A ? for Ben

[Ross Warren]

Which writers would you recommend reading with regards to short crime fiction?

[tomkent]

Arthur Conan Doyle!

[benedictjjones]

moden stuff? you can't go wrong with the Akashic Noir City Series (anthology based around a certain city or area e.g 'Brooklyn Noir', 'London Noir', 'Indian Country Noir'), some of the series offer a mix of old and new crime stories as well. i'm a massive fan of this series and currently have 14 in my collection - i'd recommened 'Brooklyn...', 'Istanbul..' or 'Indian Country...' first.

also some of the 'Mammoth books of...' crime anths are pretty good - 'Mammoth Book of best International Crime' is one i'd recommend.

but here are some authors:

Ken Bruen - i love his long stuff but his shorts are good as well
Ray Banks - his PI started in shorts and moved to novels (not sure if bruen or banks have propr collections of their crime shorts out)
Ian Rankin - his rebus shorts are great, try 'a good hanging' collection'

anthologies are a good bet as a lot of really good crim authors don't have collections out. if you can check out the 'Do Not Press' anthologies.

something to consider is that a lot of crime 'novels' are very short (novella length for some genres...) and that i feel is where the real 'gems' lie:

'Yardie' - Victor Headly (one of the books that made me want to be a writer)
'Devil in a Blue Dress' - Walter Mosley
'A German Requiem' - Phillip Kerr (my favourite but it is the third in Berin Noir trilogy)
'the McDead' - Ken Bruen (although you should start with 'taming the alien' and 'a white arrest')
'the getaway' or 'the killer insde me' -Jim Thompson

hope that helps

[tomkent]

For hard as nails action movie styled detectives I like the Jack Reacher books by Lee Child.

[benedictjjones]

^my uncle gave me a pile of the reacher novels last year i read them and got some enjoyment out of them BUT reacher is just too good - both morally and in combat for my liking.
i find him quite two-dimensional but there's no doubt of his popularity - i reckon it's something to do with people wanting there to be some kind of Paladin out there. personally i prefer the mora bankruptcy of say Cal Innes (Ray Banks' Manc PI) or Easy Rawlins (Walter Mosleys character) who, although they try to do the right thing, are more real in the compromises they make - and the fact they get their heads kicked in!

[tomkent]

Yeah the last one resolved the cliff hanger from the previous book, in which Reacher was trapped in a bunker crawl space as the bunker was filled with aviation feul that was ignited... By saying Reacher had pulled some muscles. He was BLOWN THE FUCK UP but he had pulled muscles... Most my mind is rebelling against that as "Bollocks and Bullshit", but let's be honest: I like Rambo films, I like hard boiled detectives, and the 33% of the Reacher books where he actually does some detecting are fun reads that you can get through in a day and find entertaining.

Just never EVER read more than one in a week.

[stu]

I like Andrew Vachss short stories. His Born Bad collection is my favourite. Short, nasty stories. There's some SF and horror in there too. And some of the longer stories in the book are fun too -- the Cross novellas read a bit like X-rated A-Team episodes but they're still enjoyable.

[stu]

Totally forgot to comment on Lee Child. Really like what I've read of his Jack Reacher series -- I think I've read the first five offhand -- and also the two short stories of his that I've read. One of them -- a Jack Reacher tale no less -- is online at www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/opinion/07child.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

[benedictjjones]

i'll now add Frank Bill to this list as his collection was amazing

[benedictjjones]

You also can't go wrong with a bit of Paul D Brazill, Kate Laity is great and has put together some wonderful Noir anthologies, Joel Lane's crime chapbook "Do Not Pass Go" is a must for any true fan of the genre and shows just how sorely Joel will be missed by both the crime and the horror community.