Vol. 2 Issue 4
Private Investigators From its inception as a genre, crime fiction has owed much of its success to the private investigator. In the 1930s and 40s readers were captivated by iconic characters like Hercule Poirot, Sam Spade, and Philip Marlowe. The 1980s saw the emergence of the female PI, including Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone, and Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshowski. Today the PI maintains a central role in crime fiction. In this newsletter issue, I recommend recent novels featuring contemporary private investigators as well as a must-read classic PI series, Robert Parker’s Spencer first introduced in 1971.
Strong Female Protagonist Runner by Tracy Clark is the winner of this year’s Mystery Writers of America special award, The Sue Grafton Memorial Award. The novel features PI Cass Raines, who searches for Ramona, a teenage runaway from a foster home, and uncovers a criminal enterprise preying on vulnerable youth. Raines is hired by Ramona’s birth mother, a recovering addict, who wants to regain custody of her child. Runner is the fourth book in the series. The three others are Broken Places, Borrowed Time, and What You Don’t See. Some critics have compared Clark to the crime novelist Laura Lippman, which I’d say is accurate.
Chicago-Based Series I’ve recently discovered Matt Goodman’s series featuring PI Nils Shapiro. The novels are set in Minnesota and are packed with action and humor. Shapiro is funny, cynical, and trying to move on from his ex-wife, who he still loves. I read and recommend the first three in the series, which include Gone To Dust, Broken Ice, and The Shallows. There is a fourth novel, Dead West, which I haven’t yet read.
Classic Must-Read It’s difficult to choose one book from the Boston-based Spencer series by Robert Parker, so many are top-notch. Forced to make a choice, my pick is Looking for Rachel Wallace, one of the earlier works in the series. This novel focuses on issues that are still relevant today. Spencer is hired to protect a lesbian author, who is receiving death threats due to the release of her latest controversial book. Spencer is the primary reason this series has been so popular. He is a hard-boiled, wise-cracking ex-cop, who is willing to use violence in pursuit of justice. His intimate relationship with beautiful and intelligent Susan Silverman softens and humanizes him. Robert Parker began the Spencer series while teaching at Northeastern University. Today there are fifty books in the series, several published after Parker’s death in 2010 written by Ace Atkins.
Patronize Independent Book Stores Whenever you buy books, please consider purchasing from independent booksellers who remain passionate about books, love to share their knowledge, and provide a vital link between readers and authors.
You can reach out to me via my email, chrisquarembo@gmail.com, and share your comments about the newsletter, books you’re reading, and books you’d like to recommend to readers of this newsletter.
Watch for my next newsletter in September.
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