Category Archives: Crime Fiction Alphabet

It turns out I don’t know my ABC after all

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Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise hosted the second round of the Crime Fiction Alphabet this year. Interested bloggers were invited to post weekly articles about authors, books or subjects relating to the letter of the week. Last time Kerrie ran the meme I did a tribute to Sue Grafton and chose 26 books with one-word titles. This time I chose a range of topics including types of characters, themes and locations but I admit I skipped a few letters of the alphabet due to a combination of other time commitments and, in a couple of instances, a lack of inspiration. So here is my 20-letter alphabet, with apologies to the letters H, K, T, U, X and Y.


Crime Fiction Alphabet: Z is for Zeitgeist

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Crime fiction writers are able, should they be so inclined, to explore the social and political settings in which their stories take place, often in a way that contemporary journalism or other writing cannot. In this way it is a genre that can capture the Zeitgeist* spectacularly well. Here’s my list of books which do this very well, though some may not have immediately been seen as a novel which captured the spirit of their age. For me anyway I think a Zeitgeist capturing work of crime fiction has to have been written at the time, it’s too easy to be brilliant with hindsight.

Of the many hard-boiled novels and short stories that arose out of the Depression/Prohibition era of America’s late 1920′s and early 1930′s I think Dashiell Hammett’s The Thin Man  is the one that, for me, most clearly captures the particular spirit of that age. It has the hardships being experienced by many people, the deliberate ignoring of those hardships by some people, the desperation felt by others, the speakeasies, the after effects of World War 1…all the things I associate with that particular time and place.

So far I have only read the first of Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö‘s 10-book series of Martin Beck novels collectively planned as The Story of a Crime with a mission to hold up a mirror to the social problems the authors saw in 1960′s Sweden. In Roseanna the authors tackle all sorts of subjects including the nature of bureaucracy and the rise of consumerism which they saw as being significant social issues of their time.

Earlier this year I read Alan Glynn‘s Winterland which is set in contemporary Ireland and seems to me to depict its time and place perfectly. Ostensibly a story about two deaths in the same family what made the book standout for me is that it captures the exact moment when the country’s status as the Celtic tiger of the world economy was coming grievously unstuck due to the global financial crisis and those with any political clout at all were doing whatever it took to stay afloat. It’s a brilliant read.

I thought a book I read last week and reviewed for my other blog (Fair Dinkum Crime where we are serious about Australian crime fiction) captured contemporary Australia particularly well. Alan Carter‘s Prime Cut is set in south-eastern Western Australia which is one of the centres of this country’s latest mining boom. Issues such as the impact such economic booms have on long-term residents of an area and the exploitation of various social groups, including foreign workers, are explored with a subtly that I found refreshing. It’s also got two top-notch mysteries in it.

So, what crime fiction have you read that has captured the Zeitgeist?

*my Macquarie dictionary defines Zeitgeist as the spirit of the time, general drift of thought or feeling characteristic of a particular period of time.

Crime Fiction Alphabet: W is for Walking the Dog (and other clichés)

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I have logged a lot of kilometres with one dog or another over my 43 and a half years and have never once stumbled across a dead body but in crime fiction it happens with alarming regularity. I know that bodies have to be found somehow and it must be difficult to come up with new ways for a body that has been unceremoniously dumped outdoors to be found, but by now any time I even get the hint of a dog I’m mentally jumping ahead to the body discovery moment.

Just in books I’ve read this year I’ve come across several ‘dog walker discovers body’ scenarios and I’ve noticed the phenomenon is world-wide:

  • In Leighton Gage’s Blood of the Wicked a dog called Snoopy finds a body which has been dumped in the Brazilian countryside.
  • In Simon Brett’s Body on the Beach a fussy retired woman called Carole is taking her routine walk with Gulliver on an English beach one morning when they stumble across a body (which then disappears)
  • In Katherine Howell’s Cold Justice a teenager walking the family dog Wally finds the body of a fellow school student in suburban Sydney but it takes 20 years for the case to be solved.
  • In Jon Loomis’ High Season a dog called Molly finds one of the several dead bodies littering a small Cape Cod summer resort town
  • In Denise Mina’s Scottish noir tale Exile an un-named pooch finds a body in a story that someone tells as part of the book

I don’t let the phenomenon bother me too much (there’s one 5-star and two 4.5 star books in that list) but it does make me giggle.

