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What's Your Favorite Crime Book?
Posted by helloitsme • 5/05/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: books, crime, law, reading
I'm a crime analyst and since I just can't get enough of it at work, I enjoy reading mystery and true crime books. Do you have a favorite?
My favorite fictional detective type is Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas. Too bad real detectives don't have his supernatural skills. There's a tie for my favorite true crime novel: "Labyrinth - The Tupac and B.I.G. Murders" by Randall Sullivan and "The Executioner's Song" by Norman Mailor.
User Comments
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I like Kathy Reichs, although her books are fiction she is an Anthropologist, and it's great to read crime stories from that perspective. -
I like David Baldacci and Lisa Gardner... I'm really fascinated with their characters. My favorites are Killing Hour, Hour Game and Split Second -
I'm not a big fan of true crime, but I really enjoyed the one John Grisham put out within the past couple of years (I think it was called "The Innocent Man"), probably because of the focus on where the legal process went awry. -
"Devil in the White City", it was really haunting...Im from Chicago so thehistorical value really intrigued me. -
Joseph Wambaugh novels are good, especially some of his earlier ones from the 70's. He also had a few good true crime books; one about a group of border patrol officers, one about a freakish university professor and also The Onion Field was true crime I suppose. Forget the titles of those other two. -
Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevski. That's my all-time favourite.
I really enjoyed Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon by Thomas Harris.
A more grizzly book, but just as meticulous, is The Treatment by Mo Hayden. Very well written!
I also liked John Grisham's The Chamber. -
I recommend Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York
By Luc Sante. -
Spy/Counter Spy
Autobiography of double agent believed to be the inspiration for James Bond. -
Malice Aforethought by Francis Iles, a classic murder thriller. -
Herbert Lieberman - Shadow Dancers (1989) -
I rather like the Hard Case Crime series, a hard boiled noire series, put out by Dorchester Publishers. They have a lot of quality authors, Ed McBain, Steven King, and others. Plus they are all cheap paperbacks with 1950s style pulp covers which is really interesting.
www.hardcasecrime.com/ -
cornwell's scarpetta books fascinate me. -
Just read Truman Capote's In cold blood, that was very good. -
I like Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley novels and anything by Caleb Carr. -
Wheee! I stopped checking this thread after several hrs of no replies. I'm happy to read your responses and see I'm not the oddball crime book lover!
@cayasm, not familiar with Reichs. I'll check her out.
@praning, I too love Baldacci. Have you read "The Winner"?
@MadameX, haven't read that one. I was interested in Grisham at one point and then fell away from him.
@Houseonahill, I've had that book on my shelf for several years and still haven't read it. Wouldn't you know I looked at it the other day because I love the title but put it back. I'll move it up on my reading list from your recommendation.
@SportsNarrative, I like Wambaugh too. He describes Orange County, CA, in his books and that's right down the street from me.
@FlamingPoodle, you've got me curious about "The Treatment".
@LordSomber, that title's enough for me to check that one out. Sounds like nonfiction?
@calais50, very cool. Honestly I didn't know there was an inspiration for 007. How slick.
@Whitewood and Tigger, thanks for the titles. I'll look 'em up.
@wehireu, thanks for the link! What a great series. The covers alone would sell me. I'm going to post the link on my crime blog!
@ender, I've read all of Patricia Cornwall's books. Yummy.
@aningenious, I also read that one after I saw the movie. Book was even more creepy to me.
@lulubelleb, unaware of those two. Something for me to check out.
Goodnight all - Cat-
The Treatment is actually the second book in the series. The Birdman was the first.
trashotron.com/agony/reviews/hayder-the_treatment.htm
www.mohayder.net/reviews.html
Just be warned, while it is written very well, it is very grizzly. It will turn your stomach. -
"Low Life" is well-researched historical non-fiction.
From an Amazon review:
"Sante does a fantastic job of recounting the dark underbelly of New York City in the 19th and early 20th century, going into gory details about the horrible poverty along the Bowery and Lower East Side (areas that have seen extensive gentrification since the late 1980s), the filthy streets and disease outbreaks among the city's immigrant masses, the proliferation of street gangs (some of whom were representing NYC police) and other, well, "low lifes." Sante gives an engaging, well-paced description of the oft-overlooked problems a booming industrial-age city like New York was going through and boldly goes where no historian has gone before."
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Michael Connelly and Karin Slaughter, any book by them
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I'm actually kind of amazed that no one has suggested James Ellroy. Start with the Black Dahlia (if you saw the movie, trust me, it was a joke and an insult to the book). That's the first part of the LA Quartet. Then there is The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential (different from the movie) and White Jazz. Then, move on to American Tabloid and it's follow-up The Cold Six Thousand. You won't be able to put these down. - J-
I did see the movie and thought it fell flat, and I haven't even read the book. Thanks for the recommendations.
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anything by Raymond Chandler. -
Mr Monk a classic -
I like any book by Patricia Cornwell but would have to say Forensics and Fiction by D.P. Lyle M.D. .clever and odd questions from crime writers and Lyle gives them the appropriate outcomes for their particular queiries.
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