just finished reading No Dominion, the second book in the Joe Pitt vampire/detective series, and it's another winner. (I read the first, Already Dead, a couple of weeks ago, and it, too, is outstanding.)

I haven't read Huston's Hank Thompson trilogy yet, but I'm planning to. Yesterday I went on Amazon and bought a copy of Caught Stealing, the first book in the series. (You may not know this, but I'm a cheap bastard and I hate paying money for books. So this is saying something!)

Charlie Huston is the real deal. Hard boiled, inventive, witty, with a fresh eye and sharp prose. If you're not reading him, you should be.

Better late than never

I finally read Bridget Jones's Diary. (Okay, so I'm a little behind the times.)

It's good. A little long, but with a strong voice and fun characters. I found it to be quite entertaining.

At this rate, I should be getting to The Da Vinci Code sometime around 2013.

Calling all debuts

If you're an author with a debut crime novel being published between January 1 and March 1, please let me know. No self-published, vanity press, PublishAmerica, etc.

Thanks!

Help identify this book

K. Watman writes:

I am searching for a book, the name of which I cannot recall. The protagonist happens to be witness to a young woman being thrown off the top of a tall building under construction. She falls directly past him to her death. Motivated to investigate, the protagonist discovers that the young woman was the daughter of a building’s prime contractor. She had been killed at the direction of an Indian (as in India) electrical equipment subcontractor who was seeking to sell defective electric motors for the building project. When the prime contractor refused, his daughter was murdered to “motivate” him to change his mind. The murderer is a truly memorable character, a member of an obscure Indian Hill Tribe, a Dhan. I’ve checked; there is such a tribe. He wields a kukri knife (like the Gurkhas), and to describe him as formidable would be a true understatement. Worship of Kali gets mixed up in this story, too.

Anyone have any ideas? It doesn't ring any bells for me.

Musings on Thomas Harris' "Hannibal Rising"

I finished the hotly-anticipated fourth book in the Hannibal Lecter series last night. (Okay...lukewarmly-anticipated.)

Rather than write a formal review, which sounds like too much work at the moment (the baby and I both have a cold), I thought I'd offer my thoughts on it in Larry King-like stream-of-consciousness style:

• Hannibal Rising isn't a thriller. I don't know what it is -- a character study, maybe? -- but it's not a thriller.
• Despite that, I found it to be reasonably entertaining.
• I still don't recommend it, though.
• Readers who are expecting another Silence of the Lambs or Red Dragon are going to hurl this book across the room in anger.
• Although it's not as much of a gorefest as Hannibal, it's still pretty bloody. But in a strangely dispassionate way.
• Lecter's really kind of a stiff in this book. He's almost boring, which considering what a brilliant character he was, is very nearly a crime.
• At times Hannibal Rising reads more like a treatment for a screenplay than a novel -- which isn't surprising, given that Harris apparently wrote the screenplay at the same time he did the book.
• How can the movie be finished at the same time the book is published? I have no idea.
• Some of the writing is god-awful -- there are some real howlers in it -- but most of it's okay. Some of the parts in the first half of the book (telling of Lecter's youth as a Lithuanian noble) are quite evocative.
• The book actually does a pretty good job of explaining how Lecter came to be the man (monster?) he is.
• I would have liked to read more about how he became so fiendishly clever, a topic the book barely touches. Probably because it would be hard to explain.
• Hannibal Rising strikes me as a lazy book. It seems that Harris put only a bare minimum of effort and imagination into it. It's also rather short.
• If the movie follows the book in anything other than name, it'll be duller than Paris Hilton.
• This makes it sound like I hated Hannibal Rising, which I didn't. It was a decent book, and I enjoyed it while I was reading it. But nobody picks this up looking for a decent read. They want to be thrilled, horrified, intrigued, scared, amazed, shocked, etc. Hannibal Rising does very little of that.
• You know how in Silence of the Lambs, Dr. Chilton shows Clarice Starling a picture of a nurse whose face Lecter mauled? Chilton says, "His pulse never got above 85, even when he ate her tongue." Well, that's Hannibal Rising. While reading it, my pulse never got above 85.
• I can think of no reason why this book was written, other than the money. Thomas Harris was once a brilliant writer, and even his junk is interesting to read, but he has squandered a truly great talent, and that's a damn shame.

What should I review?

If you have a suggestion for a book that I should review in my next column, please post it in the comments section. I've got several things on my list, but I'm not that excited about a couple of them.

Ideally, the book will be published between mid-November and the end of December. No 2007 books, please.

Score one for Buckley!

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about how a review of Christopher Buckley's in the New York Times prompted me to immediately buy the book in question.

Well, I finished Chris Miller's The Real Animal House last night and it was everything that Buckley said it was: funny, crude, tasteless, probably apocryphal and a lot of fun to read.

So chalk one up for the reviewers! If you enjoyed the gross-out humor and antics of the film Animal House you'll probably enjoy this book as well. Juvenile that I am, I loved it.

Do book reviews sell books?

Last night I read the Sunday edition of the New York Times Book Review. This was something of a rarity for me, as I don't read many book reviews. I like book reviews, but I have a lot of demands on my time, so I usually spending my free time reading books instead of reviews.

But Marilyn Stasio had reviews of some books that I'd also reviewed, so I wanted to check those out. She had an interesting column in which she actually made it obvious that she liked some books (Michael Connelly's and Robert Ward's, especially).

Then I saw that Christopher Buckley, one of my favorite writers, had a review of a book called The Real Animal House.

It turns out that one of the screenwriters of the classic film wrote a memoir about his real-life experiences in a frat at Dartmouth that helped inspire the movie. Buckley says the book is hilarious, and he's a guy whose comedy judgment I trust. After all, he's written plenty of hilarious things himself (especially Thank You for Smoking*) so he ought to know.

So I clicked over to Amazon and bought it. Before reading the review, I'd never heard of the book and even if I had, I wouldn't have bought it. But a reviewer I trust said it was good, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Hopefully, that's what all book reviews can do.

*It appears that Thank You for Smoking is out of print. How is that possible? Didn't the publisher even reissue a tie-in copy for the movie?

Edit: Thank You for Smoking is in print. You can find it on Amazon here. Thanks to Mark in the comments section for pointing that out!

What's everyone reading?

I love to find out what other people are reading. (It's all part of my obsession with books. It's like when I go into someone's house for the first time...I'm always trying to peek at their books to see what they've got. Assuming they have books. If they don't have books, I just drink their liquor and leave.)

I'm currently reading James Grady's Mad Dogs. It's odd, but fascinating.

How about you?

More lists of the best detective novels

In response to my own 10 Greatest Detective Novels list, Maxine Clark offers up a list of her 10 Favourite Detective Authors, James Reasoner shares 10 Detective Novels that stand out in his memory, and Sherry Early passes along her Best 10 Detective Novels.

I suppose I wouldn't enjoy this nearly so much if I weren't obsessed with lists, but I am. I find it fascinating to see which novels other people consider great, and how much we all disagree on them.

I'm especially pleased to see how often Rex Stout's name is mentioned. Stout was a wonderful writer who produced many fine books, but it seems that he is little read these days, which is a shame.

I don't get it -- a follow-up

In the comments section of my post "I don't get it" (about my frustration with attempting to donate books to the local library), Johnnie Frisbie writes:

I select fiction for a mid-size public library. While some of our donations go to the library book sale a fair number also make it onto our shelves. If the books you were donating were 18 months old what you must realize is that the library ordered enough of those books to meet patron demands. Usually, unless a book is The DaVinci Code by the time 18 months has passed the initial demand for the book has passed.

What happens at some of our branches is staff takes those pristine donations and checks their shelves to see if the copy they currently have needs to be replaced. Staff that takes the time to do this can make a significant contribution to keeping their collection looking good. It is not that libraries do not appreciate donations, we do, it is just that we cannot rely on them to meet out patron needs.

I found that comment interesting, and some of it makes sense to me. But I think that in most cases the library probably didn't order copies of the books I wanted to give them, or certainly not all of them.

Of course, if they've got the books already, then it's a moot point. The reason I wanted to donate them in the first place is because I was under the impression that libraries can't afford to buy very many books. If they've got everything they need, then they certainly don't need me. (And now that I think about it, the libraries in Fairfax County must have pretty damn good funding, so maybe they really do have all the books they need.)

I'm curious about something else Johnnie wrote...He seems to imply that libraries operate on the assumption that only new releases are of interest to patrons. Is that really true? I know new books are of the most immediate interest, but don't they shelve older books? Even books from last year? Obviously they can't keep everything, but what about, for example, last year's Edgar winners or Book 1 or 2 of an ongoing series?

I think the part that disappointed me about the whole thing was that the library wasn't even interested in considering the books. I explicitly told them I realized that the books might or might not meet their needs -- in which case I knew they would be sold off at the charity sale. And that's fine.

