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Crime Fiction Thread 2.0. - Page 8

post #351 of 3037
1/19/10 at 5:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeb View Post
It's not fiction, but I'm currently reading a book I highly recommend to fans of Ellroy (or Chandler, or Chinatown, or Harry Bosch, or any L.A.-set crime story): L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City , by John Buntin.
Thanks for the recommendation. This is good stuff.

Re-reading The Death and Life of Bobby Z with a mind to actually finish it this time. "I have a problem with impulse control!" should be the next big catchphrase.
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post #352 of 3037
1/19/10 at 10:55pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu View Post
Thanks for the recommendation. This is good stuff.

Re-reading The Death and Life of Bobby Z with a mind to actually finish it this time. "I have a problem with impulse control!" should be the next big catchphrase.
That's up there with Frank saying "They can't kill me baby, I'm Frankie Machine" at the end of The Winter of Frankie Machine.
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post #353 of 3037
1/22/10 at 1:17pm
I'm really enjoying Bobby Z, but I think that my biggest problem with it so far is that it moves so fast, the characters outside of Bobby don't stick, especially once he gets to Mexico. You can also tell that Winslow was still figuring out how to write action sequences -- there's a shootout in the desert that's very, very hard to follow. Also, his technique of "let's stop the main story and tell a lot of backstory so y'all understand context" doesn't completely work for me here. I think that's because he throws you into the story immediately, and so it feels like it's putting pause on the action. Although this is similar in story to Frankie Machine -- guy on the run -- Frankie Machine takes a while putting the pieces into place, setting up the life, investing you in the character, before putting him on the run. So the interludes feel natural, especially since so much of it is about Frank figuring out who wants him dead. California Fire and Ice is similar, although that takes place over an extended period of time, like Dawn Patrol, and so you allow it more time to get to where it's going, plus, you need all that fire school stuff to a) understand who Wade is and b) understand what they're fucking talking about. Dawn Patrol is probably the best refinement of this technique so far -- Cameron describes it as a guy telling you one long story over a night at a bar on the beach.
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post #354 of 3037
1/23/10 at 12:34am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu View Post
I'm really enjoying Bobby Z, but I think that my biggest problem with it so far is that it moves so fast, the characters outside of Bobby don't stick, especially once he gets to Mexico. You can also tell that Winslow was still figuring out how to write action sequences -- there's a shootout in the desert that's very, very hard to follow. Also, his technique of "let's stop the main story and tell a lot of backstory so y'all understand context" doesn't completely work for me here. I think that's because he throws you into the story immediately, and so it feels like it's putting pause on the action. Although this is similar in story to Frankie Machine -- guy on the run -- Frankie Machine takes a while putting the pieces into place, setting up the life, investing you in the character, before putting him on the run. So the interludes feel natural, especially since so much of it is about Frank figuring out who wants him dead. California Fire and Ice is similar, although that takes place over an extended period of time, like Dawn Patrol, and so you allow it more time to get to where it's going, plus, you need all that fire school stuff to a) understand who Wade is and b) understand what they're fucking talking about. Dawn Patrol is probably the best refinement of this technique so far -- Cameron describes it as a guy telling you one long story over a night at a bar on the beach.
Busted Flush is reprinting his Neal Carey novels. Those are very different.

Don wrote Bobby Z when on the train in London. It was a hail mary type of book, where it saved his career. Every time he had to get off the train, he finished a chapter. California Fire and Life is probably his first great book. From Dog to now, its been smooth sailing. Yeah, I totally stand behind the idea that someone at the Sundowner(The fictional bar in The Dawm Patrol) is telling some young sufer stories about Boone Daniels and his buddies. It's a really hard style to pull off.
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post #355 of 3037
1/23/10 at 8:04pm
Nice to hear about Busted Flush. I basically want to read anything Winslow does at this point. He's one of those contemporary crime authors I'm a whore for, him and Megan Abbott (who kills at the short story, kills).

Scalped, the graphic novel, is pretty awesome FTR. Would make a great tv series.

