bionicbob said:Robert B. Parker's SPENSER is my favorite. Though in the last few years, the novels felt pretty much phoned in. Still great dialogue, but no real attempt at plot or mystery any more.
Do you like the JESSE STONE novels. The movie series with Tom Selleck is amazing!!
Gatos said:I happened to love the Spenser TV Show and was surprised to hear, when I went to my local library to hear Robert B. Parker give a talk, that he didn't like Urich or Avery Brooks as Spenser and Hawk respectively. I happen to love them both and always picture them when I read the books. Joe Mantegna, on the other hand, in the recent TV movies is awful IMO. His delivery of Spenser's sarcasm and humor is just terrible.
bionicbob said:I just wish they would release it on dvd.
Gatos said:Frantic Canadian, I wasn't even aware Mike Hammer was a literary character, I just know of him from the TV show. I'm sorry to say I won't be trying the books any time soon as I'd be picturing Stacy Keach as I read, and that is not something I would not wish upon my worst enemy!
Frantic Canadian said:Have you ever read Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski series? Or what about Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series? Scarpetta isn't a private eye/detective but a forensic pathologist with a law degree who works with the police to solve crimes. I guess you could say she's kind of like Quincy. I also like Kathy Reichs. The tv show Bones is based on her books.
Brumous said:I'm a big fan of Michael Connelly's crime fiction... me and ten million other people I guess. Detailed police procedurals that are set mostly in Los Angeles. Moody, hard bitten, with a wide streak of antiauthoritarianism.
I've never read Parker, Crais or Child. I'll have to check them out.
Also I love science fiction. Just read a short story collection I liked a lot, Unpossible and Other Stories by Daryl Gregory.
Gatos said:Didn't Patricia Cornwell recently put out a nonfiction book about Jack the Ripper? Or maybe I'm confusing her with someone else. Haven't read any of Cornwell but have heard of her though.
Frantic Canadian said:No, that's her. Although I wouldn't say it was recently released, unless you call 2002 recent. :lol:
Gatos said:And actually currently reading Chasing the Dime (one of his stand alones).
Brumous said:Another writer I want to recommend is Dan Simmons. He writes in several genres but the crime/thriller books by him that I liked most were Darwin's Blade (a thriller with an insurance investigator as hero, with some great black humor) and Hardcase, pulp noir straight out of the Mickey Spillane tradition.