But I wanted for the books to at least be considered for circulation, since they represent a valuable resource. Unfortunately, they weren't interested in that. So that indicates to me that, contrary to what Johnnie wrote, they don't appreciate donations at all, other than for sale. (Which is the same thing as just asking for money.)

I used to give books to a couple of nursing homes, because at least then I knew they were going to where people would read them. But the person I dealt with doesn't handle that anymore, and I haven't had much luck connecting with anyone else.

If I'm just going to donate the books for sale, this particular library is too picky about their rules. One of the other libraries in the area that I talked to was more receptive when it comes to their book sale, but it's not very convenient for me to go over there.

So I suppose I'll just keep dumping them at the Salvation Army. It's a shame that there's not a better outlet for good quality, new books. I can't even give the damn things away! As both a reader and a writer, that makes me a little sad.

I don't get it

We hear all the time how public libraries have no funding and thus can't buy any books. So recently I contacted the branch manager of the library closest to my house. I explained that I was a book reviewer and I have a large number of books that I'd like to donate.

These are good books: new, hardcover mysteries and thrillers, most of them unread, all of them published within the last 18 months or so. I said I'd like to make sure the books went to good use and could provide more in the future if it worked out well.

The librarian wrote back and said they'd be happy to take the books -- but only for the Friends of the Library sale. I could drop them off on a certain date and a certain time, but only 2 boxes worth.

What am I missing here? I can understand that a particular book might not be of any use to a library. But books in general aren't worth their time? New, recent hardcover mystery novels from major NY publishers, including award-winners, aren't the kind of thing that they'd like to have in their collection? For free?

I don't get it.

Don't you hate it when you can't find a book to read?

I know what you're thinking: How can Montgomery not have any books to read? The guy has more books than Carter's got little pills.

And it's true, I've got a lot of books. Thousands of 'em, with more coming in every day. But nothing looks particularly appealing.

I've already read everything for my next column, which isn't even due for a couple of weeks, so I'm free to read anything I want. But every time I pick something up, I end up looking at it, flipping through a couple of pages, then putting it back.

I don't know if it's me or just the books that are out right now. Maybe it's both.

None of my favorite authors, the people I'd automatically read, has a new book, and the other things I've been getting just seem so generic or otherwise unspectacular.

Anyway, maybe you can help. What should I read?

10 Greatest Detective Novels -- The List

It proved to be a nearly impossible task, but after much thought and consideration, here is my list:

10 Greatest Detective Novels (in alphabetical order):

• Lawrence Block - When the Sacred Ginmill Closes
• Raymond Chandler - The Long Goodbye
• Michael Connelly - The Black Echo
• Robert Crais - L.A. Requiem
• James Crumley - The Last Good Kiss
• Dashiell Hammett - The Maltese Falcon
• John D. MacDonald -- The Dreadful Lemon Sky
• Walter Mosley - Devil in a Blue Dress
• Robert B. Parker - Looking for Rachel Wallace
• Rex Stout - The League of Frightened Men

If you asked me again in a year, a couple of the individual books might change, but I feel pretty good about the line-up of authors. I also could think of some more books that I'd like to add on to expand the list, but I haven't come up with anything that I would prefer to what's already on there.

As soon as I summon my strength, I think I'm going to shoot for the 10 Greatest Assassin Novels.

Do you recognize this book?

A reader writes in:

I read a crime fiction novel a few years ago that I'm sure was part of a series. I can't remember the title or author, and very little about the plot...I believe that the story had some involvement with the sea and/or the protagonist being a retired detective or something who now transports boats for a living. His love interest is his business partner (and maybe a former "client").

Not much to go on, I know. But does anyone know what it is? If so, please leave a comment.

Review of Karen E. Olson's "Secondhand Smoke"

Tough-talking New Haven reporter Annie Seymour returns for her second go-around in Karen E. Olson’s winning Secondhand Smoke (Mysterious Press, 272 pages, $22.99), a book even better than last year’s excellent debut, Sacred Cows (which was nominated for the Gumshoe Award).

When a popular local eatery burns down across the street from Annie’s home, she’s right there in the thick of things, covering the story with her usual deadpan cynicism. The crime starts to cut a little close to home, however, when it turns out that her own father might be involved.

Olson writes in a similar corner of the genre as Janet Evanovich, but her plots and her heroine are grounded much firmer in reality. Secondhand Smoke combines a nice sense of humor, deft use of setting and a solid collection of characters all together in one charming mystery. This book proves that Olson is no flash in the pan. She’s here to stay.

For more reviews like this one, please visit Mystery Ink.

10 Greatest Detective Novels -- Dennis Lehane

After much urging from the commenters in the previous discussion on the 10 Greatest Detective Novels, I went back to read Dennis Lehane's A Drink Before the War, the first book in the Kenzie-Gennaro series.

I've read a couple of Lehane's books before (Sacred and Mystic River) without being blown away. Although I liked this one much better -- and can see why he has his legions of fans -- I didn't think this was at the level of the other books included on my list.

Lehane's a fine writer; I don't think there's any doubt about that. And A Drink Before the War is a quality, entertaining detective novel. But it's not a great detective novel.

The plot of Drink is on the simple side. (That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's worth mentioning.) The characters are fine, but not particularly original. The prose quality is generally high, and the setting is used well. In no area, however, does it rise to the level of extraordinary, which is what I'm looking for on this list.

One area of weakness is that much of the writing is heavy-handed and overdone. Whether the topic is race, abuse or politics, Lehane makes his points with a cudgel, when a scalpel is what's really needed. (I contrast this to the work of George Pelecanos, for example, which is much subtler.)

While reading it, I couldn't help but notice that although Lehane is working in similar territory, with similar characters, and exploring similar themes as the best of Robert B. Parker's Spenser series, he doesn't pull it off quite as well as Parker did.

Granted, this was Lehane's first novel. And, considering that, it's a damn fine achievement. Having read this book, I would certainly read him again.

Ultimately, A Drink Before the War is a solid example of a detective novel, well-written and enjoyable. But it's not one of the 10 Greatest.

10 Greatest Detective Novels -- follow-up

Okay, the debate on my list of the 10 Greatest Detective Novels has been raging for a while now... Let's see if we've come to any conclusions.

Here is my original list of seven, which I'm still feeling pretty good about:

10 Greatest Detective Novels (in alphabetical order):

• Lawrence Block - When the Sacred Ginmill Closes
• Raymond Chandler - The Long Goodbye
• Michael Connelly - The Black Echo
• Robert Crais - L.A. Requiem
• Dashiell Hammett - The Maltese Falcon
• Walter Mosley - Devil in a Blue Dress
• Robert B. Parker - Looking for Rachel Wallace

To that list, I want to add:

• James Crumley - The Last Good Kiss

(Thanks to folks for pointing out that omission. Although the ending of LGK stinks, it's a powerful book.)

We also need a Travis McGee novel, so for now I'm going to add:

• John D. MacDonald -- The Dreadful Lemon Sky

(Guyot! Should I pick a different one?)

I haven't yet been persuaded to change any of the original picks, although I'm open to it. A couple people suggested Parker's Early Autumn rather than Looking for Rachel Wallace. Early Autumn is a great book, and it would be my second pick of a Spenser novel. I think that, on the level of a pure detective story, however, Rachel Wallace is superior.

As for Connelly...Most of the Bosch books are excellent, and I could pick a different one from The Black Echo. But that book is so damn good, and it also has the advantage to being the first, so I'm tempted to keep it for now.

Let's assume that I'm going to keep these same authors. That gives me nine books, with space for one more. There have been strong votes for both Dennis Lehane and Dorothy L. Sayers. I need to try to find the time to read a couple of theirs. I'm not holding out much hope, though.

I'm tempted to add Laura Lippman's Every Secret Thing to the list, but it's so recent, and I'm also not sure it qualifies as a detective novel. In fact, the more I think about it, I don't believe it does. The Tess Monaghan books certainly would, but I don't know if I could single out one of those. By a Spider's Thread maybe?

Again, though... it's so recent. Same thing goes for Denise Hamilton's work. I'd like to have at least a decade's worth of separation from the book -- and hopefully a subsequent re-reading -- in order to be certain of its lasting power.

I love George Pelecanos, whom someone suggested in the comments section, but I just don't think of him as a detective writer. While it's true that he has on occasion written about detectives, his books still don't strike me as detective novels. I might need to rethink that, though.

Part of the problem here is that there are just so many people that I haven't read. When you think of all the detective novels that have been published in the last 60 years, it's an impossible task.

Even so, though, I think this list is shaping up nicely...

Video for Michael Connelly's "Echo Park"

There's a new video for Michael Connelly's Echo Park (an excellent book, by the way) over on YouTube, which was directed by my buddy Lee Lankford. The video is a dramatization of the first section of the book. Pretty cool idea.

