The Daughter of Time: A Review of the #1 Mystery Novel on the Crime Writers' Association List

As I mentioned in my introductory post, I will be reviewing the top mystery novels which appeared on the Crime Writers' Association and the Mystery Writers of America best mystery lists. I begin with the unique mystery, The Daughter of Time.

Author: Josephine Tey (nom de plume of Elizabeth MacKintosh, aka Gordon Daviot)
Novel: The Daughter of Time
Publication: 1951
#1 on the CWA list, #4 on the MWA list.
Word Count: 48450
Age of author at time of publication: 55.
Previous novels published by this author: nine. (and a number of plays)
Opening line: Grant lay on his high white cot and stared at the ceiling.
Significance: Final novel published during the lifetime of a great mystery author. A unique mystery.
Real Significance: It changed history.

Hello? Those who fantasize about going back in time to change history should stop concentrating on building a time machine and consider writing a novel.

This novel takes place in a hospital room where Josephine Tey's favorite detective, Inspector Alan Grant, is going crazy while taking forever to convalesce from a broken leg. So he turns to reading history. Except. . .

This novel really takes place inside the British consciousness. At the time of its publication, King Richard the Third was the champion villain among the English monarchy, in particular because he killed his two young nephews/princes in the Tower of London. In the British psyche, this may well have been The Crime of the Millennium. Before it came common practice to tear apart conventional wisdom, Tey constructed a historical treatise in mystery format that set out to rehabilitate King Richard's reputation. In that respect, her book was a fantastic success. It even helped lead to the recent discovery of King Richard's bones. (Discussed in the New Yorker link below)

Cleverly plotted, in this compact novel the reader learns of each new piece of evidence exonerating Richard the Third at the same time that the fictional detective uncovers it. Some of this evidence is compelling: Richard the Third had nothing to gain from killing his nephews. The history of Richard the Third was written by his hated rival and successor, Henry VII. It was this history that Shakespeare called upon, which once having written one of the great plays of all time, cemented Richard's unsavory reputation.

Shakespeare often showed the biases of his age. He wasn't about to insult the Tudors, his patrons. His portrait of Joan of Arc depicted her as a wench and deserving of her death.

Other evidence presented in favor of Richard the Third is less compelling. Early on Inspector Grant is convinced from a portrait that someone with such a nice face couldn't be a killer.

So, was Richard the Third indeed innocent, perhaps even benevolent? I don't care. The point is not whether I should swing from one version of history to another, it is whether I should critically regard pre-packaged history.

Here are a pair of excellent articles about Josephine Tey and the impact of The Daughter of Time.

The Mystery of Josephine Tey. (Vanity Fair)


The Detective Novel That Convinced a Generation that Richard III Wasn't Evil. (New Yorker)

Petty complaints? Why do you even need to be in a hospital to recover from a broken leg?

Overall judgment: Highly Recommended.

Josephine Tey

Now is the winter of our discotheque: Appended to mention that various versions of Richard the III emerge throughout literature. A heroic Richard III is the model for Robert Stark in Game of Thrones. (Stark/son of York) Others are noted in this Guardian article.

I wrote a short-short "The Richard the Third Murder Mystery," presented here.
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Martin Hill Ortiz is the author of Never Kill A Friend, Ransom Note Press.

Never Kill A Friend, Ransom Note Press

Never Kill A Friend is available for purchase in hard cover format and as an ebook.
The story follows Shelley Krieg, an African-American detective for the Washington DC Metro PD as she tries to undo a wrong which sent an innocent teenager to prison.

Hard cover: Amazon US
Kindle: Amazon US
Hard cover: Amazon UK
Kindle: Amazon UK
Barnes and Noble 

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Around the World in Mystery, Part One.

Although American and British authors dominate the (usually) American and British lists of the best crime writing, mystery has an international history with Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment (Russian), Simenon's Maigret (Belgian), Leroux's Phantom of the Opera (French), and Rampo's Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Japanese), and Borges complex mysteries/anti-mysteries (Argentinian) being chief among many examples. More recently, Zafón, Eco and Larsson have crossed over to becoming international bestsellers.

The reader who dares to explore the full world of mystery writers is rewarded with new insights and perspectives and experiences a diversity of cultures and landscapes. To read world literature is to sample the best the world has to offer.

Where to start? Below I've assembled several lists from famous authors who advocate for reading the mystery and crime novels from their countries and regions. Other entries are for the best crime novels set in a particular location and those which describe the location best. In a future post, I will look at the best locations in crime novels and those authors who best describe their bloody towns.

Camilla Läckberg: Top 10 Swedish Crime Novels

Swedish mysteries are hot, probably due to global warming. Läckberg is one of the dominant figures in Swedish literature with each of her novels achieving bestseller status. Her list of the best crime novels from her native land.

1. The Mind's Eye by Håkan Nesser
Soulful works with very real characters including the villains.
2. Blackwater by Kerstin Ekman
A bestseller and classic.
3. Missing by Karin Alvtegen
A psychological thriller.
4. Sun Storm by Åsa Larsson
Following the exploits of an amateur detective/tax attorney.
5. The Fifth Woman by Henning Mankell
Inspector Wallander has gone on to fame in Swedish and BBC productions.
6. Unseen by Mari Jungstedt
Included because there are not enough crime-solving couples in this world.
7. Shame by Karin Alvtegen
Follows the story of a pair tormented by memories.
8. Echoes from the Dead by Johan Theorin
A ghost and a mystery.
9. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Mystery, sharply-defined characters and action.
10. Midwinter Blood by Mons Kallentoft
A terrific plot.

