Required Study for Crime Writers

I am one of those traditionalists who believe that, in order to write a good crime novel today, you must have read and studied the greats of the genre. 

So I've composed a list of the books that I believe should be read by those who aspire to greatness in the mystery genre.   In an area as wide-ranging as the crime novel, this was no small task, and I'm sure there are those who will not only argue with some of my selections but also point out the great works I've not included.  Let me just say that I could have listed at least a couple of dozen more books, but I wanted to keep the list as succinct as possible.

So, in no particular order:

JAMES PATTERSON / ALONG CAME A SPIDER

Patterson takes quite a lot of guff for having become a factory; and not all of that criticism is unwarranted.  Amidst the criticism, though, it is easy to forget that Patterson wrote some stellar books.  The serial killer is here to stay, no matter how many people try to dimiss it, and Along Came a Spider is a serial-killer book par excellence.  The plotting is tight and superb; the ending is a hum-dinger.  Patterson also picked up on something Mary Higgins Clark figured out early in her career--that casual readers like short chapters--and used this format to create a maintain suspense.  I've always felt that Alex Cross and his family are a bit treacly, and I've always been surprised that Patterson doesn't get more flack for attempting to speak as an African-American man.  But Along Came a Spider, and some of the later books that Patterson wrote, deserve a place in every writer's collection, not only as a model for telling a story but also as a lesson in how to write commercial, popular fiction.

MARY HIGGINS CLARK / WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN?

Clark, I have long felt, does not get the credit she deserves.  At almost every convention I attend, I hear mystery writers (whether published or aspiring) carping about her work.  The usual complaints are that the writing is not up to par or that the characterizations are simplistic.  Neither complaint is justified (I guess we'll chock them up to sour grapes). Where Are the Children?, her first novel of suspense, is a model of spare prose and intense suspense.  Clark took a simple premise--a nightmare experience happening to the same woman not once, but twice--and spun a classic tale.  I recommend this to writers who feel that complicated is better, as a reminder that a strong story can stand on its own.  Clark's books have always been of manageable length, too, and I think that's one of the keys to her success. 

GEORGE DAWES GREEN / THE CAVEMAN'S VALENTINE

Crime fiction may be, at its heart, formulaic, but the best books (and I say this especially to aspiring writers) need to stand out with something unique, different, exciting.  The Caveman's Valentine is not distinguished by its plot or its mystery, which is fairly standard.  Rather, it is a work of great imagination, a daring work that made a homeless, mentally ill man living in New York City's Inwood Park into the detective.  This is brave writing that found a wide audience; but more than that it is the type of brilliant writing that we find so rarely.  Attempts at being "literary" usually fall flat on their face; the most literary of books are often the most quiet, as people like Barbara Pym and Penelope FitzGerald discovered early in their careers.  Green's book is literary in the best way; its appeal is widespread, and I have the utmost respect for it.

 

PATRICIA MOYES / WHO IS SIMON WARWICK?

The crime writer's mind has to work somewhat differently from that of the average person's mind.  In fact, it is the writer's job to approach stories and characters from an angle that is simultaneously recognizable to the reader and completely unexpected.  Moyes was a very competent writer of cozies featuring happily married Henry and Emmy Tibbett, but with Who Is Simon Warwick? she hit a home run that I believe should be read by all serious mystery writers.  The book, published in 1978, was far ahead of its time, presaging news that would make the headlines and become a staple of tabloid gossip and daytime TV talk shows decades later.  I hesitate to go into more detail because I really want more people to read this book.  I just will say that Moyes treated a sensitive subject with great respect while also using it is as the lynchpin in a fabulous mystery that completely pulls the rug out from underneath the reader.  And that's what I think the best crime fiction does--it slaps you across the face and opens your eyes.

MARGARET MILLAR / THE LISTENING WALLS

A longtime staple in crime fiction--one that we're not seeing as much of these days--is the surprise ending.  While Millar has much to recommend her as a writer (in a previous post I opined that she is perhaps the best crime writer in history), her ability to write the surprise ending is exceeded by no one.  Millar was famous not for a surprise in the last chapter, but rather a surprise in the last paragraph or last line of the book.  I consider The Listening Walls to be one of her finest books, and I list it here because this is the best example I can give of a surprise ending that knocks the reader off his or her feet.  It is the perfect mixture of a psychologically acute character study coming together with an ingenious plot.  I find it downright scandalous that the book isn't in print any longer; but this is absolutely a must-read.  (Strangely enough, it is the book for which Millar won her Edgar, Beast in View, that I find to hold up the least well in 2009.)

