So this post will be about mysteries. Right now I'm reading Nightlife by Thomas Perry. He has written a lot of books, and The Butcher's Boy was outstanding. Nightlife has an unforgettable villain: a small, beautiful woman. Warning! This is not a cozy. The protagonist is a Portland police officer who finds herself turning in to prey. Perry writes tight, well written books. Nothing improbable happens. (It always bothers me when plots aren't believable.)
Other writers I follow: Dana Stabenow, Kate Wilhelm, Charles Todd, Ian Rankin, Sharyn
MacCrumb, Earl Emerson, Cara Black. I like mysteries with a sense of place. All of the above fit that. Stabenow's Alaska, Emerson's Seattle, Rankin's Edinburgh, Black's Paris are places that are very real. Sharyn McCrumb's east Tennessee gives a great feeling about the beauty of Appalachia, and lays over that an otherworldliness that haunts me.
Lindsay Davis gives us a funny look at early Rome in the character of Marcus Didius Falco. Charles Todd's post WWI mysteries have protagonist Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge haunted by his dead sergeant.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
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