Three authors you couldn't live without

I saw this question on a message board and thought I'd steal it...

Who are the three authors whose work you would miss the most if they stopped writing?

The choices are inevitably somewhat arbitrary... But after thinking about it for a while, I came up with a solid top 3:

• Lawrence Block
• Michael Connelly
• George Pelecanos

I look forward to books by those three writers more than anyone else. So I'd be the most disappointed if any of them stopped writing.

How about you? Who's in your top 3?

Comments

[Cosmo Vittelli]

1. Ann Brashares

2. Louise Rennison

3. Bob Vickery

[Shakes Muldoon]

For me it's a no-brainer:

1 - Jerry Belanger

2 - R.J. Carrie-Reddington

3 - a tie between Gail Luttmann and Dennis Lehane.

[DMC]

1. Warren Murphy and James Mullaney (two authors/one series)

2. Lindsay Davis

3. Jim Butcher

[DMC]

That should be Lindsey Davis.

[Philip]

1. Fred Vargas
2. Reginald Hill
3. Jo Nesbo

[spyscribbler]

Barry Eisler
Joseph Finder
Neil Gaiman

[Don Gorman]

1. James Lee Burke
2. Elmore Leonard
3. Charles McCarry

[Scott Parker]

Elmore Leonard
George Pelecanos
Christa Faust

Honorable Mention: Dennis Lehane (for introducing me to crime fiction)

[Thriller Cafè]

it'a a hard choice...

Micheal Connelly
Robert Crais
John Connolly

ps. I've discovered this blog some days ago: very nice! ;)

[Michael Berry]

Peter Straub
Lawrence Block
Stephen King

[Doug Riddle]

Only three! You're a cruel man David. This is a tough one...

Michael Connelly
Elmore Leonard
Kem Nunn

(CharlieHustonJamesLeeBurkeDavidIgnatiusandDanFesperman...no one ever said I took direction well)

[Fiona]

j.m. coetzee
ruth rendell
terry pratchett

[Permut Hossenfeitter]

Elmore Leonard
John Sandford
Stacey Cochran

[Cory Highfield]

1. Lee Child
2. Ken Bruen
3. John Connolly

[Rob]

Your list is dang close to mine.

- Michael Connelly
- Lawrence Block (although his more recent stuff is starting to disapoint)
- Robert Crais

[alsek]

Alan Furst
Ken Bruen
George Pelecanos

[Cameron Hughes]

1) Don Winslow
2) George Pelecanos
3) John Connolly

[I.J.Parker]

I don't know. That's a terrible question. All I know is that I greet books from a number of people with joy, but I cannot say I couldn't live without them. I read a weird mix of books that accommodates both Lee Child and Ruth Rendell, Henning Mankell and Elizabeth George, Tony Hillerman and Bernard Cornwell. I would miss them all, but there isn't one that is indispensable.

[Elaine Flinn]

Nope, I'm not going to make a list. Too many favorites to narrow it down to three. And too many friends that'll kill me if they don't see their name listed.

[Patrick Balester]

In no particular order,

Mark Coggins

JA Konrath

Nevada Barr

[erik]

Alan Furst

Dennis Lehane

James Lee Burke

[ali]

Having only three.......

Thomas Harris -
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS

Arnalder Indridason -
JAR CITY [aka Tainted Blood]

Stephen King -
THE SHINING

But you knew that already

Ali

[toni]

oh wow, that's hard! if i had to pick 3 it would be

laura lippman
ja konrath
lee goldberg

i would DIE if any of them stopped writing.

[Fitzwilly Householter]

JA Konrath is a potty mouth. I don't care for him.

So is that George Pelecanos. Yucko.

I like authors who are smart enough to write without going "blue."

My picks are easy:

Heather Webber
Charles Bukowski
Laura Bradford

[Cameron Hughes]

But violence is okay as long as it doesn't have the nerve to be potty mouthed?

I am a fan of language, if used well. Swearing can be used incredibly well.

