Week 11 and the K's are up for attention on this year's hike through the
Crime Fiction Alphabet. Other bloggers picks can be found over at
Mysteries in Paradise, where Kerrie collates and organises things for us all.
I'm spoilt for choice this week, ignoring the likes of Jonathan Kellerman, Stephen King, Jonathan King and Day Keene but still presenting a strong line-up.
I was briefly tempted to trash the two Marek Krajewski books I've read, but why bother? Let's accentuate the positives in the genre.
King, Kostoff, Koenig.....3 enjoyed!
Danny King – The
Burglar Diaries
King has had a few laddish crime books out, including further
diaries entries – Hitman, Pornographer and Bank-robber. Probably not everyone’s
cup of tea, but it amused and entertained me when I read it maybe 10 years or
so ago. I’ll get back to this and the further entries at some point in the
future, assuming I stop buying more books.
The first-person
account of petty thief Bex: a bit of a geezer, who, with long-time
partner-in-crime Ollie, just about gets by on the money he makes from
house-breaking in small-time suburbia.
Lynn Kostoff = The
Long Fall
A much under-rated author who deserves a higher profile and
a wider audience. I absolutely loved this when I read it exactly a year ago. It
must have been good because my wife enjoyed it also, when my books passed over
to her can be hit and miss. I have tracked down his other two books – A Choice Of
Nightmares and Late Rain but haven’t yet cracked the spines on them.
In sun-baked Phoenix, Arizona, this
never-predictable tale tosses into its antic mix a dead father, his two
sons–one a small-time ex-con with a consistent genius for sabotaging his own
best interests, the other a straight, uptight solid citizen with a moneymaking
chain of dry-cleaning stores and a restive ex-stewardess of a wife named
Evelyn.
Recently released from prison for possession of a
truckload of black-market saguaro cacti-and in deep debt to an unforgiving crank
dealer, Jimmy Coates returns home only to discover that his brother has cut him
out of his inheritance. A not-unjustifiable desire to settle old scores and new
sends Jimmy on a robbery spree that wipes out four of his brother’s
dry-cleaning establishments. But when he finds himself tumbling for a
mutinously sexy Evelyn, the impulse to vengeance reverses itself.
Unwittingly, however, Jimmy has already set in
motion a series of dangerous consequences-adultery, blackmail, love,
betrayal-that culminate in a blueprint for murder. And it could be Jimmy
himself who is taking the long fall.
“[c]raftily written noir thriller…[d]eft,
oddball entertainment.”
—Publisher’s Weekly
“[t]here is
some genuine suspense and dark humor here. Recommend Kostoff to fans of Carl
Hiaasen and Corson Hirschfeld.”
—Booklist
“This is a
novel that is hard to put down—a quick read. Kostoff has all the moves, all the
language down pat for a fast-paced noir thriller.”
—RT Book Reviews
Joseph Koenig
– Floater
This one of
the early crime fiction books that made me fall in love with the genre and set
down my reading roots here. I probably read this early 90’s and was blown away
by it. Details are hazy now, but I look forward to re-reading it at some point.
It was nominated for an Edgar Award in 1987. Koenig followed it up with a few
other books, before “disappearing” from the scene for a good few years. He
re-surfaced last year with a new book, False Negative.
Review
"A fast-paced book, well-plotted, with a devastating ending . . . A
splendid procedural expressed in sharp, economical, yet sensitive prose."
The New York Times Book Review
"A dandy first novel, heavy shades of Elmore
Leonard . . . Mordant humor, snappy dialogue, and frequent plot
twists."
Kirkus Reviews
"A stunning debut . . . The murderer is the
slickest, most charming madman around."
Providence, Rhode Island, Journal
"An eerie, gripping tale . . .Cleverly plotted
and filled with wonderfully drawn characters."
Philadelphia Daily News
"A tightly written and fast-paced book. Koenig, a
former reporter, knows how to weave a taut and mesmerizing mystery with
well-drawn characters."
South Bend, Indiana, Tribune
From the Inside Flap
A wildlife officer hauled in the corpse from a stagnant pool near the
Fakahatchee Strand in the Everglades. This "floater" was the ex-wife
of Sheriff Buck White, now strangled and discarded in Florida's all-purpose
dumping ground.
