Crime Fiction Dossier

Win This Book -- don't forget!

Don't forget, the Crime Fiction Dossier is currently running a contest to win a personally-autographed copy of Barry Eisler's excellent thriller The Last Assassin.

The winner of the contest will receive a hardcover copy of The Last Assassin, inscribed to them and signed by the author. To enter, just send an email with "Contest" in the subject line and your name in the body of the email.

Contest ends on 10/5. Only one entry per person, please. Only U.S. residents are eligible to win. All decisions are final. Crime Fiction Dossier is not responsible for anything.

Do you recognize this book?

A reader writes in:

I read a crime fiction novel a few years ago that I'm sure was part of a series. I can't remember the title or author, and very little about the plot...I believe that the story had some involvement with the sea and/or the protagonist being a retired detective or something who now transports boats for a living. His love interest is his business partner (and maybe a former "client").

Not much to go on, I know. But does anyone know what it is? If so, please leave a comment.

Review of Karen E. Olson's "Secondhand Smoke"

Tough-talking New Haven reporter Annie Seymour returns for her second go-around in Karen E. Olson’s winning Secondhand Smoke (Mysterious Press, 272 pages, $22.99), a book even better than last year’s excellent debut, Sacred Cows (which was nominated for the Gumshoe Award).

When a popular local eatery burns down across the street from Annie’s home, she’s right there in the thick of things, covering the story with her usual deadpan cynicism. The crime starts to cut a little close to home, however, when it turns out that her own father might be involved.

Olson writes in a similar corner of the genre as Janet Evanovich, but her plots and her heroine are grounded much firmer in reality. Secondhand Smoke combines a nice sense of humor, deft use of setting and a solid collection of characters all together in one charming mystery. This book proves that Olson is no flash in the pan. She’s here to stay.

For more reviews like this one, please visit Mystery Ink.

10 Greatest Detective Novels -- Dennis Lehane

After much urging from the commenters in the previous discussion on the 10 Greatest Detective Novels, I went back to read Dennis Lehane's A Drink Before the War, the first book in the Kenzie-Gennaro series.

I've read a couple of Lehane's books before (Sacred and Mystic River) without being blown away. Although I liked this one much better -- and can see why he has his legions of fans -- I didn't think this was at the level of the other books included on my list.

Lehane's a fine writer; I don't think there's any doubt about that. And A Drink Before the War is a quality, entertaining detective novel. But it's not a great detective novel.

The plot of Drink is on the simple side. (That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's worth mentioning.) The characters are fine, but not particularly original. The prose quality is generally high, and the setting is used well. In no area, however, does it rise to the level of extraordinary, which is what I'm looking for on this list.

One area of weakness is that much of the writing is heavy-handed and overdone. Whether the topic is race, abuse or politics, Lehane makes his points with a cudgel, when a scalpel is what's really needed. (I contrast this to the work of George Pelecanos, for example, which is much subtler.)

While reading it, I couldn't help but notice that although Lehane is working in similar territory, with similar characters, and exploring similar themes as the best of Robert B. Parker's Spenser series, he doesn't pull it off quite as well as Parker did.

Granted, this was Lehane's first novel. And, considering that, it's a damn fine achievement. Having read this book, I would certainly read him again.

Ultimately, A Drink Before the War is a solid example of a detective novel, well-written and enjoyable. But it's not one of the 10 Greatest.

Latest Chicago Sun-Times column

My latest column ran today (finally) in the Chicago Sun-Times. It contained reviews of the following books:

• Walter Mosley - Fear of the Dark
• Tess Gerritsen - The Mephisto Club
• Rhys Bowen - Evanly Bodies
• Gregg Hurwitz - Last Shot
• Jason Starr - Lights Out

The paper has, unfortunately, cut back the frequency of my column to only once every six weeks, rather than once a month. So I won't be writing about as many books as I have been. I will try to post more reviews on here, though, and on Mystery Ink.

Virginia Festival of the Book

It's just been announced that Lee Child will be the featured speaker at the Virginia Festival of the Book's Crime Wave program, to be held next March in Charlottesville.

The VA Book Festival is a wonderful five day-long festival devoted to authors, books and publishing. On Saturday, they have a whole day devoted to crime fiction. I went last year for the first time and really enjoyed myself.

You get a chance to meet a lot of great writers, readers, publishing people, librarians and other people who love books -- and, best of all, it's free!

You do have to buy the tickets to the luncheon that Lee is speaking at, but most of the other events, including the panels, have no charge. You just show up.

Last year's line-up included people like Michael Connelly, Jeff Deaver, John Lescroart, Karin Slaughter, Michele Martinez, Bob Morris, Nancy Martin, Susan McBride, and a bunch of other people I can't remember off the top of my head.

I will probably be there again next year, moderating a couple of panels. So if you've always wanted to heckle me, here's your chance.

If you live anywhere near Charlottesville, or are interested in making the trip, I highly recommend it. (And if you plan to go, I suggest buying tickets to the Crime Wave luncheon early -- it's sure to sell out.)

