Crime Beat

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From left: Chanette Paul, Rob Marsh, Roger Smith, Margie Orford, Michael Sears, Jaco Fouche, Deon Meyer, Peter Church, Riana Mouton, Brandon Carstens, Joanne Hichens, Sarah Lotz, Sue Rabie, Richard Kunzmann
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Chill time. And how better to chill out, if not with a krimi. So I rounded up the usual suspects and asked for the crime novel/thriller that had fired them up the most this year in the hopes it’d provide a useful list. Which it does. Interestingly, only one mention of Stieg Larsson (but then perhaps the cognoscenti realise he’s not all he’s cracked up to be). And before I let the hotshots have their say, my vote for the year goes to Don Winslow’s The Winter of Frankie Machine (actually published in 2006 but I’m a slow reader), followed in rapid succession by Neville Stuart’s The Twelve and Richard Price’s Lush Life (2008). Also don’t forget to read local. All you have to do is click on the author’s title to order.

Now hear ye:

Chanette Paul (author of Boheem): It was a difficult one, but I think my choice has to do with discovering an author who is new to me. I definitely plan to read the first two in the Knutas-series, Unseen and Unspoken. Mari Jungstedt –Unknown (vertaal deur Tiina Nunnally). Gebeure sentreer om ’n argeologiese opgrawing by ’n Viking terrein in Gotland, Swede. Superintendent Anders Knutas, TV-verslaggewer Johan Berg, asook die slagoffers se worstelinge in hulle privaat lewens, is egter net so fyn en deurdag geskets as die misdadige sy.

Rob Marsh (author of Beasts of Prey): The best crime novel of the year? A hard question to answer. Probably Grey Souls by Philippe Claudel. The story is set in a small town in northern France in 1917. An intriguing tale; a little gem of a novel.

Roger Smith: (author of Mixed Blood): In a disappointing year for crime fiction – with Thomas Pynchon’s limp pastiche Inherent Vice attracting unwarranted attention, and Michael Connelly churning out books ala James Patterson – Elmore Leonard’s Road Dogs was a welcome treat. It may not be his best, but the 85-year-old Leonard still writes rings around everybody else.

Margie Orford (author of Daddy’s Girl): Peter Temple was my discovery of the year. So all his books that I could get my hands on. Shooting Star was this year’s offering. And Truth. Brings Melbourne to life – Leeds with sunshine is how my brother described it after a recent visit. So it’s nice to know of the bubbling trouble beneath all that Australian nanny stateism. And it took an ex-South African eye to ferret it out and then write it with such elegance and ease. Makes one wonder: is evil (like beauty) in the eye of the beholder?

Michael Sears (author with Stanley Trollip of A Deadly Trade): My best was A Most Wanted Man by John le Carre. Once again the great characters and tight plotting draw you from page to page. I’m told Mankell calls Le Carre the ‘best writer who’ll never win a Nobel prize. Ek stem saam.

Jaco Fouché (author of 2 Dae in Mei): I’d like to post my wife’s, Lorraine Fouché’s, favourite crime novel: PD James’s The Private Patient.

Piet Steyn (author of Bottelnek): I enjoyed Jeffery Deaver’s The Bodies Left Behind the most. Brynn Mckensie reacts to a emergency call from a remote holiday cabin where she finds two dead bodies and a guest that survived a murder orgy. The two of them start on a desperate journey through thick jungle, trying to escape with their lives. The suspense builds up to a surprising end.

Deon Meyer (author of Blood Safari and Karoonag): Open Season by CJ Box. Almost unknown in South Africa, Box is now big in the USA. I just loved his protagonist, game warden and family man Joe Pickett. Add that to the Wyoming landscape, some beautiful plotting and good, old-fashioned story-telling, and you have a great read.

Peter Church (author of Dark Video) Have read lots of aeroplane thrillers of late, the best of which was Dean Koontz The Good Guy. Great opening, very evil bad guy, nearly credible plot. Then Swimsuit by James Patterson only because someone said they thought I copied Dark Video from it.

Riana Mouton (author of Reuk van die Dood): The Millennium Trilogy – The Girl with a Dragon Tatoo; The Girl who Played with Fire; The Girl who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest.) Al drie hierdie boeke is ‘page turners’. Salander is ‘n heerlike komplekse karakter. Brutaal, geniaal en vasberade en Mikael Blomkvist kan maar sy skoene onder my bed kan kom inskop. Lekker toon-omkrullende spanningsverhale.

Brandon Carstens (author of Project H) Having not read any of Dean Koontz’s books, I picked up Odd Thomas upon recommendation and found it to be just my kind of book: part crime, part supernatural, endearing characters, poignant and a perfect beach read.

Joanne Hichens (editor of Bad Company): The Choirboys – Joseph Wambaugh. A bunch of cops spill everything – sperm, guts, brains, the truth – during late-night sex romps and drinking sessions at McArthur Park. Wambaugh is razor-sharp, witty, original, my new must-read author.

Sarah Lotz (author of Exhibit A): Andrew Brown’s Refuge: Compelling, unputdownable and with a particularly gut-wrenching prison scene I’ll never get out of my head (thanks, Andrew!), this gets my vote for the best literary crime novel I’ve read this year.

Sue Rabie (author of Boston Snowplough): My best was Simon Scarrow’s The Gladiator. Not a thriller, but a darn good historical adventure. It ripped.

And last but by no means least the final word goes to:
Richard Kunzmann (author of Dead-End Road): If it had to be strictly crime, it’s an older book I picked up, but Looking Good Dead by Peter James was absolutely great. What struck me most about it was the immaculate plotting, the real cliff hangers at the end of each chapter, whether it’s the threat of physical violence or a psychological crux. The more I write, the more I realise to pull that off in a believable way, chapter after chapter, is a neat trick to master.

However, I really want to emphasise a novel that isn’t quite horror, crime, or historical in any sense, but … ‘n bietjie van alles. Dan Simmons’s Drood is one of the best novels I’ve read in a very long time. The two main protagonists are a fictionalised Charles Dickens and his contemporary Wilkie Collins, who were best friends in real life. Now Wilkie Collins is interesting to us crime writers because he is considered the father of crime fiction. He was the first to deviate from mainstream fiction in the 1900s and start writing sensationalist stories of detection.

Drood’s an 800-page whopper, which could have used a courageous editor in places (Dan Simmons apparently refuses to allow his work to be edited), but the research that must have gone into it is awe-inspiring. What I most enjoyed about the novel is how Dan Simmons weaves together elements of biography and history with Charles Dickens published novels; characters from his novels make appearances all the time, especially those from his last and darkest novel, the Mystery of Edwin Drood, which was published posthumously – a fact that has its own meaning in the context of this book. Wilkie Collins’ own work also makes an appearance, in that the style of Drood is old school detective story, such as Collins’ might have written, but definitely with a post-modernist reinterpretation.

But enough of the literary gaff. What makes this book so great is the incredible realism with which Dan Simmons evokes 19th century London, the stink, the deprivation – he does it as well as Charles Dickens except he doesn’t censor himself. He almost lulls you to sleep with details about Dickens and Collin’s ’s stormy relationship (but not quite — there’s an abundance of cruelty from both men to make it interesting) and then BOOM, the mysterious psychopathic <Drood arrives to wreck both their lives.

You never know what’s around the next corner because Dan Simmons refuses to be confined by the prescriptions of any particular genre. So as a reader you’re in freefall all the time. Definitely recommended. And if you don’t believe me, then hear Stephen King’s words on the cover: “I’m in AWE of Dan Simmons”. Also Guillermo Del Toro snapped up film rights for an undisclosed amount, the moment he read the book.