On Mysteries - a personal history

It has been a while since I posted about my love of mysteries here on the shop blog.  Part of the reason was that I had started a separate blog which was all about mystery reading.  But then after working on the (207)Terror posts with Dennis, I realized that I didn't need to send you folks somewhere else for mystery book posts.  So I'm going to reintegrate them here instead.  😺  Enjoy!

My favorite all-time reads in no particular order, but limited to ones with a mystery/crime element:

The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale – Dark and tantalizing, the Depression-era Texas landscape is introduced to readers through the eyes of the young narrator, who finds out bit by bit how hauntingly strange the adult world can be.  Peppered with ghostly tales of local folklore and mysterious crimes in the obscure but too-close-to-home Big Thicket, this book calls out to horror, mystery, and true crime readers alike.  "He was just a big shadow next to the tree, and I thought of the devil come up from the ground, all dark and evil and full of bluff." --Harry

 

The Cass Neary series by Elizabeth Hand – After staying up way too late finishing the first book in this series, Generation Loss, I emailed Liz and explained to her, “Rarely have I read a book whose main character has made me want to smack them upside the head so often and made me want to hang out with them the other half of the time.”  Cass Neary is warped and wonderful.  Elizabeth Hand is a magician.  No matter the setting, she captures it, and places you in it.  With mere words on paper she can create vivid phantoms in your mind the way few other writers can.  Her visual imagery does not beat you over the head with descriptive terms, instead it infects your brain and haunts you (in the best way possible).

 

Two of my favorite covers for Nemesis.

Agatha Christie, in particular but in no way limited to: N or M? (the first Tommy & Tuppence book I ever read, though 3^rd in the series), The Man in the Brown Suit (a rare standalone novel from Christie), and Nemesis (wherein Miss Marple is set to solve a mystery without being told what it is or who it involves).  My mom introduced me to Christie's books when I was still young, knowing I would love them, and I have been reading them ever since.

"You are a very well educated woman. Nemesis is long delayed sometimes, but it comes in the end."  -- Miss Marple

Least favorite: Endless Night which seemed horribly pessimistic to me.

 

John Connolly’s Charlie Parker series – I started reading John Connolly because I ran across a reference to Massacre Pond in Scarborough in the text of one of his books, Dark Hollow (you will soon find out that I often sample mystery series by jumping in at a random title that appeals to me rather than being sensible and starting from the beginning).  I read it and liked it – great characters, peppered with adept wit for humor.  So I kept reading them!  

 

If you want a dark, intriguing, no-holds-barred series, some of which is set in Maine, this is it.  Especially if you like the cathartic feeling of reading a book where by the last page everything is burned to the ground, these are for you.  They are not light and fluffy, but boy are they good.  I could say more, but I don’t want to spoil it.  You should probably go and sign up for his monthly email, because John Connolly is delightful, and every time one arrives it makes me laugh while reading it.

 

3 Raymond Chandler titles with stellar Tom Adams cover art

Raymond Chandler – I’ve read both Hammett and Chandler, and let me tell you, Chandler is the one for me.  Something about his ability to paint a scene, and his careful choice of words and phrasing, sticks with me.  From Killer in the Rain (so evocative!) to his collected short stories (did you know he wrote stories in the weird fiction vein, as well as noir crime writing?), Chandler does not waste your time.

"I could feel my skin crawling, and the air was suddenly cold on it." -- Carmady, in "The Curtain"

 

Ngaio Marsh – For a long time, I only read Agatha Christie.  No one had told me that there was another author, equally adept, equally witty, who had written stories in a similar vein, although hailing from New Zealand instead of Britain.  Almost as prolific as Christie but not quite, (she wrote 33 novels, while Christie wrote 33 for Poirot alone), she left behind a treasure trove of cases as related by her main character, Chief Inspector Alleyn, possessor of a sneaky sense of humor.

 

Jan Willem van de Wetering – I first read one of his Amsterdam novels because (you guessed it) I was going to Amsterdam.  I loved it!  The understated humor of the main characters was right up my alley, and the immersion in a city in another part of the world sealed the deal.  But the first book I read by him, The Maine Massacre, was in a graphic novel format.  Yes, he was Dutch, but he spent the latter part of his life in Maine, and after almost three decades here, he died in Blue Hill, ME, in 2008.  In other words, he’s got a lot going for him.

 

RECENT READS* that I’ve loved:  Riley Sager’s The Last Time I Lied, Simone St. James’ Sun Down Motel, Maureen Johnson’s The Box in the Woods, Adam Sternbergh’s The Blinds, Jean Luc Bannalec’s The King Arthur Case, M.C. Beaton’s Agatha Raisin series (the books and the AcornTV series), Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series, and Robert Thorogood’s Death in Paradise (the books and the BBC series).

*:  (This list is a couple of years old, but it still holds good!)

 

OLD FAVORITES that I haven’t read in a long time:  Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody series, Jonathan Gash’s Lovejoy series (which has some issues I'll admit), Tony Hillerman’s Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee series, Dorothy Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane series.