Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Past Transgressions

In my column this week for the Kirkus Reviews Web site, I have written about “five of the best and most interesting” historical crime novelists around: Jonathan Rabb, Anne Perry, Stuart M. Kaminsky, Edward Marston, and Michael Gregorio. You’ll find that new column here.

Of course, my list could’ve gone well beyond five names. There are myriad more purveyors of historical mysteries working today. So I also put together a page of other top picks from this subgenre.

Please feel free to chime in on the Kirkus site with your own suggestions of what recent or older works fans of historical crime fiction--like me--should be reading.

4 comments:

Steve Oerkfitz said...

I would add Philip Kerr who I find better than the 5 you mentioned.

J. Kingston Pierce said...

Hey, Steve:

I would certainly have added Philip Kerr to my list, as well, had I not recently posted another piece about his work on the Kirkus Reviews site:

http://www.kirkusreviews.com/blog/mysteries-and-thrillers/
rap-sheet-philip-kerr-politics-morals-and-crime/

Same goes for R.N. Morris:

http://www.kirkusreviews.com/blog/mysteries-and-thrillers/
rap-sheet-rn-morris-closes-case-dostoevskys-detect/

Cheers,
Jeff

Kiwicraig said...

Hi Jeff,

Anne Perry is an interesting character (as a NZer I grew up knowing about the Parker-Hulme murders that she served prison time for, of course) - I do quite enjoy her Victorian crime novels, although as you point out, they're a bit quaint.

I've heard great things about Kerr - mentioned by Steve above, and I'm looking forward to reading FIELD GREY, which I just bought the other day.

Some historical crime novels I've really enjoyed in the past couple of years include THE JANISSARY TREE by Jason Goodwin (1830s Istanbul), THE ATHENIAN MURDERS by Jose-Carlos Somoza (Ancient Greece) and THE ANUBIS SLAYINGS by PC Doherty (Ancient Egypt). I'd recommend any of those.

There are others I haven't liked so much too.

kathy d. said...

What about Alan Furst? Rebecca Cantwell? John Lawton? For WWII mysteries.

I'd personally add in Ariana Franklin for her 12th-century Adelia Aguilar four-book series. I have only read the first one, but have read rave reviews by bloggers.