Brian McGilloway: Top 20 Modern Irish Crime Novels

McGilloway has written two bestselling series, one featuring Inspector Devlin and one featuring Detective Sergeant Lucy Black. His list:

1. The Wrong Kind of Blood by Declan Hughes
The opening: The last time, they'd pressed the sharpened points of their sheath knives into the flesh of their thumbs, and let their blood mingle, and smeared it on each other's foreheads till it looked like burning embers. They were blood brothers for sure then, bound fast as any natural born siblings. But embers turn to ashes and blood doesn't always take.
2. The Guards by Ken Bruen
One of the pioneers of the modern Irish crime novel.
3. Mystery Man by Bateman
Comic romp in a mystery book store.
4. Darkhouse by Alex Barclay
Mixes American and Irish story lines.
5. The Midnight Choir by Gene Kerrigan
Brings a psychological and journalistic insight into his characters.
6. The Big O by Declan Burke
"... recalls Elmore Leonard at his best."
7. Dead I Well May Be by Adrian McKinty
"... hard-boiled Irish noir at its best."
8. Undertow by Arlene Hunt
A dark look at immigrants' plights in modern Ireland.
9. The Anglo-Irish Murders by Ruth Dudley Edwards
Edwards skewers modern Irish politics.
10. In The Woods by Tana French
Hugely popular, a mystery that remains mysterious.

Catherine Sampson: Top 10 Asian Crime Fiction

Sampson lives in Beijing where she has also set her more recent mystery novels. Her list includes both Asian writers and Western writers who set their works in Asia.

1. Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong
Detective Chen investigates a case that threatens to upset Chinese politicians.
2. Playing For Thrills by Wang Shuo
Featuring Chinese punk, Shuo's works are often banned in China.
3. Crime De Sang by He Jiahong
Jiahong delves into the justice and injustice of China's legal system.
4. Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra
Organized crime in Bombay.
5. Jack the Ladykiller by HRF Keating
Keating looks at colonial India circa 1935 in this mystery.
6. Out by Natsuo Kirino
The tale of a young woman who murders her husband.
7. All She Was Worth by Miyake Miyabe
Looks at the dark side of Japan consumerism.
8. Inspector Imanishi Investigates by Seicho Matsumoto
A Japanese classic police procedural from the sixties.
9. Murder At Mount Fuji by Shizuko Natsuki
A visiting American and a Japanese detective work together to solve a murder.
10. The Quiet American by Graham Greene
1950s Saigon, before the American disaster.

Michael Stanley: Top 10 African Crime Novels

Michael Stanley, like Ellery Queen, is a pseudonym for a mystery-writing pair, native Africans Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip. Link.

1. Murder at Government House by Elspeth Huxley
Although remembered mostly for The Flame Trees of Thika, Huxley also wrote mysteries including Murder at Government House which looks at the death of the ruling governor and a web of colonial intrigue.
2. Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
Although Christie tried her hand at classical Egyptology in other books, this one is a straightforward Poirot mystery.
3. Song Dog by James McClure
McClure examined apartheid South African through mystery tales featuring a black and a white detective.
4. Instruments of Darkness by Robert Wilson
A British ex-pat and a local policeman work together to solve a murder in Benin.
5. The Screaming of the Innocent by Unity Dow
Dow was the first female High Court judge in Botswana and she has written several novels examining justice from an African point of view.
6. The Mission Song by John le Carré
le Carré follows a native African as he uncovers a plot to overthrow the government in Congo.
7. Devils Peak by Deon Meyer
Set in contemporary South Africa, the story follows a man seeking revenge and the detective whose job is to stop him.
8. Blood Rose by Margie Orford
Orford worked as a crime reporter and provides a realism to a grisly tale in modern South Africa.
9. Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey
Quartey writes about his native Ghana and the complex tensions that border on violence.
10. Zulu by Caryl Férey
Férey also turned his talents to writing about South Africa and how the apartheid history continues to destroy the present day.

Carlos Ruiz Zafón: Best Gothic of the 20th Century.

Zafón writes Southern Gothic: i.e, set in southern Spain. His novel Shadow of the Wind is the best-selling Spanish novel since Don Quixote (a fact which I did not know) and a great read (which I do know). Beneath each entry is a quote from his descriptions each of which was direct and vivid. This is an international list in only a limited sense: one selection is from Sweden, three from England and the rest from the United States; however, you can also add Zafón to your reading list.
 
1. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
"Jackson's writings are a must for aficionados of the gothic and of good literature."
2. Mysteries of Winterthurn by Joyce Carol Oates
"Life is short, so kill your TV now and start exploring her universe."
3. Sanctuary by William Faulkner
". . .it has always been regarded suspiciously and considered a minor work. It is not."
4.  Double Indemnity by James M Cain
"Lean, mean and dazzling."
5. Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg
"If you ask me, this novel is the best mystery thriller ever written."
6. The Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake
"Dark, dense, baroque and hauntingly beautiful."
7. Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
". . . one of the most interesting and promising writers to appear in the last few years in any genre."
8. Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories by Angela Carter
"A treasure chest of wonderfully wicked stories..."
9. Pet Sematary by Stephen King
"A modern-day Dickens with a popular voice. . ."
10. Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
"... a fresh, powerful and brutally honest reinvention of the vampire novel."


Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. His latest mystery, Never Kill A Friend, is available from Ransom Note Press. His epic poem, Two Mistakes, recently won second place in the Margaret Reid/Tom Howard Poetry Competition. He can be contacted at mdhillortiz@gmail.com.

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True Crime and Historical Crime Fiction. Top 10 Lists from McCreet, Graeber and Peace.

