As the paperback of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle has just been published by Raven Books – or The 7.5 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle in some markets – I asked the author, Stuart Turton, if he’d tell us about five of his favourite detective novels / murder mysteries. I’ve only read one of the books he’s chosen (Agatha, naturally), but am now intrigued by several of the others. Would you add your voice to recommend any of the others? Over to you, Stu!
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Most of the time, we’re not allowed inside the heads of famous detectives. Pry into the brain of Holmes or Poirot for too long and you’d end up hating them within 10 pages. Worse, you’d probably see the plot cogs at work, as there really isn’t much to them beside genius deductions and mandated quirks. The Big Sleep lets us into the head of private investigator Philip Marlowe, who’s a curiously sensitive soul. He takes far too much to heart, is hurt when he’s betrayed, and spends a lot of time hating the world he’s chosen to inhabit. When I finished that book, I wanted to take him for a beer and give him a hug. For me, Marlowe feels real in a way most superstar fictional characters don’t. I wish he was my mate.
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
There’s loads to admire about this book, including the solution, and the dread Christie heaps upon the reader with every page, but my favourite thing is the slapdash nature of the characters. The opening pages basically give us a bunch of stereotypes delivered in a line or two. Arrogant playboy drives fast car, etc. It’s only as they start getting picked off then begin to reveal their true natures and we realise that Christie was using those stereotypes against us, allowing the reader to see them as they want to be seen.
LA Confidential by James Elroy
It’s rare I have to read a book three times to understand what’s going on, or that I’d have the patience to read a book three times over, but LA Confidential jabbed it’s filthy, depraved claws into me and wouldn’t let go. The staccato writing style takes some getting used to, and it doesn’t have a lot of tolerance for plot recapping, preferring to believe the reader is as smart as the characters inhabiting the novel. And yet… man, it’s good. It’s brutal, believable, elegiac, superbly plotted and, above all, immensely entertaining.
Journey Under the Midnight Sun by Keigo Higashino
This is a murder mystery told over 20 years, where the victim and the detective are almost the least important parts of the story. At the centre of the story are childhood friends Ryo and Yukiho, who maybe the most unsettling creations to ever sit at the heart of a genre novel. We followed them through school into adulthood, creepy events following them from one place to the next. I’ve truly never read anything like this, which is enough to hoist it straight onto my favourite crime novel list, but the ending left me reeling for days afterwards.
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
This book is often lumped together with Raymond Chandler’s work, a situation not helped by Humphrey Bogart playing both Sam Spade (Hammett’s protagonist) and Philip Marlowe (Chandler’s protagonist) in the movies. They are nothing alike. Chandler was a better writer, but Hammett had an eye for eccentricity that Chandler lacked. He was also far less sentimental. The Maltese Falcon concerns the search for a priceless object by three unsavoury characters, who are happy to murder, manipulate and lie to their hands on it. Unfortunately for them, Spade is better at all of it than they are. Brilliant.
Oooh, interesting! I’ve only read the Christie and the Hammett, and I am very much prejudiced in favour of the latter as opposed to Chandler (but this may be because my OH is staunchly in favour of Chandler…) Hammett’s very dark, which may be why he appeals so, and I do think he was a very good writer.
I must admit I love Chandler a little more than Hammett, although I agree with Karen that Hammett is darker. I’ve only read one James Ellroy (The Black Dahlia) and did find his style difficult (loved the film of LA Confidential though). The Higashino sounds intriguing – must look it up.
The Chandler and Hammett I have read (and seen film adaptions too) and also the Christie. All of those are recommended and I follow kaggsysbookishramblings in appreciating the writing of Hammett over Chandler, probably because of the lack of sentimentality as mentioned by Stuart Turton.