Hope to see some of you there!

10 Greatest Detective Novels -- follow-up

Okay, the debate on my list of the 10 Greatest Detective Novels has been raging for a while now... Let's see if we've come to any conclusions.

Here is my original list of seven, which I'm still feeling pretty good about:

10 Greatest Detective Novels (in alphabetical order):

• Lawrence Block - When the Sacred Ginmill Closes
• Raymond Chandler - The Long Goodbye
• Michael Connelly - The Black Echo
• Robert Crais - L.A. Requiem
• Dashiell Hammett - The Maltese Falcon
• Walter Mosley - Devil in a Blue Dress
• Robert B. Parker - Looking for Rachel Wallace

To that list, I want to add:

• James Crumley - The Last Good Kiss

(Thanks to folks for pointing out that omission. Although the ending of LGK stinks, it's a powerful book.)

We also need a Travis McGee novel, so for now I'm going to add:

• John D. MacDonald -- The Dreadful Lemon Sky

(Guyot! Should I pick a different one?)

I haven't yet been persuaded to change any of the original picks, although I'm open to it. A couple people suggested Parker's Early Autumn rather than Looking for Rachel Wallace. Early Autumn is a great book, and it would be my second pick of a Spenser novel. I think that, on the level of a pure detective story, however, Rachel Wallace is superior.

As for Connelly...Most of the Bosch books are excellent, and I could pick a different one from The Black Echo. But that book is so damn good, and it also has the advantage to being the first, so I'm tempted to keep it for now.

Let's assume that I'm going to keep these same authors. That gives me nine books, with space for one more. There have been strong votes for both Dennis Lehane and Dorothy L. Sayers. I need to try to find the time to read a couple of theirs. I'm not holding out much hope, though.

I'm tempted to add Laura Lippman's Every Secret Thing to the list, but it's so recent, and I'm also not sure it qualifies as a detective novel. In fact, the more I think about it, I don't believe it does. The Tess Monaghan books certainly would, but I don't know if I could single out one of those. By a Spider's Thread maybe?

Again, though... it's so recent. Same thing goes for Denise Hamilton's work. I'd like to have at least a decade's worth of separation from the book -- and hopefully a subsequent re-reading -- in order to be certain of its lasting power.

I love George Pelecanos, whom someone suggested in the comments section, but I just don't think of him as a detective writer. While it's true that he has on occasion written about detectives, his books still don't strike me as detective novels. I might need to rethink that, though.

Part of the problem here is that there are just so many people that I haven't read. When you think of all the detective novels that have been published in the last 60 years, it's an impossible task.

Even so, though, I think this list is shaping up nicely...

Win This Book: Barry Eisler's "The Last Assassin"

Next up on Win This Book, a personally-autographed copy of one of the year's best thrillers: Barry Eisler's The Last Assassin.

It's no secret that I think Eisler is one of the best writers in the genre, and The Last Assassin might just be his best book yet. (You can read my review of it to find out why.)

The winner of the contest will receive a hardcover copy of The Last Assassin, inscribed to them and signed by the author. To enter, just send an email with "Contest" in the subject line and your name in the body of the email.

Good luck! As always, if you don't win, please consider buying the book anyway. It's worth it.

Contest ends on 10/5. Only one entry per person, please. Only U.S. residents are eligible to win. All decisions are final. Crime Fiction Dossier is not responsible for anything.

Video for Michael Connelly's "Echo Park"

There's a new video for Michael Connelly's Echo Park (an excellent book, by the way) over on YouTube, which was directed by my buddy Lee Lankford. The video is a dramatization of the first section of the book. Pretty cool idea.

So I'm watching it, and Harry Bosch's partner, Jerry Edgar, appears in the scene. I look at him, do a double-take, and think to myself, "I'll be damned -- that's Gar Haywood!" But then I thought, "Naaah...it can't be." My curiosity got the better of me, so I fast-forwarded to the end -- and sure enough, it is him!

Haven't heard much from Gar in a while. I'd really love to see a new book from him one of these days. He's a damn fine writer and it's a shame that he's out of print.

How to find reputable agents and publishers

Over on Lee Goldberg's blog, one of the current discussions is on the topic of the legitimacy (or illegitimacy) of various publishing operations. A reader posted a question that I thought was a good one:

Where do you go to find reputable agents and publishers?

Here is my advice...

For agents: Read the deal announcements on Publishers Marketplace. See who is selling books in your genre and to which publishers. That should give you a clue as to who is actually doing business. If an agent sells books to Putnam, St. Martin's, etc., they're legitimate.

For publishers: Go the bookstore or check out Amazon. See who is publishing the books you like and the authors you respect. They are likely to be legit.

You can also check out the accepted publishers lists maintained by MWA and ITW:

If you've never heard of the publisher, see which books they've published. If you've never heard of any of the authors or books, that should tell you something.