Recommended Reading in Crime Fiction
From writer to reader
During our recent panel discussion at the Atwater Library with Montreal crime writers, members of Crime Writers of Canada (https://www.crimewriterscanada.com/), we were asked what writers we would recommend who represent the best of what we do. Here are our recommended lists for you to consider. Please advise of anyone we missed!
Each writer, their genre, and their recommended list of crime fiction writers:
A.J. Fotheringham (https://ajfotheringham.com/), writing cozy mysteries in her Lamb’s Bay Mysteries recommends:
- Janet Evanovitch
- Karen Harper
- Simon McCleave
- Gail Bowen
- Donald E. Westlake
- Robert B. Parker
Russell Fralich (https://russellfralichcom.wordpress.com/), writing a series of political novels about Canadian domestic terrorism recommends:
- Trevanian (Eiger Sanction, Shibumi, The Main)
- Tom Clancy (Hunt for Red October, Red Storm Rising, Jack Ryan series)
- Robert Ludlum (Bourne Identity, Icarus Agendy, Osterman Weekend, Sigma Protocol, Bancroft Strategy)
- Graham Greene (The Quiet American, The Third Man)
- Alistair MacLean (Ice Station Zebra, The Guns of Navarone)
- Richard Rohmer (Exxoneration)
- Chris Ryan (military thriller, Strike Back, etc.)
- Philip Kerr (Bernie Gunther series)
- Robert Harris (Fatherland)
- Stieg Larsson (Millenium, Mannen som hatar kvinnor)
Ann Lambert (https://www.annlambertbooks.com/), with three romantic suspense/mystery novels published in her Russell and Leduc Mystery Series, recommends:
- Oedipus Rex by Sophocles (a 2500 year old murder mystery)
- Henning Mankell
- Kate Atkinson
- D. James
- Ruth Rendell
- Louise Penny
Delvin Chatterson (www.DelvinChatterson.com), with three published novels in the Dale Hunter Series about crime and corruption in the international computer business of the 1980s, I’ve been influenced by these writers:
- Ian Hamilton, Kathy Reichs
- Scottish writers – Ian Rankin, William McIlvanney
- CWC Members – Linwood Barclay, Rick Mofina
- Harlan Coben, Robert Crais
- and John Grisham, David Baldacci, John Le Carré whom you probably know.
We would love to hear your version of best writers in the genre that you’re reading and we’re writing.
Enjoy your reading!
Del
Del Chatterson