White's remorse and vow of vengeance are diverted by a
series of missing person cases. The Miami police feel that a murder-and-larceny
team is using White's jurisdiction as a hiding place for themselves. They
are also using it for the shallow graves of their victims.
White's tenacious investigation uncovers a pattern
behind the series of murders threatening the lonely--and wealthy--women of
Florida's Gold Coast. The killer is a man of uncommon resource and wicked
intelligence. But he may be wrong to underestimate a hard working country
lawman motivated by revenge.
In this stunning debut, crime reporter Joseph Koenig
profiles society's most elusive and vicious criminal: the serial killer. The
author explores the cunning and cruel reason of a murderer--and of the man who
tracks him down--in the remote and savage beauty of the Everglades bayous.
Kerr, Kerrigan, Knowles........3 unread.
Philip Kerr – March Violets
I have it unread for a few years now I’m afraid, though I did come close
a wee while ago. I had a borrowed copy of the Berlin Noir trilogy in my car,
ready to start at some point, when my car caught fire and although the book
didn’t burn by the time the fire brigade soaked it, my loaner was unreadable.
Purchased my own copy maybe 7 years ago, but obviously haunted by the fire I
never got back to it!
Publisher's Weekly
The brutality and corruption of Nazi
Germany serve as the backdrop for this impressive debut mystery novel.
Scottish-born Kerr re-creates the period accurately and with verve; the novel
reeks of the sordid decade that saw Hitler's rise to power. Bernhard Gunther is
a hard-boiled Berlin detective who specializes in tracking down missing
persons--mostly Jews. He is summoned by a wealthy industrialist to find the
murderer of his daughter and son-in-law, killed during the robbery of a
priceless diamond necklace. Gunther quickly is catapulted into a major
political scandal involving Hitler's two main henchmen, Goering and Himmler.
The search for clues takes Gunther to morgues overflowing with Nazi victims;
raucous nightclubs; the Olympic games where Jesse Owens tramples the theory of
Aryan racial superiority; the boudoir of a famous actress; and finally to the
Dachau concentration camp. Fights with Gestapo agents, shoot-outs with
adulterers, run-ins with a variety of criminals, and dead bodies in unexpected
places keep readers guessing to the very end. Narrator Gunther is a spirited
guide through the chaos of 1930s Berlin and, more important, a detective cast
in the classic mold. Kerr is at work on a sequel to this sparkling and witty
tale.
Gene Kerrigan – The Midnight Choir
Unread and ignored
maybe 6 years or so, I had this copy on my shelf before subsequently acquiring
and reading both; Dark Times In The City and more recently The Rage. My
favourite Irish author, without a doubt, apologies to Bruen, Burke, Hughes,
Brennan and Bateman.
A sophisticated crime story of contemporary Ireland, The Midnight Choir teems with moral
dilemmas as Dublin emerges as a city of ambiguity: a newly scrubbed face hiding
a criminal culture of terrible variety. Small-time criminals have become millionaire
businessmen, the poor are still struggling to survive, and the police face a
world where the old rules no longer apply.
Mike Knowles – Darwin’s Nightmare
I acquired this trilogy maybe 2 years ago, sucked in by
Thomas Perry’s blurb. I’m hoping to read it soon before falling too far behind
with Knowles output. He had a fourth book out last year – Never Play Another
Man’s Game, with another book out this year also.
"An angry charge into a bloody
underworld free-for-all where a fighter's survival is earned by what he'll do
after the bullet hits him. Mike Knowles is a strong new voice in crime fiction."
Thomas
Perry
Wilson has spent his entire life under the radar.
Few people know who he is and even less know how to find him. Only two people
even know his real occupation, carrying out confidential--and illegal--jobs for
a very bad man. But one day he crosses the line, saving his friends and earning
the hatred of a vengeful mob boss. He survives only by delving even deeper into
the underworld of Hamilton. His next job is deceptively simple--transporting a
seemingly harmless bag whose contents are both secret and dangerously valuable.
Soon Wilson discovers who the bag's real owners are and just how badly they
want it back.
Week 12 next week and the L's are in town.