Do you notice the ‘dog walker discovers body’ cliché in your crime fiction reading? Or is there another cliché that’s on your personal radar? What’s the best (non-dog related) body discovery method you’ve come across in your reading?

Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise is hosting the crime fiction alphabet meme which requires the posting of an article relating to the letter of the week. Do join in the fun by reading the posts and/or contributing one of your own. You don’t have to write every week.

Crime Fiction Alphabet: V is for Victoria (the bit of Australia not the Queen)

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I have neglected the last couple of alphabet letters but it can’t be helped: day-job workload and a dead computer reduced my blogging in recent weeks. Unfortunately I’ve chosen to return to the meme for a pesky letter of the alphabet for which I could think of only two subjects to discuss. One is a theme common to crime fiction but is a word I can never spell correctly and the other is a state in Australia that I am meant to be at war with. I’ve chosen to go with Victoria, the state of Australia that we South Australians are taught to hate from birth (it’s all to do with sport which is a subject that bores me witless) but which is home to some of the best crime fiction in the country. Victoria is a small state in the south-east of the country and its capital city is Melbourne.

As far as I know Carolyn Morwood only wrote two novels featuring Marlo Shawe who is a professional cricketer and amateur sleuth based in Melbourne but I enjoyed them both and would like to know what happened to this author. In the second of the books, 2002′s A Simple Death, Marlo finds a homeless man who has been bludgeoned to death and her boss becomes a suspect in the case.

One of the world’s earliest mystery stories is Fergus Hume‘s 1893 tale Mystery of a Hansom Cab in which a hansom cab driver finds his passenger has been poisoned and has died during their journey. I think I read this book many years ago but I picked up a new copy last year when a new publisher released it in a spiffy leather-ish binding.

Garry Disher has two crime series which are both set in Victoria. The novels featuring Detective Inspector Hal Challis and Sergeant Ellen Destry take place in and around the Mornington Peninsula, one of the state’s holiday destinations. The first novel of the series is 1999′s The Dragon Man which involves the investigation into a series of assaults on women and takes place across a blistering Australian summer (fans of the series take note, Disher’s website says there’s a new instalment of this series with a working title of Whispering Death due this year)

Jarad Henry has written two books set in Victoria. I haven’t read the first, Head Shot, which is about a drug squad detective who is accused of murdering a gangland figure who killed a policeman but I did read the second novel to feature the same detective as its central character. Blood Sunset takes place across a sweltering Melbourne summer in which bushfires ring the city and detective Rubens McCauley investigates the death of a young runaway. Melbourne, warts and all, is a distinct character in this terrific novel (more rumours, via tweets from the emerging writer’s festival held in Melbourne recently, are that Jarad Henry’s third novel will be out later this year)

Kerry Greenwood’s historical series starring Phyrne Fisher features the Melbourne of the 1920′s while her Corinna Chapman series takes place in the present day, inner-city version of the place. While the series is definitely at the lighter end of the crime fiction spectrum it does present a very recognisable Melbourne, including some of its darker elements (fact this time, Greenwood’s historical series and its Victorian setting will be brought to television next year).

Leigh Redhead‘s protagonist is Melbourne based former stripper Simone Kirsch. In her first outing, 2004′s Peepshow, Kirsch has enrolled in a course at security college (she won’t be accepted into the police force due to her former career) and becomes involved in the hunt for the kidnappers of one of her old dancing colleagues. This series shows off the seedier side of life in Melbourne .

Lindy Cameron‘s trilogy featuring Melbourne-based private detective Kit O’Malley is a treat. The first book in the series, Blood Guilt (1999), uses another sweltering Australian summer (trust me this is an almost annual occurrence so it’s not surprising to see the weather as a recurring theme) as the backdrop for a philandering husband investigation which turns into a hunt for a murderer.

Peter Klein brings the world of Victorian horse-racing to life in his series of novels featuring John Punter, a professional gambler and amateur detective. These novels have a real ring of authenticity due to Klein’s long history with the racing world in which he started as a strapper. Although racing takes place everywhere in the country (we are a nation of gamblers after all) it is the Melbourne Cup that, quite literally, stops the country on the first Tuesday each November and Klein draws out this aspect of Victoria’s life very well in novels such as Punter’s Turf.