Today, some forays into historical and true crime writing courtesy The Guardian. By following the links you can read extended descriptions of their books advocating for its place on the list. For copyright reasons, I shortened these to thumbnails.

James McCreet: Victorian Crime 

McCreet writes well-researched historical mystery fiction set in the Victorian era. How can you ask for anything better? Here are his Top 10 Victorian Detective Stories (and resources).

1. On Murder by Thomas de Quincey
Detective fiction that predates Poe.
2. The Mystery of Marie Roget by Edgar Allan Poe
Billed as the sequel to the Murders in Rue Morgue, Poe tackles a real-life crime.
3. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
In one of his several nods to the genre of mystery, Dickens introduces Inspector Bucket.
4. The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale
Another Victorian author tackles a true crime. 
5. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
Helped establish the mystery novel genre.
6. Memoirs of a Bow Street Runner by Henry Goddard
True Victorian crime by a real Victorian detective.
7. London Labour and the London Poor by Henry Mayhew
Interviews with Victorian criminals.
8. Fingerprints by Douglas G Browne
An early forensic text.
9. A Dictionary of Victorian London by Lee Jackson
and 10. Victorian London by Liza Picard
Two guides to understanding Victorian London.

Charles Graeber: True Crime.

The New York Times Book Review compared Graeber's The Good Nurse (favorably) to In Cold Blood. Here is a list of his top ten true crime books.

1. Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, by Jon Krakauer
2. All the President's Men, by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
3. Columbine, by Dave Cullen
4. Blood and Money, by Thomas Thompson
5. The Executioner's Song, by Norman Mailer
6. The Stranger Beside Me: Ted Bundy, the Shocking Inside Story, by Anne Rule
7. Homicide: a year on the Killing Streets, by David Simon
8. Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, by Vincent Bugliosi with Curt Gentry
9. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
10. People Who Eat Darkness: the Fate of Lucie Blackman, by Richard Lloyd Parry

David Peace: British True Crime.

David Peace is described in the Guardian article as a writer of "ultra-noir." An apt description, his works pack the punch of a sledgehammer. His top 10 true crime books.

1. Beyond Belief by Emlyn Williams
An account of the Moors Murders case.
2. Somebody's Husband, Somebody's Son by Gordon Burn
"Gordon Burn is the best British writer there is."
3. Killing for Company by Brian Masters
The Dennis Nilsen case.
4. The Streetcleaner by Nicole Ward Jouve
The Yorkshire Ripper.
5. Error of Judgement by Chris Mullin
Exposing the true story of the Birmingham Bombings.
6. State of Siege by Jim Coulter, Susan Miller and Martin Walker.
The miners' strike of 1984-85.
7. Who Framed Colin Wallace? by Paul Foot
The author tackles a wrongful conviction.
8. Smear! by Stephen Dorril and Robin Ramsay
The behind the scenes story of the secret destruction of Prime Minister Harold Wilson.
9. The Terrorism Trilogy by Martin Dillon
The Shankill Butchers, God and the Gun, and The Dirty War.
10. Bloody Valentine by John Williams
The death of a Cardiff prostitute.

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James Lee Burke, Carl Hiaasen and Scott Turow: More mystery writers choose their favorite books.

Today's lists are from J. Peder Zane's The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books.

James Lee Burke

Burke's 1989 Black Cherry Blues won him an Edgar for best mystery novel and appears on a number of all-time best mystery lists. He has also won an Edgar for Cimmaron Rose (1997) and an MWA Grand Master Award recognizing his career.

1. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (1929).
2. Dubliners by James Joyce (1916).
3. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway (1940).
4. All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren (1946). I
5. The stories of Flannery O’Connor (1925–64).
6. The stories of Andre Dubus (1936–99).
7. Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain (1941).
8. The Big Sky by A. B. Guthrie, Jr. (1947).
9. The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham (1919).
10. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925).

Carl Hiaasen

The comedian Ed Wynn, on his deathbed, was asked whether dying was hard. He answered, "Dying is easy. Comedy is hard." With a great humorous-mystery writer like Hiaasen, you get a whole lot of death and comedy. What could be better?

1. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1962).
2. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (1884).
3. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger (1951).
4. The Comedians by Graham Greene (1966).
5. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1969).
6. Stories of Franz Kafka (1883–1924).
7. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (1939).
8. Ninety-Two in the Shade by Thomas McGuane (1973).
9. Stories of Flannery O'Connor (1925–64).
10. Money by Martin Amis (1984).

Scott Turow

Turow burst on to the scene in 1987 with Presumed Innocence a novel that nearly single-handedly transformed/invigorated the legal mystery subgenre. Cumulatively, his novels have sold over 30 million copies.

1. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (1916).
2. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (1877).
3. Rabbit Angstrom - Rabbit, Run (1960), Rabbit Redux (1971), Rabbit Is Rich (1981), Rabbit at Rest (1990) by John Updike.
4. Herzog by Saul Bellow (1964).
5. Tell Me a Riddle by Tillie Olsen (1961).
6. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1844).
7. The Works of William Shakespeare (1564-1616).
8. The Bear by William Faulkner (1942).
9. Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1934).
10. The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett (1932).

Previous posts of mystery writers choosing their favorite mysteries.