IAIN PEARS/ AN INSTANCE OF THE FINGERPOST

Recent years have seen a renaissance in the popularity of the historical novel, and crime fiction is fortunate to have some highly competent historical writers who also know how to tell a good crime story.  Steven Saylor does a nice job; so does P.C. Doherty.  An Instance of the Fingerpost is, to me, worthy of study because it does so many things well.  Not only does it open a window into a period of history, it also uses multiple narrators to weave its deception.  For me, it is a case study of how to write a long book that does not bore readers--that, in fact, engages readers from the first page and does not let them go.  I think that writing a long book that seems short to readers is an accomplishment that few can claim, but Pears accomplished exactly that in Instance.  As a reader and editor, I am highly sensitive to length --rarely do I read a book of 400+ pages without thinkg, "50 [or 100] pages should have been cut."  One never has that feeling with Instance.

AGATHA CHRISTIE / AND THEN THERE WERE NONE

It's the best-selling crime novel of all time, and for good reason.  This is a book that can be enjoyed by people of any age, background, or literacy level.  It's not because the book's characters are so dazzlingly portrayed; it's because the story is so perfectly conceived and executed.  I sometimes think we've come to a place in crime fiction where character takes precedent over story. That may be the result of our psychologically aware society that came of age talking about Freud's defense mechanisms.  And Then There Were None eschews psychology, pop or otherwise, to put readers into that most Jungian of terrifying situations--trapped on a deserted island with a murderer who is eliminating the cast one by one, for no apparent reason.  This is the reason horror films often find themselves at the top of the moviegoer's list, and I believe it's the reason why this book has stayed at the top so long.  It's a marvel of plotting, of a devious mind working to fool and confound you, and succeeding admirably. 

CHARLOTTE ARMSTRONG / A DRAM OF POISON

Charlotte Armstrong's Edgar winner is the type of book that most editors wouldn't know what to do with.  This was actually Armstrong's strong suit--never resting on her laurels, always trying something new.  Like Margaret Millar, she got her start writing a series character, but moved away from him to do stand-alones that allowed her to explore her creativity.  I wonder if A Dram of Poison would ever have been published if it had been submitted as a first effort by an unknown.  For those who haven't read it, there's no crime in it--just a frantic race to find a misplaced vial of poison before it does any real harm.  Armstrong's contribution here was not only her set of winning characters but her taking the idea of crime fiction and turning it upside down.  Almost all crime fiction has at its heart a negative reality--the fact that there are murderers running around who are willing to kill people or commit dastardly deeds.  A Dram of Poison sees a motley group of people banding together not to commit a crime, but rather to prevent something bad from happening.  In this way it was a forerunner of films like Speed or television series like McGyver, where the good guys race against the clock to prevent disaster.

RAYMOND CHANDLER / THE BIG SLEEP

Novels are written with words--including most graphic novels.  This is no great insight, but I encourage aspiring writers to think about their approach to their words.  Certainly having an ear for dialogue helps to convey important things, such as character and setting, but Chandler is one of the greats who created an entire language in which to write his books.   His world of grunts and gun molls is evoked not so much by physical description as by simile and metaphor; one might say that he created the language of the mystery during its ascendancy.  

AGATHA CHRISTIE / MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS

Mystery is a tricky business, especially commercial fiction.  From the earliest days of pulp, crime fiction was marketed and sold to a wide audience, and this continues to be true today (which explains why so many publishers end up acquiring books that they believe will sell the most copies, rather than the books that deserve to be published).  At its heart genre fiction exists to meet the expectations of the reading public.  Mystery readers want a crime, an investigation, a solution, and the perp brought to justice.  How does a writer work within those expectations while also doing his or her job--which is to mislead readers?  Murder on the Orient Express takes a semi-exotic setting and pulls of a denouement that breaks a simple rule of crime fiction by being so thoroughly believable and based in reality as opposed to the expectations imposed on fiction.  Of course, Christie did this many times, and I was tempted to put The Murder of Roger Ackroyd here instead; but I think Murder on the Orient Express is the better example for the modern era.