So I'm watching it, and Harry Bosch's partner, Jerry Edgar, appears in the scene. I look at him, do a double-take, and think to myself, "I'll be damned -- that's Gar Haywood!" But then I thought, "Naaah...it can't be." My curiosity got the better of me, so I fast-forwarded to the end -- and sure enough, it is him!

Haven't heard much from Gar in a while. I'd really love to see a new book from him one of these days. He's a damn fine writer and it's a shame that he's out of print.

Killer Year update -- "Vinnie's Head"

I read my fourth Killer Year book and didn't even know it! (Okay, technically it's only my third, since C.J. Lyons had to drop out of the group. But still.)

I devoured Marc Lecard's superb, twisted, hilarious, gruesome, wonderful, outrageous novel Vinnie's Head last weekend, only to discover afterwards that he's part of the Killer Year group. (I guess I should pay attention to who's actually in this group, since I said I'd read all their books.)

I started Vinnie's Head on Saturday afternoon and couldn't put it down until I finished it on Sunday morning. (I guess that's what most people are talking about when they say "I read it in one sitting!" Either that, or they're just lying.)

The book isn't being published until March -- I know, that's a lonnnngggg 'ways off -- but make a note of it now. If you're the least bit sick and twisted -- or just like to read about people who are -- you'll love this book.

Spenser is back

Since we're talking about the 10 Greatest Detective Novels below, I thought I'd mention that I finished the new Spenser novel last night.

It's the 34th in the series, if you can believe that, and brings back a familiar old character: April Kyle, the prostitute that Spenser rescued in Ceremony and then met up with again in Taming a Sea Horse.

(I'll admit: I had to look it up to see which books she'd been in. I vaguely remembered her, but I read those books a looong time ago.)

I'm not going to give Hundred-Dollar Baby a full review here. But I will say that I thought the book was terrific and enjoyed it a lot. This one still falls more into the category of "Spenser Lite" than some of the really meaty books in the series. But, as was the case with last year's School Days, Parker seems to have rejuvenated the series with sharper writing, a better plot and fewer of the annoying tics that plague some of his work.

Hundred-Dollar Baby is a fast and easy read, but I found it to be a very satisfying one. Parker takes his knocks, including from me on occasion, but the man is still one of the best.

10 Greatest Detective Novels -- let the debate begin!

I've decided to compile a list of the 10 Greatest Detective Novels ever written. And you can help! I'll give my preliminary list below. Feel free to use the comments section to argue over the choices. Your suggestions and contributions are welcome. I want to put together the definitive list...Well, at least, the CFD's definitive list.

The only requirements are: the book must feature a detective; it must be written in English; and I have to have read it. (I know, you don't know what I've read. We'll figure it out.)

So, here goes...

10 Greatest Detective Novels (in alphabetical order):

• Lawrence Block - When the Sacred Ginmill Closes
• Raymond Chandler - The Long Goodbye
• Michael Connelly - The Black Echo
• Robert Crais - L.A. Requiem
• Dashiell Hammett - The Maltese Falcon
• Walter Mosley - Devil in a Blue Dress
• Robert B. Parker - Looking for Rachel Wallace

Okay, that's only seven. I think we need a Rex Stout (maybe Black Mountain?) and a John D. MacDonald (Dreadful Lemon Sky, maybe?). I'm not that big a fan of Ross Macdonald or Mickey Spillane, but maybe you can convince me otherwise.

It's all men so far, so do any books by women belong? I don't think Agatha Christie is good enough to make the cut. Never read Dorothy L. Sayers. Laura Lippman or Denise Hamilton, maybe? They're both top-notch.

Oh, and I was never much of a fan of Arthur Conan Doyle or Ed McBain. What about Dick Francis, though?

Thoughts?? Who have I left out? What books should be on here?

Killer Year update

In a fit of madness, I announced a while back that I would be reading and reviewing all of the books published in 2007 by the Killer Year authors.

I wanted to let you know that I recently read my third book from one of the Killer Year folks. No reviews yet (since the books haven't been published), but so far I can say that I have enjoyed all three of them, and have been impressed by the quality of the writing.

The books I've read are:

• Stigma by Philip Hawley, Jr.
• The Blade Itself by Marcus Sakey
• Blink of an Eye by C.J. Lyons

If this early bunch is any indication, we can expect some good things from this group.

Books for Troops

By design, the real world doesn't often rear its ugly head on the Crime Fiction Dossier. I did want to make a brief mention, though, of the 5-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. For all of those who lost their lives that day, for all of those who tried to save them, and for all of those who continue to serve, you are in my heart, my thoughts and my prayers.

I will never forget.

If you'd like to do something to help boost the morale of our men and women serving overseas, you might consider sending them some books. Joe Konrath has a post over on his blog about a particular soldier whom you can send them to, or there are many other places I'm sure you can find. Most of us have too many books anyway, right?

Top 15 Spy Novels

Publishers Weekly prints a list of 15 top spy novels (Best spy novels? It doesn't really say.), compiled by Peter Cannon.

1. THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD by John le Carre (1963)
2. THE BOURNE IDENTITY by Robert Ludlum (1980)
3. THE DAY OF THE JACKAL by Frederick Forsyth (1971)
4. THE SPY WHO LOVED ME by Ian Fleming (1962)
5. THE QUIET AMERICAN by Graham Greene (1955)
6. THE IPCRESS FILE by Len Deighton (1962)
7. THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE by Ken Follett (1978)
8. MASQUERADE by Gayle Lynds (1996)
9. THE MOSCOW CLUB by Joseph Finder (1991)
10. ABOVE SUSPICION by Helen MacInnes (1939)
11. THE 39 STEPS by John Buchan (1915)
12. HARLOT'S GHOST by Norman Mailer (1991)
13. THE UNLIKELY SPY by Daniel Silva (1996)
14. THE RIDDLE OF THE SANDS by Erskine Childers (1903)
15. MORNING SPY, EVENING SPY by Colin MacKinnon (2006)

(Be sure to click through to the article in order to read Cannon's commentary.)

It seems like a good list, although I'll confess to only having read three of the books. (The first three.) I'm familiar with the work of several of the others, however.

I was pleased to see three of my favorite contemporary thriller writers included: Gayle Lynds, Joseph Finder and Daniel Silva.

It's somewhat arbitrary, what one considers a spy novel...But I would have definitely thrown in Ross Thomas' The Cold War Swap, Trevanian's The Eiger Sanction, William Goldman's The Marathon Man and David Morrell's The Brotherhood of the Rose.

What are some of your favorites?

Is this a fair blurb?

I received an email today promoting the release of Jed Rubenfeld's much-hyped new thriller, The Interpretation of Murder.

At the top of the email it says in big type: "'The pop-cultural sensation'* is on sale today."

We follow the asterisk down below and see the source of the quote. It turns out to be Janet Maslin's review in the New York Times.

Here is the excerpt from that review:

"Credit Mr. Rubenfeld with a smart, jocular approach to an elaborate undertaking. His will be no ordinary pop-cultural sensation... [There is more which I'm omitting.]"

Is it fair to extract three words from Maslin's review -- "pop-cultural sensation" -- and then brand the book as "The pop-cultural sensation," even though that's not what she's really saying?

I don't think it is. How 'bout you?

2007 will be a Killer Year

Old news here, but I wanted to mention it anyway... A group of debut crime novelists, with books all coming out in 2007, has banded together to form a collective called Killer Year.

They're trying to cross-promote each other's work and hopefully gain some publicity for the group as a whole. Definitely a nice idea. It's incumbent upon authors these days to search for creative ways to gain attention, and this is an innovative one.

In an attempt to help out, I've decided that I will read and review all of the books put out in 2007 by Killer Year novelists. I can't guarantee everyone a newspaper review, unfortunately, but at the least, I can write about them here on the blog.

Once the last of them is published, I'll pick my favorite of the bunch and anoint it the Killer Book of the Year. (How's that for a remarkable act of hubris?)

For the record, I've already read two of the books and they're both quite good. So I'm expecting big things for this bunch.

Watch this space for more on the Killer Year books -- and definitely check out what the group is up to. There are some fine writers participating.

(By the way, I've opened up comments on this post, so you can tell me if I'm getting too big of an ego.)

What is a thriller?

Over on Sarah Weinman's blog, thriller reviewer Larry Gandle asked this excellent question, prompting much discussion. I've been meaning to tackle this subject for a while, so here goes.

I rarely have any trouble determining whether or not a book is a mystery or a thriller. The differences between the two are usually evident, although they can be difficult to explain in the abstract.

The reason I think that we tend to get confused is because people so often use the terms interchangeably. Many times, we are told that a book is a thriller, when really it's not.

That's the way it usually works, too, rather than the other way around. Many books are marketed as thrillers that really aren't, because thrillers sell better.

First off: what is a mystery?

