I love crime fiction.It started in primary school with Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden from which was born my first career ambition - to be a private detective. I had a lot of the TB books but in high school I gave them away to Kirsty ... what was her last name? I wanted to be Honey Wheeler and considered that my hair was just about the right shade for it but although I have blue eyes, they are not quite violet like Honey's. The honey shade of Honey's hair and the violet of her eyes were mentioned in every book. As was the fact that Trixie's brother's car was a jalopy - that's where I learnt the word jalopy.
My next phase was Agatha Christie. I don't think that I have read them all but very near to. My crime fiction reading waned a bit after that, until my university days when I started reading Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta novels and remembered how much I loved it. Some of those early books scared me silly. I haven't been at all impressed with her novels after The Last Precinct when she changed her style altogether and not for the better.
I've read all of PD James' novels - these are great books, more like a novel in which a murder occurs and is solved than a murder mystery. Sue Grafton - from A is for Alibi all the way through to S is for Silence and T is for Trespass is coming at the end of this year - excellent. I started reading this series long after the first ones were written and it was great to read through it, one after the other, and watch Sue Grafton's writing develop. And I love Kinsey Millhone. Ian Rankin's Rebus novels - great reading. I've got the final Rebus, Exit Music, on reserve at the library; I'm eighth in line but hey, I can wait.
I'm currently reading my way through Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael series. These are harmless enough novels and there's always a comely maiden and a handsome youth who fall in love at first sight. I have just finished this, the fourth in the series - sixteen more to go.
4 comments:
I, too, learnt the word jalopy from Trixie Belden! I loved those books back in the day. If I wasn't such a terrible reader (I'm so slow and my mind wanders, but I'm trying to do better), I would probably be a crime fiction buff too. At the moment, though, I'm trying to read Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. Not crime fiction, but it's regarded as a significant work of true crime.
Really enjoying your blog, which I found through Wardrobe Refashion, where I'm too nervous to make a pledge yet, but love following for inspriation.
Ah Trixie Belden, those were the days! Have you read any of the Inspector Wallander books by Henning Mankell? I think they're quite good.
Hello. I can read heaps of gorgeous blog posts about lovely crafty ideas without out leaving a comment but what really drags me out of lurkerdom is a discussion of crime fiction! I agree with you on all of the books you listed - have you tried Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley mysteries? They're my all-time favourite murder-mysteries.
I like your blog - I'm a local too, and you've given me a new insight into the area that I live in :)
Ahhh, Brother Cadfael! My grandmother had them all, and I read hers. Mum gave them all to me when she died but I sold them in a garage sale a few years ago realising that I didn't have the shelf space to keep them on the off chance that I might read them again some day. I did enjoy them though.
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