New (To Me Anyway) Crime Authors

The New (to me anyway) Meme is sponsored by Kerrie over at Mysteries in Paradise. Here's what she's looking for....

Just write a post about the best new-to-you crime fiction authors (or all) you've read in the period of October to December 2015, put a link to her meme in your post (click above), and even use the logo if you like. The books don't necessarily need to be newly published. After writing your post, then link up over at Kerrie's place and visit the links posted by other participants in the meme to discover even more books to read. 'Cause there are never enough books to hunt down and read.

 

Here are the books by authors I hadn't tried before:

 

The Ghost Writer by John Harwood (10/16/15)
Ax by Ed McBain (10/21/15)
Murder on Cue by Jane Dentinger (10/27/15)
Murder in the Hellfire Club by Donald Zochert (11/3/15)
Murder with a Twist by Tracy Kiely (11/8/15)
The Bobbsey Twins' Search in the Great City by Laura Lee Hope (11/10/15)
The Red Redmaynes by Eden Phillpotts (11/14/15)
Call for the Dead by John le Carré (11/18/15)
Chef Maurice & a Spot of Truffle by J. A. Lang (11/24/15)
The Santa Klaus Murder by Mavis Doriel Hay (12/2/15)
The Corpse & 3 Ex-Husbands by Sue McVeigh (12/5/15)
The Cashmere Kid by B. (Barbara) Comfort (12/31/15)  

 

As is often the case, my new experiences were a mixture of good and bad. I can't say that I would really recommend The Ghost Writer (2004), Murder in the Hellfire Club (1978) or The Cashmere Kid (1993)--though of the three The Ghost Writer earned higher marks (three stars over two). Call for the Dead (1961) was the runaway winner--a five-star, spy/thriller treat that surprised me. Le Carré reeled me in with his descriptive story-telling. A "toad"-like man may not have been my ideal spy when I began, but I was completely convinced of his abilities and his reality by the end. The picture of post-war Britain that le Carré paints is brilliantly rendered--I looked up from my book in the final chapters fully expecting to see the fog swirling round me and to hear the river traffic below the bridge. The story itself reads less like a spy-thriller to me than a more traditional mystery. Smiley is following up clues in the best Scotland Yard fashion. Chef Maurice & a Spot of Truffle (2015), The Santa Klaus Murder (1936), and Murder with a Twist (2015) all earned four stars apiece and I was pleased to discover two new authors with freshly published books this past year. The rest of the books on the list earned three or three and a half stars each.