Featured Mystery Author

The Chill (Lew Archer Series #11)

Ross Macdonald

Lew Archer, though a private eye, is really a closet psychologist, making him Alex Delaware's spiritual ancestor. Ross MacDonald (in real life Kenneth Millar) plotted like a demon and his prose was elegant. The Chill is one of his finest, what I term an oedipal masterpiece.
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The Count of Monte Cristo (Barnes & Noble Leatherbound Classics Series)

Alexandre Dumas

When I was a boy, Alexandre Dumas was a major influence on me. This one has it all: adventure, intrigue, revenge, personal redemption.
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The First Rule (Joe Pike Series #2)

Robert Crais

My fellow L.A. crime-writer Robert Crais is exceptionally adroit at creating muscular fiction leavened by insight and emotional resonance. This one is riveting and stunningly scary, featuring both of Bob's long-term protanogists, Joe Pike and Elvis Cole.
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Straight into Darkness

Faye Kellerman

As both the husband and the father of best-selling crime novelists, I'm in a unique position to enjoy the pleasures of nepotism. That said, my admiration of Faye's body of work only increases each year. Faye creates some of the best dialogue in the business and she has an uncanny knack for juxtaposing horrific crimes against everyday domestic life. Her Decker/Lazarus series is famous but check out this account of serial killing in Germany between the World Wars.
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The Genius

Jesse Kellerman

Keeping it in the family, I'm confident that anyone who's read my son's novels knows he's the real deal and will excuse my burst of paternal pride. The Genius was an international bestseller for nearly a year and won a slew of awards. A chilling examination of madness, the contemporary art world, the darkest environs of New York City, and, yes, the nastiest aspects of genius. His current novel, Potboiler, has been nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe award for best novel of the year. Potboiler's thrilling AND hilarious.
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61 Hours (Jack Reacher Series #14)

Lee Child

Lee Child's mega-success is understandable. He crafts edge-of-chair, mano a mano stories enriched by terrific characterization, starring super-hero for our time, the inimitable Jack Reacher. I find many so-called adventure thrillers cartoonish. Lee's are anything but. This one's a grabber.
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Chosen Prey (Lucas Davenport Series #12)

John Sandford

I enjoy the wit, first-rate plotting, and evocative sense of (Minnesota) place featured in John Sandford's Prey Novels. Chosen Prey features a particularly nasty villain whose grisly compeuppance is particularly satisfying.
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Solomon's Vineyard

Jonathan Latimer

Far less well-known than Chandler and MacDonald, Jonathan Latimer was a Hollywood screenwriter who created some first-rate hardboiled crime novels. Solomon's Vineyard, with its incisive exploration of perversity among the palm trees, is astonishingly contemporary.
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