In order to be a mystery novel, the story must have a mystery in it. And what's the purpose of having a mystery in a story? For someone to solve it, of course.

Since we're talking about crime novels, the mystery will involve a crime of some sort, which the investigator will attempt to solve. If those two elements are not present in the story, it's not a mystery. (Someone will probably come up with an exception, but I haven't been able to think of any.)

In terms of its format, a mystery novel will work like this: a crime will be introduced near the beginning of the book -- usually a murder, sometimes a theft or similar -- and the rest of the book will be about someone trying to solve that crime.

That "someone" -- the investigator -- can be either a professional or an amateur. S/he can be a detective, cop, private eye, reporter, antiques dealer, bed and breakfast proprietor or anything else.

Can a book be a mystery and also a thriller? Yes, sometimes it happens. A thriller can have a mystery at its core. A thriller can have a romance at its core. Which genre you classify the story as depends on the nature of the story being told, and how the author goes about telling it.

So...what is a thriller?

Thrillers are much looser in form, so it's harder to give as precise a description. You can draw the line at many places, but I think one of the main distinctions lies in motion and emotion.

The plots in thrillers move differently from the plots in mysteries. Mysteries are mono-paced, moving at a steady speed from start to finish. After all, the crime has already happened. The Vicar is lying dead in the chapel; he can't get any more dead.

Thrillers, on the other hand, have greater urgency, as the crime still lies off in the future. Thus, thrillers move more quickly than mysteries, and their pace generally accelerates as the story progresses. A good thriller moves like a roller coaster, with periods of relative calm interspersed with stretches of heightened suspense.

The emotions generated by thrillers are different as well. Mysteries tend to be more intellectual. They excite the mind with their tales of puzzles, investigation, procedure, deduction, analysis and problem solving.

Thrillers are more visceral. They attempt to manipulate our emotions. (Think of Hitchcock and his famous quote about playing the audience like a piano.) Thrillers generate excitement, anticipation, fear, apprehension -- in short, they thrill.

Thrillers come in many forms -- legal, medical, military, action, political, espionage, etc. -- but they all share the common elements of motion and emotion.

One final thing to keep in mind: there are ineffective thrillers. You can read a book and think, "There wasn't one damn thrill in that book -- how can it be a thriller?" In that case, I think it's the book's intentions that determine its classification, even if those intentions failed.

It's Ross Thomas time again

It's that time of the year again; time for my annual Read Ross Thomas plea.

It's no surprise to the people who know me, or who regularly read my work, that I am a great admirer of the late Ross Thomas. Ross was, quite simply, the finest writer this genre has ever produced. I know plenty of people would disagree, and some might even come to blows over it, but I'll go to my grave proclaiming it.

Ross wrote 25 books over the course of his 29-year career, and nearly all of them are outstanding. There are a few that are merely good -- but even his good was better than most of us could hope for. That is why he won two Edgar Awards, was the recipient of the first Gumshoe Award for Lifetime Achievement, and why I have been proselytizing for his work ever since he died in 1995.

The two series Ross wrote are probably the favorites of most fans, and they are dear to my heart as well. One of them features Artie Wu and Quincy Durant, the lovable grifters and world travelers. Those books are Chinaman's Chance, Out on the Rim and Voodoo Ltd. (Chinaman's Chance is probably Ross' best-known work, and it is the one I always recommend to new readers.)

His other series features saloon keepers/spies Mac McCorkle and Mike Padillo, and those books are just as superb. They are The Cold War Swap, Cast a Yellow Shadow, The Backup Men and Twilight at Mac's Place. (I go back and forth as to which series if my favorite. They're both so damn good.)

Now that I think of it, the books he wrote under the pseudonym Oliver Bleeck were also a series, featuring Philip St. Ives. There are five of those. They're still good, but I don't care for them quite as much. They are: The Brass Go-Between, The Procane Chronicle, Protocol for a Kidnapping, The Highbinders and No Questions Asked.

Ross also wrote many fine stand-alone novels. Which of those readers will enjoy best will depend a bit on the subject matter.

For example, he wrote a book about a fictional election campaign in Africa (The Seersucker Whipsaw), a couple about labor union shenanigans (The Porkchoppers and Yellow Dog Contract), a classic "corrupt town" novel (The Fools in Town Are on Our Side), a tender, but biting story about a man investigating his sister's murder (Briarpatch), an exploration of corruption in the commodities market (The Money Harvest), a hilarious political thriller (Ah, Treachery), a story about a town where people to go disappear (The Fourth Durango) and many more.

Really, I think you can pick up any Ross Thomas book and be sure to have a fine story in your hands. Several of them were reprinted in recent years by St. Martin's Press, but several are still out-of-print. That is truly a shame. The fact that a writer so brilliant and gifted is not better known is a crime against literature.

If you've ever enjoyed anything I've written, I hope you'll take the time to find one of Ross Thomas' books and read it. This is one thing you can trust me on.

Now that's what I call a book cover

The cover for the trade paperback edition of James Sallis' superb crime novel Drive is one of the best I've seen in a long time.

(Click to see the full-size image.)

When you consider that the cover of a book is one of the single most important factors when it comes to sales, Harvest Books (an imprint of Harcourt) really did a stand-out job on this one.

Granted, it always helps a book's appearance to have a blurb on the cover from me. (In this case, the single word, "Stunning," which was taken from my Boston Globe review.) But even apart from that, it's really a sharp, attractive and eye-catching cover.

If I saw that book in the bookstore, I'd pick it up. You should, too. It's a helluva good read.

Yawn!

All this posting has tired me out. I think I'll go to bed and read now. I'm in the middle of Gregg Hurwitz' new thriller, Last Shot. I'm enjoying it so far -- Gregg is an excellent writer -- although I think it might have a few too many plotlines. Either that or my concentration isn't at its best.

Hmmmm...

Good night!

ITW's THRILLER Anthology -- free audio downloads

AudiobookStand.com is giving away free audio downloads of five of the stories (plus the intro) from the excellent Thriller anthology that ITW put together.

You can get:

• The THRILLER introduction
• James Penny's New Identity by Lee Child
• The Portal by John Lescroart and M.J. Rose
• The Abelard Sanction by David Morrell
• The Hunt for Dmitri by Gayle Lynds
• Epitaph by J.A. Konrath

I've read each of those stories and they're quite good. I haven't listened to the audio versions yet, but I'm downloading them now. You can't beat the price.

If you're interested in reading more, check out the hardcover edition of THRILLER. It's an impressive book, offering something for just about every taste.

Calling all books

If you'd like to recommend a book that I should read -- something that will be published between mid-August and late-September -- please email me. I'm particularly interested in books written by women.

(Sorry: self-published or vanity press titles aren't eligible.)

Thanks!

M.J. Rose does it again!

The indomitable M.J. Rose has once again pledged to support a worthy cause by donating $5 to charity for every blog that links to www.MJRose.com and www.vidlit.com/mj/.

The Vidlit (a trailer for her latest erotic thriller The Venus Fix) is very cool, so make sure to check it out. You can find out more details on what M.J. is doing by visiting www.myspace.com/venusfix.

If you read this blog, you already know what I thought of The Venus Fix -- it's a terrific book -- and this is a great way to spread the word and support a worthwhile charity. If you have a blog, I hope you'll consider participating.

Also, if you'd like to win a personally autographed copy of The Venus Fix, just send an email to davidjmontgomery@yahoo.com with the word Contest in the subject line and your name in the body of the email.

Good luck!

I am officially UN-well read

The Independent (UK) lists "50 Hot Books for Summer" and I haven't read a single one of them. I haven't even heard of most of them. (I should point out that I did try to read Jeff Deaver's The Cold Moon, but I couldn't get into the story.)

What are all of these books? Who are these authors? Are people reading these things? Who exactly is buying all of these books? I find it a bit mystifying. I hardly even know anyone who reads or buys books. It's really a rather disheartening state of affairs.

I think it is now official: there are too darn many books. At least, until mine comes out...

(Link courtesy of my Philadelphia Inquirer editor, Frank Wilson.)

My Summer Reading List

If you're interested in learning which books made the top of my Summer Reading List, just hop on over on M.J. Rose's blog, Buzz, Balls and Hype.

Since writing that up (it was a while ago), I've read all 4 books I mentioned. I think they each have something to recommend themselves to readers. I'm still searching for that 5th book, though; the elusive "summer sleeper" that really knocks my socks off.

New York Times ad

In the June 1st edition of the New York Times, the Arts section had a page dominated by ads for 4 books. Two of the ads -- one for Lee Child's The Hard Way, one for Joseph Finder's Killer Instinct -- led off with pull-quotes from my reviews.

(Click on the image to see the larger version.)

You'd think that this would mean the publishers are falling over themselves to send me books. Strangely, that's not the case. Lately in particular, I've been having a terrible time getting copies of books that I'm trying to review.

What a strange business.

Book recommendations?