Also, thoughts, everyone? http://www.theedgars.com/nominees.html#PBO
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post #356 of 3037
1/23/10 at 8:39pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu View Post
Nice to hear about Busted Flush. I basically want to read anything Winslow does at this point. He's one of those contemporary crime authors I'm a whore for, him and Megan Abbott (who kills at the short story, kills).

Scalped, the graphic novel, is pretty awesome FTR. Would make a great tv series.

Also, thoughts, everyone? http://www.theedgars.com/nominees.html#PBO
My picks In bold

Best Paperback

Bury Me Deep by Megan Abbott (Simon & Schuster)
Havana Lunar by Robert Arellano (Akashic Books)
The Lord God Bird by Russell Hill (Pleasure Boat Studio - Caravel Books)
Body Blows by Marc Strange (Dundurn Press - Castle Street Mysteries)
The Herring-Seller's Apprentice by L.C. Tyler (Felony & Mayhem Press)


Best Novel Nominees
The Missing by Tim Gautreaux (Random House - Alfred A. Knopf)
The Odds by Kathleen George (Minotaur Books)
The Last Child by John Hart (Minotaur Books)
Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston (Random House - Ballantine Books) Nemesis by Jo Nesbø, translated by Don Bartlett (HarperCollins)
A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn (Simon & Schuster - Atria Books)

Best First Novel By An American Author
The Girl She Used to Be by David Cristofano (Grand Central Publishing)
Starvation Lake by Bryan Gruley (Simon & Schuster - Touchstone)
The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf (MIRA Books)
A Bad Day for Sorry by Sophie Littlefield (Minotaur Books - Thomas Dunne Books)
Black Water Rising by Attica Locke (HarperCollins)
In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff (Minotaur Books)

Best Critical/Biographical
Talking About Detective Fiction by P.D. James (Random House - Alfred A. Knopf)
The Lineup: The World's Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives edited by Otto Penzler (Hachette Book Group - Little, Brown and Company)
Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King by Lisa Rogak (Thomas Dunne Books)
The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith by Joan Schenkar (St. Martin's Press)
The Stephen King Illustrated Companion by Bev Vincent (Fall River Press)

Best Fact Crime

Columbine by Dave Cullen (Hachette Book Group - Twelve)
]Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde by Jeff Guinn (Simon & Schuster)
The Fence: A Police Cover-Up Along Boston's Racial Divide by Dick Lehr (HarperCollins)
Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo (The Penguin Press)
Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa by R.A. Scotti (Random House - Alfred A. Knopf)

Best TV episode. No Burn Notice? Bah.

"Place of Execution," Teleplay by Patrick Harbinson (PBS/WGBH Boston)
"Strike Three" - The Closer, Teleplay by Steven Kane (Warner Bros TV for TNT)
"Look What He Dug Up This Time" - Damages, Teleplay by Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler & Daniel Zelman (FX Networks)
"Grilled" - Breaking Bad, Teleplay by George Mastras (AMC/Sony)
"Living the Dream" - Dexter, Teleplay by Clyde Phillips (Showtime)
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post #357 of 3037
1/23/10 at 9:56pm
Dave Cullen's "Columbine" seems like an obvious one (thanks for recommending it so highly, Rath), but have you guys read any of the others in that category?
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post #358 of 3037
1/23/10 at 10:44pm
The Fence is very good.
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post #359 of 3037
1/23/10 at 10:56pm
For the record, if Columbine isn't short listed for the Pulitzer this year, I'm going to cut some people. Cut.
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post #360 of 3037
1/24/10 at 4:37am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jake View Post
Dave Cullen's "Columbine" seems like an obvious one (thanks for recommending it so highly, Rath), but have you guys read any of the others in that category?
Its a really strong category, actually. The Bonnie and Clyde book and the police corruption book are quite good.

Columbine is the obvious choice, but its the best.
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post #361 of 3037
1/28/10 at 12:17pm
Working my way through the Edgar nominees. Haunted Heart and Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death were finished this week. I blabbed a little about Haunted Heart; I thought it was pretty good. Mystic Arts is totally Charlie Huston's coming out party that announces him as a major talent, not just in crime fiction, but in literature as a whole. So good.

