Fifty Greatest Crime Writers

[mcdermott]

Given that a lot of us here read crime fiction and have some very interesting and informed thoughts about the writers we enjoy, I wondered whether it might be worth discussing the list that the Times came up with recently, of the fifty greatest crime writers?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/global/article3773630.ece

[will-c]

I didnt realise I was such a crime reading geek as I knew of at least 90/% of the authors. I am not a great lover of old classics so would be hard pushed to agree on the list being the right way around. Its a bit like the best ever films always being topped by Citizen Cain. I read through the Observers list of top books a few weeks ago and didnt know 10% of the authors and the authors who gave a spin on all their top books just came across as innately boring....

[Mark Gilman]

I love the list. Patricia Highsmith is my first love. I read them all as a "mature student" in Bradford. I find it funny now but as I get older my range gets smaller and smaller. If its not crime and drugs Im not usually interested. But, there have been a few interesting detours from the genre. I was in Portugal a few years ago and someone gave me 'Birdsong' by Sebastian Foulkes (I would never have paid a penny for such a thing) and I LOVED it. Back to the list. I have never really got on with Cornwell and I know what Peter says about Grisham but Im not a fan (yet). Im so pleased that Pelecanos comes in at 31. I feel like I know the man. His musings via his main characters are so like my own thoughts. A classic example is a rant about people who have Free Tibet stickers in their cars as they drive via their local ghetto without any thought of the contradiction. What about a' Free Speke' sticker or "Liberation for West Gorton". Thanks for posting this up Peter. I was wondering where I go after Pelecanos and now I have a map! Merry Christmas to all.

[will-c]

No Connelly, shameful

[alli]

Does anyone know if there is any way I can transfer that link over to my email so that I can look it up whenever I want.  I know I could probably print it out, but I'm not that organised and bound to lose it.  Easier if it was in an email folder. alli x

[will-c]

just copy and paste it

[alli]

wouldn't let me copy it but I clicked on to it (the link) then added it to my favourites, alli x

[mcdermott]

I always think that I don't like English crime writers, and I always think I don't like women crime writers, but both Ruth Rendell and Minette Walters are firm favourites. And while I've yet to read any Donna Leon, she's definitely on my list for the future.

I've just finished the latest Grisham, and I don't consider myself a fan either, but I've read every single one and I'm always satisfied by them. He always illuminates an interesting aspect of the American legal system, and he's invariably on the side of the angels -- something that you can't usually anticipate with American lawyers. There's a relatively recent non-fiction that he did ... An Innocent Man ... in which he discusses the way the system railroaded some guy into doing 20 years or so, before he was freed by The Innocence Project, a project that uses DNA evidence to get innocent people out.

After he published the book, he was hit with defamation lawsuits from half a dozen lawyers, cops, prison officers, etc. who all felt they'd been injured by his accurate representation of their part in the railroading. I think all of the cases were thrown out, but I imagine all of these guys had lawyers who were prepared to take the case on a contingency fee basis, in the hope that Grisham would pay to make them go away.

Interested to see that Lehane is higher than Pelicanos. I think that's a wrong assessment. Lehane has written a couple that weren't that great, whereas Pelicanos has never hit a bum note as far as I'm concerned. The thing that I like about Pelicanos is that his villains are rarely evil psychopaths or criminal masterminds. They tend to be people who fall into bad company and make a couple of bad decisions before it all goes to shit on them. In my experience, this is a much more accurate reflection of how most crime happens than you generally see.

Another master of the cock-up theory of crime is Joseph Wambaugh, who hasn't been writing anything for ages, but his last two novels -- set in Hollywood -- have both been decent reads, worth a look if you're stuck for something.

Jim Thompson and Charles Willesford's books are both well worth exploring if you've never read either. Their protagonists tend to be the kind of likeable psychopaths than I spent a lot of my youth hanging out with. Guys who tend to be great company until they turn around for no reason whatsoever and come after you with the axe.

And though I've read a lot of Ed McBain, I'm never particularly taken with them. I like police procedurals -- much of the attraction of The Wire was the fact that it was a police procedural -- and McBain is supposed to be the master of the genre. Readable, but nothing to write home about, IMO.