Beautifully written crime novels?

March 28, 2020 7:23 PM

I really like the writing of Daniel Woodrell, but have read all his books. He can really turn a phrase. So can James Lee Burke -- but his plots are pedestrian and make the books needlessly long. I've read all the classic series by the big authors -- noir, procedurals, etc. Looking for little-known authors who don't let plot ruin their books. Bonus points if there's audiobooks available.
posted by dobbs to Writing & Language (28 answers total)

I love the Inspector Rutledge series by Charles Todd, audio available.
posted by fingersandtoes at 7:53 PM on March 28, 2020

Janwillem van de Wetering’s Amsterdam Detectives novels are fun and thoughtful reads. The first one is Outsider in Amsterdam.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:03 PM on March 28, 2020 [3 favorites]

Seconding the Amsterdam detectives. Also, have you read the Maigret books? Beautiful even in translation.
posted by frumiousb at 8:07 PM on March 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

Not sure if this counts as big or little, but Reginald Hill’s Dalziel & Pascoe series could fit the bill, as might Deborah Crombie’s Kincaid and James series. Both are British police procedurals.
posted by HonoriaGlossop at 8:16 PM on March 28, 2020 [3 favorites]

James Crumley. Very non-pedestrian plots and great writing.
posted by maupuia at 8:20 PM on March 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

Elizabeth George‘s Inspector Lynley series.
posted by carmicha at 9:04 PM on March 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

More mystery than crime, but Dorothy L. Sayers's Peter Wimsey books, and especially the last one Gaudy Night (though you really need to read them all to get the full impact). Her use of language is such a pleasure.
posted by mostlymartha at 9:41 PM on March 28, 2020 [2 favorites]

Probably would need a little more to work with regarding what you consider classic series by big authors, but since Sayers has already been covered, how about Cornell Woolrich, James Thompson, Charles Williams, Patricia Highsmith, Eric Ambler, James Cain, Ross MacDonald, Charles Willeford? And then perhaps Philip Kerr, Kyril Bonfiglioli, Cara Black, P.D. James.

I have more.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:55 PM on March 28, 2020

I like the writing of Tana French, and the audiobook versions are good. I recommend starting with The Likeness.
posted by slidell at 10:04 PM on March 28, 2020 [4 favorites]

Aw shoot and I just spent the last fifteen minutes trying to remember David Peace and the Red Riding books, which are excellent and relatively unknown.
posted by aspersioncast at 10:08 PM on March 28, 2020

• Nicci French’s Frieda Klein series
• Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad books (not really a series, but loosely linked with some overlapping characters
• Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie mysteries
• Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale
• André Alexis’ The Hidden Keys

posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:21 PM on March 28, 2020

Derek B. Miller, The Girl in Green
Peter Heller, The River
James A. Laughlin, Bearskin
Lou Berney, The Long and Faraway Gone
posted by wavelette at 1:44 AM on March 29, 2020

Louise Penny is well-known but wasn't well-known to me until a friend read her books and recommended them last year. Her crime novels are beautifully written, and the character arcs over multiple books have kept me hooked. Recently finished book 8. There are more!
posted by Bella Donna at 1:54 AM on March 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

The Dying Ground by Nichelle Tramble is beautifully written. It's one of those mystery novels that would be completely compelling without the mystery element, just based on the writing and characters. Tramble has gone on to be a successful TV writer but her early novels are criminally underappreciated.
posted by yankeefog at 2:31 AM on March 29, 2020

Denis Johnson was a Guggenheim Fellow in Poetry who wrote at least a couple of great crime novels.
posted by St. Sorryass at 3:58 AM on March 29, 2020

Donald Ray Pollock! His books are gritty, eloquent, and not infrequently violent, but he really scratches the Daniel Woodrell itch for me.
posted by Otter_Handler at 4:49 AM on March 29, 2020

The reader makes a huge difference in audiobooks. It's as easy to become a fan of the reader as of the author. This insight came to me when listening to A Small Town In Germany by John LeCarre. Reader is Michael Jayston.

I'd suggest A Passage To India by E. M. Forrester as a book but the reader was only average.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:37 AM on March 29, 2020

Maybe Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins series? Or the Quirke books, by Benjamin Black.
posted by sometamegazelle at 5:46 AM on March 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

Down on Ponce by Fred Willard. He wrote one other book, but it's not as successful as this one. This is apparently not the actor from Spinal Tap.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 5:58 AM on March 29, 2020

I thought Liz Moore's Long Bright River, which came out this year, had a particularly compelling narratorial voice, although I don't think anyone would describe it as tautly written. There is an audiobook available.
posted by eponym at 6:31 AM on March 29, 2020

Lately I've gotten more interested in Carl Hiassen, whose style is influenced by Elmore Leonard (snappy dialougue, dark humour). Hiassen is not quite as gritty, & he often has interesting digressions about ecology & politics in his work.

(I'm kinda assuming that you might have all the classic vintage stuff covered, but my fave is the team of Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo, who are the best.)
posted by ovvl at 9:29 AM on March 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

I enjoyed Lethem's Gun with Occasional Music. iirc, the audiobook, narrated by Nick Sullivan, was competent.

Likewise, A. Lee Martinez' The Automatic Detective is another quirky take on the gritty PI genre.
posted by porpoise at 10:28 AM on March 29, 2020

Ian Rankin’s Rebus series
posted by koahiatamadl at 10:45 AM on March 29, 2020

I think Mick Herron is a great writer in his Slow Horses series, but I don't know if it's "beautiful." It isn't literary. He can make a great sentence, and can always pick just the right phrase to describe a character.
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:42 PM on March 29, 2020

Response by poster: Thanks for the answers so far.

Other authors I like are GV Higgins, Willeford, Crumley, Simenon, Bruen, Rankin, Derek Raymond, Jim Harrison, Richard Stark, Bloch, Elliott Chaze, and Jack Black's You Can't Win.
posted by dobbs at 1:19 PM on March 29, 2020

I am a big fan of Denise Mina's writing, especially in the Garnet Hill trilogy.
posted by BibiRose at 5:51 AM on March 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

I love Derek Raymond. Perhaps Malcolm McKay or Adrian McKinty? Definitely Benjamin Black. David Corbett? From 2019, Night Boat to Tangier was really good, as well as Attica Locke’s latest.
posted by ohkay at 10:13 PM on April 24, 2020 [2 favorites]

idk why this question has stuck in my mind. i think you might like this: Generation Loss, by Elizabeth Hand
posted by ohkay at 8:59 AM on March 10, 2021 [1 favorite]