  The first post: P.D. James, Andrew Klavan, Thomas H. Cook, John Dickson Carr and Arthur Conan Doyle.
  The second post: Isaac Asimov, Robert Barnard, George Baxt, James Ellroy, Michael Gilbert, Sue Grafton, Reginald Hill, Tony Hillerman, HRF Keating, Peter Lovesey, Charlotte MacLeod, Sara Paretsky, Julian Symons, and Martin Hill Ortiz.
  The third post: Robert B. Parker, Elizabeth Peters, Peter Straub, Donald E. Westlake, and Phyllis A. Whitney.
  The fourth post: Aaron Elkins, John Gardner,  Michael Malone and Marcia Muller
  The fifth post: Robert Barnard (best recent), Jacques Barzun, Rex Stout and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine 1950.
 The sixth post: Jeannette de Beauvoir, Mary Reed, and John Dufresne.
 The seventh post:  Angela Zeman, Carolyn Wheat, Ann Rule, John Lutz, Dick Lochte, Laurie R. King, Tony Hillerman, Jeremiah Healy, Linda Fairstein and Jan Burke.
 The eighth post: Agatha Christie (favorites among her own works), Julia Buckley, and 38 renowned authors choose their favorite forgotten books, including John Le Carré and Elmore Leonard.

 The ninth post: Dennis Lehane, Michael Connelly, Don Winslow, Polly Whitney and E.E. Kennedy.

 The tenth post: George Pelecanos, Mary Higgins Clark and Charlaine Harris.

 The eleventh post: Stephen King. (With links to his favorite short stories.)

Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. His latest mystery, Never Kill A Friend, is available from Ransom Note Press. His epic poem, Two Mistakes, recently won second place in the Margaret Reid/Tom Howard Poetry Competition. He can be contacted at mdhillortiz@gmail.com.

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Stephen King's Favorite Book: Available for Reading

I have been posting lists of mystery author's favorite books. Stephen King, famous for his horror and fantasy writing, won 2015's Edgar for best mystery novel for his work, Mr. Mercedes.

When asked about his favorite books, the first on King's list was a collection of short stories he came across when he was young: The Golden Argosy by Van H. Cartmell & Charles Grayson, editors. (1955, Dial Press, NY)

I have run down the Table of Contents from worldcat and from there searched for copyright information. The great majority of the stories are public domain. Among the remaining, several are provided for free online by their publishers, e.g., The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Back for Christmas by The New Yorker. Only one of the forty stories could not be found available from a legitimate source online (interestingly, the final one in the collection).

The Table of Contents is presented below along with links to the individual stories. So, read up, get inspired and write books that will thrill a generation.

The Golden Argosy (1955), Table of Contents.

    I'm a Fool by Sherwood Anderson (1922)
    The Happy Hypocrite by Max Beerbohm (1897)
    The Devil and Daniel Webster by Stephen Vincent Benét (1937)
    The Damned Thing by Ambrose Bierce (1893)
    The Chink and the Child by Thomas Burke (1917)
    Paul's Case by Willa Cather (1905)
    Back for Christmas by John Collier (1939)
    Youth by Joseph Conrad (1898)
    The Bar Sinister by Richard Harding Davis (1903)
    The Red-Headed League by A. Conan Doyle (1891)
    A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner (1930)
    Old Man Minick by Edna Ferber (1922)
    The Rich Boy by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1926)
    The Celestial Omnibus by E.M. Forster (1911)
    The Three Strangers by Thomas Hardy (1883)
    The Outcasts of Poker Flat by Bret Harte (1892)
    The Killers by Ernest Hemingway (1927)
    The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry (1904)
    The Gioconda Smile by Aldous Huxley (1921)
    The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs (1902)
    The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling (1888)
    The Incarnation of Krishna Mulvaney by Rudyard Kipling (1899)
    Champion by Ring Lardner (1916)
    To Build a Fire by Jack London (1902, 1908)
    The Fly by Katherine Mansfield (1922)
    Rain by W. Somerset Maugham (1921)
    Big Blonde by Dorothy Parker (1929)
    The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe (1841)
    The Gold-Bug by Edgar Allan Poe (1843)
    Flowering Judas by Katherine Anne Porter (1930)
    Tobermory by Saki (1911)
    The Leader of the People by John Steinbeck (1937)
    Markheim by Robert L. Stevenson (1885)
    A Lodging for the Night by Robert L. Stevenson (1887)
    The Lady or the Tiger? by Frank R. Stockton (1882)
    Monsieur Beaucaire by Booth Tarkington (1900)
    The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber (1939)
    The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain (1867)
    The Other Wise Man by Henry Van Dyke. (1895)
    Chickamauga by Thomas Wolfe. (1937)
Not available due to copyright. Extended excerpts can be found through Google Books.

The remaining books on Stephen King's top ten list.

2. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (1884).
3. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie (1988).
4. McTeague by Frank Norris (1899).
5. Lord of the Flies by William Golding (1955).
6. Bleak House by Charles Dickens (1853).
7. 1984 by George Orwell (1948). 
8. The Raj Quartet  by Paul Scott (1966–75).
9. Light in August by William Faulkner (1932).
10. Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy (1985).

Previous posts of mystery writers choosing their favorite mysteries.

  The first post: P.D. James, Andrew Klavan, Thomas H. Cook, John Dickson Carr and Arthur Conan Doyle.
  The second post: Isaac Asimov, Robert Barnard, George Baxt, James Ellroy, Michael Gilbert, Sue Grafton, Reginald Hill, Tony Hillerman, HRF Keating, Peter Lovesey, Charlotte MacLeod, Sara Paretsky, Julian Symons, and Martin Hill Ortiz.
  The third post: Robert B. Parker, Elizabeth Peters, Peter Straub, Donald E. Westlake, and Phyllis A. Whitney.
  The fourth post: Aaron Elkins, John Gardner,  Michael Malone and Marcia Muller
  The fifth post: Robert Barnard (best recent), Jacques Barzun, Rex Stout and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine 1950.
 The sixth post: Jeannette de Beauvoir, Mary Reed, and John Dufresne.
 The seventh post:  Angela Zeman, Carolyn Wheat, Ann Rule, John Lutz, Dick Lochte, Laurie R. King, Tony Hillerman, Jeremiah Healy, Linda Fairstein and Jan Burke.
 The eighth post: Agatha Christie (favorites among her own works), Julia Buckley, and 38 renowned authors choose their favorite forgotten books, including John Le Carré and Elmore Leonard.

