Crime Fiction Dossier

Read This Book: "The Girl Next Door" by Brad Parks

Brad Parks is one of the best new mystery writers to come along in the past several years. Not only does he have talent, but he has an original voice that makes his books stand out from the pack. His first two novels were winners (both of awards and cheers from the fans) and his third is no different.

The Girl Next Door finds Carter Ross back on the beat, reporting on crime on the streets of Newark, New Jersey. Newark has more than enough crime to keep any dozen reporters busy, but Carter's feeling kind of bored until he comes across an obituary in his own newspaper. One of the paper's carriers was killed in a hit-and-run accident. Carter decides to write a story about her, but when he starts investigating her life, he uncovers details that he never expected to find.

Carter Ross is the best thing going in Parks' books. He's smart, funny and original. Sure he's a bit of a button-down pain in the ass at times, but you have to respect his commitment to telling the truth in his stories, regardless of the cost. The Girl Next Door is like the rest of Parks' work: a gritty mystery (although it's not dark), with plenty of humor and even a little sex. All in all, it adds up to a very entertaining story.

The Girl Next Door is highly recommended as a good read.

Read This Book: "Headstone" by Ken Bruen

I once called Ken Bruen "the dark poet of contemporary noir" (yes, I'm quoting myself -- sue me) and his latest novel, Headstone, confirms that his status is unchallenged. This is a fascinating, powerful and, yes, dark crime novel that only enhances Bruen's already amazing reputation.

Irish private eye Jack Taylor is back for his ninth go-round with demons both natural and otherwise. A gang of young thugs is preying on some of Galway's innocents, and Taylor takes it on himself to stop them.

Headstone is typical of the series. The plot is straightforward, but elegantly wrought. It's violent, but not bloody. The prose is beautiful, idiosyncratic and evocative. As always, Bruen's style is uniquely his own. Nobody else can write like this and they'd be crazy to try.

Venerable editor and bookseller Otto Penzler could not have chosen a better novel with which to relaunch the Mysterious Press, his publishing imprint now located at Grove/Atlantic. Headstone is one of the year's best reading pleasures.

Read This Book: "What a Wonderful World" by Paul Guyot

When I read The Blue Religion, the short story anthology edited by Michael Connelly in which "What a Wonderful World" first appeared, I was especially impressed with a few of the stories. One of them was Connelly's, of course. Stories by Alafair Burke and Ed Hoch were likewise commendable. But perhaps my favorite was from Paul Guyot.

Guyot is a veteran screenwriter -- he's worked on shows like "Judging Amy," "Leverage" and "Felicity" -- so it's no surprise that he knows how to write. But the short story medium is very different from screenwriting. Writing great shorts requires razor-sharp storytelling and elegant prose. As "What a Wonderful World" demonstrates, Guyot's got those skills in spades.

"What a Wonderful World" is the story of an obsessed cop and his search for the killer of a young woman. It's dark, atmospheric and edgy. The story moves to a jazzy rhythm, shifting from a hard-driving bop to Tommy Dorsey swing to an elegiac New Orleans funeral march. This is gorgeous stuff -- moving and real, and definitely worth your time.

Note: This is a story, not a book. But you should read it anyway.

Read This Book: "Getting Off" by Lawrence Block

In over 50 years of publishing, Lawrence Block has written more great words than almost any writer you can think of. Terms like "master" and "legend" get thrown around to often -- but if you wanted to throw a couple of them Block's way, I wouldn't argue with you. Yes, he really is that good.

For almost 20 years now, whenever anyone has asked who my favorite writers are, I've always answered "Ross Thomas and Lawrence Block." And two decades on, my answer is still the same. They are both essential authors that anyone interested in popular fiction simply has to read.

For Getting Off, the book chosen by Hard Case Crime to relaunch their publishing line, Block has resurrected an old pseudonym to grace a new book. "Jill Emerson" is the pen name that he used for several books back in the Sixties. Most of them were sex romps of one type or another -- which is appropriate, given that Getting Off is a sex romp of one type or another. But it's not a type we're used to seeing.