If you'd like to recommend a book for possible review that is being published in April or May, please pass along your suggestion.

Thanks!

100 Science Fiction Novels You Just Have to Read

Although I'm generally known as a mystery and thriller critic, I got my start as a reader in the science fiction and fantasy genres, and that is where my interest remained until I reached my early-20s. Only then did I start to read crime fiction.

These days I don't read much SF/Fantasy, although I have written a couple of reviews in the genre over the last year or two. (I reviewed John Sladek's The Complete Roderick for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and wrote about Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for National Review Online.)

Despite that shift in my focus, the SF/F genre remains dear to my heart, and I have many fond memories of the books I grew up with.

Author James Reasoner shared a link on his blog to 100 Science Fiction Novels You Just Have to Read. I went over the list and found that I'd read 22 of the books, to the best of my recollection.

Some of my favorite authors are listed, including Roger Zelazny, Robert Heinlein and Douglas Adams. There are also some big names I never cared for, like Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov -- although I have to confess that I only tried a few of their books before giving up.

A handful of more contemporary writers are included as well, showing that the genre is still capable of producing great work today. Some of the current generation of authors listed, although they're hardly new anymore, are Orson Scott Card, William Gibson and Neal Stephenson, all of whom have written books that I've really enjoyed.

I wish I had the time to read more science fiction or fantasy. I can't even keep up with a fraction of the crime fiction, though, which makes me feel guilty whenever I read anything else.

ITW Awards Nominations Announced

From James Rollins, ITW Awards Chair:

You may not have been at Left Coast Crime in Bristol, but that doesn't mean you're out of the awards' loop.

At a dinner on Friday, March 17th, 2006, the co-presidents of International Thriller Writers, Gayle Lynds and David Morrell, announced the nominees for the new International Thriller Awards (or more simply "The Thrillers").

Over three hundred titles were reviewed by our judging committees, along with a slew of screenplays by our film panel. And as stipulated in ITW bylaws, no one on the board of directors, nor myself as chair of the awards, was eligible to compete. Each judging committee was selected to balance men and women, authors and reviewers, while also incorporating an international flare with judges from beyond US borders. Operating under a strict code of silence and isolated from prejudicial interference, they have deliberated for the past several months to pare down the towering pile of submissions to the nominees listed below.

So with great pride and delight, and congratulations to all, here are the nominees (listed alphabetically by writer) for the first International Thriller Awards.

BEST NOVEL
PANIC by Jeff Abbott (Dutton)
CONSENT TO KILL by Vince Flynn (Atria)
VELOCITY by Dean Koontz (Bantam)
THE PATRIOTS CLUB by Christopher Reich (Delacorte Press)
CITIZEN VINCE by Jess Walter (Regan Books)

BEST FIRST NOVEL
IMPROBABLE by Adam Fawer (William Morrow)
THE COLOR OF LAW by Mark Gimenez (Doubleday)
COLD GRANITE by Stuart MacBride (St. Martin's Minotaur)
PAIN KILLER by Will Staeger (William Morrow)
BENEATH A PANAMANIAN MOON by David Terrenoire (Thomas Dunne Books)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
SLEEPER CELL by Jeffrey Anderson (Berkley)
PRIDE RUNS DEEP by R. Cameron Cooke (Jove)
UPSIDE DOWN by John Ramsay Miller (Dell)
THE DYING HOUR by Rick Mofina (Pinnacle Books)
EXIT STRATEGY by Michael Wiecek (Jove)

BEST SCREENPLAY
MATCH POINT, screenplay by Woody Allen
SYRIANA, based on the book by Robert Baer, written by Stephen Gaghan
CACHE (Hidden), screenplay by Michael Haneke
OLDBOY, screenplay by Jo-yun Hwang, Chun-hyeong Lim, Joon-hyung Lim, and Chan-wook Park; story by Garon Tsuchiya
MUNICH, screenplay by Tony Kushner and Eric Roth; based on the book by George Jonas

From David Montgomery:

Congrats to all the nominees! An interesting bunch of books, sure to generate discussion, compliments and dissent.

I was one of the judges for the Best First Novel award, so I can't comment on those nominations, other than to say it was a lot of hard work and we had tough decisions to make.

My initial reaction to the Best Novel selections is one of cautious approval. There are a couple of books I really would have liked to see be nominated. Joe Finder's Company Man, for example. I was also hoping to see a nomination for Barry Eisler's Killing Rain.

I've only read 2 of the 5 books nominated for Best Novel (Jeff Abbott's Panic and Dean Koontz' Velocity) and they are both worthy of recognition. I can particularly recommend the latter, which was excellent. (On second glance, I wonder...Is the Jess Walter book even a thriller?)

Having been one of the judges, I can state without hesitation that it is a trying and grueling process, and all the judges are to be commended for their hard work. Way to go, everyone!

Weighing in on "A Million Little Lies"

The big literary topic in the news the past week, of course, has been the revelation that James Frey's gazillion-selling memoir A Million Little Pieces is mostly a pack of lies.

Frey's apologists, including Oprah Winfrey, have argued that this is "much ado about nothing" and that the book is "emotionally [true]" (whatever the hell that means). We are told that memoirs are expected to be fabricated, so it's no big deal.

Such defenses, impassioned and even well-intentioned though they may be, are misguided, if not downright dangerous.

There is a general expectation when reading memoirs that, although some details may be misremembered, and some events may be interpreted differently, and that recollections of varying parties will always vary, there is nonetheless a commitment to truth and accuracy that don't depend on subjective perspectives.

If I have a fight with my wife, which of us started it might be a legitimate matter of differing memories. If a pair of songwriters collaborate on a song, they might each remember differently whose the initial spark of inspiration was. If a drunk is on a bender and wakes up covered in vomit in the back of a police car, whether or not that happened in 1993 or 1994 isn't really that important.

However, whether or not a person went to jail, or whether or not they contributed to the deaths of two people, or whether or not they were an FBI informant, are not matters of interpretation or subjective memory. They either happened or they didn't. If you report in an allegedly truthful recounting of your life that they happened when really they did not, then you're a liar and the entire work is suspect.

A few errors here and there are to be expected in a work of autobiography. Inconsistencies on minor details are excusable. Even an attempt to exaggerate one's own importance, or to enhance one's reputation, is natural. But a repeated, deliberate and consistent pattern of fabrication exposes the work to be either fiction or fraud -- and certainly not worthy of this kind of attention.

As readers and consumers, we have to rely, at least to some reasonable extent, on the reputation of a company like Random House to vet the manuscripts they sell under the banner of non-fiction. That's not to say that we have an expectation of 100% accuracy. But if, on balance, a story is more not true than it is true, it is deceitful to publish it as non-fiction. We call such works novels and they should be published and marketed as such.

So, does this even matter? As a former historian, I think it matters a lot. The general public already has a hard enough time differentiating between truth and fiction. The difference between gossip and news is already a shaky concept for too many people. Our collective knowledge of history and our understanding of what did and what did not happen is abysmally poor. And that's a problem.

Sure, most academics and critics and publishing professionals are no doubt savvy enough to realize that a book like Frey's contains, at the least, gross exaggerations. But is the average TV viewer who reads the book based on talk show host's recommendation sophisticated enough? Is a high school kid who picks up the book in the library hip to what Frey is doing?

If it's acceptable to write a book about your life that's full of lies, maybe in and of itself that's not important. But what effect does that have on the public's overall confidence in the truth of what they read? If a non-fiction memoir published by Random House can't be relied upon to be at least reasonably accurate, how can we believe their history books, their biographies or their science monographs?

Even in the field of memoir, there is a reasonable presumption of accuracy, or else the book is worthless as an autobiography. If A Million Little Pieces is no more truthful than The Hitler Diaries, then it should be treated as such.

Bestselling Crime Fiction Novels of 2005

The Book Standard recently printed their list of the Top 200 bestselling books of 2005, as reported by Nielsen BookScan. Their numbers, in theory at least, represent the best data available on what books people actually bought. (As opposed to the New York Times' list, for example, which is apparently based on voodoo.)

I went through and combed out the mystery, thriller and suspense titles, as best as I could pick 'em. (I might have missed a couple.) Of the 200 books on the list, a whopping 50 were crime fiction novels.

It was a very good year for Dan Brown, of course, with 6 books on the list, including 2 in the Top 10. It was also a stellar 2005 for James Patterson, with 6 books ranked. (Patterson's achievement was perhaps even more notable, as it represented 6 different books, while Brown's entries included multiple versions of the same books.)

John Grisham had 3 books on the list, as did Janet Evanovich and Michael Connelly. Michael Crichton had 2, along with Patricia Cornwell, Dean Koontz, David Baldacci, Sue Grafton and Mary Higgins Clark.

Is there any doubt left as to what kind of books people like to read?

