Crime Fiction Dossier

3 Favorite Books of 2008 - Part 6

Read this post to see what this is all about. For more favorites, see here.

Thomas Perry, author of Runner

• I'll take care of the easiest first: Barack Obama - Dreams from My Father. Everybody's heard of the author. Someone mentioned recently that he'll be the first President since Woodrow Wilson who could have made a living as a writer.
• Don DeLillo - Underworld. The novel was published in 1997. There's a kind of dreamy, slow apocalypse going on in DeLillo's work that gives the reader time to notice how brilliantly written the books are.
• Joseph Mitchell - Up in the Old Hotel. This is actually a re-issued collection of four books written between 1943 and 1965: McSorley's Wonderful Saloon, Old Mr. Flood, The Bottom of the Harbor, and Joe Gould's Secret. Mitchell was one of the best writers for The New Yorker ever.

Jonathan Santlofer, author of The Murder Notebook

• Junot Diaz - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
• John Fowles - The French Lieutenant's Woman. I read this 20 years ago and loved it but it's even better the 2nd time around. I'd say one of the great novels and a must for writers.
• Phillip Roth - Everyman. Truly suicide material, but brilliant.

Hallie Ephron, author of Never Tell a Lie and critic (Boston Globe)

• Carolyn Wall - Sweeping Up Glass. A young widow is peacefully raising her grandson and taking care of her crazy mother on the side of a mountain in 1938 Kentucky when trespassers start shooting the local wolves and taking their as hunting trophies. This extraordinary debut novel, both a "what happened" and a "whodunit," explores survival and the guilt that can accompany it. The writing is filled with arresting images, bitter humor, and characters with palpable physical presence. The fresh voice of that clear-eyed narrator reminded me of Scout in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.
• Barbara Corrado Pope - Cezanne's Quarry. The author takes a whiff of historical evidence that artist Paul Cézanne had a love affair with a mysterious woman when he was painting the mountains and quarries of Aix-en-Provence, France, in 1885 and spins it into an elegant murder mystery.
• Jennifer McMahon - Island of Lost Girls. Rhonda Farr watches from her car by the gas pumps while a gold Volkswagen Beetle pulls up, and what is surely a tall man in a bunny suit hops out and helps little Ernestine Forcucci (her mother is in the store buying a lottery ticket) out of the backseat of her mother's car and abducts her. Like The Lovely Bones, despite grim and nearly unbearable subject matter, this book is un-put-downable from page 1.

Sean Doolittle, author of Safer

• Richard Russo - Empire Falls
• Dennis Lehane  - The Given Day
• Owen King - We're All In This Together: A Novella and Stories

Daniel Conway, agent at Writers House

• Megan Abbott - Queenpin
• Sean Chercover - Trigger City
• Charlie Houston - The Shotgun Rule

3 Favorite Books of 2008 - Part 5

Read this post to see what this is all about. For more favorites, see here.

Steve Berry, author of The Charlemagne Pursuit

• David Morrell - The Spy Who Came For Christmas. The master, David Morrell, returns with a terrific holiday spy drama. Proof positive that great things can come in small packages.
• William Berhnhardt - Nemesis. A terrific historical thriller dealing with Eliot Ness' final case, from the ultra-talented Bernhardt (to be published in January 2009).
• M.J. Rose - The Memorist. A spooky, action-adventure thriller that leaves you wanting more.

Jon Land, author of The Seven Sins

• Lee Child - Nothing to Lose. Child's latest entry is a quasi-allegorical tale that finds his nomadic series hero Jack Reacher laying waste to the evil in a town called Despair. Riveting, engaging, and masterful, this is Child at the height of his powers. And Reacher is the most original thriller hero since James Bond.
• James Lee Burke - Swan Peak. No year would be complete without an appearance by Burke's ever conflicted Dave Robicheaux. This time the action moves from storm-ravaged Louisiana to Montana where Robicheaux and joined-at-the-hip sidekick Clete Purcell find murder and mayhem lurking amidst the mountains in the form of a serial killer and old enemy. Another sizzling tale from one of America's preeminent novelists.
• Stephen Hunter - Night of Thunder. Bob Lee Swagger, Hunter's exceptional recurring hero, might be aging but his mind and trigger finger are as sharp as ever. This one takes the action to NASCAR country after the near murder of Swagger's daughter and features a colorful array of both bad guys and good. Superb in every way.