Peter Temple made his home in Victoria after leaving his native South Africa and spending time in several places (including Sydney) and most of his crime fiction is set in the state. His quartet of novels featuring lawyer/gambler/private detective Jack Irish paint a picture of Melbourne that you’d swear could only have been drawn by someone born and bred there. It’s the little things, like the lamenting of the old-timers for the loss of the football clubs they knew and understood, that make Temple’s Melbourne come alive.

Melbourne is also home to one of the few writers of Australian crime caper novels I can think of. Shane Maloney‘s series featuring political aide and bumbling amateur sleuth Murray Whelan is based in Melbourne. Melbourne certainly seems to be the home of comedy in Australia (it boasts one of the world’s largest and most influential comedy festivals) so perhaps it’s not surprising it is also home to some fictional crime comedy.

Have you read any of these crime tales set in Victoria? or have I missed your favourite crime fiction set in Victoria? Do tell in the comments

Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise is hosting the crime fiction alphabet meme which requires the posting of an article relating to the letter of the week. Do join in the fun by reading the posts and/or contributing one of your own. You don’t have to write every week.

Crime Fiction Alphabet: S is for Science

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As you might have guessed by now I’m using this year’s round of Crime Fiction Alphabet to both tell you about books I like and get you to give me recommendations for new books to read that feature themes or character types that I enjoy (for when I finally get my TBR mountain under control) (in a couple of years). That goes double for this week, I love crime fiction that features science of the vaguely credible variety or scientists that aren’t mad and I haven’t found nearly enough of them. Though I have collected a few favourites.

Officially it’s probably more of a thriller than it is crime fiction but I’m prepared to bend the rules for Martin Woodhouse‘s Tree Frog (1966). The first of five novels featuring scientist Giles Yeoman who is an aeronautical engineer working, very reluctantly, for the British Government’s Seeker Section and it opens with the crash in England of an un-piloted plane that appears to have originated in East Germany. In some ways this is a typical cold war thriller in which the race is on to perfect long-range reconnaissance aircraft but Yeoman’s deadpan dialogue and reliance on his scientific knowledge and skills to get him out of tight spots is a refreshing change from the more violent spy-thrillers of Woodhouse’s contemporaries. I will admit though it’s been a long time since I read this book and I wonder if it might have dated (as happened with Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain which I used to love for similarly science-y reasons but was disappointed by on a recent re-read).

Randy Wayne White has a long-running series featuring a Florida-based marine biologist Marion (Doc) Ford, who was once an intelligence agent for the US government. In his fourth outing, 1996′s Captiva, Doc Ford is called upon by his best mate (a burned-out hippie) to investigate the death (via a bombing) of a friend of his. The story revolves around a clearly contentious (and real) fight between sports and commercial fishermen and whether or not net-fishing should be allowed. There’s more science and thoughtfulness in the ensuing ecological and economic debate than you might expect from this kind of thriller. The series can be a little more ‘blokey’ (a few more explosions, car chases and violent outbursts) than I might normally enjoy but the characters are multi-dimensional and the science is generally pretty solid.

Alex Brett is a Canadian writer who has (as far as I know) only written two mysteries both featuring Morgan O’Brien who is an investigator of scientific frauds working for the Canadian government. In the second of the two books, Cold Dark Matter (2006), Morgan is called upon to collect the research diaries of an astronomer who apparently committed suicide while working in Hawaii. Her questioning of the suicide, and the unexpected competition she encounters for the research data of the astronomer, leads Morgan to uncover some of her own government’s well-kept secrets from the cold war era. It really is a fascinating novel and the scientific issues in it (and its predecessor Dark Water Creek which will teach you amazing things about salmon fishing) are explored intelligently and entertainingly. It’s a shame that Alex Brett appears not to be writing any longer.

As you can see I’m a bit light on for scientific mysteries so do let me know if you have a good recommendation (I’m ignoring medical doctors and forensic specialists for this category).

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Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise is hosting the crime fiction alphabet meme which requires the posting of an article relating to the letter of the week. Do join in the fun by reading the posts and/or contributing one of your own. You don’t have to write every week.