Next up is A Bad Day for Sorry, which I should finish today. The details are what make this one a winner.
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post #362 of 3037
1/28/10 at 12:26pm
Yeah, I was consistently surprised by how much I liked Mystic Arts. I mean, the Joe Pitt and Hank Thompson books are good, slightly dumb fun, but Mystic Arts just works without all the mega-hardboiled prose of the Pitt/Thompson books. Also, I have a copy of The Shotgun Rule that I need to finish. I got about 40 pages in a year ago and just wasn't feeling it.

That being said, now that I'm back to Power of the Dog: Holy shit. Not gonna spoil anything, but it's hitting overdrive now and I'm kinda in love.
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post #363 of 3037
1/28/10 at 1:42pm
Aaron Paul or Ben Foster as Web in the movie, amirite Jake?

(Yes, it should be a movie. Not a series.)
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post #364 of 3037
1/28/10 at 2:01pm
I thought of Ben Foster pretty much immediately and I honestly don't know why.
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post #365 of 3037
1/28/10 at 2:10pm
Foster's one of those guys with talent to spare, which is more than you can say for a lot of his contemporaries, plus, he's got enough physicality that you buy the eventual toughness of the character. He's also pretty good with humor, probably moreso than somebody like Aaron Paul is.
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post #366 of 3037
1/28/10 at 10:38pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jake View Post
Yeah, I was consistently surprised by how much I liked Mystic Arts. I mean, the Joe Pitt and Hank Thompson books are good, slightly dumb fun, but Mystic Arts just works without all the mega-hardboiled prose of the Pitt/Thompson books. Also, I have a copy of The Shotgun Rule that I need to finish. I got about 40 pages in a year ago and just wasn't feeling it.

That being said, now that I'm back to Power of the Dog: Holy shit. Not gonna spoil anything, but it's hitting overdrive now and I'm kinda in love.
I got tired of the Joe Pitt novels half-way through the second. Its like "I've seen Angel, dude. That's better."
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post #367 of 3037
1/28/10 at 10:45pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu View Post
Aaron Paul or Ben Foster as Web in the movie, amirite Jake?

(Yes, it should be a movie. Not a series.)
I think its tailor-made for a series. You have the gore-hounds coming back every week, a compelling character that's actually interesting and you'd want to see where he goes.
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post #368 of 3037
1/28/10 at 11:39pm
I think the story of Web's redemption/recovery and his thing with the girl, not to mention his battles with the guild, gives the piece a narrative arc that you'd lose if you went to weekly series. Now, if Huston writes another Web Goodhue novel, we'll see.
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post #369 of 3037
1/29/10 at 12:16pm
Bad Day for Sorry. Now this would make a fantastic series, about a fiftyish, overweight, menopausal sewing shop owner who also acts as a vigilante for abused spouses. It's a little bit Dexter, but more fun than that, and it really gets a lot of the details of lower-class life right. The plot and eventual climax winds up being a little bit crazy -- reminds me of Beat the Reaper, but more subdued -- but the ending is postively heartwarming. Definitely worth checking out, and it's a quick read.

I think you'd enjoy this one, Jake.

Now onto Starvation Lake, which I'm already enjoying quite a bit.
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post #370 of 3037
1/29/10 at 12:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu View Post
a fiftyish, overweight, menopausal sewing shop owner who also acts as a vigilante for abused spouses.
Holy shit I need this book.
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post #371 of 3037
1/29/10 at 6:28pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jake View Post
Holy shit I need this book.
Its fantastic. When I met Sophie last year and she told me about her book, I expected a cozy. Then I got the book. It'd make Lansdale blush in how nasty it gets.
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post #372 of 3037
2/1/10 at 6:42am
Just starting 'A drink before the war' by Dennis Lehane. Good so far, and it's cool imagining Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan as their characters again.
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post #373 of 3037
2/1/10 at 12:56pm
Held Bad Day for Sorry and Dope Thief at LAPL - first on the list! I gotta get my ass in gear with my current clutch of books - almost done with Lansdale's A Fine Dark Line, The Tin Roof Blowdown was started (briefly) yesterday, and Power of the Dog's still steady in the holding pattern of "badass". I'm at the part with Nora in Mexico City right now.
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post #374 of 3037
2/1/10 at 8:53pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jake View Post
Held Bad Day for Sorry and Dope Thief at LAPL - first on the list! I gotta get my ass in gear with my current clutch of books - almost done with Lansdale's A Fine Dark Line, The Tin Roof Blowdown was started (briefly) yesterday, and Power of the Dog's still steady in the holding pattern of "badass". I'm at the part with Nora in Mexico City right now.
A double feature of Power of the Dog and The Tin-Roof Blowdown, both about how the government failed us, is gonna alternately make you really angry and want to slit your wrists.