Here are the books:

2005 Rank, Title, Author (Imprint, ISBN, Date of Publication, Price)

5. The Da Vinci Code, Brown, Dan, (Doubleday, 0385504209, 3/1/2003, $24.95)
8. Angels & Demons, Brown, Dan, (Pocket Star, 0671027360, 7/1/2001, $7.99)
11. The Broker, Grisham, John, (Doubleday, 0385510454, 1/1/2005, $27.95)
19. The Broker, Grisham, John, (Dell, 0440241588, 11/1/2005, $7.99)
27. Mary, Mary, Patterson, James, (Little, Brown, 031615976X, 11/1/2005, $27.95)
28. The Historian, Kostova, Elizabeth, (Little, Brown, 0316011770, 6/1/2005, $25.95)
33. The Last Juror, Grisham, John, (Dell, 044024157X, 12/1/2004, $7.99)
38. Deception Point, Brown, Dan, (Pocket Books, 0671027387, 12/1/2002, $7.99)
41. Honeymoon, Patterson, James, (Little, Brown, 0316710628, 2/1/2005, $27.95)
43. 4th of July, Patterson, James, (Little, Brown, 0316710601, 5/1/2005, $27.95)
48. Trace, Cornwell, Patricia D. (Berkley, 0425204200, 6/1/2005, $7.99)
50. Predator, Cornwell, Patricia, (Putnam, 0399152830, 11/1/2005, $26.95)
52. Digital Fortress, Brown, Dan (St. Martin's, 0312995423, 1/1/2004, $7.99)
54. Lifeguard, Patterson, James (Little, Brown, 0316057851, 7/1/2005, $26.95)
57. 3rd Degree, Patterson, James (Warner Books, 0446614831, 1/1/2005, $7.99)
60. Nighttime Is My Time, Clark, Mary Higgins (Pocket Books, 074341263X, 4/1/2005, $7.99)
65. State of Fear, Crichton, Michael (Avon Books, 0061015733, 11/1/2005, $7.99)
70. Eleven On Top, Evanovich, Janet (St. Martin's, 0312306261, 6/1/2005, $26.95)
72. The Camel Club, Baldacci, David (Warner Books, 0446577383, 10/1/2005, $26.95)
76. London Bridges, Patterson, James (Warner Vision, 0446613355, 10/1/2005, $7.99)
78. The Rule of Four, Caldwell, Ian (Dell, 0440241359, 6/1/2005, $7.99)
80. Hour Game, Baldacci, David (Warner Vision, 0446616494, 9/1/2005, $7.99)
88. The Da Vinci Code, Brown, Dan (Doubleday, 0385513755, 11/1/2004, $35.00)
90. The Taking, Koontz, Dean (Bantam, 0553584502, 4/1/2005, $7.99)
101. S is for Silence, Grafton, Sue (Putnam, 0399152970, 11/1/2005, $26.95)
104. R is for Ricochet, Grafton, Sue (Berkley, 0425203867, 3/1/2005, $7.99)
109. White Hot, Brown, Sandra (Pocket Books, 0743466764, 7/1/2005, $9.95)
114. Dean Koontz's Frankenstein, Koontz, Dean (Bantam, 0553587889, 1/1/2005, $7.99)
116. Whiteout, Follett, Ken (Signet Book, 0451215710, 11/1/2005, $7.99)
118. The Shadow of the Wind, Zafón, Carlos Ruiz (Penguin, 0143034901, 2/1/2005, $15.00)
122. Therapy, Kellerman, Jonathan (Ballantine Books, 0345452607, 3/1/2005, $7.99)
131. State of Fear, Crichton, Michael (HarperCollins, 0066214130, 12/1/2004, $27.95)
135. Ten Big Ones, Evanovich, Janet (St. Martin's, 0312936222, 6/1/2005, $7.99)
143. Skinny Dip, Hiaasen, Carl (Warner Books, 0446695564, 6/1/2005, $12.95)
147. No Place Like Home, Clark, Mary Higgins (Simon & Schuster, 0743264894, 4/1/2005, $25.95)
149. Blowout, Coulter, Catherine (Jove, 0515139254, 2/1/2005, $7.99)
159. The Narrows, Connelly, Michael, (Warner Books, 0446611646, 3/1/2005, $7.99)
161. Night Fall, Demille, Nelson, (Warner Vision, 0446616621, 11/1/2005, $7.99)
164. Christ The Lord, Rice, Anne, (Knopf, 0375412018, 11/1/2005, $25.95)
172. Blind Alley, Johansen, Iris, (Bantam, 0553586505, 3/1/2005, $7.99)
174. Angels & Demons, Brown, Dan, (Atria Books, 0743486226, 7/1/2003, $22.00)
179. Hidden Prey, Sandford, John, (Berkley, 0425199606, 4/1/2005, $7.99)
181. The Lincoln Lawyer, Connelly, Michael, (Little, Brown, 0316734934, 10/1/2005, $26.95)
188. The Closers, Connelly, Michael, (Little, Brown, 0316734942, 5/1/2005, $26.95)
189. One For The Money, Evanovich, Janet, (St. Martin's, 0312990456, 4/1/2003, $7.99)

Michael Connelly's 2006 Books

In a follow-up to yesterday's post, Jane Davis, the manager of Michael Connelly's website, wrote in to confirm what Mike's publishing plans are for 2006.

Connelly will have two books published next year, but only one of them is a novel. So I guess that means I won't have to smite him.

Echo Park, a Harry Bosch story, will be released in September or October. The other book (Crime Beat) is coming in May, but it's not a novel. It's a collection of newspaper stories from Connelly's days as a crime reporter.

(In case that sounds familiar, the latter book came out in a limited edition earlier this year. His publisher liked it so much they decided to release it wide.)

End of the Year Recap

2005 is almost over. There were approximately 1500-2000 mysteries and thrillers published in the United States (not counting the vanity crap) and I saw most of them. I only managed to read 150 or so new books, but even that ought to earn me some kind of medal.

Overall, it was a good year for crime fiction, but not a great one. The last quarter of the year, in particular, was soft. Looking over my reading list, the last 2005 book I read that might qualify for my Top 10 list was published in September.

Speaking of Top 10 lists, I still haven't made mine yet, but there are several solid contenders. Nothing that really stands head-and-shoulders above the rest, though. This was a year of many good books, but few great ones. (I would be hard-pressed to single out a 2005 book and call it great.) We'll have to wait to see if any of them have the staying power to become great ones later on. So far, I have my doubts.

This was a lukewarm year for debuts. There were some good first-time books, but the overall pool was pretty shallow. (So many of them were just downright bad, too, making me wonder how they ever got published in the first place.) I suppose this is probably true most years, but maybe I'm just noticing it more this time since I'm a judge for the ITW's Best First Novel Award. It's been no easy task, believe me.

The best thing happening in the genre right now is that there is a steady and reliable core group of authors who publish a book each year that you can almost guarantee will be good. People like Barry Eisler, David Morrell, Joseph Finder, Laura Lippman, Denise Hamilton, Lawrence Block, George Pelecanos, Julia Spencer-Fleming, Lee Child, Stephen White and Daniel Silva once again put out excellent books that show why they're the dependable professionals they are. All of them should be bestsellers.

A handful of promising, relatively new writers like James O. Born, Harley Jane Kozak, Dylan Schaffer and Duane Swierczynski demonstrated why they're likely to become tomorrow's stars of the genre. I look forward to reading them for years to come.

There were also some authors who've been around for a while whose books took me by surprise (in a good way). Jonnie Jacobs wrote a thriller that I really enjoyed, and I was quite pleased with Reed Farrel Coleman's latest. I read my first book from the Burke family (one by Alafair) and was impressed. David Ellis wrote a thriller that unfolds in a reverse chronology that was both daring and entertaining. Paul Levine made a very welcome return to publishing -- I missed him the first time around, but loved his new book.

Of course, there were disappointments as well, with books by Robert Crais, P.J. Tracy and Elmore Leonard that let me down. There were also several highly hyped books ("The next Lee Child!" "The thriller debut of the year!") that I tried and didn't like, but that always happens.

Michael Connelly managed to have two books out (The Closers and The Lincoln Lawyer) that could qualify for Best of the Year status. Amazing. I've heard a rumor that he'll also have two books released in 2006. If true, I think I'll have to smite him.

Of course, Dean Koontz also had two books released in 2005 that could make my Top 10 list, but he does that every year. He's currently on a streak of 6 books in the last 3 years, all of which have been amazing. I don't know that anyone else could accomplish that.

The one book that really did blow me away this year isn't even out yet, even though I read it back in September. Robert Ferrigno's Prayers for the Assassin was probably the best thing I read all year, and it still won't be published until February. This is one of those books that gets in your head and just won't go away. One of the things that I particularly appreciated about it is that it tries to be something special and ambitious. (And, of course, it succeeds, which always helps.) I really hope people read it.

