Edmund Wilson famously, and crankily, asked who cares who killed Roger Ackroyd. But I, over forty years of working with professional journalists, returned home late at night to a comfortable chair, a good light, a strong drink, and a book in which disagreeable people meet violent death.
I got through Conan Doyle as a child and from high school on went through Rex Stout's entire Nero Wolfe canon, which showed me how detective stories work.
They are comedies: We begin in an ordered world, a disruption occurs, the detective penetrates to the source of disorder, and a form of order is restored. Nero Wolfe sits at his desk reading, eats gourmet meals, tends to his rooftop orchids. A client appears, and Wolfe sends his sidekick, Archie Goodwin, out to investigate. (The contrasting Wolfe-Goodwin personalities add variety and humor to the plot.) Wolfe exposes the murderer with his analytical mind, and we leave him and Goodwin in his brownstone back to his books, his orchids, and his fancy dishes.
Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret stories are similar. Maigret smokes his pipes in his office, goes to the brasserie for a drink, talks to people, penetrates the psychology of the crime, returns to his pipes and beers. Amid disorder, routines persist and are sustained.
I've read a great many of these series over the years and am looking for something new. Let me list some of the detective authors and characters I've most enjoyed, and perhaps you can suggest something along the same lines.
P.D. James's Adam Dalgliesh, Tony Hillerman's Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, Robert B. Parker's Spenser (though the series thinned out toward the end), Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse, Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer, John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee, Stewart Kaminsky's Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov, Reginald Hill's Andrew Dalziel, Andrew Vachss's Burke, Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone, Jan Willem van der Wetering's Grijpstra and de Gier, Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti, Jane Haddam's Gregor Demarkian, John Sandford's Lucas Davenport, Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch. (It may look as if I have read nothing else, but I assure my reading logs show otherwise.)
I never cottoned much to Agatha Christie or Dorothy Sayers. (Sorry.) I read Elizabeth George until she became ponderous and Patricia Cornwell until she turned into a self-parody. I loved Ed McBain's 87th Precinct procedurals, and I like the literary better than the thriller.
Now it's your turn. Which detective series give you pleasure, and, if it's not too much to ask, why?
And yes, I am aware of Louise Penny.
C.J. Sansom’s Tudor-era Shardlake series captivated me this summer. In order: Dissolution, Dark Fire, Sovereign, Revelation, Heartstone, Lamentation, Tombland.
ReplyDeleteJacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series - I like them because they are set in a different time/culture, giving me a new perspective on many things.
ReplyDeleteI'm just a couple of books into the series, but I've enjoyed following Mosley's Easy Rawlins and Mouse. I challenged myself to read a book by a POC and saw that my local library had "Devil in a Blue Dress." I started out on Encyclopedia Brown, read a few of the British detectives, and named my Golden Retriever after Hammett, so I was ready for a change. I like that Easy is a reluctant detective/wealthy hobbyist, unlike other gentleman dicks. If that's not enough to convince you, the movie version of "Devil in a Blue Dress" is worth watching.
ReplyDeleteKate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie
ReplyDeleteDonna Andrews's Meg Langslow, Donna Leon's Commisario Brunetti (though in general I am not fond of police protagonists), both of Richard Osman's series, and everything Benefict Brown writes (though Izzy Palmer was/is my favorite)
ReplyDeleteIn an expansion of my Facebook comment, my favorite murder mystery writer is the Irish writer Tana French. My primary reason for this is that she is a very skilled literary writer, which I find rarely occurs in this genre. Her characters are complex and her scenes are rich with metaphor. I now read her books on the day they are published.
ReplyDeleteAgatha Christie remains strangely popular for a bigoted bore from bygone days, doesn't she?
ReplyDeleteI don't read much fiction, but I was sad when van der Wetering stopped writing that series. And interestingly, Tony Hillerman's daughter has written a couple of (quite respectable) novels in the Leaphorn/Chee canon -- don't know if you have seen them.
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed the Verlaque & Bonnet Provençal mysteries by M.I.. Longworth for their Mediterranean ambience and a look at the workings of a completely different justice system to ours. Peter Mayle (of “A Year in Provence” fame) has written some light but enjoyable “caper” books: “The Vintage Caper”, “The Marseille Caper” and “The Corsican Caper”; his “Anything Considered” and “Chasing Cezanne” are also “caper” stories, while “Hotel Pastis” and “A Good Year” have elements of mystery, but less so – all with delightful language and wonderful evocations of la vie Francaise (none of his books are procedurals.) Martin Walker’s excellent “Chief of Police Bruno” series will keep you going for a while (there are at my last count, 16 books in the series), and they are very fulfilling in that they often include a local case with wider-ranging ramifications vis-à-vis political or national security issues, as well as looks into the history of the Dordogne region of southern France where they are set. There is also lots of French wine and cooking. “The Caves of Perigord”, also by Walker is related, but not in the “Bruno” series. Before we leave France, I must also mention the Brittany mysteries by Jean-Luc Bannalec, starring Commissaire Dupin, a Parisian outsider assigned to a precinct in the historically Celtic region of the Brittany Peninsula.