Crime Fiction Alphabet: R is for Religious Cults

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When I was a university student I was perpetually broke and so was willing to do almost anything for a few bucks or a hot meal. This included acting as a guinea pig for studies being carried out by the campus’ psychology and medical faculties and taking part in the introductory seminars held by the various cult-like groups that always proliferate where young and possibly vulnerable people are. I have many (many) faults but being suggestible and wanting to be part of the in-crowd are neither of them, so I was never in much danger of being sucked into their clutches. I did however develop a fascination with religious cults and how they tick that has stayed with me to this day. Most of the books I have read on this theme are either non-fiction or not in the crime genre but I have found a couple over the years. As always I’d be pleased to hear any recommendations you have for good books on this theme.

Jupiter’s Bones (1998) is Faye Kellerman‘s 11th Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus book and features an investigation into the death in southern California of Dr Emil Ganz, otherwise known as Father Jupiter, leader of a doomsday cult with a belief system based on a curious mixture of maths and mysticism. Although I grew a bit tired of this series some years ago I always liked the way it tackled religious themes in general, neither preaching nor condemning, and this one is no exception. There is. of course, a standard police procedural (with the policeman’s wife pitching in where appropriate) but also a not unsympathetic look at the cult and what brought its members together.

Laurie R King‘s standalone novel A Darker Place (1999) is a terrific story in which Anne Waverly, who is a former cult member, university professor and covert FBI agent, goes undercover in a dangerous cult in an effort to save its members. Having survived her own cult experience but losing a husband and daughter in the process Anne is a tortured soul with self-destructive tendencies and a complicated personality. One of the best things about the book is that it depicts the cult leaders not as rabid psychopaths or outright charlatans but as highly functional ‘normal’ people who believe their version of the truth. this is a far more realistic (if scarier) prospect that the madmen (and women) of TV cults who most people would run a country mile from.

Kerry Greenwood‘s Heavenly Pleasures (2008) is the second of her Corinna Chapman series set in present-day Melbourne. As the book opens one of Corinna’s neighbouring shop-owners is experiencing poisoning of their produce (delicious hand made chocolates) and at the same time Corinna’s recently acquired boyfriend Daniel has started to investigate a mysterious cult that is preying on the young and vulnerable people who frequent the soup kitchen that Daniel helps out at. A much lighter look at religious cults than the other two books mentioned here.

So, do you know any crime fiction featuring a religious cult that I should check out? All recommendations gratefully accepted (with the exception of Meg Gardiner’s China Lake which I have read and did not enjoy nearly as much as Stephen King did).

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Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise is hosting the crime fiction alphabet meme which requires the posting of an article relating to the letter of the week. Do join in the fun by reading the posts and/or contributing one of your own. You don’t have to write every week.

Crime Fiction Alphabet: Q is for Quantico

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For this instalment of the crime fiction alphabet we’re heading to a location in America that has become well-known to readers (and watchers) of crime fiction. Quantico is actually a small town (population 561) in Prince William County, Virginia but for crime fiction readers the name generally conjures up images of one of the military or law enforcement facilities that surround the town. It is the site of US Marine Corps’ largest bases and contains within it (among other things) the Marine Corps Officer Candidates School, the Marine Corps Research Center, the Marine Corps Brig (a military prison), the FBI Training Academy (incorporating the much-featured-in-crime-fiction Behavioural Analysis Unit) and a training facility for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Collectively these facilities and the people who work in them have become familiar to crime fiction fans.

One of the first books to feature Quantico in any detail was Thomas Harris’ Silence of the Lambs (published in 1988 though set five-years earlier) in which a young FBI trainee, Clarice Starling, is asked by Jack Crawford, head of the psychological profiling unit, to present a profiling questionnaire to Hannibal Lecter, a sociopath serving life in prison for a series of brutal murders he committed. As well as being in charge of building up profilers of all the worst killers in custody, Crawford is also on the trail of a serial killer who has been nicknamed Buffalo Bill who has killed several women in a particularly gruesome way. It becomes clear that Lecter knows something about the killer and a battle of wits begins.

