I've read through most of Dashiell Hammett's and Raymond Chandler's books and I'm currently working on some Cornell Woolrich and after that I have some Fantomas waiting for me, but as far as crime fiction goes these are really the only things that have interested me. In the long run a lot of other crime books I pick up just seem to be trying too hard to be gritty or capture that Chandler/Hammett essence and just rehash cliche stories.
tl;dr
Any cool crime fiction I'm missing out on outside of Hammett/Chandler/Woolrich/Fantomas series?
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Anonymous2008-10-23 17:49
Obviously there's Sherlock Holmes, even though he's more mystery, but the two genres overlap here and there so you might as well.
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Anonymous2008-10-23 20:07
Fuck yeah! I prefer Chandler to Hammett. Although hes a lot more gritty and hard boiled than either, and of a slightly later era, try Micky Spillane. Anything from his Mike Hammer series. Its pure pulp fiction. Avoid any of his thrillers and spy novels, they are pretty shitty in my opinion. Also, Agatha Cristie bores the fuck out of me, I would avoid that old battle axe's shit too. I hear Erle Stanley Gardner, who wrote Perry Mason is pretty good and intend to read some of his stuff along with Leslie Charteris who wrote The Saint series.
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Anonymous2008-10-25 2:19
Look up the Harlem Detective series. They're the closest we'll get to novel forms of blaxploitation (and one of the books even did become a blaxploitation movie) and they're cool as all hell.
>>3
Spillane is a bit too much at times I think. He can certainly make something entertaining, but Mike Hammer is just full of a lot of noir and crime cliches.
Also, The Chinatown Deathcloud Peril is a fun little crime book that doesn't take itself too seriously.