I finally read The Guards this year and learned why Ken Bruen is the favorite among crime fiction fans and writers that he is. I also finally met Ken after having just seen him across the bar at various functions for the past couple years. He's far too kind and generous a man to write that well.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the incomparable J.K. Rowling, whose latest Harry Potter book was once again one of my favorite reads. I know she has nothing to do with crime fiction, but that woman is amazing and I stand in awe, both of her talent and her success.

I re-read 9 books by Ross Thomas, my favorite thriller writer, over the past year and they were all wonderful. (A few of the early ones don't hold up quite as well, but they're still very enjoyable.) Thomas' body of work is unmatched in this or any other genre. I miss him a lot.

Finally, 2005 was also a year in which we lost some wonderful writers, including Evan Hunter (aka Ed McBain), Trevanian (aka Rodney Whittaker), John Fowles, Edward Bunker, A.J. Quinnell, Charlotte MacLeod and my friend Dennis Lynds. All of them will be missed.

Here's looking forward to a great year in 2006. Happy reading!

p.s. If I forgot an author or a book, please forgive me. The lists above aren't intended to be exhaustive.

Holiday gift suggestions

Here are some suggestions for books to give as gifts to the readers in your life. I've listed them in categories in order to help you select the right one. Really, though, they're all good books that are sure to please.

• John Grisham fans or Legal Thriller lovers: Michael Connelly's The Lincoln Lawyer
• People who like Bestsellers: James Patterson's Mary, Mary
• Fans of Indiana Jones: Matthew Reilly's Seven Deadly Wonders
• Horror lovers: David Morrell's Creepers
• People who Like Good Sex: M.J. Rose's The Delilah Complex
• Parents of Teenage Girls (or anyone else who knows one): Laura Lippman's To the Power of Three
• Thriller lovers: Joseph Finder's Company Man
• Admirers of Hard-boiled Heroines: Denise Hamilton's Savage Garden
• Carl Hiaasen fan: James O. Born's Shock Wave
• Mafia aficionados: Max Allan Collins' The Road to Paradise
• Action fans: Lee Child's One Shot
• Romantic Comedy fans: Paul Levine's Solomon vs. Lord
• Hit Man with a Heart lovers: Barry Eisler's Killing Rain
• Elmore Leonard fans: Charlie Stella's Cheapskates
• Cat lovers: Clea Simon's Mew is for Murder
• Chick Lit fans: Harley Jane Kozak's Dating is Murder
• Antiques Roadshow watchers: Elaine Flinn's Deadly Collection
• PI Novel lovers: Lee Goldberg's The Man with the Iron-On Badge
• Car lovers or Jim Thompson fans: James Sallis' Drive
• Pulp Fiction fans: Duane Swierczynski's The Wheel Man
• Lovers of Unconventional Thrillers: David Ellis' In the Company of Liars
• Anyone Who's Sad that Alias is Going Off the Air: Greg Rucka's Private Wars

The effect of reviews on book sales

Yale professors Judith A. Chevalier and Dina Mayzlin (Economics and Management, respectively) have released the results of a study they did analyzing the effects of "word of mouth" (in the form of customer reviews) on book sales at Amazon and BN.com. (You can also read a draft of their final paper here.)

Their methodology was not as rigorous as one would ideally wish for (since it's nearly impossible to get hard sales data), but they did come up with some interesting conclusions.

• Overall, reviews are overwhelmingly positive at both sites, and slightly more positive at BN.com.
• Amazon has more reviews, and they are longer and more detailed.
• Prices for the books in their sample were "significantly higher" at BN.com than at Amazon. (This is not apropos to the discussion at hand, but I found it very interesting nonetheless.)
• The addition of favorable reviews at one site increases book sales at that site relative to the other retailer.
• Negative reviews carry more weight with consumers than do positive reviews.
• The impact of a negative review is more powerful in decreasing book sales than a positive review is in increasing sales.

In short, positive reviews boost sales and negative reviews lower sales -- and the effect of the negative reviews is stronger than the effect of the positive reviews.

This was particularly interesting to me since it differs from the traditionally perceived effect of print reviews, where both positive and negative reviews are thought to boost sales. But it just shows the differences in the model when you're looking at a single entity that combines both reviews and sales.

When customers can see the review at the point of purchase, it obviously has a different effect than if they read it in a newspaper, for example, and then subsequently see the book in a store or online. In the latter case, the negative effects of a pan might be more ameliorated, and the book might actually benefit from the increased level of recognition and attention.

If scientists had access to more hard data we could get an even better understanding about the effects of reviews on book sales. (One of the fundamental challenges of publishing is that the publishers don't have the data and economic analysis to support many of their practices.) But this is interesting to see in the meantime.

What makes a good read?

SuperFan Rae Helmsworth posed an interesting question recently on Lee Child's message board:

What are the most important components to you of a good book? Characters? Pace? Plot? Setting? Believability? None of the above? All of the above?

An excellent question and one that I consider often when I'm assessing what I've read. Obviously there are many factors that go into making a book a good read, but I think we can focus on a few of them as being the most important.

The book has to have at least an adequate level of writing -- but you can usually assume that, if the book was published by a reputable publisher. (Occasionally you'll come across something that's abysmally written, but most books are at least competent.)

So beyond that, character is the thing for me. The book has to have a compelling protagonist, someone who makes you care about them and their life, for good or ill. Everything hangs on the characters because if you don't care about the people in the story, you won't want to read it. (It doesn't matter whether you love them or hate them -- you just have to care.)

Plot is probably the second thing -- and that depends a lot on character, too. You take a character, place them in a certain set of circumstances, and see what they do. That's how plot develops, especially when there is conflict involved (and there had better be conflict involved). Character and plot together form the basis for story, so if you can nail those two elements, I'm pretty much sold.

Setting obviously plays a part, but I think it's of lesser importance. When you read a book that uses its setting especially well, it's interesting and adds to the story. But when the setting isn't done quite as well, it generally won't ruin it. There's a lot more leeway here than with character. If plot and character are the meat of the book, setting is the seasoning. You have to really mess up the seasoning in order to make the food inedible.

The same thing goes for elements like pacing, dialogue, etc. They all contribute to the overall quality of the book, but they're secondary. If a book has dialogue that's a little off, or parts that drag, it can still be a good read as long as the story itself is compelling. On the other hand, nobody wants to read even superb dialogue coming out of the mouths of poorly-drawn, one-dimensional characters.

Great writing is nice -- it's always a joy to come across a nicely turned phrase or a particularly evocative description -- but it's not as important as you might think. I'd much rather read a well-told story than a well-written one. (And obviously I'd much rather read one that's both.) It doesn't matter how beautiful the prose is; if it's in service of a lousy story, it won't hold the reader's interest.

(On the other hand, it should be noted, the overall quality of the prose is one of the factors that can elevate a good read to a great one. It would be difficult to have a great book that has only okay writing -- although I can think of some writers who are such good storytellers that they've come close.)

Bottom line, when you're talking about genre fiction, the book has to be entertaining. These are stories we read to be entertained. Genre fiction can educate, illuminate, enlighten, and all the rest, but above all it must entertain. Otherwise, it fails.

Is English crime fiction dead?

Sarah Weinman links to an interesting article in the Guardian that considers the current state of crime fiction around the world.

The column was prompted by a recent change by the Crime Writers' Association (CWA) to restrict eligibility for their prestigious Gold Dagger Award to novels originally written in English, a reaction to the fact that three of the past five winners have been translated books.

The author of the piece, noted critic Marcel Berlins, writes:

Is British and American crime writing in decline? Are the two countries that have dominated the genre for more than a century losing it? Are Italians, French, German, Spanish and Nordic authors writing better crime books? (Notice I didn't say Scandinavians, which would have excluded Iceland.)

I've been reviewing crime fiction for more than 20 years, and I do believe that the English (though not Scottish or American) crime fiction scene is in difficulties. It's mainly a problem with age. PD James is in her 80s, Ruth Rendell, 75. Many other first-division writers are in or nudging their 60s. But where are the good young authors to take their place? There are some, of course, but my point is that in the crime fiction field England has lost its supremacy. It is no fluke that so many crime novels by other European writers are occupying shortlists and winners' podiums. The best of them are very good indeed.

In the comments section of Weinman's blog, Mystery Ink's own Fiona Walker makes a great point: if a publisher is willing to buy a "foreign" crime novel and translate it into English, that's a pretty good bet that it's of at least reasonably high quality. Considering that the number of books that fit that criterion is going to be low (How many European crime novels are published in translation each year? Not a huge number.), you're only going to see the best.

It seems a little silly even to talk about U.S. crime fiction being in decline. There is such an unimaginably huge volume of books being published that there is almost literally something for everyone. And with writers like Connelly, Lippman, Ferrigno, Pelecanos, Eisler, TJ Parker, Rozan, etc. plying their trade, the quality of the best is as good as it's ever been, if not better. It's almost like making the claim that "Apples aren't very good anymore...not like they used to be." If you don't like the one you're eating, pick up the next. There are thousands more to choose from.

