Crime Fiction Recommendations
Some of my favorite posts to read on book blogs are recommendations from a specific genre. If you have a wide range of literary tastes, but you’re hankering for something specific, genre-based reading lists are a great way to narrow down your options and weed out books from any genres you may not be interested in. My TBR list is constantly growing, so having it organized by genre is helpful, too. Thankfully, Goodreads is a great way to keep all your book lists organized. A majority of the books I read are crime fiction. They’re intense, scary, and full of intriguing characters and details. For anyone else with a macabre interest in crime, here are my Crime Fiction recommendations.
1) Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
“What more can a mystery addict desire than a much-loathed murder victim found aboard the luxurious Orient Express with multiple stab wounds, thirteen likely suspects, an incomparably brilliant detective in Hercule Poirot, and the most ingenious crime ever conceived?” --Goodreads
Agatha Christie is the queen of crime fiction. This was the first Christie book I read, and I immediately became a fan. Given that Murder on the Orient Express was published in 1934, it is tame in comparison to the other crime fiction books I tend to read. Mystery readers from the 20th century read books for suspense and intrigue, not the gruesome details and violence that many stories have now. Though my crime fiction tastes are more focused on the macabre details and psychological aspect, I still greatly enjoyed this book.
A murder on a train, a huge cast of unique characters, and a cunning detective are the highlights of Christie’s novel, but there is so much more to enjoy. I personally enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes-style deductions and all the twists and turns as famed detective Hercule Poirot attempts to catch a killer--and the ending is fantastic.
2) The Never List by Koethi Zan
“For years, best friends Sarah and Jennifer kept what they called the “Never List”: a list of actions to be avoided, for safety’s sake, at all costs. But one night, against their best instincts, they accept a cab ride with grave, everlasting consequences. For the next three years, they are held captive with two other girls in a dungeon-like cellar by a connoisseur of sadism. Ten years later, at thirty-one, Sarah is still struggling to resume a normal life, living as a virtual recluse under a new name, unable to come to grips with the fact that Jennifer didn’t make it out of that cellar. Now, her abductor is up for parole and Sarah can no longer ignore the twisted letters he sends from jail. Finally, Sarah decides to confront her phobias and the other survivors—who hold their own deep grudges against her. When she goes on a cross-country chase that takes her into the perverse world of BDSM, secret cults, and the arcane study of torture, she begins unraveling a mystery more horrifying than even she could have imagined.” --Goodreads
What made The Never List stand out from out crime fiction books was the emotional aspect and how Zan played on very real dangers and fears people face. For young women in particular, this book brings to mind threats we all face and decisions we make on a daily basis for the sake of our safety.
Sarah is an incredibly powerful character, and she provides a great survivor’s perspective of crimes and experiences most people cannot begin to imagine. Zan’s novel is disturbing, infuriating, and shocking, and it has a great ending as well!
3) Where They Found Her by Kimberly McCreight
“At the end of a long winter, in bucolic Ridgedale, New Jersey, the body of an infant is discovered in the woods near the town’s prestigious university campus. No one knows who the baby is, or how her body ended up out there. But there is no shortage of opinions. When freelance journalist, and recent Ridgedale transplant, Molly Anderson is unexpectedly called upon to cover the story for the Ridegdale Reader, it’s a risk, given the severe depression that followed the loss of her own baby. But the bigger threat comes when Molly unearths some of Ridgedale’s darkest secrets, including a string of unreported sexual assaults that goes back twenty years. Meanwhile, Sandy, a high school dropout, searches for her volatile and now missing mother, and PTA president Barbara struggles to help her young son, who’s suddenly having disturbing outbursts. Told from the perspectives of Molly, Barbara, and Sandy, Kimberly McCreight’s taut and profoundly moving novel unwinds the tangled truth about the baby’s death revealing that these three women have far more in common than they realized. And that their lives are more intertwined with what happened to the baby than they ever could have imagined.” --Goodreads
I feel I gravitated toward this book so much, because it reminds me of my hometown. Not the case of the dead baby, but the intricacies of life in a well-to-do small town. Where They Found Her is one of the best books I have read. Aside from being truly sad and disturbing, it is suspenseful and heartbreaking.
The best aspect of McCreight’s novel is the varying perspectives. Sometimes this can make a story very confusing, but it worked well for this particular book. It was a great way to show how stories intertwined and how Molly, Barbara, and Sandy were connected to and via this unidentified baby. From the very beginning, Where They Found Her is full of conspiracy and suspicious individuals.
4) Intensity by Dean Koontz
“Past midnight, Chyna Shepard, twenty-six, gazes out a moonlit window, unable to sleep on her first night in the Napa Valley home of her best friend's family. Instinct proves reliable. A murderous sociopath, Edgler Foreman Vess, has entered the house, intent on killing everyone inside. A self-proclaimed "homicidal adventurer," Vess lives only to satisfy all appetites as they arise, to immerse himself in sensation, to live without fear, remorse or limits, to live with "intensity." Chyna is trapped in his deadly orbit. Chyna is a survivor, toughened by a lifelong struggle for safety and self-respect. Now she will be tested as never before. At first her sole aim is to get out alive--until, by chance, she learns the identity of Vess's next intended victim, a faraway innocent only she can save. Driven by a newly discovered thirst for meaning beyond mere self-preservation, Chyna musters every inner resource she has to save an endangered girl...as moment by moment, the terrifying threat of Edgler Foreman Vess intensifies.” --Goodreads
Dean Koontz’ more recent publications are more within the horror/sci-fi genre, but his older works are some of my favorite crime fictions books. As I’ve said before, what makes Koontz’ novels stand out in the crime fiction world is the incorporation of the supernatural. All of his psychotic villains are made that much scarier with inhuman qualities. Koontz writes some truly disturbing stuff, so if that’s your thing, I highly recommend some of his older works.
5) Velocity by Dean Koontz
“Bill Wiles is an easygoing, hardworking guy who leads a quiet, ordinary life. But that is about to change. One evening, after his usual eight-hour bartending shift, he finds a typewritten note under the windshield wiper of his car.
‘If you don't take this note to the police and get them involved, I will kill a lovely blond schoolteacher. If you do take this note to the police, I will instead kill an elderly woman active in charity work. You have four hours to decide. The choice is yours.’
It seems like a sick joke, and Bill's friend on the police force, Lanny Olson, thinks so too. His advice to Bill is to go home and forget about it. Besides, what could they do even if they took the note seriously? No crime has actually been committed. But less than twenty-four hours later, a young blond schoolteacher is found murdered, and it's Bill's fault: he didn't convince the police to get involved. Now he's got another note, another deadline, another ultimatum...and two new lives hanging in the balance. Suddenly Bill's average, seemingly innocuous life takes on the dimensions and speed of an accelerating nightmare. Because the notes are coming faster, the deadlines growing tighter, and the killer becoming bolder and crueler with every communication--until Bill is isolated with the terrifying knowledge that he alone has the power of life and death over a psychopath's innocent victims. Until the struggle between good and evil is intensely personal. Until the most chilling words of all are: ‘The choice is yours.’”--Goodreads
Yep, another Koontz novel on the same list! I truly think his works are a staple for any crime reader, and I’m sure some of his other works will pop up on future recommendation lists. Velocity is one of my favorites from Koontz, and the title is really true to the story. The note mentioned in the description above is the catalyst to one of the most intense and ominous stories I’ve read. Also, Billy is a character you fall in love with right away. He doesn’t deserve what happens in this book.
What are some of your crime fiction favorite? Are they on this list? What recommendations do you have for fellow crime-lovers?