Given that several characters in her long-running Kay Scarpetta series work for the FBI in one way or another, it’s no surprise that more than one of Patricia Cornwell‘s books features Quantico in some way. In the fifth book of the series, The Body Farm (1994), Scarpetta is investigating the murder of a young girl which has similar elements to earlier murders which were carried out by someone who has eluded the FBI. Kay is helped by her niece, Lucy Farinelli, who is now an intern at the FBI and looks set for a career at Quantico’s computer engineering facility before she engages in a disastrous relationship with a fellow Quantico employee.

Gene Riehl’s Quantico Rules (2003) is a bit of a departure from the serial killer hunts that tend to be the focus of novels in which the Quantico facilities are featured. Puller Monk is an FBI agent along with being a compulsive gambler and jolly good liar (he actually practices defeating lie detectors). He heads up the Special Inquiries (SPIN) unit and as the book opens is undertaking a routine (but thorough) background check of Judge Brenda Thompson who is the first African American woman nominated as a candidate for the Supreme Court. He learns that she has lied about what she was doing during a 3 week period over 30 years earlier and when he follows that lead a very nasty secret starts to unravel.

It’s also worth re-mentioning the book I featured for the letter Q the last time this meme was in play. Greg Bear’s Quantico (2007) is a cross between science and crime fiction. It is set in the near future when a massive terrorist attack has occurred in the US and the book follows the stories of two Quantico-based FBI agents, one a Muslim of Arabic heritage and one a man trying to live up to the legendary status of his father.

P.D. Martin‘s series featuring Australian-born FBI Profiler Sophie Anderson starts out with Body Count (2007). Sophie has left her job with the Australian police to join the FBI and when this book opens she has undertaken her training and is working at the Quantico-based Behavioural Analysis Unit. She starts experiencing nightmares of crime scenes. This would be fairly normal for a law enforcement officer except these are detailed images of real scenes that Sophie has not been anywhere near. Is she going mad or does she really have a capacity to see things from a killer’s point of view.

Many crime other crime fighters, such Leighton Gage‘s creation Chief Inspector Mario Silva of the Brazilian Federal Police who features in five books so far starting with Blood of the Wicked, spend time training at Quantico either as part of the narratives in which they appear or via their back-stories so the facilities really are an almost ubiquitous feature of crime fiction. Is this a feature of crime novels you have noticed? Have I missed your favourite Quantico-based book?

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Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise is hosting the crime fiction alphabet meme which requires the posting of an article relating to the letter of the week. Do join in the fun by reading the posts and/or contributing one of your own. You don’t have to write every week.

Crime Fiction Alphabet: P is for Politicians

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I talked more generally about politically themed reading during our last Federal election but I thought it worth having a look at how politicians themselves are treated in crime fiction. Perhaps it won’t surprise too many of you that, for the most part, they’re either murdered horribly or depicted as completely corrupt.

Anthony Gilbert‘s series of ten mystery novels written in the 1920′s and 30′s featuring Scott Egerton, a rising British political leader (and one of the few politicians in crime fiction who is both brilliant and not at all corrupt), came to my attention when I was at University. It wasn’t easy to introduce genre fiction into my high-brow studies but I was writing about women who had been forced by convention (or the need for cash) to write as men, and Gilbert is one of several pseudonyms used by Lucy Beatrice Malleson. In 1932′s The Body on the Beam Egerton investigates the death of a woman of..er…uncertain reputation…whose body is found hanged. A man is quickly arrested for the crime but Egerton thinks it’s all a bit too easy and goes on to trap the real criminal. (Gilbert/Malleson went on to create the character of fat, uncouth lawyer Arthur G Crook who appeared in around 50 novels up until Malleson’s death in 1973)

Bartholomew Gill’s McGarr and the Politician’s Wife is the first novel of what became a long running series featuring Peter McGarr who is Chief Superintendent of Detectives for the Irish Garda. In this story the discovery of a body at a yacht club leads police to investigate a politician of dubious credibility and his promiscuous wife and tackles issues such as the impact of the IRA on local politics. The book was originally published in 1977 though was later republished in 2000 as McGarr and the Politician but I don’t know if this later version makes any substantial changes to the story to account for the altered political environment.

