Fave Authors - Mystery recommendations
For
katikat *snuggles*
My current fave mystery writers are Peter Bowen (Gabriel Du Pre Montana Mysteries) and Andrew Vachss (Burke).
In brief, both authors give me chills... Peter Bowen especially makes me yearn to live in the world he creates and BE one of the people in it. Vachss is more of a window into a world I'll never see.
Peter Bowen's world is Toussaint, a small town in Montana with a primarily Metis population. Gabriel Du Pre, his hero, is Metis, in his 50s, a fiddler, a tracker, and everything that many current heros are not. I have used the word "hero" on purpose here.
I have never been to Montana, never seen the Big Sky country this incredible series is based in, but the books make me feel like I am from there and long overdue to go home.
Bowen writes these books in part because “the Métis are a great people, a wonderful people, and not many Americans know anything about them.”
Du Pre is an old fashioned hero. He does the right thing nearly all the time, and if he does the wrong thing it is for the right reasons. He is never weak or lazy, and he does not have the "tortured superhero" thing going on. There is enough personal drama in the books to keep it interesting, and Du Pre's best friend, the unhappy Bart, shows us that Bowen knows people has feelings, and so does Du Pre. It's just that the Montanan? Cowboy? Metis? way of dealing with these things is different from towny ways, and somehow cleaner.
The relationship between FBI Agent Harvey Wallace, young Ripper, Du Pre and Bart are also beautifully drawn.
I love every character in these stories, and I can never get enough of them. This is one series I read and reread, over and over.
Andrew Vachss writes about Burke, the original anti-hero. Burke was an abandoned child, a product of abusive foster homes and prison. He is a crook/gun for hire. In his first stint in prison, he met up with the Professor, learnt the value of family and on getting out was inducted into a new family - various criminals who nevertheless place each other first.
Burke is a vigilante against child sexual abuse, in between getting on with paid crime. Every book I've read has involved him saving kids one way or another.
Burke doesn't do the right thing, even for the wrong reasons. Every time he saves a kid, he saves his youthful self. These stories are full of angst - his own pain, the pain of the different women he is involved with in the stories, the pain inherent in his relationships with his "family".
Vachss' writing is gripping and often abrasive. He himself is driven in the fight against child sexual abuse and I believe that his writing is aimed at raising awareness. The crafting of the stories makes it impossible not to like and even identify with the characters - even though they all openly engage in crimes against good people as well as bad ones.
I recommend these series to anyone wanting a read you cant put down.
Also good:
Diana Gabaldon's Lord John series. Lord John is gay, in the mid 1700s. They're excellent as drama, historical or detective stories - whichever way you want to look at them. Lord John is just angsty enough, with plenty of humour to go with it. *Note: I DONT like Diana Gabaldon's other work, so if you dont either, dont let it put you off Lord John.
All time old favourite: John D MacDonald's Travis McGee.
Oh, and Leslie Charteris' The Saint - the OLD books, NOT the ones based on the TV series, not the TV series and not the movie (although Val Kilmer *woof woof* made it quite watchable - it just wasn't Simon I'm sorry.)
See last post for Martha Grimes
Jonathan Kellerman is also good, although Alex Delaware needs to book some time with himself, come out of the closet, dump Robin and generally get a life. I enjoy one, but have discovered reading 2 in a row is a silly, silly idea.
On another note:
Who's read Mabel Maney's spoofs on Cherry Ames, Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys? These are retakes of these series, in the same cheesy style, with all the main characters gay. *Loves* Mabel Maney. These are no longer in print as far as I know *clutches own second hand copy of The Ghost in the Clost - A Nancy Clue and the Hardly Boys Story close to chest*
katikat *snuggles*
My current fave mystery writers are Peter Bowen (Gabriel Du Pre Montana Mysteries) and Andrew Vachss (Burke).
In brief, both authors give me chills... Peter Bowen especially makes me yearn to live in the world he creates and BE one of the people in it. Vachss is more of a window into a world I'll never see.
Peter Bowen's world is Toussaint, a small town in Montana with a primarily Metis population. Gabriel Du Pre, his hero, is Metis, in his 50s, a fiddler, a tracker, and everything that many current heros are not. I have used the word "hero" on purpose here.
I have never been to Montana, never seen the Big Sky country this incredible series is based in, but the books make me feel like I am from there and long overdue to go home.
Bowen writes these books in part because “the Métis are a great people, a wonderful people, and not many Americans know anything about them.”
Du Pre is an old fashioned hero. He does the right thing nearly all the time, and if he does the wrong thing it is for the right reasons. He is never weak or lazy, and he does not have the "tortured superhero" thing going on. There is enough personal drama in the books to keep it interesting, and Du Pre's best friend, the unhappy Bart, shows us that Bowen knows people has feelings, and so does Du Pre. It's just that the Montanan? Cowboy? Metis? way of dealing with these things is different from towny ways, and somehow cleaner.
The relationship between FBI Agent Harvey Wallace, young Ripper, Du Pre and Bart are also beautifully drawn.
I love every character in these stories, and I can never get enough of them. This is one series I read and reread, over and over.
Andrew Vachss writes about Burke, the original anti-hero. Burke was an abandoned child, a product of abusive foster homes and prison. He is a crook/gun for hire. In his first stint in prison, he met up with the Professor, learnt the value of family and on getting out was inducted into a new family - various criminals who nevertheless place each other first.
Burke is a vigilante against child sexual abuse, in between getting on with paid crime. Every book I've read has involved him saving kids one way or another.
Burke doesn't do the right thing, even for the wrong reasons. Every time he saves a kid, he saves his youthful self. These stories are full of angst - his own pain, the pain of the different women he is involved with in the stories, the pain inherent in his relationships with his "family".
Vachss' writing is gripping and often abrasive. He himself is driven in the fight against child sexual abuse and I believe that his writing is aimed at raising awareness. The crafting of the stories makes it impossible not to like and even identify with the characters - even though they all openly engage in crimes against good people as well as bad ones.
I recommend these series to anyone wanting a read you cant put down.
Also good:
Diana Gabaldon's Lord John series. Lord John is gay, in the mid 1700s. They're excellent as drama, historical or detective stories - whichever way you want to look at them. Lord John is just angsty enough, with plenty of humour to go with it. *Note: I DONT like Diana Gabaldon's other work, so if you dont either, dont let it put you off Lord John.
All time old favourite: John D MacDonald's Travis McGee.
Oh, and Leslie Charteris' The Saint - the OLD books, NOT the ones based on the TV series, not the TV series and not the movie (although Val Kilmer *woof woof* made it quite watchable - it just wasn't Simon I'm sorry.)
See last post for Martha Grimes
Jonathan Kellerman is also good, although Alex Delaware needs to book some time with himself, come out of the closet, dump Robin and generally get a life. I enjoy one, but have discovered reading 2 in a row is a silly, silly idea.
On another note:
Who's read Mabel Maney's spoofs on Cherry Ames, Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys? These are retakes of these series, in the same cheesy style, with all the main characters gay. *Loves* Mabel Maney. These are no longer in print as far as I know *clutches own second hand copy of The Ghost in the Clost - A Nancy Clue and the Hardly Boys Story close to chest*