[bksvol-discuss] NY Times Notable Crime Fiction of 2008
- From: Cindy Reece <cindyreece524@xxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 6 Dec 2008 12:33:11 -0500
From the NY Times again. I checked and only found "The Genius", "Brass
Verdict", and "Winter Study" in the collection.
December 7, 2008
Crime
Notable Crime Fiction of 2008
By MARILYN STASIO
Friends don’t let friends struggle through the winter without a good mystery.
Looking back on this year’s books, I see that thrillers about
frothing-at-the-mouth serial killers appear to be in decline, but there are
choice offerings in just about every other category of crime novel.
While it’s tempting to slap a bow on whatever’s at the top of the best-seller
list, it’s more gratifying to introduce people to an author they might not
already know. I’m high on Jesse Kellerman, whose offbeat novels show real
originality. THE GENIUS (Putnam, $24.95) is a meticulously executed
psycho-chiller about an art dealer who becomes obsessed by a monumental work
depicting five little “cherubs” who turn out to be murdered children.
There’s also something gemütlich about sharing a favorite author with a friend.
Denise Mina, one of the tried-and-true novelists on my list, paints another
study of Glasgow’s smudged face in SLIP OF THE KNIFE (Little, Brown, $24.99),
as seen through the eyes of a tough-minded young journalist, Paddy Meehan.
Michael Connelly continues to deliver the goods with THE BRASS VERDICT (Little,
Brown, $26.99), his second legal thriller about Mickey Haller, an endearingly
sleazy criminal defense lawyer. And EXIT MUSIC (Little, Brown, $24.99) may be
the last we hear of Ian Rankin’s moody Edinburgh cop, the unfathomable Rebus,
so grab this one before it gets away.
High among his peers, George Pelecanos has a standout book in THE TURNAROUND
(Little, Brown, $24.99). Like his other crime novels set in blue-collar
Washington neighborhoods, this one has a strong father-son dynamic and a stern
message about the generational cycles of urban crime. But Pelecanos takes an
unusually tender approach to the two families in his novel, one black and one
white, and extends them the rare hope of redemption.
When you’re playing with the big guys, it’s easy to overlook little gems like
THE GRIFT (Shaye Areheart, $23.95), a cunning whodunit by Debra Ginsberg about
a fake Florida psychic who discovers her true gifts after she moves to San
Diego. Or there’s Christine Barber’s first novel, THE REPLACEMENT CHILD (Thomas
Dunne/St. Martin’s Minotaur, $23.95), a regional mystery that brings to vibrant
life the community culture of Santa Fe.
But enough of the warm climates. My pick for the crime novel with the bleakest
setting is Nevada Barr’s WINTER STUDY (Putnam, $24.95). This rugged
environmental mystery, which unfolds in the middle of a blizzard, finds a
ranger working on a research project at Isle Royale National Park, on the
Canadian border, where a killer is hunting along with the wolves.
Indoors, the best adventure is a devious intellectual puzzle. Something along
the lines of MASTER OF THE DELTA (Otto Penzler/Harcourt, $24), in which Thomas
H. Cook allows a high school teacher to become carried away by a class project
on the nature of evil. When this eager-beaver educator finds that one of his
students is the son of a murderer, he encourages the boy to research his father
for his term paper. Not a good idea.
Andrew Pyper comes up with an unnerving yarn in THE KILLING CIRCLE (Thomas
Dunne/St. Martin’s Minotaur, $24.95), in which a young widower tries to give
voice to his grief by enrolling in a writing workshop. Not only are his fellow
scribblers a bizarre lot (the best submits a horror story about “a terrible man
who does terrible things”), but one of them might be a killer.
This has been a great year for historical novels, starting with BUCKINGHAM
PALACE GARDENS (Ballantine, $26), a graceful Victorian drawing-room mystery
from the dependable Anne Perry. But this year’s period pieces also include
exotic specimens like COMPANY OF LIARS (Delacorte, $24), Karen Maitland’s
grimly realistic tale about a band of medieval pilgrims trying to outrun a
plague that’s sweeping across England, and THE SERPENT’S TALE (Putnam, $25.95),
the further adventures of Ariana Franklin’s 12th-century heroine, a woman
schooled in the esoteric art of performing autopsies and clever enough to be of
service to the formidable Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Many centuries later, in Philadelphia, another young physician finds himself in
the anatomy room of the Blockley Dead House in an atmospheric first novel, THE
ANATOMY OF DECEPTION (Delacorte, $24), by Lawrence Goldstone. And in VIENNA
BLOOD (Random House, paper, $15), Frank Tallis’s gentleman sleuth attends
meetings of the Psychological Society held in the privacy of Sigmund Freud’s
home.
One choice entry among all this vivid historical storytelling is THE LOST
LUGGAGE PORTER (Harvest/Harcourt, paper, $14), the latest book in Andrew
Martin’s series featuring a detective who works for the great railways that
crisscrossed London in the industrial age. His pursuits of thieves, con men and
organized gangs take him on distant train journeys through a network of vast
terminals and labyrinthine tracks, but to such a railway enthusiast, just
climbing into the engine of one of those steam-snorting beasts is adventure
enough.
If there’s any kind of mystery that’s a natural for winter reading, it’s the
suspense story, especially one like WHAT WAS LOST (Holt, paper, $14), which has
you questioning your own sanity. In this captivating first novel by Catherine
O’Flynn, a lonely 10-year-old who fancies herself a private detective roams a
local shopping mall, snooping in everybody’s business — until the day she
disappears.
The missing-child plot staple is also handled with sensitivity by the Norwegian
novelist Karin Fossum. In BLACK SECONDS (Harcourt, $24), she uses the
disappearance of a 9-year-old girl (so sweet she’s “like a child in a fairy
tale”) to examine the quiet cruelties of rural life. And if that doesn’t break
your heart, pick up Donna Leon’s somber police procedural THE GIRL OF HIS
DREAMS (Atlantic Monthly, $24) and watch her compassionate Venetian detective
weep when he discovers the body of an angelic child floating in a canal. It’s
enough to make you long for a good serial killer.
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