[cozy crime]

I agree with Fitzwilly. I don't like it when books have foul language either. And too much blood is a turnoff. Why can't writers just tell a good clean story without all the filth?

[David Montgomery]

I once gave a book a positive review simply because it had a lot of cussin in it.

[Doug Riddle]

Isn't having cussin in a novel how you can tell it's not a cozy?

Heck, Charlie Huston's novels would be short stories if you took all the cussin out of them and they're too short already....lol

[Cameron Hughes]

It boggles my mind when someone claims they love to read, but hate language. A great writer can make any kind of wording flow. George Pelecanos's dialogue wouldn't be half as good without words like fuck and shit because that kind of talk is realistic. Life isn't clean, nor should literature be to appease puritan thinking.

Deadwood and The Wire have beautiful writing, as ugly as it can be, and thats where the beauty comes from. It flows like poetry.

[Doug Riddle]

I know this is way off topic here, but has anyone else noticed that the authors listed the most, seem to have the most minimal web presence? Connelly, Pelecanos, Leonard, Burke, Block and Lehane....some of them barely even have websites, let alone blogs, Facebook, MySpace, etc.. Interesting?

[Bedford Symons]

It is no coincidence. Real writers are busy working on their craft. The people who are blogging and all that silly business are more interested in marketing than writing. They are all cart, no horse.

[Cameron Hughes]

Barry Eisler blogs quite a bit and is still a great writer.

[Bunny]

Robert Parker
James Patterson
Harlen Coben

[Sam]

Barry Eisler blogs quite a bit and is still a great writer.

Eisler would kill to have Connelly or Leonard's sales.

[M.J]

Assumptions never work for me.

Those writers might have less web presence because they aren't still fighting their way up the ladder.

I would never suggest one's web presence has anything to do with how much time one puts into the craft of one's fiction.

For one thing many many writers have someone else doing their web stuff and don't spend anytime on it at all even though it looks like they do.

[Doug Riddle]

Mearly an observation, not an assumption.

[Diann Pember]

Michael Dibdin (sadly deceased)
Elizabeth George
Ian Rankin

[dail]

J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts)
J.A. Jance
Valerie Wilson Wesley

[Rodney P. McManus]

I just shat my pants.

[Tim]

1. Robert Parker
2. Lawrence Block
3. Stuart Kaminsky

[Verne Thomas]

1. Nabokov
2. Don Winslow (the original, not the mystery writer)
3. Marquis de Sade

After that it would be a tie between Dan Brown and Jacqueline Suzanne.

[Jean Langlais]

three writers I wouldn't want to have to live without:

1. Peter Robinson
2. James Lee Burke
3. Laura Lippman

[Naomi Johnson]

1. James Lee Burke
2. Robert Crais
3. Ken Bruen

I could get clinical depression if any of those three quit writing. If I got to name an alternate to the list it would be Earl Emerson.

[Violette]

One of my favorite authors just passed so I am feeling the pain. My three are:
1. Margaret Truman
2. Robin Cook
3. Ariana Franklin

[David J. Montgomery]

Margaret Truman may have died, but fortunately Donald Bain is still alive and kicking. So her passing doesn't necessarily mean the books will stop.

[JR Grubb]

I've been missing Stephen Greenleaf's series about John Marshall Tanner for years now. Great series, great character, great writer...I guess Greenleaf's books just didn't sell well enough. Terrible loss for me.

The three writers whose work I most look forward to right now would probably be James Lee Burke, T. Jefferson Parker, and George Pelecanos. But I could name at least two dozen others I wouldn't want to live without.

[Ken]

Michael Connelly
James W. Hall
Tie: Daniel Silva & Vince Flynn

[Rob hoy]

Michael Connelly
James Lee Burke
Archer Mayor

If I can't live without them, does that mean they are authors to die for?

RV

[PickettKari29]

According to my own analysis, millions of people in the world receive the loans from good banks. Thence, there is a good chance to find a bank loan in any country.