----- Original Message ----- From: <
Scatalogic@aol.com>
> Must stop, interested to hear back from anyone, and
I am chasing an
author!
> www.crimetime.co.uk, and sites for no exit and the
do not press are worth
> looking at. Anyone wanna name more UK authors I
would love them too - I
have
> already missed out one suggested Irish author
because of my own poor
admin!!
Russell James. IMO this man defines modern UK noir. Personal
favourites are "Slaughter Music" and "Payback".
Gerald Kersh. IMO This man defines older UK noir. The big two
are "Night and the City" and "Prelude to a Certain Midnight".
Also a terrific short story writer.
Robert Wilson. His first four novels, set in West Africa and
featuring Bruce Medway, are brilliant.
Peter Turnbull. Superb police procedurals.
I K Watson. Ex-policeman. "Manor" is an excellent gangland
struggle novel.
"Cops and Other Robbers" is an equally excellent police
procedural/thriller.
James Hadley Chase. Complete hack who wrote (some argue that
his best friend Graham Greene was a big help) two novels I
would recommend reading.
"No Orchids For Miss Blandish" and "The Dead Stay Dumb." The
former is variously described in "Tough Guy Writers of the
Thirties" as "ridiculous",
"utterly obscene", "frighteningly sadistic", "makes Mickey
Spillane seem a very reticent, old-maidish type." The latter
features Dillon, the most unpleasant protagonist I can think
of.
Charles Higson. Probably best known to UK rara-avians as
co-writer and actor in "The Fast Show". He's also a crime
novelist fitting somewhere between Leonard and Hiaasen.
Recommended: "Full Whack", "King of the Ants" and "Happy
Now".
Being Scottish I have to single out a few of my fellow
countrymen/-women. Ian Rankin, Denise Mina and Carol Anne
Davis have already been mentioned. I'll add to these:
Philip Kerr. The trilogy "Berlin Noir" is superb.
Jimmy Boyle. "Hero of the Underworld". Scotland's Malcolm
Braly.
William McIlvanney. Incisive social observer. "Laidlaw" and
"The Papers of Tony Veitch" both won CWA awards.
Val McDermid. Thomas Harris fans will like "The Mermaids
Singing" and "The Wire In The Blood."
Christopher Brookmyre. Dark and colloquial, but not sinister
and tough
(noirboiled? hardnoir?). Very black humour. Recommended: "Not
the End of the World" and "One Fine Day In The Middle Of The
Night."
Douglas Lindsay. Similar to Brookmyre, but takes himself less
seriously.
"The Long Midnight of Barney Thomson" is about an innocent
barber from Patrick who is suspected of being a serial
killer.
Al Guthrie
-- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 08 Jun 2002 EDT