Tasha Alexander, author of A Fatal Waltz

• Dennis Lehane - The Given Day. Read it twice and loved it more the second time.
• Michael Cunningham - Flesh and Blood. His sentences are painfully beautiful: "She laughed too knowingly and wore tight skirts and would end in an apartment in Elmont or Uniondale, married to the fiercest, sexiest boy, who'd carve the years straight into her skin with his tempers and habits."
• Andrew Grant - Even. James Bond's got nothing on David Trevellyan. I can't think of a book I read this year that I more thoroughly enjoyed. Well written, perfectly paced, and smart.

Ali Karim, critic (Shots, January Magazine, etc.)

• Stieg Larsson - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Just when I thought there was nothing new in Crime Fiction, Larsson comes along and kicks me off my seat and proves to me that there are always treasures in the genre to be discovered. Taking the trappings and conventions of the genre he crafts a dark tale that features Lisabeth Salander, a unique protagonist in a crowed field.
• Linda Richards - Death Was the Other Woman. As the world lurches toward a great depression, we need to learn that we've been here before, but rarely with such insight. Blending the Great Depression in California with a cracking PI mystery, Richards is that other woman.
• Tom Rob Smith - Child 44. A remarkably brilliant debut that had me clutching the book with both hands as if my life depended upon me completing the book in a single sitting. Cold, Chilling, Original and with an insight that breaks your heart.

Nick Stone, author of The King of Swords

The three books I enjoyed most aren't crime fiction. My favorite novel was Slumberland by Paul Beatty (one of the funniest books I've read in a good while), the second was a true crime book called The Vienna Woods Killer and the third was another true crime read about Meyer Lansky, et al in Havana.

3 Favorite Books of 2008 - Part 4

Read this post to see what this is all about. For more favorites, see here.

Robert Crais, author of Chasing Darkness

• Eric Powell - The Goon. My find of the year is The Goon, a series of graphic novels/comic collections about a mob enforcer known only as The Goon, his boy Frankie (picture a psychopathic Little Orphan Annie with a penchant for shivs), and their Dante'-esque underworld comprised of the lost, the lonely, mutant fish, and, well, zombies. And all of this is brought to you by a mad genius named Eric Powell. I started with Nothin' But Misery, then put my life into a four-wheel skid to devour  Wicked Inclinations, My Murderous Childhood, Rough Stuff, and the entire backlist of Powell's brilliant work.
• Barry Glassner - The Culture of Fear. Ever late to the party, I only this past year discovered Glassner's book, which was original published in 1999. A thoughtful, well-written, fascinating book about why and how Americans are being programmed to fear. The sky isn't falling. Really.
• Nell Casey - Unholy Ghost: Writers on Depression. Another oldie-but-goodie, as it was originally published in 2001. Essays on depression by twenty-three writers, including the likes of Larry McMurtry, William Styron, Ann Beattie, and Russell Banks. Ostensibly on the subject of depression, this book is a treasure chest of human insight and a clinic on characterization. Writers interested in creating characters of more complexity and depth would do well to read this book.

Paul Guyot, screenwriter and short story writer

• Larry McMurtry - Lonesome Dove. My fourth time through, and I've still yet to read a book I like more.
• Richard Price - Lush Life. I love Price's voice, and I was hooked from the beginning by the intriguing non-story stories.
• I'm torn between hard and soft. What? Sean Chercover's Trigger City was even better than his debut (which is saying a lot). Garth Stein's The Art of Racing in the Rain is melodramatic, sappy, and completely got to me on a deeply personal level.
• I must add an Honorable Mention for Ross Thomas' classic Chinaman's Chance, my most fun read of the year. Thanks to the suave, balding, erudite raconteur who turned me on to it.

Keith Kahla, Executive Editor at St. Martin's Press

None of these are new books, perhaps not even recent. What can I say? I'm probably a decade behind in my to-be-read pile...

