Modern Whodunit Authors?

[Meadmaker]

Are there any fans of "whodunit" murder mysteries here?

Can you recommend some good authors?

Let me explain. I'm looking for books in the mold of some of Agatha Christie's best works. There is a clear list of suspects, because everyone is on a boat, or plane, or whatever. The puzzle pieces are slowly revealed. Your job is to pay attention and figure out who the murderer is as time goes by.

I'm surprised how difficult it is to identify such books. I've done some googling, and some of the books that I've come up with (including some that, sadly, I have purchased) were stories that involved a murder, but they were really about engaging plots and things that happened during the investigation. For example, I purchased "The Lying Game", after seeing it recommended. Well, technically, it is a book about someone trying to find out who killed someone....in the case of "The Lying Game" it was in fact the dead person trying to find out her own murderer. However, it wasn't a whodunit it all. Indeed, the end of the book came, and the murderer hadn't even been revealed.

No, I want a classic style.

One of my motivations here is to actually adapt it into a game. Some friends of mine get together on New Year's Eve to play "How to Host a Murder" or one of many variations on it, i.e. the dinner party murder mystery games where each player plays a suspect and reveals clues as the dinner goes on. I've always thought it would be cool to write one myself, but I thought it might be easier to adapt someone else's work. Agatha Christie is too well known, but perhaps some lesser known author?

So, ideally, 6-8 suspects. One murderer. A lot of the "How to Host a Murder" series, including the one we played last night, seem to all end with "Everyong tried to kill him, but this particular person succeeded." That makes for lousy stories and disappointing reveals, where the clues really could have fit almost anyone because they were all trying to kill him. I figure something that actually was published as a novel probably wouldn't have more than one or two would be murderers.

I wouldn't mind if, of the eight suspects, a few were eliminated rapidly. That could be eliminated from consideration, or actually eliminated, as in "And Then There Were None". The players could still continue on, and I can adapt. I just need a little nudge in the right direction.

So, has anyone read some good novels lately that fit the bill?

 

[bruto]

I used to read a bunch of classic mysteries, but have read little in recent years. But recently have been enjoying some of the Scandinavian ones. You might try Jussi Adler-Olsen, who has a series with a detective who works cold cases. Lots of twists and turns, false leads and so forth. If you need multiple suspects he usually seems to have a few.

Jo Nesbo is another who looks petty promising so far.

I am assuming you've looked into some of the classic British ones like Josephine Tey and Dorothy Sayers, and later ones like P.D. James.

 

[blutoski]

Are there any fans of "whodunit" murder mysteries here?

Can you recommend some good authors?

Let me explain. I'm looking for books in the mold of some of Agatha Christie's best works. There is a clear list of suspects, because everyone is on a boat, or plane, or whatever. The puzzle pieces are slowly revealed. Your job is to pay attention and figure out who the murderer is as time goes by.

I'm surprised how difficult it is to identify such books. I've done some googling, and some of the books that I've come up with (including some that, sadly, I have purchased) were stories that involved a murder, but they were really about engaging plots and things that happened during the investigation. For example, I purchased "The Lying Game", after seeing it recommended. Well, technically, it is a book about someone trying to find out who killed someone....in the case of "The Lying Game" it was in fact the dead person trying to find out her own murderer. However, it wasn't a whodunit it all. Indeed, the end of the book came, and the murderer hadn't even been revealed.

No, I want a classic style.

One of my motivations here is to actually adapt it into a game. Some friends of mine get together on New Year's Eve to play "How to Host a Murder" or one of many variations on it, i.e. the dinner party murder mystery games where each player plays a suspect and reveals clues as the dinner goes on. I've always thought it would be cool to write one myself, but I thought it might be easier to adapt someone else's work. Agatha Christie is too well known, but perhaps some lesser known author?

So, ideally, 6-8 suspects. One murderer. A lot of the "How to Host a Murder" series, including the one we played last night, seem to all end with "Everyong tried to kill him, but this particular person succeeded." That makes for lousy stories and disappointing reveals, where the clues really could have fit almost anyone because they were all trying to kill him. I figure something that actually was published as a novel probably wouldn't have more than one or two would be murderers.

I wouldn't mind if, of the eight suspects, a few were eliminated rapidly. That could be eliminated from consideration, or actually eliminated, as in "And Then There Were None". The players could still continue on, and I can adapt. I just need a little nudge in the right direction.

So, has anyone read some good novels lately that fit the bill?