John Maddox Roberts’ historical series set in ancient Rome features a Senator, Decuis Caecilius Metellus (the Younger), as its amateur investigator and the cases often involve his political colleagues. In The Sacrilege a secret female-only ceremony is infiltrated by a corrupt politician who dresses as a woman and when a series of murders follows this Decuis starts investigating and, as always, uncovers a massive conspiracy that threatens the Repbulic of Rome. I must say when I read about ancient Roman politics (or watch it) I think our modern-day politicians get off lightly :)

Politicians are heavily featured in Australian author Shane Maloney‘s series following the adventures of Murray Whelan, aide, advisor and fixit man as well as reluctant amateur sleuth. In The Brush Off Murray’s boss has scored the job of Minister for the Arts so when an artist is found dead Murray’s first job is to ensure no fallout reaches his boss.  He discovers political cover-ups, abuse of power, fraudulent use of public money (all before breakfast). Maloney’s writing is a treat and having spent some time doing similar jobs to Murray’s I think he depicts that particular environment beautifully.

Robin Spano’s Dead Politician Society opens with the murder of a local politician in Toronto, Canada. Surely I can’t be the the only reader who happily inserted a particularly annoying politician of my own acquaintance in the mental images running through my head during that sequence. As part of its investigation into the case the Toronto police insert a young policewoman into a political group active at the university to identify whether or not any of its members are responsible for the death.

In Alan Glynn’s Winterland the crime part of the story almost plays a secondary role to its political elements. Set in present-day Ireland as the economic prosperity of the previous decade turns sour, the book opens with the death of two men on the same evening. As only one of the deaths is thought to be murder so police are not involved but a victim’s relative delves into the matter and uncovers the seedier side of Irish politics. Larry Bolger, son of a politician himself, is being groomed to take a shot at becoming the country’s political leader. His desire for the job, and the desire of his connections to make sure he gets it, are at the heart of this compelling story.

One of the surprising things I learned as I toddled around the internet looking up the titles of books half-remembered for this post, is that American TV news anchor Jim Lehrer (who has been, rather inexplicably, appearing daily on Australia’s foreign language TV channel for the past couple of decades) has written a swag of mystery novels including seven books featuring a character called one-eyed Mack who is the Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma. Has anyone read any of these and are they any good?

Do you have a favourite politician in crime fiction? They don’t have to be dead or corrupt :)

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Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise is hosting the crime fiction alphabet meme which requires the posting of an article relating to the letter of the week. Do join in the fun by reading the posts and/or contributing one of your own. You don’t have to write every week.

Crime Fiction Alphabet: O is for Old People

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Perhaps my inability to really get into YA novels has more to do with the sad reality that I’m closer to receiving my senior’s card than I am to having had a student bus pass.  Anyway, I do rather like old people, both in real life and in my fiction. I know some of ‘em are crotchety and curmudgeonly but I was born that way so I fit right in, and I like the fact they know lots of stuff. There are a surprising number of old people in crime fiction who aren’t doddering or silly and they are some of my favourite characters of all.

One of the world’s best-known and most-loved elderly solvers of mysterious puzzles is Agatha Christie‘s Jane Marple, who appeared in 12 novels and around the same number of short stories. The second novel in which she appears, The Body in the Library (1942), is probably my favourite. In St Mary Mead, the village where Miss Marple lives, the body of a woman in evening wear is found in the library of the home of Colonel Bantry and his wife. Both the Colonel and his wife claim to have no knowledge of the woman or how she came to be strangled in their library but village gossip makes their lives difficult. Eventually, after several other (younger) people muddle around, Jane Marple’s shrewdness and ability to observe human nature unravel the complicated story.

Dorothy Gillman‘s series featuring a grandmother turned CIA agent seems to have been written purely to confound the stereotypes normally associated with old people. In The Amazing Mrs Pollifax (1970) our intrepid heroine travels to Istanbul to make contact with a Russian spy who is a double agent for the Americans but must survive a swag of near-death experiences before arriving home safely.

Before her Vera Stanhope novels and the Shetland Quartet Ann Cleeves wrote 8 novels featuring retired civil servant George Palmer-Jones and his wife Molly who had been a social worker before the pair retired and devoted their time to bird watching and crime solving. The first of these is 1986′s A Bird in the Hand in which Tom French, one of the best bird watchers in England has his head bashed in George and Molly have to untangle a morass of rare sighting claims, unrequited love and various other elements of human nastiness.