• Michelle de Kretser - The Hamilton Case
• Charles R. Saunders - Imaro
• Betty MacDonald - Anybody Can Do Anything

S. J. Rozan, author of The Shanghai Moon

• Michael Chabon - The Yiddish Policeman's Union
• Ed Lin - Waylaid
• Abraham Rodriguez, South by South Bronx

Otto Penzler, bookseller, publisher, critic

• Tom Rob Smith - Child 44
• Thomas H. Cook - Master of the Delta
• Michael Connelly - The Brass Verdict
  

Sun-Times' Favorites

The book reviewers who write for the Chicago Sun-Times -- and it turns out there's a lot of them -- select their favorite books of the year.

Given what I wrote here, it's no surprise that my pick was Richard Price's Lush Life.

3 Favorite Books of 2008 - Part 3

Read this post to see what this is all about. For more favorites, see here.

David Morrell, author of The Spy Who Came for Christmas

Because I needed to write an essay about Geoffrey Household's classic thriller Rogue Male for ITW's upcoming anthology Thrillers: 100 Must Reads, I happily reread the book, one of my favorites. I was reminded yet again of how brilliant Household is and couldn't resist going back to a couple of other gripping novels by him, Watcher in the Shadows and Dance of the Dwarfs.

Ken Bruen, author of Once Were Cops

• Tony Black - Gutted
• Sean Chercover - Trigger City
• Alex Sokaloff - The Price

Linda McFall, Senior Editor at Mira Books

I've disqualified any books that I edited.

• Joshua Ferris - Then We Came to the End
• Laura Lippman - What the Dead Know
• Brunonia Barry - The Lace Reader

Louis Bayard, author of The Black Tower and critic (Salon.com, Washington Post, etc.)

• Craig Johnson - Another Man's Moccasins. I was a big fan of this beautifully crafted Western mystery.
• Matt Bondurant - The Wettest County in the World. I loved this book, which tells the story of Bondurant's grandfather and great-uncles, real-life Virginia moonshiners.
• Jane Mayer's - The Dark Side. A chilling look at the "war on terror." With its outsized villains, it's the most Dickensian book I've read all year.

Kevin Wignall, author of Who Is Conrad Hirst?

• Haruki Murakami - Sputnik Sweetheart. The first Murakami I've read, very much a mystery of sorts and quite beguiling.
• Tarjei Vesaas - Spring Night. First published in 1964 in Norway, a simple tale of two siblings left alone for the evening, encountering unexpected guests. It's beautiful and lyrical, and also a master-class in maintaining tension even when there's no action.
• Blake Snyder - Save the Cat: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need. This was recommended by a serious Hollywood insider as the one book he wished he'd seen when he was starting out. I agree, and it proved hugely useful when I was writing my first screenplay this year.

3 Favorite Books of 2008 - Part 2

Read this post to see what this is all about. For more favorites, see here.

Harlan Coben, author of Hold Tight

• Marissa de los Santos - Belongs to Me. I just dug it -- funny and wise and moving, de los Santos was my "find" of 2008.
• Analdur Indrisson - Jar City. Great detective series out of Iceland. I just got the third. This one is the first.
• Jeff Kinney - Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I borrowed this from my nine-year old son. Funniest book I've read all year -- and it's for kids!

Neil Nyren, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Putnam

• Kate Atkinson - When Will There Be Good News?
• Charlie Huston - The Shotgun Rule
• Stieg Larsson - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Libby Fischer Hellmann, author of Easy Innocence

• Val McDermid - A Distant Echo. Published several years ago, but a beautiful read that kept me guessing almost to the end.
• Daniel Silva - Moscow Rules. Elegant prose, multi-dimensional characters, and a riveting story.
• Carlos Ruiz Zafón - Shadow of the Wind. Also not a new book. Took me a while to get into it, but I'm glad I didn't give up. Haunting.

Patrick Anderson, critic (Washington Post)

• Simon Lewis - Bad Traffic
• Stieg Larsson - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Jonathan Barnes - The Somnambulist

Gregg Hurwitz, author of The Crime Writer

• Paul Bowles - The Complete Short Stories. No one writes violence like Bowles. In that sort of, "Hey man, I'm not making this shit up, just telling you how it went down" style.
• Jesse Kellerman - Trouble. A sumptuous dirty little tale. Great language, great pacing, great characterization -- just great top to bottom. What a talent.
• Brian Selznick - The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Such a delightful book. I bought it for my niece, kept it for myself (and gave her a lump of coal instead).

3 Favorite Books of 2008 - Part 1

Read this post to see what this is all about. For more favorites, see here.