 The ninth post: Dennis Lehane, Michael Connelly, Don Winslow, Polly Whitney and E.E. Kennedy.

 The tenth post: George Pelecanos, Mary Higgins Clark and Charlaine Harris.

A Predator's Game is available in soft-cover and ebook editions 

through Amazon and other online retailers.

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Nikola Tesla, Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Henry H. Holmes are characters in my  thriller, A Predator's Game, Rook's Page Publishing.

Back page blurb.

Manhattan, 1896.

When the author Arthur Conan Doyle meets Nikola Tesla he finds a tall, thin genius with a photographic memory and a keen eye, and recognizes in the eccentric inventor the embodiment of his creation, Sherlock. Together, they team up to take on an "evil Holmes." Multi-murderer Dr. Henry H. Holmes has escaped execution and is unleashing a reign of terror upon the metropolis. Set in the late nineteenth century in a world of modern marvels, danger and invention, Conan Doyle and Tesla engage the madman in a deadly game of wits.

Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. Its sequel, set in 1890s Manhattan and titled A Predator's Game,  features Nikola Tesla as detective.

His recent mystery, Never Kill A Friend, is available from Ransom Note Press. His epic poem, Two Mistakes, recently won second place in the Margaret Reid/Tom Howard Poetry Competition. He can be contacted at mdhillortiz@gmail.com.

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Pelecanos, Higgins Clark, Charlaine Harris: A Tenth Installment of Mystery Writers Choosing Their Favorite Mysteries

Today the ebook version of my latest novel, Never Kill A Friend, becomes available. More about that here. 

Below is a continuation of the favorite books of mystery writers. While today's lists are from various sites, I  have started compiling the Barnes and Noble interviews which include twenty-three contemporary mystery-thriller authors and their selections will keep me busy for several more posts. (Note: access to the B & N interviews seem to have disappeared: the links, non-functional.)

Up to bat: George Pelecanos, Mary Higgins Clark and Charlaine Harris.

George Pelecanos

George Pelecanos writes with an incisive disciplined prose. His favorite setting is the underside of the nation's capitol. Along with almost twenty novels, he has written for the television shows, Treme and The Wire. From his Barnes and Noble interview.

Unknown Man #89 by Elmore Leonard
...this is as notable for its crime fiction elements as it is for its love story and realistic depiction of alcoholism. 

Swag by Elmore Leonard
The first chapter alone is worth the price of the ticket.

Black Cherry Blues (Dave Robicheaux Series #3) by James Lee Burke
James Lee Burke is the best pure writer among us. ... Violent and poetic.

Gone, Baby, Gone (Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro Series #4) by Dennis Lehane
This one has it all: jaw-dropping action sequences, a realistic and surprising mystery solution, scope, character, and narrative drive.

The Last Coyote (Harry Bosch Series #4) by Michael Connelly
Once started, the Harry Bosch books cannot be put down or out of mind.

Clockers by Richard Price
[It's] my generation's The Grapes of Wrath.

The Deep Blue Good-By (Travis McGee Series #1) by John D. MacDonald, Lee Child
The first crime novel I ever read is also the first Travis McGee novel ... A remarkable series.

The Galton Case (Lew Archer Series #8) by Ross Macdonald
... what a book. 

The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
Hands down, Raymond Chandler's masterpiece.

The Last Good Kiss (C.W. Sughrue Series #1) by James Crumley
If I had to name one book that most made me want to become a crime fiction novelist, this is it. 

Hard Rain Falling by Don Carpenter. Introduction by George P. Pelecanos.
A great American novel written with fierce conviction and ambition.

Mary Higgins Clark’s Favorite Chilling Thrillers


From her first mystery, Where Are the Children? in 1977 to this day, Mary Higgins Clark has enthralled her readers delivering the most pleasurable of chills. From a 2013 interview with The Daily Beast.

Payment Deferred by C.S. Forester
One of the best suspense stories ever written. 

Fallen by Karin Slaughter
Karin Slaughter always grabs you on the first line and never lets go.

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Engrossing from page one. Layer upon layer of suspense. 

Green Darkness by Anya Seton
I've always loved the idea of people living out the unfinished tragedy of other people in another lifetime. 

As Husbands Go by Susan Isaacs
One of the top suspense writers of our time...

Charlaine Harris

Harris is the bestselling and prolific author of several mystery series, her most popular being the Southern Vampire Mysteries, the basis for the HBO Series, True Blood. This list remarkably comes from the Ann Arbor, Michigan District Library's Police Department History's webpage. (God bless Google)

1  Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.

2  Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. 

3  Passage by Connie Willis.

4  Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton

5  Lullaby Town by Robert Crais.

6  The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde.

7  One for the Money by Janet Evanovich. 

8  The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. 

9  We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. 

10  The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey.

 Previous posts of mystery writers choosing their favorite mysteries.