:: 1
The subgenre (publishers have sub-sub-sub-categories these days) closest to most Christie novels is often referred to as Cozy Mysteries. (wikipedia: Cozy Mystery^WP) "...a subgenre of crime fiction in which sex and violence are downplayed or treated humorously, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community."

There are also some TV series in that subgenre, such as Midsommer Murders and Father Brown.

This is my favourite genre! (My side gig is writing genre short stories and novels. Cozy Mystery, Hard Boiled Detective, and SciFi)


:: 2
The 'everyone tried to kill him and this person succeeded' model is a product of limitations of the stageplay medium and some laziness on the playwright's part. I think the producer hopes that 'we keep changing the ending' means return customers and more flexibility in casting, but it doesn't really work well IMO. It's overdoing that rule for this genre that the author needs to play fair - the reader has to be given all the clues, no last second reveals as the cuffs go on.

I wrote a murder dinner about thirty years ago as part of a business proposal to buy and convert a 19th century house that used to be a seniors hospice and had gone bankrupt - i wanted to put in a decent kitchen and run a murder mystery night with proper food and some high quality props. Sort of like the Disneyland Haunted House, with trapdoors and secret passageways, &c. I just couldn't interest investors and the cost estimates were more than my credit could support in those days. Nevertheless, I did some test runs at a friend's house, and I think the concept is valid.

The clue I was most proud of was that the victim's dying words were to tell the guests that the murder weapon was hidden in Carnarvon Castle. The library had an entire wall of books on castles, so my test runs had people poring over these books for some context.

Meanwhile, there was a model of a cruise ship in a glass case right in the center of the dining table in front of them throughout dinner. Its plaque was flopped over so we can't see the name of the ship. SS Carnarvon Castle.


ETA:
Oh, also, my model is a bit different in that the serving staff would be hired actors, but playing the role of guests outside of the meal period, and one of them would be the murderer. The customers would not play characters, they would be 'invited guests of the murdered host', and just have to question everybody, and they would have been encouraged to dress in period to add an element of participation, and uncertainty about who could be a valid suspect.

 

[Meadmaker]

:: 1
The subgenre (publishers have sub-sub-sub-categories these days) closest to most Christie novels is often referred to as Cozy Mysteries. (wikipedia: Cozy Mystery^WP) "...a subgenre of crime fiction in which sex and violence are downplayed or treated humorously, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community."

There are also some TV series in that subgenre, such as Midsommer Murders and Father Brown.

This is my favourite genre! (My side gig is writing genre short stories and novels. Cozy Mystery, Hard Boiled Detective, and SciFi)


:: 2
The 'everyone tried to kill him and this person succeeded' model is a product of limitations of the stageplay medium and some laziness on the playwright's part. I think the producer hopes that 'we keep changing the ending' means return customers and more flexibility in casting, but it doesn't really work well IMO. It's overdoing that rule for this genre that the author needs to play fair - the reader has to be given all the clues, no last second reveals as the cuffs go on.

I wrote a murder dinner about thirty years ago as part of a business proposal to buy and convert a 19th century house that used to be a seniors hospice and had gone bankrupt - i wanted to put in a decent kitchen and run a murder mystery night with proper food and some high quality props. Sort of like the Disneyland Haunted House, with trapdoors and secret passageways, &c. I just couldn't interest investors and the cost estimates were more than my credit could support in those days. Nevertheless, I did some test runs at a friend's house, and I think the concept is valid.

The clue I was most proud of was that the victim's dying words were to tell the guests that the murder weapon was hidden in Carnarvon Castle. The library had an entire wall of books on castles, so my test runs had people poring over these books for some context.

Meanwhile, there was a model of a cruise ship in a glass case right in the center of the dining table in front of them throughout dinner. Its plaque was flopped over so we can't see the name of the ship. SS Carnarvon Castle.


ETA:
Oh, also, my model is a bit different in that the serving staff would be hired actors, but playing the role of guests outside of the meal period, and one of them would be the murderer. The customers would not play characters, they would be 'invited guests of the murdered host', and just have to question everybody, and they would have been encouraged to dress in period to add an element of participation, and uncertainty about who could be a valid suspect.

At a game convention I attended about 30 years ago, there was an excellent murder mystery put on. It was a "famous detectives convention", and each of the guests (i.e. us) was to assume the role of a famous detective. (I was Jack Friday.) However, as dinner began, it was obvious that "Charlie's Angels" were actors who were part of the main entertainment. However, no murder or body yet.

