It’s interesting to see Robert Crais come up twice since I haven’t met a book of his that I’ve liked yet.

Matt — I love that you say you haven’t learned to enjoy it yet — that’s a great outlook. I remember you liking Money Shot by Christa Faust and I wonder if you would like Val McDirmid’s books. Just a thought really.

So the few mystery/crime novels that have really worked for me may, in fact, be good ones to use as gateway books for less ornery readers than I — and those would be Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley novels, Jim Thompson’s The Getaway and Pop. 1280 (tho preferred the movie version, Coup de Torchon, an astounding film) (not The Killer Inside Me — I started with that and almost didn’t pick up another Thompson novel, because it had been touted to me as his best and I just thought it was silly and obvious), Thomas Harris’s Red Dragon (one of the great novels of the 20th century, methinks), and The Far Cry by Fredric Brown.

Before reading The Far Cry (on Brian Evenson’s recommendation, I think), I had only read Brown’s science fiction. I enjoyed the SF, but thought most of it, including What Mad Universe, one of his most famous novels, was more clever than compelling. Cleverness and the apparent desire to tie up all loose ends ruins the last section of The Far Cry, but up until then it is a deeply unsettling and impressive novel, brilliantly paced and sometimes beautifully written.

As for the other side — not-specifically-crime/mystery for the crime/mystery reader — I’m probably the worst person to judge, but that’s never stopped me before, so I would suggest Paul Bowles’s The Delicate Prey, an extraordinary collection of short stories.

For the crime reader who wants to branch out:
– Bleak House = Dickens threw everything in here, including plenty of mystery, murder, and a cool detective
– Edna Buchanan’s non fiction coverage of crime
– William Gibson’s Spook Country, and Pattern Recognition. Transcends labels.
– Alexander Dumas
– Edgar Allan Poe
– H.P. Lovecraft

Hostage ~ Robert Crais
Eye Of The Needle ~ Ken Follett
The Silence Of The Lambs ~ Thomas Harris
Smilla’s Sense of Snow ~ Peter Hoeg
Freaky Deaky ~ Elmore Leonard
Killshot ~ Elmore Leonard

“non-genre” books for a mystery/crime fic reader:

London Fields ~ Martin Amis
Leviathan ~ Paul Auster
Talk Talk ~ T C Boyle
A Trip to the Stars ~ Nicholas Christopher
The Name Of The Rose ~ Umberto Eco
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time ~ Mark Haddon
The Thanatos Syndrome ~ Walker Percy
The Club Dumas ~ Arturo Pérez-Reverte
Green River Rising ~ Tim Willocks