In 1993′s Dead Man’s Island Carolyn Hart introduces Henrietta O’Dwyer Collins (known as Henry O) a retired journalist who seems to be able to do anything she puts her mind to. I didn’t actually like Henry O as much as I wanted to (a little too full of herself for my taste) but it is always good to see an older person being portrayed as intelligent and non-dithering. In this book she’s really put to the test as a group of people are marooned on an island in the middle of a hurricane and the storm isn’t the only thing trying to kill them.

I recently listened to The Water Room (2004) which is the second book of the Peculiar Crimes Unit series by Christopher Fowler. The two protagonists are John May and Arthur Bryant who should both have retired some years earlier but they have been retained due to their particular skills. In this book they investigate a series of deaths which no one is sure for some time are murders but alongside the main narrative there is an intelligent exploration of the aging process and how old people are treated by society.

Colin Cotterill‘s series featuring Dr Siri Paiboun is one of my very favourite to have an old person as its main character. We first meet him in The Coroner’s Lunch (2004) when Dr Siri is 72 and has been appointed, very reluctantly, as Laos’ first Coroner. As Dr Siri and his able assistants investigate a series of peculiar deaths we are treated to flashbacks of Dr Siri’s life as a doctor, communist activist and husband which is one of the nicer aspects of having old people as protagonists: they have lots of experiences to share with readers.

These are just a few of my favourite ‘old people’ of crime fiction. Do you have any favourite crime fiction tales to feature old people in a more flattering light than the stereotypes would suggest? Are you comfortable with the term ‘old’ or do you think we should refer to ‘the elderly’ or ‘seniors’? I feel like claiming the word old back from its stereotype-laden inferences which is why I deliberately chose it for ‘O’ week but I do draw the line at ‘geezer-lit’ – that is a term I just don’t like and won’t use.

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Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise is hosting the crime fiction alphabet meme which requires the posting of an article relating to the letter of the week. Do join in the fun by reading the posts and/or contributing one of your own. You don’t have to write every week.

Crime Fiction Alphabet: N is for New Zealand

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I was prompted to highlight New Zealand after stumbling across this rather sad little collection of four entries in the New Zealand location index at Stop You’re Killing Me. Now I’m not blaming the fine people at Stop…, it’s a great website and resource for crime fiction fans, but I’m guessing they rely heavily on information from publishers to populate their various lists and I suspect they simply don’t get a lot of material from New Zealand publishers to work with.

Although we’re always at odds in the sporting arena, Aussies and Kiwis do tend to feel quite kindly towards each other on other matters (promise). Both countries are down here at the bottom of the world where it can feel like we are a bit forgotten by that part of the publishing world dealing in the English language which is heavily focussed on US and UK products and markets. So I thought I’d do my bit to promote cross-Tasman crime fiction.

Sadly my own reading of New Zealand crime fiction can’t offer much better than the meagre offerings at Stop… as I have only reviewed 4 books set in New Zealand myself (though I have read a few more in my pre-blogging days):

  • Bold Blood by Lindy Kelly, which is an amateur sleuth tale set in the world of international horse eventing. It’s a light, fun tale with a dash of romance and strongly recommended for all the animal lovers.
  • Murder in the Second Row by Bev Robitai is a cosy mystery set in a historic theatre in a small New Zealand town. An amateur theatre group’s production of an Agatha Christie play is thrown into disarray when one of the stars is killed in this terrific little cosy mystery.
  • Overkill and Containment by Vanda Symon. These are the first and third books in the Sam Shephard series and are very entertaining police procedurals. I have the fourth book in the series, 2011′s Bound. on my TBR pile to read in the next couple of weeks.

Fortunately for you though you don’t have to rely on the meagre offerings of either me or Stop You’re Killing Me. There’s a marvellous resource at your fingertips in the form of Crime Watch, a great blog by Kiwi crime fiction fan Craig Sisterson. Craig discusses crime fiction from all over the world but he does a great job of highlighting New Zealand crime writers in particular. In fact his own contributions to this round of the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme have all highlighted books by New Zealand crime writers (not all of these are set in New Zealand but many are).

Have you read any crime fiction set in New Zealand? Got any recommendations to make?

Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise is hosting the crime fiction alphabet meme which requires the posting of an article relating to the letter of the week. Do join in the fun by reading the posts and/or contributing one of your own. You don’t have to write every week.