I love a mystery... but I am a demanding lover. The mystery novel must be almost as well-written as a real novel (I say almost, I am not irrational) It must be an intellectual puzzle, but with fully human characters, who know there’s someone out there smarter than they are…they must have flaws, and they must want to right wrongs for those who need help. Is this too much to ask?
I enjoy novels with lawyers / I like stories involving musicians and art forgers, but I am addicted to the lonely detective, ferreting out the truth, protecting the innocent from further harm and getting bruised in the process. The protagonist can be British, Swedish or American. They can be American writing about Russians. This seems to be popular and works well. See list of my favorites below. Favorites: Reginald Hild: Death Comes For The Fat man, Laura Lippman, The Sugar House, Sara Paretsky, Bitter Medicine ,P.D. James, Innocent Blood, Liza Cody, Dupe, Peter Dickinson: King and Joker, Ross MacDonald: Find a Victim,Jill McGown, Scene of Crime, Ian Rankin, Rebus, Stuart M. Kaminsky Blood and Rubies (a Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov novel) Henning Mankell: The Return Of The Dancing Master. There are books out there that purport to be mystery novels with a cat as a central character. Cats play a large part in the plot. Perhaps too much. Perhaps too much of what I love about mysteries is abandoned when one includes cats…. cats tend to expand to take up available space. I will make it my mission, as long as I can bear it, to read mysteries with cat characters and report on them in this blog.. Right now, like a good detective, I’m tracking down a story called “The White Death” in a mystery anthology called “Beastly Tales.” But I may stop my quest abruptly. Like a cat, I’m easily distracted.
