Time to Be Inspired, by Josh Stallings

Q: Are there crime fiction books so good you hold on to them and re-read them? Name a few classics and inspirations.

A: I evolve year to year not only as a writer but also as a reader. That’s true for most of us. As a teenager I attached my identity to the bands I listened to, books I read, movies I dug. It was a way to connect with like minds. I wore tight pants, long scarves, platform shoes, a leather jacket. 6’4” and skinny, I must have looked a sight, but I was a walking billboard to attract my people. 

We listened to Bowie, Velvet Underground, Eno, Queen. We read Hunter S. Thompson, Edward Albee, we did scenes from Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter. I read S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, but doubt I told anyone. I loved Cotton Comes To Harlem and Superfly. As an adult I find Curtis Mayfield’s classic Superfly soundtrack holds up better than the film. 

At sixteen I moved to LA. I was alone a lot and Raymond Chandler kept me company. I slowly discovered what I personally loved to read. Hard Boiled Crime consumed me for a long time. Here are a few writers that gave me a good grounding in the field:

Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye is my favorite, but you can’t go wrong reading anything he wrote.

Charles Willeford, the Hoke Moseley series is gritty brilliance. Miami Blues is worth more than a few reads.

James Crumley, is the poet laureate of brutally self effacing hard boiled crime. Dancing Bear remains my favorite, and has the best last paragraph of any book I’ve ever read. 

Andrew Vachss, the Burke series introduced me to the possibilities of what a crime family of choice could look like, that and Bullmastiffs. He wrote about the pain of childhood abuse and the need for avenging knights in tarnished armor. Flood is the first in the series and the place to start.

James Lee Burke has published twenty-three Dave Robicheaux books. The first, Neon Rain is amazing, as are all that follow. Dave and Clete Purcel are opposites in some ways, but maybe more, they are two sides of a tarnished and pitted coin. They give Burke a chance to examine morality from two perspectives. Dave who does hard violent things to set the world right, but suffers guilt and spiritual pain for having done them. Clete acts to protect those he loves and if he feels any guilt, he drowns it in whisky. 

If you dig your crime fiction Hard Boiled these five writers will give you a grounding in the sub-genre. They did for me.

My evolution as a reader is taking me farther away from crime fiction. Don’t get me wrong I still read a ton of crime books. Just finished the amazing Naomi Hirahara’s Evergreen. A brilliant, tough LA novel that we all need to read.

I recently read Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy. WOW! She is a bloody master of style and form. The three books are set in the same time and have many crossover characters, but each book feels stylistically entirely different. She has her characters drive the prose. I find writers working in speculative and sci-fi are freer from tropes and reader’s structural expectations; this is exciting as a reader and maybe impossible as a writer. All writing is a high-wire act, but Atwood walked over the Grand Canyon without a net or a wire. Moments in it took my breath away. 

A well written book will entertain. A brilliantly written one inspires.

Which books inspires you? Your list will be different from every other writer or reader’s.

What book am I waiting for today? 

Lou Berney’s A Dark Ride, out 9/19. Lou is one of my favorite authors, his work is full of thrills and chills and buckets of heart. He creates people you will not forget. Where ever he’s going in this new novel, I’m buckled up and ready to go. 

Summer reads

Out of all the books available to read and limited time, what influences your choices? What books have you read this summer and which would you rate as your top recommendation?

by Dietrich

When I open a new book I want to be engaged by page one. The genre doesn’t matter as much as the quality of the writing. There are so many good books, both written by authors I’m familiar with and those I haven’t read before. So this year I’ve made more time for reading, and although I don’t have an absolute favorite, here are the standouts that I’ve read so far. 

I’ve been catching up on Richard Stark’s Parker novels. Topping the four I’ve read this year is The Sour Lemon Score, one that came out in 1970. It’s number twelve in the series, in Stark’s typical clipped style, about a bank heist that goes right until one of the four partners gets greedy and starts bumping off his partners. The trouble is he doesn’t shoot Parker first.

Then there was Charlie 316 by our very own Frank Zafiro, co-authored by Colin Conway. Without putting some spoilers out there, I’ll just say if you like a convincing cop story that jumps from the opening, with some twists you won’t see coming, then give this one a read.

I’d been anticipating the release of Don Winslow’s The Border, the conclusion of the epic cartel trilogy. I can’t say enough about this series, and this book is awesome, making Winslow one of my favorite authors writing today.

Also high on my list is the new one by James Ellroy. This Storm is part two of the second L.A. Quartet, and it takes readers back to the early forties: a story of crime, debauchery and some fast and loose history, told in Ellroy’s jazzy, excellent style.

Chance by Kem Nunn focuses on Dr. Eldon Chance as he gets more than professionally involved with a corrupt cop’s wife. Chance is no match when confronted by the cop, that is until he befriends D, a street-wise character skilled in the art of the blade. From there it’s a bumpy, often hilarious, ride to the end. Highly recommended.

The Year of the Flood is Margaret Atwood’s view into the near future. A relevant and powerful tale that looks at environmental collapse and a hope for a future. A great imagination and matching writing skills, by one of the greats.

Dirty Who? by Jerry Kennealy is another well-told cop story. Set in 1970 San Francisco, it’s about Inspector Johnny O’Rorke who bends a few rules after he’s assigned to investigate the disappearance of several gay men and to help find locations for an upcoming film that will star Frank Sinatra. It’s a convincing and well-told story by another former cop and private investigator.

The Jealous Kind by James Lee Burke is about a teen coming of age in 1952 Houston and focuses on classes, pride and loyalty. I’ve long been a fan of Burke’s Robichaux and Purcell stories, and in this one, the second in the Holland family saga, Burke’s words are as powerful as ever and conger some great images of a bygone time.

Another great story I read as part of a collection is The Birds by Daphne Du Maurier. Originally published in 1952, it's a classic and hasn't lost any of its edge and certainly stands the test of time. Masterful writing.