  The first post: P.D. James, Andrew Klavan, Thomas H. Cook, John Dickson Carr, Arthur Conan Doyle
  The second post: Isaac Asimov, Robert Barnard, George Baxt, James Ellroy, Michael Gilbert, Sue Grafton, Reginald Hill, Tony Hillerman, HRF Keating, Peter Lovesey, Charlotte MacLeod, Sara Paretsky, Julian Symons, Martin Hill Ortiz
  The third post: Robert B. Parker, Elizabeth Peters, Peter Straub, Donald E. Westlake, Phyllis A. Whitney
  The fourth post: Aaron Elkins, John Gardner,  Michael Malone, Marcia Muller
  The fifth post: Robert Barnard (best recent), Jacques Barzun, Rex Stout,  Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine 1950.
The sixth post: Jeannette de Beauvoir, Mary Reed, John Dufresne
 The seventh post:  Angela Zeman, Carolyn Wheat, Ann Rule, John Lutz, Dick Lochte, Laurie R. King, Tony Hillerman, Jeremiah Healy, Linda Fairstein, Jan Burke
 The eighth post: Agatha Christie (favorites among her own works), Julia Buckley, and 38 renowned authors choose their favorite forgotten books, including John Le Carré and Elmore Leonard.

 The ninth post: Dennis Lehane, Michael Connelly, Don Winslow,Polly Whitney, E.E. Kennedy.

Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. His latest mystery, Never Kill A Friend, is available from Ransom Note Press. His epic poem, Two Mistakes, recently won second place in the Margaret Reid/Tom Howard Poetry Competition. He can be contacted at mdhillortiz@gmail.com.

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More Mystery Writers Name Their Favorite Books

Today is the launch of my latest novel, Never Kill A Friend. More about that here. 

As you ponder your purchase, I will continue to provide lists of the favorite books by mystery writers. I had thought I had run low on sources for these lists, but recently came up with a means to find more.

Today: Dennis Lehane, Don Winslow, Michael Connelly, Polly Whitney and E.E. Kennedy.

Dennis Lehane

Lehane is the author of numerous bestsellers, three of which have been adapted to film: Gone, Baby, Gone; Mystic River; and Shutter Island, attracting the directors Eastwood, Affleck and Scorsese. He also wrote for the acclaimed television series, The Wire. The following list of favorite novels (not only mysteries) is from a Barnes and Noble interview, 2008.

1. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez -- Part fever-dream, part reinterpretation of The Bible, politically and socially furious, bawdy, heartbreaking, extravagantly entertaining on every page. It's the most perfect novel I know.

2. The Wanderers by Richard Price -- For the reasons stated above.

3. The Moviegoer by Walker Percy -- Introduced me to Southern Literature and the philosophical novel in one fell swoop. Exceedingly gentle and humane, beautifully written on every page.

4. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald -- I never met a writer who wasn't deeply influenced by this novel. Structurally flawless, full of incandescent prose and observations, pretty much an immortal achievement in under 200 pages.

5. Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth all by Shakespeare --I developed an addiction to Shakespeare's tragedies as an undergrad. There's nothing I could say about them that hasn't been said much better by others.

6. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy -- Seems utterly impenetrable when you first attempt to tackle it but gradually reveals itself as the Moby Dick of our time. Completely unlike anything I've ever read and yields new treasures every time I read it.

7. The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley -- The benchmark novel in American noir. Literature masquerading as a "genre" novel. The gold standard in crime fiction, as far as I'm concerned, probably never to be equaled.

8. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton -- War can be played out on a very quiet stage. Violence can be a misplaced whisper, a barely-heard rumor. At stake is love versus society, and society wins.

(Blogger's note: I am very impressed by his descriptions and book analysis.)

Don Winslow

Winslow is one of the great modern mystery masters. His 17 novels have been nominated for, or won, a total of 19 Edgar, Shamus, Maltese Falcon, Barry, Dagger and Dilys awards. The following is from Publishers Weekly.

1. The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George Higgins
The Friends of Eddie Coyle is the most realistic crime novel ever written, perfectly catching the world of small-time New England criminals without ever lapsing into either romanticism or bathos.

2. The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
I was on a panel with Michael Connolly when someone in the audience asked ‘What’s the best private eye novel ever written?’ Michael and I answered simultaneously, ‘The Long Goodbye’ then looked down the table at each other and smiled.

3. The Guards by Ken Bruen
It’s a terrific story, but it’s the writing that gets you. No one does dialogue better, but that prose – oh my god, that prose. It sings.

4. L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy
...Ellroy owns L.A. of the 1950's ... The characters – Exley, White and Vincennes – are so real, so finely drawn, such bundles of internal conflict. ... I vividly remember reading this book when I was trying to become a crime writer and thinking, “This is how it’s done, this is what I want to be.”

5. Laguna Heat by T. Jefferson Parker
"A perfect morning in a city of perfect mornings; an artist would have worked, a god would have rested.”
I mean, come on - if [there's] any better than the opening sentence of Laguna Heat, I haven’t seen it.

Michael Connelly's Favorite Legal Thrillers

Just being able to spell Hieronymus Bosch should be an accomplishment enough for most writers, but Connelly has given us 28 superb crime novels featuring, among others, Detective Bosch and the Lincoln Lawyer, Mickey Haller. Connelly has won virtually every mystery award and has served two terms as president of the Mystery Writers of America. From: Entertainment Weekly;10/17/2008, Issue 1016, p103.

1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
"This great American novel also hits every requirement of a thriller."

2. Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow
"The high-water mark for the literary legal thriller."

