This is a space for us to write about mystery fiction, a genre we both love and find ourselves returning to, time and time again. In the coming months, we will be discussing a wide range of mysteries that we hope you too will enjoy.
This blog emerged from many conversations over the course of the last couple of years, culminating in one of us saying, “Wouldn’t it be fun to do this?”
This is how you get in trouble, people! Ha!
Michelle Souliere – loves her husband and her cats (Meep and Mr. Biscuits), drinking ginger beer and tea (although not combined), oatmeal cookies, hiking the Maine woods, and wondering about our strange planet. She owns the Green Hand Bookshop and has written two books (so far!), Strange Maine: True Tales from the Pine Tree State and Bigfoot in Maine. Can most often be found obscured behind several stacks of books.
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.
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).
Agatha Christie, in particular but in no way limited to: N or M? (the first Tommy & Tuppence book I ever read, though 3rd 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)
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.
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.
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 by him I read was in its graphic novel format, The Maine Massacre. 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).
OLD FAVORITES that I haven’t read in a long time: Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody, Jonathan Gash’s Lovejoy, Tony Hillerman’s Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, Dorothy Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane
Sharon Kitchens – loves her cats (Faulkner and Tennessee), drinking Tandem coffee, Taylor Swift, hiking in the White Mountain National Forest, and baking cookies. She has a rose-colored dining room and a collection of vintage marble ashtrays. Can most often be found at Green Hand Books checking out the mystery and horror sections.
I profess my love of the following…
Los Angeles crime noir at its very best: Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain, The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy, and Heat 2 by Michael Mann. Novels by writers who so thoroughly understand the landscape they are writing about. Their appeal has extended far beyond the field of crime fiction.
J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. The friendships, the battle between good vs. evil, the food (!!), the creation of this extraordinary wizarding world, life lessons like never be afraid to stand up for what you believe in, live life to its fullest, and don’t judge a book by its cover.
Call Me a Cab by Donald Westlake is amazing, but also 361. I think the only thing wrong with identifying him as an iconic crime writer is the word “crime” – the man is a genius and an iconic writer. I’ve only just gotten started reading him.
Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt is a book I reread every few years and listen to for some reason around the holidays when I’m in the kitchen a lot baking. It’s a bizarre and glorious example of southern gothic writing.
The grand dames. Daphne du Maurier’s work is gorgeous, strong, and stunning. I fell in love with her masterpiece Rebecca as a young woman. Two Little Rich Girls by Mignon G. Eberhart – If you love Agatha Christie check out Eberhart.
Pretty much everything by Megan Miranda, Simone St. James, Riley Sager, and Michael Connelly. They each consistently come up with smart stories that are written really well. Reading them is like taking a deep breath and diving into a big gorgeous totally mysterious pool where you are taken in by everything and all the while know you really do need to come up for air…but just one more page…
Dark Roads by Chevy Stevens takes that sinister story of women who go missing on a deserted highway and digs deep with the setting and characters. It’s pretty intense and surprising. Maybe the best coming-of-age story set inside a thriller I’ve read outside of Stephen King’s work.
Joanna Schaffhausen’s Ellery Hathaway series is deeply thoughtful, well-plotted, violent, dark, just believable enough, and straight-up good. I think from the very first page I knew Ellery Hathaway was going to be a police officer I could get behind. The woman is a survivor.
The Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths – Michelle turned me onto this series. I’ve read them all, usually each in one sitting and then gone back and listed to the audio versions. Some I’ve read twice they’re that good. Dr. Ruth Galloway (a bookish woman with a beautiful smile who thankfully isn’t intimidated by a bowl of pasta and a piece of cake god love her) is the Head of Forensic Archaeology at the University of North Norfolk. She drives a rusty car and lives in a small house by miles and miles of marshland. Oh, and she loves cats! She solves crimes with Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson a skeptic with a heart of gold who enjoys beer and gets nervous in the countryside. He loves dogs, not cats. They make me laugh and also crave tea and cookies.
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix. The Final Girl Support Group is a horror novel that digs deep and holds on. I LOVED The Southern Book Club, but find myself going back to Final Girl a lot. Hendrix’s books are layers of finely crafted writing.
The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff – Flawless. There’s a prehistoric monster and the perfectly written small lakeside town harboring oh so many secrets.
Stephen King is my favorite writer. It, The Dark Half, The Outsider, and Billy Summers are the novels I love the most. His collections Night Shift, Different Seasons, Skeleton Crew, Nightmares & Dreamscapes, and Everything’s Eventual (specifically “The Man in the Black Suit”) are in my opinion some of the greatest examples of storytelling in the modern era.
Stories I loved in 2022: A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham, The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh, Into the Dark by Fiona Cummins, The Resting Place by Camilla Sten, Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak, The Midcoast by Adam White, More Than You’ll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez, The Maid by Nita Prose, City on Fire by Don Winslow, Hide by Kiersten White, His & Hers by Alice Feeney, and Lisa Gardner’s One Step Too Far.
I can already tell that my want to read list isn't going to be reducing this year. Super pleased!
ReplyDelete