This column is a thank-you to many of today’s best writers and to everyone trying to write down what they want to say. Post 9-11 several writers of fiction had questions about the relevance of their livihood. It is extremely relevant. Once again you’ve all “raised the bar” for yourselves and others. While I haven’t read nearly enough of the books of 2003, I have read many and looking through those I’ve read that I feel compelled to make a bold statement that I will back up. We have entered a golden age of Crime Fiction.
Let’s
take a look.
Andrew Vachss' Getaway Man is a great book. I thought I was
done with this author, moving on, more room in the TBR pile and then this. Joe
Landsdale’s A Fine Dark Line is another remarkable outing.
A book of friendship, family and prejudice, it tells more than one remarkable
story within it’s pages. Walter Mosley’s Six Easy Pieces
is pure Easy, always outstanding. Kent Bruen. Did I type that name with the
quiet amazement I’ve heard it mentioned with by so many? Okay, sloppy
sentence but I’m not part of the renaissance just typing of it. The
Guards, a must read for 2003. John Connolly’s White Road
has come to the U.S. A while ago, in this household, we read the fourth in his
Charlie Parker series which continues to show a superb author who is honing
his already amazing skills . More concise and yet more poetic than the last
this book, is another example of a writer who needs to be read always. Richard
Price writes the best dialog going today. With it’s honest and cynical
look of success, money, and charity, Samaritan is another in
a long line of outstanding books for this author
The ladies are coming a little later in the year. Barbara Serenella, Laura Lippman,
S.J. Rozan, Val McDermid all have books coming with an amazing amount of buzz.
Ian Rankin’s Resurrection Men is an example of series
fiction at it’s very best. Older and more aware of his place in the political
scheme of Scottish Policing. our man Rebus sets off on an adventure of sleuthing
with D.C. Siobhan Clark that takes him to places many would be afraid to go.
This series is an example of how your best book can be written at number 16
in the series if you have the skills and maintain an interest in your character.
So too is Loren Estleman’s The Poison Blond . Amos Walker
defines Detroit like Chandler defined L.A. The latest is no exception. I’d
also like to mention the upcoming Steve Hamilton. Blood Is The Sky
is an amazing book that I’m lucky enough to have already read. For those
still in the dark about this Upper Michigan series that began with the Edgar
Award winning A Cold Day in Paradise you may want to make a
trip to the library and catch up. Do not deny yourself the privilege of this
next book. It is one of the most human of all the mysteries I have ever read.
And now onward a discussion of three. These names are not unknown. All three are best-sellers. All three started as mid-list crime fiction writers with an amazing amount of raw talent. They need no help from me and yet I feel obligated. All three have released or are about to release their best books yet.
George Pelecanos, Michael Connelly, and yup ..... Dennis Lehane.
Soul Circus is an amazing book. The finale in the Quinn and Strange series this book of capital punishment, drugs, and guns is set in the D.C. we rarely see on the news. It has passages of prose that will break your heart. Pelecanos captures today’s world in a way no other writer has in a long time. This book will sit on the shelves of future connoisseurs of fiction alongside the Hammetts and the MacDonalds.
Lost Light is another Harry Bosch, but it isn’t. There
is nothing about this book to allow 
anyone
to have a “Connelly nailed another one in” feel. In this book, there
is arguably more character development than we’ve seen since the first
chapter of Black Echo. Harry has always changed. His job demands
change. When you see what he’s seen... In Lost Light,
the character of Bosch is no longer police. Haunted by policing he takes on
a “cold file” at the urging of another ex-police. With a darn good
mystery this book would be remarkable. To the mix though Connelly has added
social commentary far beyond the “ how policing in L.A. works” he’s
accomplished in his earlier books. The ninth floor. Look for it. The melding
of music and light and story to feel the prose is astonishing. And the end.
I dare anybody not to shed a tear or at least think about doing so. New levels,
strived for and obtained by an already successful author. There is no Patterson
syndrome in this man’s future.
Finally Dennis Lehane’s Shutter Island. The wait. The anticipation. The what-do-you-mean-he-threw-a-whole-book-away? rumors. The delayed release? Dennis Lehane is a perfectionist and it shows. In a book set on an island where the criminally insane are housed and tended to, the reader is asked to examine the concepts of truth. The condition of humanity is thrown at you.
It is a brilliant book. So March 22, 2003. To quote Warren Zevon “My shit’s fucked up” . Where we are as a people has me greatly worried, but the state of mystery fiction? The reading is easy. It is a magical time that may well be our Golden Age.
Ruth Jordan 