September 2007 Reading List: Crime Novels

Kristel (um, that’s me) has compiled this month’s reading list, which delves into the underbelly of society, to give a glimpse of lives defined by crime.

Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
- Dashiell Hammett is the earliest hard-boiled crime writer and still its master. This early work paints a bleak portrait of the American small town during the Prohibition. The nameless Continental Op tries to solve the murder of a newspaper-owner in Personville but gets caught up in the affairs of the city’s most ruthless criminals and the government officials who work for them. Hammett creates the quirkiest, most unscrupulous characters and gives them the wittiest lines. He never wastes a sentence, always honing it into something sharp and precise.

Double Indemnity, James M. Cain
- The title refers to a clause in a life insurance policy which allows the beneficiary to receive double of the expected amount if the insured person’s death is declared as an accident. The novel is short and fast-paced, typical of the period, but it is remarkable how James M. Cain depicts Walter Huff, an insurance salesman, and his slow, inexorable seduction into murder. Phyllis Nordlinger is the ultimate femme fatale with her capricious and irresistible beauty, more a force of nature than an actual human being.

The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith
- Tom Ripley is smart, personable and lustful of the wealth that his benefactor takes for granted. When this temporary lifestyle is threatened to be taken away from him, he takes ruthless steps to ensure his own future. Patricia Highsmith turns every Henry James novel on its head in this story of a murdering opportunist. With exquisite descriptions of Italy, Highsmith’s lush prose works ironically well in a psychological thriller. A portrait of the sociopath as a young man.

Gorky Park, Martin Cruz Smith
- Three frozen murder victims found in Moscow’s Gorky Park plunges Chief homicide investigator Arkady Renko into the search for a fur dealer exploiting Russia’s resources and also its justice system. His search for the truth robs Renko of his secure party-official life and plunges him into the unknown territory of America. Martin Cruz Smith paints a Russia during the heart of the Cold War but he never sensationalizes, never veers away from his clear, assured prose.

The Black Dahlia, James Ellroy
- Based on the sensational 1946 murder of a beautiful Los Angeles prostitute, “The Black Dahlia” adopts the language and sensibilities of a bygone era to tell the tale of a “psycho-sexual obsession. (The Times)” More than a murder investigation, the novel is about the history of the two cops that investigated the crime and how the spectre of Dahlia haunted their careers and ultimately their friendship. James Ellroy does not shirk from writing about violence and perversity, painting it all with disturbing elegance.

Omerta, Mario Puzo
- Made famous by “The Godfather,” Mario Puzo’s final novel chronicles the last of the New York mafia families and their attempt at “legitimacy.” Don Raymonde Aprile envisions for his descendants a life free from the crime and illegality his generation has been entrenched in. He is still, however, a Sicilian to the end, so he adopts Astorre and grooms him as his strongman. Destiny seizes Astorre when Don Raymonde is assassinated during his grandchild’s baptism, an act that puts in motion the wheels of revenge and death. Puzo’s style is still unmistakable, and his description of Sicily is at once cruel and loving.

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September 15, 2007 Written by: giyenah | Filed Under Read or Die, Books, Reading

Comments

4 Responses to “September 2007 Reading List: Crime Novels”

Mia on September 15th, 2007 3:29 pm

Ooooh, Omerta. I really enjoy reading Mario Puzo (blood! mafia plots! haha); my favorite book of his is The Last Don.
Exie Abola on September 15th, 2007 4:06 pm

Criminal!

The only I’ve read here is Ripley, which is fascinating. I have Hammett’s Dain Curse and Chandler’s Big Sleep on my to-read list.
giyenah on September 16th, 2007 7:22 pm

Mia: ahaha, my favorite still remains to be “The Godfather” but I’ve only read that, Omerta and Fools Die. To tell you the truth, it’s the Catholic iconography that gets to me. XPP

Exie: Ah, I love the Ripley. I knew the plot well before reading it but the experience remained fresh, something you can’t say about many crime thrillers. If I can recommend the a novel, I’d say “The Black Dahlia”.

(Shh, full disclosure, I’m still in the middle of “Dahlia” myself but the language is enough to hook a reader.
Exie Abola on September 17th, 2007 4:42 pm

Thanks for the recommendation, giyenah. I don’t have Dahlia but Ellroy’s nonfic work My Dark Places. I remember Jessica Zafra raving about it in one of her columns years ago. It’s in my Books To Read pile (number 576, I think).