Follow it up with James Grady's Mad Dogs, which is also about how the government fails people, but is really really funny.
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post #375 of 3037
2/2/10 at 12:24am
I saw the first big twist in Starvation Lake coming, but not the last couple. Like Bad Day for Sorry, it gets a lot of the details of struggling midwestern life right. It's also a really solid newspaper story that's incredibly honest about the state of the buisness. Excellent stuff.

Now I'm going to try and read all four novels in the Red Riding Quartet before the end of the week so I can be ready for the movies.
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post #376 of 3037
2/6/10 at 5:48pm
Thread Starter 

Vernard "Get" McGetty is a Stringer Bell type just back from Afghanistan and ready to make his mark using connections in the bordering Canada with some very vicious bikers. It owes a lot to The Wire, but especially Heat. The dialogue is great, the narration is smooth as silk, and its all cool as hell. A must read.




Charlie Stella has always been great and deserving of more recognition and I hope this is the one that gets him all that. John Albano is a small-time hood, on the fringe really, trying to make ends meet. It's 1973 in New York and the infamous Deep Throat was just banned and the Mafia is raking the cash in from the illegal screenings at porno theaters. Stella's strength is dialogue and character and you feel like a voyeur reading this, because like Elmore Leonard, it feels so authentic. A stellar novel.
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post #377 of 3037
2/9/10 at 9:56pm
Alright! I tried to get into Ellroy before with White Jazz but could not bring myself to finish the novel. The style just completely threw me. I handed it off to my brother to finish, see if I was crazy or something, and he liked it. So, fast forward a bit and I see Destination: Morgue! for four bucks and grab it. I'm really, really digging it so far. To those of you who are more schooled in Ellroy than I am, can you give me some ideas of where to go from here?
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post #378 of 3037
2/10/10 at 8:59pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by FTW Kid View Post
Alright! I tried to get into Ellroy before with White Jazz but could not bring myself to finish the novel. The style just completely threw me. I handed it off to my brother to finish, see if I was crazy or something, and he liked it. So, fast forward a bit and I see Destination: Morgue! for four bucks and grab it. I'm really, really digging it so far. To those of you who are more schooled in Ellroy than I am, can you give me some ideas of where to go from here?
L.A. Confidential and The Black Dahlia are both easier to get into than White Jazz and are both good, but I'm not much of an Ellroy fan.
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post #379 of 3037
2/14/10 at 1:57am
Thread Starter 
The International Association of Crime Writers has just announced its final flight of five for the Hammett Prize, awarded for literary excellence in crime writing:

Megan Abbott, BURY ME DEEP (Simon & Schuster)
Ace Atkins, DEVIL'S GARDEN (Putnam)
Jedediah Berry, THE MANUAL OF DETECTION (The Penguin Press)
Walter Mosley, THE LONG FALL (Riverhead)
George Pelecanos, THE WAY HOME (Little, Brown)

Its an extremely strong list of nominee's, but Devil's Garden was awesome.
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post #380 of 3037
2/14/10 at 6:07am
Have you guys ever read anything by Laura Lippman, her Tess Monaghan series look fairly standard but I'm wondering how her standalone novels stack up.
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post #381 of 3037
2/14/10 at 6:49am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by NathanW View Post
Have you guys ever read anything by Laura Lippman, her Tess Monaghan series look fairly standard but I'm wondering how her standalone novels stack up.
Laura Lippman is fantastic. Her P.I. series is great, but her best book so far is What The Dead Know.
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post #382 of 3037
2/17/10 at 2:40pm
Thread Starter 
Cover to Damn Near Dead 2, which I'm in.