ReplyDeleteAlan Hunter’s “Inspector George Gently” series are excellent books set in Great Britain’s Northumberland region; Gently is a London Met officer who comes to the Northeastern region for a case, and stays. There are also the Grantchester Mysteries by James Runcie; short-story collections, really, about a crime-solving C of E priest, which differ noticeably from the BBC television series which is based on them. They peter out, in my opinion, in the second volume of the collection. Firmly set in London (with one excursion to the southern counties of England) are the delightfully quirky Bryant & May mysteries by the late Christopher Fowler; another long series with some 20-odd volumes.
Closer to home, I can also recommend Timothy Hallinan’s Junior Bender series for a nice twist on the mystery genre – Bender is a Los-Angeles-based professional thief who solves “problems” for others who are somewhat outside the law. Also with something of a twist as far as mysteries go are the following by Johnny Shaw: “Dove Season”, “Plaster City”, “Imperial Valley”, and “Big Maria” – all set in the Southern California desert.
I have enjoyed the Verlaque & Bonnet Provençal mysteries by M.I.. Longworth for their Mediterranean ambience and a look at the workings of a completely different justice system to ours. Peter Mayle (of “A Year in Provence” fame) has written some light but enjoyable “caper” books: “The Vintage Caper”, “The Marseille Caper” and “The Corsican Caper”; his “Anything Considered” and “Chasing Cezanne” are also “caper” stories, while “Hotel Pastis” and “A Good Year” have elements of mystery, but less so – all with delightful language and wonderful evocations of la vie Francaise (none of his books are procedurals.) Martin Walker’s excellent “Chief of Police Bruno” series will keep you going for a while (there are at my last count, 16 books in the series), and they are very fulfilling in that they often include a local case with wider-ranging ramifications vis-à-vis political or national security issues, as well as looks into the history of the Dordogne region of southern France where they are set. There is also lots of French wine and cooking. “The Caves of Perigord”, also by Walker is related, but not in the “Bruno” series. Before we leave France, I must also mention the Brittany mysteries by Jean-Luc Bannalec, starring Commissaire Dupin, a Parisian outsider assigned to a precinct in the historically Celtic region of the Brittany Peninsula.
ReplyDeleteAlan Hunter’s “Inspector George Gently” series are excellent books set in Great Britain’s Northumberland region; Gently is a London Met officer who comes to the Northeastern region for a case, and stays. There are also the Grantchester Mysteries by James Runcie; short-story collections, really, about a crime-solving C of E priest, which differ noticeably from the BBC television series which is based on them. They peter out, in my opinion, in the second volume of the collection. Firmly set in London (with one excursion to the southern counties of England) are the delightfully quirky Bryant & May mysteries by the late Christopher Fowler; another long series with some 20-odd volumes.
Closer to home, I can also recommend Timothy Hallinan’s Junior Bender series for a nice twist on the mystery genre – Bender is a Los-Angeles-based professional thief who solves “problems” for others who are somewhat outside the law. Also with something of a twist as far as mysteries go are the following by Johnny Shaw: “Dove Season”, “Plaster City”, “Imperial Valley”, and “Big Maria” – all set in the Southern California desert.
I'm not a big mystery fan, but I started reading Tony Hillerman when I lived in Flagstaff, more for the Navajo culture than the mysteries themselves. Hillerman is white, but takes seriously the idea of getting it right. I took Navajo language at the local community college, on the principle that this was not something I could do later, should I move away. The instructor was Navajo, with English as his second language. I asked his opinion of Hillerman. His response essentially was that you could pick nits, but Hillerman mostly got it pretty close. It is possible he was merely being polite, but the response rings true to me.
ReplyDeleteElly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway series, starring a forensic anthropologist, is character-driven and very good. Read them in order—the first is The Crossing Places.
ReplyDeleteI tore through the Aristotle Socarides series (Paul Kemprecos) like I did the Spenser series. Excellent bedtime escapism.
ReplyDeleteTana French is brilliant. I find her books a bit of a slog to start but once I cross a certain threshold I'll lose sleep reading on. And the prose is beautiful, almost worth reading aloud.
I hope you'll update us (who are also looking for the next good read) on what you find.
I second Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie books, anonymously suggested above. I read everything she writes, genre or not. I'd add Manuel Vázquez Montalbán's Pepe Carvalho series (Camilleri chose the Montalbano name in Vázquez Montalbán's honour), although I'm not sure how well they translate from the Spanish. And I'm also a fan of John Lawton's Inspector Troy books: indeed, I'm quite at a loss as to why they're not (even) better known.
ReplyDeleteEllis Peters’ “Cadfael” series; Jean-Claude Izzo’s Marseille Trilogy (“Total Chaos,” etc.); Nicola Griffith’s Aud Torvingen novels
ReplyDeleteAnother vote for Kaye Atkinson´s Jackson Brodie books, now up to the 5th outing. Berlin in the late 1920s/early 1930s is the location for the Babylon Berlin series by Volker Kutcher. Gereon Rath is the detective and the first 5 books have been translated into English. (a further 4 in German).
ReplyDeleteCheck out John Banville’s novels, and his Benjamin Black books too.
ReplyDelete