Who better to get reading tips from than crime authors themselves? What books inspire them, fill them with envy or inform their own writing?
We’re kicking of our Authors’ Favourites section with the Top 25 recommendations from novelist and poet John Harvey.
John has over 100 books published, including recently, Far Cry and a collection of short stories titled A Darker Shade of Blue.
The first of his celebrated Charlie Resnick novels, Lonely Hearts, was named by The Times as one of the 100 most notable crime novels of the last century. Flesh and Blood, the first of three Frank Elder novels, was awarded both the British Crime Writers’ Association Silver Dagger and the US Barry Award in 2004. His books have won two major prizes in France, and in 2007 he received the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger for Sustained Excellence in Crime Writing. Harvey has written many scripts for television and radio, including dramatisations of two Graham Greene novels, A.S. Byatt’s Frederica Quartet and (with Shelley Silas) The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott.
John Harvey’s Recommendations:
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 Harvey's Book Hoard |
 Beautiful Books! |
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 A closer view of Harvey's shelves... |
Find out more about John Harvey at his official website, click here.
[...] female writers have often been under-represented in the long and shortlists for the Theakston (and other lists in other genres and even, tacitly, awards granted for non-genres). It’s a totally legitimate [...]
crimelady: do men write ‘better’ books than women? That all depends, doesn’t it? Grittier? I can think of lots of female writers of gritty novels, very good ones too, but is gritty necessarily better???
Don’t you think men make better crime writers though NJ? Grittier writing perhaps?
Lots of lovely new authors to get my teeth into….
Only three women writers of twenty-five, John, and one of those a co-writer… Is this because you don’t read many novels by women? Or just don’t enjoy/admire them? I would LOVE to know.
NJC
Some books I’ve read, some I mean to read one day and some new to me, great:)