As we sat down to dinner, there were the expected jokes of "Why don't you try the dressing first..." and that sort of thing. One of the "Angels" got a phone call. A couple of other things happened. As desert was served, Charlie Chan, seated at my table, made another joke about desert tasting funny. I kind of rolled my eyes, thinking it had been quite done to death, when he stood up, staggered a step or two, and fell against a post, which conveniently had a light switch, and the room went dark, and a shot rang out.

I was quite impressed that they managed to pull off the murder as part of the live action without making it obvious who did it.

In some sense, it actually worked better that way, because now we were all giving eyewitness testimony, and it was a confused jumble including some false reports, not because they were set up, but just because eyewitnesss testimony is horribly unreliable. I, myself, reported that I had followed one of the Angels out of the room, but later it was revealed that I had actually followed an Angel, but not the one I named. The Angel I said I was following assured me she never left the room.

All in all, it was well worth the price of admission, and better than I expected at a game con.


Meanwhile, back to my original project, I thought about Dorothy Sayers. I haven't read her in 30 years or so, but I haven't quite decided what I'll use. I would prefer someone less famous, just in case someone recognizes a plot.


It was interesting browsing Amazon and seeing the "cozy" description. That was kind of used informally back when I was reading more mysteries, but it seems it has become accepted jargon. I was a fan of the quintessential cozy detective, Miss Marple. However, some of the genre these days seems to feature detectives who sometimes aren't even detectives at all, but people caught up in a murder, and the focus is on the fact that the "detective" ends up falling in love with one of the suspects. You didn't have to worry about that with Miss Marple, although the suspects sometimes fell in love with each other.

 

[Nova Land]

I'm way behind on reading so can't recommend any current writers who write classic-style mysteries, but here are a few suggestions for somewhat older works.

1. Anthony Boucher was better-known as a writer of science fiction, but between 1937 and 1942 he also wrote 7 mystery novels which are puzzles of the kind you describe but which are not nearly as well-known or widely-circulated as books by Agatha Christie or Ellery Queen.

2. Similarly, Fredric Brown was a science-fiction writer who also wrote mysteries of the puzzle variety. I think most of his mysteries books are pretty long out-of-print (but are likely available cheaply second-hand), and I don't think he's that well-known among modern readers.

3. If you're willing to go back even farther, you could look up some of the Philo Vance mysteries by S. S. Van Dine. These were puzzle stories of the type you're describing, with very long sections at the end of the books as Philo Vance went into great detail describing who committed the murder, how they did it, and how Vance was able to eliminate all the suspects apart from the one whom he had determined was the killer.

 

[catsmate]

1. Anthony Boucher was better-known as a writer of science fiction, but between 1937 and 1942 he also wrote 7 mystery novels which are puzzles of the kind you describe but which are not nearly as well-known or widely-circulated as books by Agatha Christie or Ellery Queen.

And one, Rocket to the Morgue, that mixed the then LA sci-fi writers community into a mystery. See if you can spot the Heinlein, Parsons and Hubbard expys.

OK, for the classic Golden Era you can start with the 'Big Three' which are
Agatha Christie
Dorothy Sayers
Margery Allingham
Ngaio Marsh
Gladys Mitchell
Yes I know that's five; even the commentators couldn't agree...
There are new novels in the series of all of them (except Mitchell) by modern authors.

