Art courtesy of David Teniers the Younger 1610-1690
So many crime novels, so many good
authors, so little time. Do you cross borders for books? Travel around the
world via the printed page or app to sample a recommended author? How many
authors of crime, suspense, noir, cozy and detective fiction that you read come
from a nation other than your own?
As an American, I read Nancy Drew during
childhood, later learned about the Navajo Tribal Police with Tony Hillerman’s
Jim Chee and Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, studied the alphabet with Sue Grafton,
and the law with John Grisham. I read every book written by Dennis Lehane and
Elizabeth George. Scott Turow’s Presumed
Innocent had me on the edge of my seat and Mario Puzo’s The Godfather is said to have enthralled
the mob as well as his readers. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird remains a must for any author while Walter
Mosley’s writing entertained a president as well as many of us who borrowed the
book from the library and...for a book I return to whenever I need to escape I
choose Jack Finney’s Time and Again.
I admit to being hooked by British
detectives. I’d go anywhere with Colin Dexter’s Inspector Morse and cannot put down the Dalziel and Pascoe mysteries by Reginald Hill. Daphne du Maurier
wrote Rebecca—I’m sure—for the romantic
teen-ager that was once me—there’s still a bit of the romantic hanging around my
book shelves and P.D. James with her Commander
Adam Dalgliesh is on my top shelf. I join every lover of mysteries by
begging and borrowing every Sherlock
Holmes written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the Miss Marples and Hercule
Poirots penned by Dame Agatha Christie. Then there’s J.J. Marric a.k.a.
John Creasey who wrote about Commander
George Gideon.
Canada
is home to Louise Penny and her Inspector
Armand Gamache—her newest came out this month. Israel
has Batya Gur with Detective Michael Ohayon. The Welsh gifted us with Ian
Rankin and the fun loving Alexander McCall Smith. The French are known for
George Simenon’s Inspector Maigret. Italy
for Umberto Eco and The Name of the Rose
and Russia Feodor Dostoyevsky’s works live on—think of Crime and Punishment. Swedish crime novels are in today—what
American can resist Steig Larson’s heroine? Then there is the Wallender series by Henning Mankell with
his unshaven, melancholy hero.
What country do you reside in, where do
the characters you write about live and which “crime” authors have you read that
are from other nations?
Bests,
Elise
