My Month of Crime Fiction: The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

The Cuckoo's Calling (2013) by Robert Galbraith

(So, just making sure that everyone knows that Robert Galbraith is actually J. K. Rowling. Ok, that's done, moving on.)

I'm admitting here and now that I've only read the first Harry Potter book (many many years ago), but I remember admiring Rowling's clear, descriptive writing. Therefore, I was pretty excited about diving in to The Cuckoo's Calling, especially since Rowling has written a second crime novel featuring Detective Cormoran Strike (out this June).

And yet (sigh). I wasn't too impressed with this book, the last of my "Month of Crime Fiction" novels. I mean, the story was mildly interesting, and the twist at the end was pretty good (though not outrageously awesome), but it just left me feeling...meh. It was like a beautiful, tasty-looking layered cake that was actually just a cardboard shell.

My Month of Crime Fiction: Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard

Get Shorty (1990) by Elmore Leonard

"...that wasn't the movie, that was real life. He kept getting the two mixed up, Chili's Hollywood Adventure and whatever the other one was..."

How you guys could have let me go 24 years without telling me to read Elmore Leonard I'll never understand. Why, why did you not tell me to read Get Shorty? I mean, I had heard of the movie, but had no knowledge of Elmore Leonard or other contemporary crime writers. No- I was buried in the 19th century, which was fine, but now I'm needing to catch up to more contemporary writing in a big way because a lot of it is pretty awesome.

My Month of Crime Fiction: The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins

The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1970) by George V. Higgins

If the guys in this novel are Eddie Coyle's "friends," I don't want to know what his enemies are like.

In this terse, stark novel, Higgins reveals a tightly-interconnected world of gang members, gun runners, hitmen, and thieves. While Eddie, Scalisi, and Dillon are all using one another to set up jobs, they're simultaneously informing on one another to the cops. Eddie, though, has the most to gain by talking- if he can convince the DA that he's been helpful in capturing other criminals, he can get a light sentence for his own crimes. Ultimately, though, Eddie has much worse coming to him.

My Month of Crime Fiction: The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) by Patricia Highsmith

I'm sensing a pattern here. The crime fiction I'm reading is coming in pairs- pretty creepy. First, I read two novels written by men from the perspective of a private investigator, and then I read two books written by women from the perspective of a male serial killer. To this I say: iiiiiinnnnnteresting...

But I'll think more about that later, because The Talented Mr. Ripley is in the spotlight at the moment. And oh MAN what a book. Highsmith's style is superbly subtle, nuanced, almost lyrical at times. It's the kind of writing that makes itself transparent so that only the story exists (what someone once said is the mark of the best kind of writing- sorry, I forgot who said that).

My Month of Crime Fiction: In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes

In a Lonely Place (1947) by Dorothy B. Hughes

Allow me to introduce you to In a Lonely Place- it's chilling, it's creepy, it messes with your head, and it is FANTASTIC.

My copy of this novel was published by The Feminist Press as part of a series called "Femme Fatales: Women Write Pulp," in an effort to bring back mid-century classic pulp stories written by women, including noir. Like a parallel effort in the realm of mid-19th century American sentimental fiction, this series reintroduces us to the rich and varied world of crime/noir fiction that wasn't just hard-boiled male detectives pawing bad girls with too much lipstick while hunting down murderers and tossing them to the cops. No, noir was much more than that: it included many female writers, like Hughes, Highsmith, and Sayers, who explored the 20th-century American psyche and the hidden depths of many so-called "ordinary" people. Why did some people become killers? What kind of figurative masks did they wear to pass unnoticed, permitting them to murder while also moving about in cultured society?

My Month of Crime Fiction: The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

The Big Sleep (1939) by Raymond Chandler

Perhaps The Maltese Falcon, plus all the clips of black-and-white Bogart films I've seen over the years, made me think that all crime fiction would be dark and depressing. After all, Hammett's novel wasn't exactly chipper. But I wasn't even past the first page of The Big Sleep when I started chuckling. This, I thought, this is gonna be an enjoyable ride.

Let me explain by example. Philip Marlowe, narrator and private eye extraordinaire, cockily presents himself as "neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars." BAM. You can't beat a description like that. And the clocks on his socks? Wonderful touch.

My Month of Crime Fiction: The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

The Maltese Falcon (1930) by Dashiell Hammett

While reading The Maltese Falcon, I had the strangest sense of déjà vu, as if I'd seen/read all of the novel's elements before: the chain-smoking private eye; the mysterious, sexy lady client asking the detective for help; the motley group of criminals ultimately caught in the detective's net, etc. etc. Of course, that's because I had: The Maltese Falcon has seeped into our cultural consciousness, until the Private Investigator/Detective is a well-recognized figure in the crime/noir genre. Much riffing has been done on these elements, and the films and books that developed from and around it are too numerous to discuss here (although Chandler took Hammett's formula and brought it to new heights). I kept thinking about tv shows of the 1960s like Dragnet and Get Smart (specifically, the hilarious episode "Tequila Mockingbird"). There's even a recent Sesame Street spoof on the "Private I."

March: My Month of Crime Fiction

 


During the month of March, I'll be diving into modern crime fiction for the first time. I've chosen these seven novels based on recommendations from some fabulous bookish people, crime-fiction lists, and my own literary leanings. Keep it right here on Tuesdays and Thursdays for posts on each novel, and please add your own recommendations and comments. I plan to continue reading crime fiction after this month of course, and these novels will get me off to a great start. (I've also tried to space them out time-wise, so there's that angle, too). Anyway, enjoy!