There might be some truth to the claim that English fiction is a bit moribund at the moment. As a reader, I find it difficult to connect with most of the British books that I try. (I tend to find them cold and anemic.) But that's undoubtedly more a matter of personal taste. I also think the English are being overshadowed to a certain extent by the Scots who are doing quite well at the moment.

Even so, newer English authors like Billingham, Kernick, Hayder, etc. have certainly attracted their share of attention and fans. So if the established masters are getting long in the tooth, there is definitely a crop of younger writers who are stepping up to take their place. Granted, there aren't a huge number of them...But presumably there are more in the UK who haven't made the leap to the States yet.

Overall, I think that crime fiction (American, English, Scottish, Spanish, Scandinavian, whatever) is currently enjoying an extraordinary run of both high quality and popular success that is probably unprecedented. I hope it continues.

Desperately Seeking Books

Once again, I find myself with slots in my column to fill and a lack of pleasing books to fill them with. I don't know if it's fall malaise or what, but so many of the books I've picked up recently just seem so blah. I'll read 30 or 40 or 50 pages of them and they just don't go anywhere. They have familiar plots and flat characters and an overall lack of ganas.

So, please, help me out! If you have a suggestion for a book that's being publishing between (roughly) November 1 and December 15th, please let me know. It would help if the book is by a female author (I'm always looking for more of those), but just about anything is fair game. (Please no vanity press books, though.)

You can email me at: editor@mysteryinkonline.com.

Thanks!

Recommended Recent Reads

Some good books I've read recently that didn't make it into my column...

 

Steve Brewer - Bank Job (Intrigue Press, $24)

Another top-notch book from Steve Brewer, the working man's Elmore Leonard. He may only get a fraction of the attention that Dutch does, but his work is just as entertaining. Bank Job is the witty and suspenseful story of three hayseed stick-up men on the lam who take an old bank robber and his wife hostage. When they force the retired crook to perform one last heist, things go more wrong than they ever could have imagined. Combining big laughs with some serious tension and a terrific plot, Bank Job is a real winner.

 

 

 

 

 

Tod Goldberg - Simplify (University of Illinois Press, $14.95)

Short story collections are nearly impossible to review, especially in anything under several hundred words. (How do you comment generally on a book that contains twelve different stories that vary in plot, theme, quality, etc.?) Still, there are a few observations that one can make about Tod Goldberg's Simplify. The stories are sharp and insightful, many of them dealing with issues emerging from childhood. The writing is often funny, even when it's painful, and always to the point, with keen dialogue and a strong voice. Finally, the stories on the whole are powerful, provocative and a pleasure to read. The title entry, in particular, is a minor masterpiece.

 

 

 

Lawrence Block - The Girl With the Long Green Heart (Hard Case Crime, $6.99)

Hard Case Crime continues their tradition of excellence with their latest re-release of a classic noir novel, this time a con man's gem from one of the masters of the medium. Block knows the territory as well as anyone in the genre ever has, and even this early novel (originally published in 1965) demonstrates his already considerable chops. A pair of grifters set up a long con to fleece a New York businessman with a Canadian land scam. They've got the whole thing planned to the smallest detail -- or so they think. Wanna bet things somehow go wrong? This machine-gun paced story shows that, even from the beginning, nobody was better than Block.

 

 

 

Walter Mosley - Cinnamon Kiss (Little, Brown, $24.95)

Easy Rawlins has entered middle age, if not with grace, at least with resilience. He's living in a new world, one beginning to be changed forever by Vietnam and the Civil Rights Movement, but he's still playing his trade in South Central L.A. the way he always has. When his daughter takes ill, though, and Easy desperately needs money to pay for a cure, the black PI is forced to take a case he doesn't want and to do things he shouldn't do. After ten books in the Rawlins series, Mosley has proven himself to be one the finest writers of detective fiction ever. If in recent years the quality of his plotting has dropped off, the emotional resonance of his storytelling has remained strong. Increasingly over the last few books, there have been times when the author has sacrificed his story in order to make a point, something he never had to do when the series was new. Still, his observations remain sharp, and his depiction of an ordinary black man making his way in a white man's world is as profound and moving as ever.

Mayhem, guts and gore -- oh my!

David Hiltbrand, columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer and mystery novelist, wrote a thought-provoking article recently about the trend in pop culture towards more gratuitous expressions of violence and brutality. Sarah Weinman linked to the piece and touched off an interesting discussion about it, focusing on the literary world.

When it comes to television and film, relaxed standards have clearly, I think, allowed filmmakers to depict content on-screen that previously would not have been allowed. (Note that this is true regarding violence, but not sex.) Furthermore, advances in technical sophistication have made it possible to show things in a hyper-realistic manner that wouldn't have been possible even twenty years ago.

With regards to the themes involved, whether torture, mayhem, serial murder, etc., I don't think much has changed. And I believe this is true for books as well. If anything, there are some themes, especially those involving violence towards women and children, that might even be a little harder to deal with these days than before. (Mickey Spillane, for example, got away with some real nastiness towards women that probably wouldn't fly today with a mass audience.)

However, if the themes have remained largely the same, I do think that the descriptions of and attitudes towards those themes have changed. The language and imagery used in mainstream books is stronger than it once was. Previously, you might have found such material in an obscure pulp novel, but now we're seeing it in highly-promoted and publicized books that land on the bestseller lists.

Now, I'm the farthest thing from a prude. I don't think I've ever read anything in a book that shocked or grossed me out. So for my purposes, I don't particularly mind it. But I do get peeved when I see an author who appears just to be throwing that stuff in there for shock value. It might make for a nice marketing ploy -- "Look at the nice woman writing the awful things!" -- but it doesn't necessarily make for good storytelling.

Another thing I have a problem with is when novels take too much pleasure from dwelling on their blood and gore. When you start to feel the author lingering over such a scene with almost reverential (or sexual) glee, it definitely becomes a turn-off. (This is how many people felt about Thomas Harris' Hannibal.) I don't mind it because I'm offended. I mind it because it's bad writing. Such passages are not storytelling; they're voyeurism, cheap and lurid. And I'm no more interested in reading that than I am in peeping in someone's window.

As always, talented writers use their themes, images and language in service to the story. They don't do things simply in an effort to shock the reader. Even if the purpose of the story is to shock, a skilled writer will still ensure that what happens in the story is an organic and necessary part of the story. The content might be shocking, but the author will have earned that reaction, and the story will be stronger as a result, not diminished.

It's easy enough to write passages filled with murder, mayhem and mutilation, all dripping with blood, guts and ichor. But if it's not a logical outgrowth of the story, fitting in with the book's overall tone, style and theme, then what's the point? It's not going to shock; it's simply going to bore. Such a writer isn't worthy of outrage. Just throw the book away and move on to an author who cares about the story they're telling.

The importance of cover

It turns out you can judge a book by its cover. Consumers do it all the time.

Writer Paul Guyot did an informal survey of consumers to get some idea of what motivated them to buy books. He approached people in bookstores to ask them a few basic questions about their book-buying habits and strategies. (You can see the complete results on his blog.)

Of the 47 people he spoke to, an overwhelming 43 of them said they would buy a book based on the cover. (That’s 92% for those of you keeping score at home.)

Of the 30 people who said they browsed for books based on the author’s name or word-of-mouth, 27 of them said they would put a back if they didn’t like the cover. These are potential buyers who are already favorably inclined towards a book or author, and still they would not buy it if the cover was dissatisfying.

These results may be unscientific, but they still provide support for what I have long believed and observed.

Cover matters as one of the most important factors in the book selection process because it is the first thing the consumer sees, the first chance to make an impression. Considering how many stimuli are constantly vying for our attention, a book is lucky to get one chance to catch our eye. And the cover is probably 90% of that.

Think of all the books available at the bookstore. Tens of thousands of them, all crying out (mostly in tiny, muted voices) for our attention. Unless you have a specific book in mind, how do you make the decision as to which one you pick up?

If a book has a dull, lifeless or lackluster cover, will that be the one you look at? Will it even attract your attention at all? Probably not. You’ll never even notice it. When you do pick up a book off the shelf, you’re probably spending 10 seconds evaluating it. How much of that is based on the cover? Considering that most consumers aren’t going to start reading the book while standing there at the shelf, the cover matters a lot.

It works the same for me, as a critic, when I get books for review. When I open all those packages and start sorting through the books, I’m just like a consumer. The publisher is trying to sell me on the book, and a great cover will make me take a second look.

Obviously I’m considering lots of other factors as well, but a well-done cover is only going to help the book’s chances. On the other hand, a lousy or amateurish cover can’t help but taint the book. As a professional reader, I look beyond that. But for consumers? Forget about it.