http://bustedflushpress.blogspot.com...d-2-cover.html
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post #383 of 3037
2/17/10 at 10:20pm
Reading Colin Harrison's 'Break and Enter.' He's great, I don't know if anyone else has read his stuff, it's crime fiction but he's more interested in the modern city and how it functions from the poorest immigrant to the richest banker. If you haven't read his stuff I'd start with The Havana Room.
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post #384 of 3037
2/17/10 at 10:37pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chadb View Post
Reading Colin Harrison's 'Break and Enter.' He's great, I don't know if anyone else has read his stuff, it's crime fiction but he's more interested in the modern city and how it functions from the poorest immigrant to the richest banker. If you haven't read his stuff I'd start with The Havana Room.
Harrison is amazing. The Havana Room is great, but The Finder is one of the best novels I ever read.
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post #385 of 3037
2/17/10 at 10:58pm
Manhattan Nocturne with Fake Rupert Murdoch is great, too.
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post #386 of 3037
2/17/10 at 11:34pm
'Break and Enter' is the last novel I haven't read by him. I've never been disappointed by him.
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post #387 of 3037
2/18/10 at 2:23am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chadb View Post
'Break and Enter' is the last novel I haven't read by him. I've never been disappointed by him.
Have you read his novella Risk?
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post #388 of 3037
2/18/10 at 2:34am
Yes, I've read it. At first I was pretty disappointed but I found out it was actually a serial originally published in the Sunday New York Times magazine. I give it a pass. I'm not super crazy for 'Bodies Electric' either but I still think it's a decent look into his interests in class, money and New York.
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post #389 of 3037
2/18/10 at 8:46pm
Just finished Bad Day For Sorry, and I'd sacrifice small animals to see Helen Mirren in a film version; could also see Streep or Close, and given the limited range of roles offered to women in that age range, this book would seem like a juicy opportunity. You could also make it PG-13 without losing its core, though an R would be fantastic.

Also finished Mystic Arts last week. I loved Huston's first few, but didn't care for the first Pitt novel, and havien't tried the others. Mystic Arts , though, is a return to form and then some. One thing I love about the guy's work is the integration of family dynamics: tough guys aren't supposed to worry about their parents, or raise kids, but Huston's characters feel totally genuine doing those things.
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post #390 of 3037
2/18/10 at 8:50pm
Stella Hardesty was meant to be played by either Mrs. Becky Ann Baker, or Kathy Bates in full-on Primary Colors mode.
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post #391 of 3037
2/18/10 at 8:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu View Post
Stella Hardesty was meant to be played by either Mrs. Becky Ann Baker, or Kathy Bates in full-on Primary Colors mode.
Yeah, Mirren's a little too well put-together for Stella, IMO. I can totally buy Bates in the role.
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post #392 of 3037
2/18/10 at 11:20pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu View Post
Stella Hardesty was meant to be played by either Mrs. Becky Ann Baker, or Kathy Bates in full-on Primary Colors mode.
Allison Janney. Think about it.
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post #393 of 3037
2/19/10 at 4:52pm
Bear in mind, if they film the book, she'll be "Hollywood plain," not homely; plus, I don't know that any of the alternate suggestions, good as they might be, could get the thing greenlit.

There's also the fact that, when picturing a character as you read a book, it's not that hard to reconcile her supposed physical decreptiness with her vigorous exercise regimen; with a real person, you pretty much have to go one way or the other .
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post #394 of 3037
2/24/10 at 11:03pm
Laurence Klavin's "The Cutting Room" is terrible. Capital T terrible.

Richard Prather, however, is made of so much win. So much win.
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post #395 of 3037
2/26/10 at 3:10am
Just wanted to say thanks to everyone in this thread for awesome suggestions and such detailed posts/discussions. I have always dabbled in crime fiction, mostly Lehane and Ellroy, but now I'm sort of diving head first into it, thanks to my dad's insanely extensive collection, which is mine for the taking now that my parents are moving and have to make room.

Recently finished
Pelecanos' Strange series (save for Hard Revolution)
The Last Good Kiss by Crumley
The Long Goodbye by Chandler

Any advice as to where to go next with these authors (particularly the latter two, as Pelecanos suggestions about have already been discussed in this thread)?