[The following list includes authors by pen-name where used, to avoid complicating matters]
Then there's Patricia Wentworth whose 'Miss Silver' books are basically like Miss Marple going professional.
For a modern writer using Golden Age tropes try Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher; a favourite of mine.
If you fancy a similar treatment of Sherlock Holmes dry the 'Holmes and Russel' books by Laurie R. King.
Van Dine has been mentioned, though I'm not really a fan.
Other authors:
Ernest Bramah, creator of the blind detective Max Carrados
E. W. Hornung, creator of John Dollar, "The Crime Doctor"
J. E. Preston Muddock
Arthur Morrison
Baroness Orczy
R. Austin Freeman, who created Doctor Thorndyke, arguably the first truly scientific investigator
Freeman Wills Crofts, creator of Inspector French and others
John Rhode, author of the Dr. Priestley books
Ernest Dudley, creator of the psychiatrist Doctor Morelle (better known from radio plays which are available online)
The unfortunate short lived Pamela Branch only wrote four novels but one of the (The Wooden Overcoat) is my absolute favourite and incorporates her masterpiece creation; the Asterix Club.
Glyn Carr wrote a number of excellent books, using incorporating mountain climbing and his series detective Abercrombie Lewker.
Christianna Brand
Amy Myers is a modern writer (though no longer ariting) but her Victorian/Edwardian set Auguste Didier books are excellent.
Anthony Berkeley; while Sheringham can be grating the books are good.
Arthur B. Reeve
Basil Copper wrote many of the 'Solar Pons' Holmes pastiches and his own novel Necropolis is an excellent Victorian piece.
A. E. W. Mason
Carter Dickson (awa John Dickson Carr) was the master of locked room mysteries; the later books are unfortunately mixed his his post-war political views and terrible characterisation
The Isaac Bell novels of "Clive Cussler" are interesting, Edwardian techno-thrillers of sorts.
Edmund Crispin's output was marred by his alcoholism but the Fen stories are generally excellent and funny too.
Josephine Tey wrote the classic The Franchise Affair but the other Inspector Grant novels are good too.
E. C. R. Lorac
H. C. Bailey, though personally I found Fortune irritating
Patricia Highsmith
E. C. Bentley
Ronald Knox (the priest who started a panic)
Patricia Moyes
Cyril Hare, personally I prefer the Francis Pettigrew books
Victoria Houston's 'Loon Lake' books have a modern setting but are favouries of mine as are those of Susan Conant and Laurien Berenson.
Michael Innes is a classic GA writer, mostly involving Inspetor Appleby; Appleby's End is a favourite of mine (try the radio adaption with Hurt and Le Mesurier)
Michael Gilbert, especially the brilliant Smallbone Deceased which does for solicitors' officers what Sayers did for advertisers.
Nicholas Blake, the Nigel Strangeways books are reasonable
Philip MacDonald, especially The Rasp
Michael Kurland is a prolific writer of mysteries (try the Moriarty books for a refreshing take on the Holmesian genre) and sci-fi (including fantasy mysteries in the Lord Darcy series)
Cay Van Ash wrote a couple of Fu Manchu books that are better than the originals; Ten Years Beyond Baker Street is especially recommended
J. C. Masterman wrote a couple of good academic set mysteries

For a more supernatural theme there are the Carnacki stories and the immensely prolific Seabury Quinn, creator of the occult Poirot, Jules de Grandin

 

[Andy_Ross]

LJ Ross

 

[Worm]

If you fancy a similar treatment of Sherlock Holmes dry the 'Holmes and Russel' books by Laurie R. King.

Came here to recommend this. I was sceptical of a Holmes update, but I think Laurie King does a pretty good job. The series picks up with Holmes after he nominally retires, and follows his ongoing career through the eyes of Mary Russell who meets him on the Sussex Downs.

Start with 'The Beekeepers Apprentice' but keep going, because the series really matures.

 

[Spektator]

At a game convention I attended about 30 years ago, there was an excellent murder mystery put on. It was a "famous detectives convention", and each of the guests (i.e. us) was to assume the role of a famous detective. (I was Jack Friday.)
(Snip)

Joe's lesser-known brother?

 

[thines]

Mysteries.

The Leavenworth Case by Anna Katharine Green, first published in 1878. And, of course, The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. For more modern writers, I thoroughly enjoy the books by John Sanford.

 

[Vixen]

Are there any fans of "whodunit" murder mysteries here?

Can you recommend some good authors?

Let me explain. I'm looking for books in the mold of some of Agatha Christie's best works. There is a clear list of suspects, because everyone is on a boat, or plane, or whatever. The puzzle pieces are slowly revealed. Your job is to pay attention and figure out who the murderer is as time goes by.

I'm surprised how difficult it is to identify such books. I've done some googling, and some of the books that I've come up with (including some that, sadly, I have purchased) were stories that involved a murder, but they were really about engaging plots and things that happened during the investigation. For example, I purchased "The Lying Game", after seeing it recommended. Well, technically, it is a book about someone trying to find out who killed someone....in the case of "The Lying Game" it was in fact the dead person trying to find out her own murderer. However, it wasn't a whodunit it all. Indeed, the end of the book came, and the murderer hadn't even been revealed.

No, I want a classic style.

One of my motivations here is to actually adapt it into a game. Some friends of mine get together on New Year's Eve to play "How to Host a Murder" or one of many variations on it, i.e. the dinner party murder mystery games where each player plays a suspect and reveals clues as the dinner goes on. I've always thought it would be cool to write one myself, but I thought it might be easier to adapt someone else's work. Agatha Christie is too well known, but perhaps some lesser known author?