3. A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr
"Nonfiction, but as riveting as a novel."

4. The Firm by John Grisham
"Turned the genre on its ear. Momentum, action, and surprise in a story on the law."

5. El Niño by Douglas Anne Munson
"Obscure but beautiful — when the law is a hurtful thing."

Polly Whitney

Whitney has had a double career: writing fiction and teaching. Among her mystery novels, Until Death was nominated for an Edgar Award for best first novels. Among her other works, one book stands out, a literary coming-of-age novel and not a mystery: This is Graceanne's Book. Her website and her blog.

1.  In The Best Families by Rex Stout
I could almost have chosen randomly from the Wolfe canon—the routines in these novels are part of the appeal, after all. But this one does break Stout's own pattern, is a terrific puzzle, and (best of all) gives Archie room to roam—and it is, I think, Archie's distinctive voice that accounts for the lasting charm of the Nero Wolfe series.
2.  Dracula by Bram Stoker
3.  L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy
4.  Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart
5.  Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

E.E. Kennedy

Kennedy is the author of the Miss Prentice Cozy mystery series published by Sheaf House. The main character is a high school English teacher. Titles include: Irregardless of Murder, Death Dangles a Participle, Murder in the Past Tense and the upcoming Incomplete Sentence (spring, '16). Sample chapters are available at www.missprenticecozymystery.com and her blog can be found at http://twjmag.com/columns/behind-the-mystery/.


E.E. Kennedy's Memorable Mysteries:

1. Mrs. McGinty's Dead by Agatha Christie. Christie plays it completely straight with the reader; all the clues are in plain sight.

2. Murder on a Girls' Night Out by Anne George. Wacky, hilarious cozy full of improbable (but true) local Alabama color.

3. Maigret and the Madwoman by Georges Simenon. Cynical Inspector Maigret is jaded, but uncannily perceptive and Simenon never wastes a single word.

4. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. The original Victorian Gothic mystery/romance, dark, overwrought, maudlin and fun.

5. Madame, Will You Talk? by Mary Stewart. Fast-paced and completely politically incorrect; woman flees from, but is also attracted to, seductive potential villain. Yum.

Previous posts of mystery writers choosing their favorite mysteries.
  The first post: P.D. James, Andrew Klavan, Thomas H. Cook, John Dickson Carr, Arthur Conan Doyle
  The second post: Isaac Asimov, Robert Barnard, George Baxt, James Ellroy, Michael Gilbert, Sue Grafton, Reginald Hill, Tony Hillerman, HRF Keating, Peter Lovesey, Charlotte MacLeod, Sara Paretsky, Julian Symons, Martin Hill Ortiz
  The third post: Robert B. Parker, Elizabeth Peters, Peter Straub, Donald E. Westlake, Phyllis A. Whitney
  The fourth post: Aaron Elkins, John Gardner,  Michael Malone, Marcia Muller
  The fifth post: Robert Barnard (best recent), Jacques Barzun, Rex Stout,  Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine 1950.
The sixth post: Jeannette de Beauvoir, Mary Reed, John Dufresne
 The seventh post:  Angela Zeman, Carolyn Wheat, Ann Rule, John Lutz, Dick Lochte, Laurie R. King, Tony Hillerman, Jeremiah Healy, Linda Fairstein, Jan Burke
 The eighth post: Agatha Christie (favorites among her own works), Julia Buckley, and 38 renowned authors choose their favorite forgotten books, including John Le Carré and Elmore Leonard.

Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. His latest mystery, Never Kill A Friend, is available from Ransom Note Press. His epic poem, Two Mistakes, recently won second place in the Margaret Reid/Tom Howard Poetry Competition. He can be contacted at mdhillortiz@gmail.com.

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Mystery Writers Choose Their Favorite Mysteries, Chapter Eight

This series of posts is beginning to wind down. I will have several more writers tomorrow. Today, I'd like to present a few miscellaneous lists.

Agatha Christie - personal favorites

Lady Agatha Christie is the queen of the British mystery. Her novel, And Then There Were None, is the best-selling mystery of all time, having sold 100 million copies. She was asked to choose the ten favorite among her own works. Presented with her comments. From AgathaChristie.com.

And Then There Were None. A difficult technique which was a challenge and so I enjoyed it, and I think dealt with it satisfactorily.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. A general favourite and [spoiler] also the first time where the narrator has managed to be the villain.

A Murder is Announced. I thought all the characters interesting to write about and felt I knew them quite well by the time the book was finished.

Murder on the Orient Express. Again because it was a new idea for a plot.

The Thirteen Problems. A good series of stories.

Towards Zero. I found it interesting to work on the idea of people from different places coming towards a murder, instead of starting with the murder and working from that.

Endless Night. My own favourite at present.

Crooked House. I found a study of a certain family interesting to explore.

Ordeal by Innocence. An idea I had had for some time before starting to work upon it.

The Moving Finger. Which I have re-read lately and enjoyed reading it again, very much.

Julia Buckley
 
Buckley is and English teacher and the author of eight mysteries. Her latest, The Big Chili, will be available October 2015 from Berkeley Prime Crime. 

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. (1866)
Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers. (1932)
They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie. (1951)
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler. (1953)
This Rough Magic by Mary Stewart, (1964)
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman by P.D. James. (1972)
The Blue Hammer by Ross MacDonald. (1976)
F is or Fugitive by Sue Grafton. (1990)
A Shred of Evidence by Jill McGown (1995)
The Millennium Series by Stieg Larsson. (2005-2007)
Playing for the Ashes by Elizabeth George. (2008)

Annotations to this list can be found at her website.

Forgotten Treasures List, Los Angeles Times, 1999.

In December 1999 the Los Angeles Times polled authors as to their favorite lost treasures among books, that is, those that have unjustly slipped into obscurity. Some of the responses came from mystery writers including Le Carré and Elmore Leonard. The entire set of lists from 38 authors (including many that are non-mysteries) is presented below. From: L.A. Times, December 26, 1999 and the Los Angeles Times blog.

