What's Better Than a Gift of Juicy Crime Fiction Stories?

 from Susan

 

This was a serious reading year for me, for some reason. I’ve gobbled my way through scores of books, only about half of which are in the crime fiction genre. But, even within that ocean, a handful stood out and I’m recommending them enthusiastically. For a good read, for a juicy story, for something a bit different, these got my stars in 2024. I have also included one from 2022 because I only read it this year.

 

Taking the prize for what may be the most inventive alternative Sherlock Holmes novel yet is THE MURDER OF MR. MA, by the always excellent S.J. Rosen and John Shen Yen Nee. Who would kill Mr. Ma, whose past before he immigrated to London in the 1920s provides ambiguous clues? And to be killed with a butterfly sword? As the narrator (the Chinese Watson of the tale) fumbles his way through one puzzle after another, his Holmes, Judge Dee Ren Jie, demonstrates unorthodox and eye-popping skills in an aggressive investigation that sweeps across the city. A total delight! 

 

Tim Maleeny’s crime novels are always, well, novel. If you’re lucky, you’ve read them all, but even so, HANGING THE DEVIL has new fictional highs to pull you in. Talk about an opening hook: a helicopter crashing into San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum, bursting into flames, from which emerges a malevolent ghost. It’s Maleeny’s talent that keeps such a start only the first of a series of adventures that put a precocious girl in danger. One tip: Do not overlook the monkeys, who really should get their own spin-off! I told him so.

 

JAMES, by the only recently adequately celebrated Percival Everett, is not genre fiction, but it is a deeply mysterious and revelatory novel. Yes, it turns Mark Twain’s HUCKLEBERRY FINN on its head. But it’s so much more than that, a fable that pries open so many secret doors, invites readers to re-visit things they thought they knew, and provides slippery clues to help unlock all kinds of meaning in the dangerous and deadly lives of slaves. Best of all, it's James who tells the tale, not Jim.

 

Claire Johnson is the capable and friendly president of the Norcal chapter of MWA. She is also a nimble author, and FOG CITY is the kind of crime fiction book you want to treat yourself to when it’s cold and rainy, and you need something absorbing and fun. San Francisco, of course, is the city enveloped in fog, and perhaps that’s why the 1930s P.I. is on a bender. Maggie, his secretary, worries that if he doesn’t sober up pronto there won’t be money to pay the office rent, or her. When a potential client waltzes in with a simple request to find her stepson and Maggie’s boss is lying in a stupor in his inner office, she thinks why not? How hard could it be for her to take on the assignment while he sleeps? Lots, all of it a tangle of unhealthy relationships, money, and good gossip.  

 

A GAME OF FEAR, by Charles Todd, was published in 2022. There’s a poignant note at the beginning, because the much-loved Caroline Todd, half of the writing duo that included her son, died before it was published. The series’ protagonist, Inspector Ian Rutledge, is handed another strange case his supervisors want no part of, the report of a ghost committing murder. Since Rutledge travels with his own ghost, it should be right up his alley, but instead it’s a layered mystery and peeling off the layers is a long and confusing investigation with lots of the atmosphere that Caroline and Charles Todd are so good at. 

 

Now, given that this is my last post, I’m going to conclude with a short story that is part of the new Capital Crimes anthology, FARM TO FOUL PLAY. “Half a Heart” is set in a farming community in Northern California, a spot where traditional rural life is rubbing up against the preferences of the newly arrived, wealthier residents. It’s a damn good story and it happens to have been written by my son, Brian Shea, who became a three-time published writer in 2024 and a member of the supportive crime fiction community. 

 

I’m grateful to be part of this tribe too! Wishing everyone the best possible holiday season and a safe and productive New Year!