So, ideally, 6-8 suspects. One murderer. A lot of the "How to Host a Murder" series, including the one we played last night, seem to all end with "Everyong tried to kill him, but this particular person succeeded." That makes for lousy stories and disappointing reveals, where the clues really could have fit almost anyone because they were all trying to kill him. I figure something that actually was published as a novel probably wouldn't have more than one or two would be murderers.

I wouldn't mind if, of the eight suspects, a few were eliminated rapidly. That could be eliminated from consideration, or actually eliminated, as in "And Then There Were None". The players could still continue on, and I can adapt. I just need a little nudge in the right direction.

So, has anyone read some good novels lately that fit the bill?

If you like something a little offbeat, I can recommend Antti Tuominen, The Man Who Died and Palm Beach Finland. It's scandinavian noir meets Kurt Vonnegut Jnr.

 

[theprestige]

I've been trying to figure out something about noir detective stories versus whodunit detective stories. There's a difference between the two that I'm trying to put into words.

I've just read through the entire John D. McDonald Travis McGee series. It feels more noir than whodunit to me.

As far as I can tell, the noir structure is to introduce a mystery, with a likely line of inquir y that the detective follows. It generally starts with a straightforward crime, and an obvious suspect. The detective then unravels the thread, finding more suspects, or other crimes, or sometimes just confirming their original suspicions. They get beat up. They solve the mystery, which generally is a boring, tawdry thing that didn't even really need solving.

The whodunit structure lays out the whole mystery all at once. The dimensions of the crime, the list of suspects, the lines of inquiry, are all presented up front. The detective isn't following a single thread to an ugly truth (about themselves, and about the world). He's picking up a skein of threads and weaving a tapestry - the set-piece reveal in the drawing room in the last chapter.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Try the 'Secret Files of Sherlock Holmes' and the sequels 'Secret Chronicle' and 'Secret Notebook' by June Thomson.

They are supposedly unpublished works by Dr Watson they are cases mentioned or hinted at in the actual Sherlock Holmes books.

They are very well written and well worth reading.

 

[Vixen]

I've been trying to figure out something about noir detective stories versus whodunit detective stories. There's a difference between the two that I'm trying to put into words.

I've just read through the entire John D. McDonald Travis McGee series. It feels more noir than whodunit to me.

As far as I can tell, the noir structure is to introduce a mystery, with a likely line of inquir y that the detective follows. It generally starts with a straightforward crime, and an obvious suspect. The detective then unravels the thread, finding more suspects, or other crimes, or sometimes just confirming their original suspicions. They get beat up. They solve the mystery, which generally is a boring, tawdry thing that didn't even really need solving.

The whodunit structure lays out the whole mystery all at once. The dimensions of the crime, the list of suspects, the lines of inquiry, are all presented up front. The detective isn't following a single thread to an ugly truth (about themselves, and about the world). He's picking up a skein of threads and weaving a tapestry - the set-piece reveal in the drawing room in the last chapter.

I think that the core difference is that there is a strong social issues awareness element in noir. We become aware of the terrorists, drug dealers, social conditions, etc. The detectives (think Wallander) tend to be very human, often with drink or marriage problems, fat and middle-aged, etc.

 

[bruto]

I've been trying to figure out something about noir detective stories versus whodunit detective stories. There's a difference between the two that I'm trying to put into words.

I've just read through the entire John D. McDonald Travis McGee series. It feels more noir than whodunit to me.

As far as I can tell, the noir structure is to introduce a mystery, with a likely line of inquir y that the detective follows. It generally starts with a straightforward crime, and an obvious suspect. The detective then unravels the thread, finding more suspects, or other crimes, or sometimes just confirming their original suspicions. They get beat up. They solve the mystery, which generally is a boring, tawdry thing that didn't even really need solving.

The whodunit structure lays out the whole mystery all at once. The dimensions of the crime, the list of suspects, the lines of inquiry, are all presented up front. The detective isn't following a single thread to an ugly truth (about themselves, and about the world). He's picking up a skein of threads and weaving a tapestry - the set-piece reveal in the drawing room in the last chapter.

