Q: What are your most and least favoured sub-genres of crime fiction. And, in both cases, why? Since it’s this time of year, is there anything you’re exhorting yourself to read more of?
Happy New Year, everyone, and welcome to our new Minds, Eric and Harini.
Man, I thought this would be an easy post. (I'm scrupulous in not working out which questions I'll be answering before I dream them up, avoiding self-dealing, but I was pleased to see that I'd bagged the "reading genre" option this week.) All I had to do was look at what I read last year, divide it into sub-genres, then report.
Hm.
I stand by the method. It's like the time when I got a new doctor and, at the first consultation, he said "what did you eat yesterday?" and I said, "yesterday's not a good example of my diet" and he said "yeah, it is". Similarly, if you ask people what they read they might say "Oh, you know: Proust and restoration drama. Bit of Walter Scott after supper". But if you ask them what's on their bedside table (US nightstand) you find out about the celebrity memoirs and biblio-romance. (Paul O'Grady and Jenny Colgan, if you're looking for recommendations, by the way.)
Despite that, I still expected that the hard numbers would reveal what I believed to be true about my crime-fiction reading. Which is: a lot of psychological suspense, a smattering of procedural, not much historical or cozy, no noir to speak of, ditto espionage, and zero action thrillers.
Here's the truth:
- Five psychological suspense - only five? I feel like there are years I *wrote* five
- Eleven procedurals - slightly skewed by PJ Tracy, but still.
- Nine historicals - nine!
- Seven cozies - seven!
- Three noir - really jet black, bitter noir; the stuff that makes espresso look like cherry coke. And then some noirish stuff like Jonathan Ames and Lawrence Allan.
- Four espionage - who knew? Not me.
- And an action thriller. I think. Ruth Ware's Zero Days, is the book. Look at it. That's a thriller, right?
Plus whatever Secret Identity, by Alex Segura is. (Anyone?) And Bookworm by Robin Yeatman. The closest I could get to a sub-genre for Bookworm is that it's whatever Oyinkan Brathwaite's My Sister the Serial Killer was.
My take-away from this exercise in trying to pin down what I read is that it's not driven by sub-genre. Some books I read because I was moderating a panel; some because I was writing a blurb; some because Kristopher Zgorski told me to (e.g. Christopher Carlsson's terrific Blaze Me a Sun (scandi noir); some because I will read every word Stephen King writes until and unless he stops, then I will wear a black veil; some because I'm a sucker for a found family, anything set in a bookshop, or "one last job"; some because how could you not pick (e.g.) this book up:
To turn to the second bit of the question. Nope. I don't exhort myself to read more or less of anything (see above, Proust v. Paul O'Grady). But I do sometimes, because of the lavish wealth of absoutely fabulous writing in our beloved genre, forget how much I love some of the subs and sub-subs until I pick up a book that reminds me. So, in September, I binged on all three of Robin Gigl's Erin McCabe legal thrillers which refreshed my love of courtroom dramas and made me resolve to find more in 2024. Ideally, I'm looking for a fourth Erin McCabe, but maybe there's more Lincoln Lawyer since I last looked, or maybe Lisa Scottoline will revisit Mary DiNunzio . . .
It's going to be a bumper year for reading crime again, certainly.
Cx
This made me think a bit. Not something I always do, but that’s another story In addy to reading what you and Kristopher tell me too, I do read by author rather than sub-genre. And I don’t stick to major genre. I do mostly avoid romance, fantasy, and sci fi. The other thing I do is reread, as you did with the Monkeewrench books.
ReplyDeletePresently I’m enjoying my way through Kate Atkinson. Unless there’s a new Lincoln Lawyer!
Right now, I'm judging books so my reading has been interesting. Once this is over, I will go back to my standards, although I like reading other genres that entice me.
ReplyDelete@Ann - the pressure of knowing you read what I recommend! I know I steered you into a ditch at least once. And @Dru- in-ter-est-ing . . .
ReplyDeleteResurrection Walk is indeed a new Lincoln Lawyer book (also featuring Harry Bosch), which was published in November. It's one of my favorites in the series. And Catriona, I looked up Robin Gigl's legal procedurals on Amazon, and on the basis of what I read and your recommendation, I put the first in the series on hold at the library. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteYou are a voracious omnivore. And f you keep adding books I want to read I’ll never get to the bottom of the TBR pile. And that is a quality problem.
ReplyDelete@Margie - you won't be sorry. Robin is a lawyer and so you get that safe-pair-of-hands sureness in the writing. Also a good idea to read them in order for the relationships. @Josh - tell me about it. I just ordered more with my Christmas money from my my m-i-law.
ReplyDeleteI think I read more by authors that I've come to love, but I'm sure that also reflects some consistent sub-genre. Humor has become more and more a part of my reading, with you, Catriona, Wendall T., and Rhys B. at the top of that list. I also enjoy historical mysteries, police procedurals, thrillers, and cozies. I'm not much into noir or espionage. Of course, when my son died 7 months ago, I haven't been able to read my mystery/crime books. I do plan on trying to read Scot Hop this month. I know it's going to be great, it's just a grief thing about the reading.
ReplyDelete