The subtitle of the book is "A Novel of Sex & Violence" so readers should consider themselves warned, because it's filled with both. Kit Tolliver, the protagonist of the novel is a woman who loves having sex with men. The problem is, what to do with them afterward? And there she's found a rather tidy, if blood-thirsty solution. (This is where the violence part comes in.) Much like the preying mantis, she first loves the men, then she leaves them -- at room temperature.

When it occurs to her one day that earlier in her life she had relations with several men whom she didn't kill, it starts to bother her. She's not the kind of woman who likes to leave things undone. Thus, she sets out on a detective mission of sorts, tracking down her former lovers, and setting things "right."

Getting Off is a shocking book, for those of us who still have that capacity. (I'm not too sure about myself.) It is certainly not for every taste, but it is brilliantly written. It's a sexy, violent (there goes that subtitle again), disturbing, darkly humorous, and immensely entertaining novel that prompts some interesting questions about the dichotomy between love (lust?) and hate, fidelity, and how one's personality (and pathology) are shaped by the things that happen to us.

For a man in supposed retirement, Block just keeps on doing what he's always done: write great books. Let's hope this "retirement" lasts a very long time.

Read This Book: "Buried Secrets" by Joseph Finder

 

There's a special joy that comes from watching a master at the top of his game. Kasparov sitting over a chessboard. Heifetz playing the violin. LeBron winning a champion--well, scratch that last one. But you can add to the list the pleasure of reading a thriller written by Joseph Finder. Finder's been at this game for a long time now and he knows what he's doing in a way that most authors simply can't match, a fact he demonstrates yet again with Buried Secrets. 

Buried Secrets features the return of Nick Heller, the "private spy" introduced in the outstanding Vanished. Heller is a former Black Ops agent who now plies his trade in the private sector, utilizing his extensive skills, smarts and contacts to work the shadowy world where corporate, military and intelligence interests meet. 

As the story opens, a young woman is out partying with her friends in a hip Boston nightclub. She meets a guy -- the wrong guy, of course -- and goes home with him, mostly against her will. When she wakes from her drug-induced stupor, she finds herself the victim of a horrific kidnapping. 

It turns out that the girl's father is one of Heller's oldest friends, a billionaire hedge fund manager who'll do anything to get his daughter back. Or will he? The more Heller investigates the case, the more secrets he uncovers, and the further away he keeps finding himself from the truth. 

Buried Secrets is a perfect example of a white-knuckle thriller: suspenseful and exciting, with good action scenes, interesting characters and lots of smart technical details and inside info that take the reader behind the curtain to catch a glimpse of the shadows. 

There are few writers working today who could pull off a book like this with such skill and panache -- and none who could do it while making it all look so effortless. Buried Secrets cements Finder's status as the master of the modern thriller.

Read This Book: "Plan B" by Joseph Finder

This isn't a book -- it's a short story for the Kindle and other formats -- but you should read it anyway. It's free, and worth every penny.

Joseph Finder is known for his best-selling novels, but occasionally he produces an entertaining piece of short fiction as well. He's done just that with Plan B, an action-packed story featuring his new series character Nick Heller. 

Heller is working in Barcelona in Plan B, on a mission to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a Ukrainian billionaire. He's staging a raid on the palatial villa of a wealthy Spaniard, but what he finds inside surprises even him. 

I don't care for short stories as much as I do novels, even though they can be quite satisfying when done well. This can be a problem especially with the thriller genre, where unfolding a scenario and putting it through the paces in just a short span of words is daunting. 

Finder does an excellent job of it, though, telling a fun and fast-paced story that is satisfying on its own accord, and also whets the reader's appetite for more Heller. (Along those lines, this Amazon Single also includes a preview of Finder's new novel featuring Heller, which will be released later this summer.) In the grand tradition of O Henry and Poe, Plan B has a nice twist to keep the reader guessing, something I always enjoy in a short story, and it finishes with an open-ended climax, allowing us to imagine what happens next. 

Although Plan B will likely appeal more to readers who have already read Vanished, the first Nick Heller novel, it can certainly be enjoyed on its own. Finder never fails to deliver.

Read This Book: "A Drop of the Hard Stuff" by Lawrence Block

If you're looking for a good mystery, you'll find none better than A Drop of the Hard Stuff by Lawrence Block. Block is the modern master of the PI novel and this is one of his best. It features a very welcome return for detective Matt Scudder, one of the best characters ever. I loved this book.