J Brrr's picture
J Brrr from Pacific NW is reading The Devil All the Time - Donald Ray Pollock November 1, 2011 - 12:02pm

I'm trying to find new books/authors for Christmas/bday for my wife (her bday is xmas day, sucks for her). She really likes: Charlie Huston,  Will Christopher Baer (she really likes his stuff), Chuck Palahniuk, Craig Clevenger, Richard K Morgan, Gillian Flynn - also an assorted mess of chick stuff and mysteries (Dennis Lehane is the only one I can think of off the top of my head), which I don't know enough about to try and get something she hasnt read.

So, anyone have recos for books and (espcially new) authors that could fit in with the aforementioned stuff?  

Bradley Sands's picture
Bradley Sands from Boston is reading Greil Marcus's The History of Rock 'N' Roll in Ten Songs November 1, 2011 - 1:51pm

Geek Love or a Jack O'Connell novel (with the exception of The Resurrectionist): it might be best to start with his first novel, Box 9. Old noir: Raymond Chandler (The Book Sleep, Farewell, My Lovely, or either of the two library of America collections of writing where the novels are collected), Dashiell Hammett (Red Harvest or the Library of America collection), James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice (it's also collected in a Library of America book: Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s). I like those collections a lot. Another good one is Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s.

J Brrr's picture
J Brrr from Pacific NW is reading The Devil All the Time - Donald Ray Pollock November 1, 2011 - 5:56pm

O'Connell looks really interesting, thanks for the idea. She's not keen on older noir for some reason, though I myself will be checking out those collections.

Bradley Sands's picture
Bradley Sands from Boston is reading Greil Marcus's The History of Rock 'N' Roll in Ten Songs November 1, 2011 - 9:01pm

I'm not too crazy about neo-noir myself with the exception of Baer and O'Connell (and Matthew Stokoe's High Life, which can get really gross). Oh, and there's this one really good noir novel that Brian Evenson wrote: Last Days. And as far as older stuff, there's Richard Stark's Parker books that I'm really into, which are less contemporary (the next book in the series that I plan to read was published in 67), but he published books in the series until he died recently. And Dorothy Hughes' In a Lonely Place is another good, old one. It's similar to Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me, but a lot better (I don't like Thompson's books).

Renfield's picture
Renfield from Hell is reading 20th Century Ghosts November 1, 2011 - 6:56pm

Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus series is good if you like Lehane. And Denise Mina, another Scottish crime writer. Frank Bill's Crimes in Southern Indiana is brand new and is one on my to get list. CJ Box is also a good mystery/thriller writer that I'm newly aware of.

Bekanator's picture
Bekanator from Kamloops, British Columbia is reading Ugly Girls by Lindsay Hunter November 1, 2011 - 9:40pm

Jenn Farrell - She's a small Vancouver writer and has two short story collections.  They're pretty dark and mostly focus on female type drama, but her characters have such great voices.  Both of her collections are a great read because each story has a different tone, a different perspective.  She's one of the only writers I've come across whose writing is very diverse.