Also, any advice on where to start with James Lee Burke would be appreciated.
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post #396 of 3037
2/26/10 at 3:30am
Everytime I click on this thread, it's like a reminder of how many writers I still need to check out, it's really quite exhausting.
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post #397 of 3037
2/26/10 at 3:48am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Beldar View Post
Just wanted to say thanks to everyone in this thread for awesome suggestions and such detailed posts/discussions. I have always dabbled in crime fiction, mostly Lehane and Ellroy, but now I'm sort of diving head first into it, thanks to my dad's insanely extensive collection, which is mine for the taking now that my parents are moving and have to make room.

Recently finished
Pelecanos' Strange series (save for Hard Revolution)
The Last Good Kiss by Crumley
The Long Goodbye by Chandler

Any advice as to where to go next with these authors (particularly the latter two, as Pelecanos suggestions about have already been discussed in this thread)?

Also, any advice on where to start with James Lee Burke would be appreciated.
Lawrence Block, Lawrence Block, Lawrence Block.

As for Burke, he's an incredible writer. Beautiful descriptions, great characters, gorgeous southern atmosphere. An early book is best, though you can't go wrong with his Katrina novel The Tin-Roof Blowdown. An early good one is Dixie City Jam. It has one of Burke's scariest villains. In that vein, go on to John Connolly, he's everything Burke is, but funnier. He's an irish writer who writes Every Dead Thing is good, but very much a first novel. Read that, you can safely skip Dark Hollow and go onto The Killing Kind where he really amps up the Supernatural elements of the series. Its not like Jim Butcher supernatural, but more of a quiet dread and a question of if the ghosts and stuff are actually real or is the protagonist nuts because of his grief?*


*His wife and child were killed by a serial killer. This is described, in detail, at the beginning of Every Dead Thing. Connolly can be a very funny writer, I swear.

I interviewed him a couple years ago. Hell of a nice guy. http://www.chud.com/articles/article...LLY/Page1.html
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post #398 of 3037
2/26/10 at 3:52am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Beldar View Post
Just wanted to say thanks to everyone in this thread for awesome suggestions and such detailed posts/discussions. I have always dabbled in crime fiction, mostly Lehane and Ellroy, but now I'm sort of diving head first into it, thanks to my dad's insanely extensive collection, which is mine for the taking now that my parents are moving and have to make room.

Recently finished
Pelecanos' Strange series (save for Hard Revolution)
The Last Good Kiss by Crumley
The Long Goodbye by Chandler

Any advice as to where to go next with these authors (particularly the latter two, as Pelecanos suggestions about have already been discussed in this thread)?

Also, any advice on where to start with James Lee Burke would be appreciated.
I just realized I didn't answer your question.

Try the D.C. Quartet by Pelecanos: The Big Blowdown(Not essential, but good.), King Suckerman, Sweet Forever(My favorite of the series), and Shame The Devil, which is fantastic. Hard Revolution really is great though. The Night Gardener is absolutely essential.
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post #399 of 3037
2/26/10 at 10:33am
Man, I love Block as much as the next guy, but you gotta give the guy some direction, Cameron, before recommending an author that's written like 30 plus books. Answer: Start with the Matthew Scudder novels.

Beyond that, perusing the thread to see which authors come up again and again is a good bet. You can't really go wrong with The Lincoln Lawyer or the early Harry Bosch novels by Michael Connelly or anything by Don Winslow, except for Power of the Dog, because that one sucks.

And Money Shot. Everybody should fucking read Money Shot.
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post #400 of 3037
2/26/10 at 2:29pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu View Post
Man, I love Block as much as the next guy, but you gotta give the guy some direction, Cameron, before recommending an author that's written like 30 plus books. Answer: Start with the Matthew Scudder novels.

Beyond that, perusing the thread to see which authors come up again and again is a good bet. You can't really go wrong with The Lincoln Lawyer or the early Harry Bosch novels by Michael Connelly or anything by Don Winslow, except for Power of the Dog, because that one sucks.

And Money Shot. Everybody should fucking read Money Shot.

You will not bait me, Heldenfels! You haven't even read Power of the Dog!

I don't think all the Bosch novels are a winner, but most are.
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