George Pelecanos, author of The Turnaround

• Denis Johnson - Tree of Smoke. A big, ambitious Vietnam novel that recalls the best of Robert Stone. Don’t hate on this because it won the National Book Award. Occasionally those folks get it right.
• David Benioff - City of Thieves. A funny, violent, and moving adventure story, set during the siege of Leningrad. Benioff’s dark fable had me reading deep into the night.
• John Williams - Stoner. First published in 1965, Stoner is a revelation: unassuming, superbly crafted, topnotch American fiction.

Lawrence Block, author of Hit and Run

• David Benioff - City of Thieves
• Matthew Goodman - The Sun and the Moon

  And, immodestly:

• Lawrence Block - Hit and Run. Because I really liked the way this one turned out, and I've never had a stronger response from readers and reviewers.

David J. Montgomery, critic (Chicago Sun-Times, etc.)

• Richard Price - Lush Life. Best thing I read all year. Straddling the line between literary and genre fiction, Price crafted one of the year's most impressive and entertaining books, a gritty crime story with incandescent prose and razor-sharp dialogue.
• Tom Rob Smith - Child 44. The best debut of the year and almost worth all the hype it got. Although the thriller aspects of the plot are only average, overall it's a fascinating, dark and impressive novel.
• Gregg Hurwitz - Trust No One. I read this last summer and it's not coming out until next summer, but it's one to watch for. Hurwitz has written some good thrillers in the past, but he surpasses himself with this one.

M. J. Rose, author of The Memorist

• Louis Bayard - The Black Tower. A first rate historical with an element of suspense.
• Wilke Collins - The Woman in White. A classic!
• Paul Elwork - The Tea House. A debut ghost story that blew me away and I became an evangelist for. It's going to be republished by Penguin.

Ace Atkins, author of Wicked City

• Megan Abbott - Queenpin. A gritty poem with heart. I loved this book.
• Ross Macdonald - Instant Enemy. No wonder Eudora Welty thought the man was a genius. One of Archer's best cases.
• Elmore Leonard - Up in Honey's Room. The man gets better and better. He's an absolute master writer.

3 Favorite Books of 2008

As promised, I've dusted off the 3 Favorite Books poll and done a new survey for 2008. I'm asking a bunch of authors and other publishing people to name their 3 favorite books they read this year. The books don't have to be crime fiction, or fiction at all. They don't even have to have been published in 2008. The only requirement is that the person read it this year and it was one of their favorites.

I'll be posting the picks periodically over the next couple weeks as the responses come in and I get everything together.

You can see last year's picks here: 3 Favorite Books of 2007.

Advice for aspiring writers

I wrote this as a comment on another website and decided to share it here as well. This is common sense stuff, but it bears repeating.

You've finished your first novel -- congratulations! Now your work is really going to begin. Finding a good agent or publisher is a challenge, so you have to be both smart and persistent. (And lucky wouldn't hurt either.)

Do your research. Find out everything you can about someone before you do business with them. Ask questions. Who else does the agent represent? Who else does the publisher publish? Are their books available at bookstores? Do they get reviewed?

These days, anyone with a credit card can call themselves a publishers. Most of them are nothing but con men.

Always remember: publishers pay you -- not the other way around. If anyone (editor, agent, publisher) asks you for money, run in the opposite direction.

This is a tough business and getting tougher all the time, which means the opportunities for the crooks will only increase. Don't let yourself be taken advantage of.

Ask the Critic: "Best of" List for 2008?

C. T. Henry asks:

Are you going to post a BEST OF list for 2008?

A couple weeks ago I went over my reading list for the year to narrow it down to a list of the ten best...And the truth is, I couldn't really come up with a list. I read a lot of books in the past year that were good, but very few that were great. So the selections feel like they'd be even more arbitrary than usual.

Overall, it seems like 2008 was an okay, but not great year for crime fiction. I think it was an especially weak year for debut novels. (On that short list I put together, there was only one debut novel.)

I enjoyed a lot of books by the usual suspects -- Connelly, Pelecanos, Lippman, Block, Ferrigno, Crais, etc. -- but putting together a list of books with familiar names like that just doesn't seem very useful. You already know those people's books and know that they're good.

However, I think I can probably come up with three books that knocked my socks off, so maybe I'll do another "3 Favorites" poll instead.