André Aciman. "Count d'Orgel's Ball" by Raymond Radiguet.

Mindy Aloff. "The Reader Over Your Shoulder: A Handbook for Writers of English Prose," by Robert Graves and Alan Hodge and "Ballet, 104 photographs by Alexey Brodovitch, with an introductory essay by Edwin Denby."

Noel Annan. "A Passage To India" by E.M. Forster.

Margaret Atwood. "Doctor Glas" by Hjalmar Söderberg.

Anthony Bailey. Two by Marc Bloch: "Strange Defeat" and "Souvenirs de Guerre 1914-15."

John Banville. "By Love Possessed" by James Gould Cozzens.

Jacques Barzun. "Practical Agitation" by John Jay Chapman.

Alain de Botton. "The Unquiet Grave" by Cyril Connolly.

Robert Conquest. "The Pursuit of the Millennium" by Norman Cohn.

G. Cabrera Infante. "Morel's Invention" by Adolfo Bioy Casares and "Valentin" by Juan Gil-Albert.

Thomas Flanagan. "Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the Civil War" by Edmund Wilson.

Carlos Fuentes. "Paradiso" by Jose Lezama Lima; "Grande Sertão, Veredas" by João Guimarães Rosa and "The Flowering of New England" by Van Wyck Brooks.

Robert Giroux. "The Enormous Room" by E.E. Cummings.

Nadine Gordimer. "Turbott Wolfe" by William Plomer.

Juan Goytisolo. "Petersburg" by Andrei Bely.

Thom Gunn. Two by Arnold Bennett: "The Old Wives' Tale" and "Riceyman Steps."

Michael Henry Heim. "House on the Embankment" by Yuri Trifonov and "Faithful Russian" by Georgi Vladimov.

Dave Hickey. "The Man Who Loved Children" by Christina Stead.

Gary Indiana. "Beware of Pity" by Stefan Zweig and "Ferdydurke" by Witold Gombrowicz.

Pico Iyer. "The Road to Xanadu" by John Livingston Lowes.

Milan Kundera.  "The Man Without Qualities" by Robert Musil.

John Le Carré. "The Good Soldier" by Ford Madox Ford and "Rogue Male" by Geoffrey Household.

Elmore Leonard. Two by Richard Bissell: "High Water" and "A Stretch on the River."

Wendy Lesser. "Riceyman Steps" by Arnold Bennett. (Note: the only work to appear on two lists.)

Julius Lester. "Mojo Hand" by Jane Phillips and "Joseph and His Brothers" by Thomas Mann.

Simon Leys."The Man Who Was Thursday" by G.K. Chesterton and "Kokoro" by Natsume Soseki (E. McClellan's translation.)

John Luckas. Two by Jean Dutourd: "The Horrors of Love" and "Best Butter."

J.D. McClatchy. "Collected Works" by H.W. Longfellow.

Frederic Morton. "Lieutnant Gustl" [also published as "None but the Brave"] by Arthur Schnitzler and "Origins of the Sacred" by Dudley Young.

Paul Muldoon. "Irish Journal" by Heinrich Boll.

Cynthia Ozick. Seven by Rudyard Kipling: "The Wish House," "Dayspring Mishandled," "Mary Postgate," "The Gardener," "The Eye of Allah," "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and "Mrs. Bathurst."

Noel Perrin. "Far Rainbow" by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky and "The Walls Came Tumbling Down" by Henriette Roosenburg.

Gregory Rabassa. "Internal War" by Volodia Teitelboim, "My World Is Not of This Kingdom" by João de Melo and "The Return of the Caravels" by Antonio Lobo Antunes.

Benjamin Schwarz. "Sword of Honour" by Evelyn Waugh.

Ben Sonnenberg. "The Selected Works of Cesare Pavese" by Cesare Pavese.

Susan Sontag. "And Then" by Natsume Soseki, "Jennie Gerhardt" by Theodore Dreiser, "Fateless" by Imre Kertész.

Marina Warner. "Anthologie des mythes, legendes, et conles populaires d'Amerique" ("Anthology of Myths, Legends, and Popular Tales of America") by Benjamin Peret.

 Eugen Weber. "Jean Barois" by Roger Martin du Gard.

Previous posts of mystery writers choosing their favorite mysteries.
The first post: P.D. James  Andrew Klavan  Thomas H. Cook John Dickson Carr  Arthur Conan Doyle
The second post: Isaac Asimov Robert Barnard George Baxt James Ellroy Michael Gilbert Sue Grafton Reginald Hill Tony Hillerman HRF Keating Peter Lovesey Charlotte MacLeod Sara Paretsky Julian Symons Martin Hill Ortiz
The third post: Robert B. Parker Elizabeth Peters Peter Straub  Donald E. Westlake Phyllis A. Whitney
The fourth post: Aaron Elkins John Gardner  Michael Malone Marcia Muller
The fifth post: Robert Barnard (best recent) Jacques Barzun Rex Stout  Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine 1950.
The sixth post: Jeannette de Beauvoir Mary Reed John Dufresne

The seventh post:
Angela Zeman
Carolyn Wheat
Ann Rule
John Lutz
Dick Lochte
Laurie R. King
Tony Hillerman
Jeremiah Healy
Linda Fairstein
Jan Burke

Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. His mystery, Never Kill A Friend, will be available June 27th from Ransom Note Press. His epic poem, Two Mistakes, recently won second place in the Margaret Reid/Tom Howard Poetry Competition.

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