SCOTT TUROW / PRESUMED INNOCENT

The legal thriller waxes and wanes in popularity, probably on the basis of society's tolerance for lawyers at any given time.  (For example, I doubt we'll be seeing any Wall Street or Banking protagonists any time soon.)  Let's face it--anyone who's served on jury knows that courtroom procedure and trials are anything but interesting.  They are long, drawn-out, slogging affairs that can go on forever.  So it takes a particularly skilled writer to re-envision the entire process and turn it into something gripping and suspenseful, even if the fictional creation bears no resemblance to reality.  For those who will write courtroom scenes, as well as those who wish to explore modern family dynamics, Presumed Innocent is a must-read, a case study in turbo-charging the criminal justice system into something dynamic and interesting. 

CHARLOTTE ARMSTRONG / THE GIFT SHOP

Some (many?) of the manuscripts I see forget a key point about popular fiction: It should be about the reader's experience of reading it, not about the writer's experience of writing it.  Writers are often so hell-bent on making their protagonist lovable, or complicated, or haunted, that they forget to have fun.  And while there are those who want a steady diet of depressed heroes and heroines, I would maintain that most people turn to escapist reading to have some fun and enjoy themselves with a good book.  The Gift Shop shows Armstrong at the top of her form, clearly having a ball with her story and bringing her readers along for the ride.  For me, this is the model for a caper.  The sensibility is slightly outdated, as a result of women's roles changing over the last few decades, but the plucky heroine hits just the right notes as she glob trots and tries to ditch the villains. 

CORNELL WOOLRICH / RENDEZVOUS IN BLACK

I close with Cornell Woolrich's Rendezvous in Black, because Woolrich is particularly good at one thing that I am always suggesting to writers: that they make their villains' motivations more transparent, even quasi-sympathetic.  I am not talking about fostering sympathy or understanding for twisted psychopaths like Hannibal Lecter; I'm talking about making the villain or murderer a person with more substance and/or conflicts.  Woolrich's prose is powerful, making him one of the masters of noir.  But he is equally good with character, and with conflicted villains.  In Rendezvous, the killer is a man avenging the senseless death of his beloved fiancee years earlier.  We feel his pain even as we condemn his actions; and this sort of complexity makes for a much richer reading experience than the typical venal, self-centered villain.

Please note that a lack of inclusion on this list doesn't mean that there aren't many other writers worthy of study.  Pick up any Sue Grafton book and you'll get a good tale, well told.  If you're writing police procedure, any of Dell Shannon or Ed McBain's books will suffice.  Ross McDonald never wrote a bad book.  Josephine Tey was a fine writer, but I just can't join in the litany of love for The Daughter of Time, which I have always found dull--I like The Franchise Affair, even Brat Farrar, much more.  Sara Paretsky is a worthy practitioner; so are P.D. James and Ruth Rendell.  With Dame James, I'd start with Death of an Expert Witness, though Dalgleish is starting to becoming annoying by that point;  and with Rendell I'd recommend the non-Wexfords over the Wexfords.  The one book that should probably be on here, but isn't, is Gaudy Night, by Dorothy L. Sayers.   Certainly I admire Sayers, but I don't think that Gaudy Night would get much in the way of agent or editor interest here in 2009/2010.

Comments

[Vicki]

I've read some but not all of those books, so thank you.

[Alan Orloff]

The first two on your list, ALONG CAME A SPIDER and WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN, are books that inspired me to write (and seem to be underrated)! Glad to see them on your list (along with some of the others, too).

[Lexi Revellian]

To my shame, I've only read two of your list - 'The Big Sleep' and 'And Then There Were None', the latter so long ago it wasn't called 'Ten Little Indians' but an even less PC title.

I shall make a list and see if I can get them out of the library for after Christmas.

[Teresa]

I have read 3 of these and watched a movie of one (not the same). :) I love this list and will get the others for my Christmas break and will study. I TOTALLY agree you have to study the greats to be great. YAY!!! I love this information. Did I say I loved this post? Thank you.

[Les Blatt]

Glad to see Patricia Moyes on your list. I think it's a shame that she's out of print - the Tibbett mysteries were well plotted and entertaining, with endearing characters.

And I agree completely with your assessment of "And Then There Were None," which I still think should be on everyone's absolute-must reading list!

[Violette Severin]

I agree with you re the entire list. I have read all of them and they should be required reading for all mystery enthusiasts.