I think one common way of slicing it up would be to put McGee in the category of "crime novel," in which there is less mystery and more concentration on the events and the people. This and noir are not mutually exclusive. The degree to which it is "noir" would, I think, depend on how compromised you consider the good guys to be. A kind of bumper-sticker level of description is that in "noir," one is dealing with bad versus worse. It's been a long time (yikes, like over 30 years....) since I read all the McGee novels, but as I recall he tries at least to maintain a pretty high moral standard (describing himself even as quixotic) while being pretty lax about technical legalities, so it's probably a toss-up. The world he works in is certainly pretty dark at times.

I don't think old Travis is quite what our original poster is after, but if you're looking for some winter reading with an addictive quality somewhere between salted nuts and popcorn, the Travis McGee novels are recommended.

 

[catsmate]

Try the 'Secret Files of Sherlock Holmes' and the sequels 'Secret Chronicle' and 'Secret Notebook' by June Thomson.

They are supposedly unpublished works by Dr Watson they are cases mentioned or hinted at in the actual Sherlock Holmes books.

They are very well written and well worth reading.

They're not bad, and I have literally several hundred Holmesian pastiches (ETA: 325 volumes), but the later collections aren't great.

 

[catsmate]

OK, modern authors I omitted from my prior post.
John Sandford: The Davenport and Flowers series, not a 'Whodunit', more of a police procedural.
M. R. C. Kasasian: The Gower Street Detective Series. Victorian setting, a serious pastiche of the genre.
Sally Wright: The Jo Grant Mystery series
Susanna Gregory: her Matthew Bartholomew series is ser around the Plague period in Cambridge. Excellent.
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro: the Mycroft Holmes series.
Glen Petrie also write a series starring a young Mycroft Holmes but they're long out of print
Diane Kelly: the Paw Enforcement series is good
Edward Marston: the Victorian set Railway Detective series
Caroline Graham's Midsomer/Barnaby series is excellent, though short and much darker than the TV series.
Francis Durbridge: some of the Paul Temple books/radioplays are good, some are terrible.
Francis Selwyn's 'Sergeant Verity' series of Victorian mysteries are good.
Simon Clarke: the Inspector Abberline books.
Jeffery Deaver's books, especially the Lincoln Rhyme novels, mix mystery and procedural very well.
John Creasey was immensely prolific. The Gideon and West books are rather dates but some are surprisingly good for the rate at which they were churned out.
John Wainwright's books, such as the Inspector Lyle series, are forgotten but quite good.
P. J. Tracy's Monkeewrench books again mix mystery and procedural very well.
Peter Lovesey's Cribb series (Victoria setting) are good. I haven't read the Diamond books.
Paul Doherty writes historical mysteries; the Corbett, Athelstan and Shallot series are recommended.
D. M. Greenwood's Theodora Braithwaite are interestingly odd but very hard to acquire.
Peter Tremayne's excellent Sister Fidelma have a historical/clerical background.

Hope this helps.

 

[theprestige]

I think that the core difference is that there is a strong social issues awareness element in noir. We become aware of the terrorists, drug dealers, social conditions, etc. The detectives (think Wallander) tend to be very human, often with drink or marriage problems, fat and middle-aged, etc.

I think one common way of slicing it up would be to put McGee in the category of "crime novel," in which there is less mystery and more concentration on the events and the people. This and noir are not mutually exclusive. The degree to which it is "noir" would, I think, depend on how compromised you consider the good guys to be. A kind of bumper-sticker level of description is that in "noir," one is dealing with bad versus worse. It's been a long time (yikes, like over 30 years....) since I read all the McGee novels, but as I recall he tries at least to maintain a pretty high moral standard (describing himself even as quixotic) while being pretty lax about technical legalities, so it's probably a toss-up. The world he works in is certainly pretty dark at times.

I don't think old Travis is quite what our original poster is after, but if you're looking for some winter reading with an addictive quality somewhere between salted nuts and popcorn, the Travis McGee novels are recommended.

Thank you both. Your posts are very helpful in clarifying my thoughts, and giving me new insights on the genres.

And I agree, McGee is not a good fit for the OP's intent.

I just started McDonald's first crime novel, The Brass Cupcake. It's definitely got a noir tone, but it's also got a pretty clear whodunit structure, at least at the beginning so far.

 

[dudalb]

No love for the Hard Boiled school of Detectives?

Raymond Chandler
Dashell Hammett

 

[catsmate]

No love for the Hard Boiled school of Detectives?

Raymond Chandler
Dashell Hammett

Well that's a different sub-genre.