I'm looking for crime novels, detective fiction, mystery (I really do not know the specific nomenclature of the genre), but not so typical or traditional. For example: I really like The name of the rose, the classic novel by Umberto Eco; and City of Glass, by Paul Auster. The yiddish policemen's union, by Michael Chabon, is a personal favorite.
Yeah, maybe the novels above have nothing in common, but I'm looking for something outside the traditional traits ik the genre.
I really hope someone gonna understand this.
by Shaqit
22 Comments
The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett.
Like… think of a murder mystery in a fantasy setting that’s somewhat reminiscent of Attack on Titan meeting Pacific Rim..
The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel
The book tells a crazy crime story that’s true.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. It had very interesting twists and great storyline.
edit: adding another one – One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus. This one is more young adult fiction but was a good read.
*Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead* by Olga Tokarczuk is a philosophical meditation on the relationship between humans and animals by a recent winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, and it’s also a real mystery novel that absolutely works as a mystery.
If you’ve somehow missed Chabon’s The Final Solution, start there.
It’s more properly a space opera, but A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine is wrapped around a murder mystery.
Motherless Brooklyn
Andrea Camilleri’s Montalbano series might hit the spot.
*Crime and Punishment* by Fyordor Dostoyevsky
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Time travel search for a stolen relic
It’s a gigantic undertaking, and possibly one of the great novels of all time. The Recognitions by William Gaddis. The main plot involves art forgery.
Dublin Murder Squad books by Tana French — they’re 50/50 detective and literary fiction in style, theme, and structure. The Likeness is her homage to The Secret History.
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
How Lucky by Will Leitch; King and Joker by Peter Dickinson.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54870216-how-lucky?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_9
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1130905.King_and_Joker
REALLY recommend Freedomland and Clockers by Richard Price.
Freedomland is a feverish nightmare about a woman who was the victim of a regular carjacking on the poor side of town—except her kids was in the backseat when it happened. The book follows the mom & the primary detective investigating the case during an extremely hot, stressful, and strange few days.
Clockers is dialogue-heavy, slow burn “mystery” about a fast food chain manager who gets shot, presumably in some kind of drug dispute. It’s also about Rocco, a disenchanted detective who dreads going home to his much younger wife and new baby. Like Freedomland, it’s set in Richard Price’s fictional town of Dempsey, NJ, an impoverished and majority-Black city right outside of New York.
Neither is a big, twisty mystery—most readers will see their endings coming—but Price writes with a preternatural understanding of how people really talk and behave. They’re literary and smart and gritty and engrossing. Price also co-wrote The Wire, so if you like that show, you’ll like his books!
Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
Try any of the Mongo mysteries by George Chesbro. Also FALLING ANGEL by William Hjortsberg and the sequel, ANGEL’S INFERNO.
Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov – police detective, futuristic, robots
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency – PI, quirky spec fiction vibes
Rivers of London – London PC, spirits, fae, magical realism
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep – Bounty hunter, disjointed/trippy, robots, blade runner is based on this
Full Dark House – Police detectives, London, 1940s, dark/quirky
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency – PI, Botswana, cozy
Some great recommendations here that I’ve added to my own TBR list.
My recommendation would be The Broken Shore and Truth by Peter Temple, Australia’s greatest crime writer. They both operate at a literary and crime level equally, with The Broken Shore being long listed for Australia’s top literary award, but also paint the Australian landscape so beautifully. They are linked by a single character, but you could read either independently.
Butter by Yuzuki is mystery adjacent and really good
Mother Daughter Murder Night was a cute one. Not fully crime, but I really enjoyed Then She Was Gone.
Titanium noir, its excellent
I’m a fan of Dashiell Hammett. His books really take you into the underworld of 1920s/1930s America.
Two other crime novels that I like are:
“Hadrian’s Walls” by Stephen Draper
It starts off with the protagonist, Hadrian Coleman, driving through the backroads of east Texas on his way home to Sheperdsville (the headquarters of the Texas prison system) for a pardon for a murder that he committed while a teenager. He escaped from prison and has been a fugitive for over a decade.
The rest of the book is flashbacks to the crime, his life on the run and readjusting to life back in society. The title comes from his name and the prison unit in downtown Sheperdsville, known as “The Walls.” The town is based on real life Huntsville, TX which is where the main prison of the Texas prison system is located.
And of course “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote which a true crime novel (the first one ever) is about the murder of the Clutter family in rural Kansas in (IIRC) 1959.