The Crime genre - what is hot in crime books?
By Peter on Feb 13, 2008 in Crime Books, The World of Books
I suspect this is a great question with a multitude of possible answers. Like beauty, hot-ness most likely resides in the eye of the beholder. Even when the topic is crime books.
Regardless of the pitfalls involved in raising and attempting to answer this question, Maxim Jakubowski of Guardian attempted to do this a few years ago. His answer seems a bit UK-centric, but is still of considerable interest. Here’s what he said:
So, who’s big today? Ferociously dark and realist Americans like Michael Connelly, Carl Hiaasen, Dennis Lehane, James Ellroy, Patricia Cornwell (queen of the forensics genre), Walter Mosley, Andrew Vachss and James Patterson. For legal thrillers, head for Scott Turow and John Grisham. Sleuthettes extraordinaire are on offer from Sara Paretsky, Linda Barnes, Marcia Muller, Sue Grafton, Janet Evanovich and Sarah Dunant. The younger British school is worth investigating: John Harvey, Ian Rankin, Stella Duffy, Nicholas Blincoe, Lauren Henderson, Mike Phillips and Lee Child. Those who swim in deep psychological waters include Val McDermid, Minette Walters, Mo Hayder and Reginald Hill, while the ever more popular historical mystery crowd includes Lindsey Davis and Steven Saylor (Roman remains); Ellis Peters (medieval monasticism); Peter Tremayne (Celtic crimes); Paul Doherty (twelth-century London) and Edward Marston (Domesday-era dirty deeds). Lastly, there are the entertainers: Dick Francis, Michael Pearce, Kinky Friedman, Mike Ripley.
Not a bad answer! Lots of interesting books, but, of course, being a few years old, this list completely misses a number of authors, like the rising stars of the Scandinavian Crime Author wave. That Sjöwall & Wahlöö is missing is somewhat strange. Still, a nice list and lots of stuff for the starting crime reader!
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