New York crime fiction

[Georgie]

Can anyone recommend any New York City set crime fiction? I am a HUGE fan of Reggie Nadelson's Artie Cohen series, what I love about it is the strong sense of place she creates, I can FEEL her New York City when I read the books, and I love Artie as well. I also love Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder books for the same reasons - strong sense of place and characterisation, and I also enjoy Jason Starr's novels which are all (I think) set in NYC - I like the noirish feel to them and of course the NYC setting. The only other author I have come across with NYC set crime fic is Carol O'Connell and I just can't get into her books for some reason. On the Internet I found out about Thomas O'Callaghan's Driscoll books. They looked interesting, but I would have to get them off Amazon. That's fine, but one thing is putting me off - I read that O'Callaghan uses the James Patterson technique of very short chapters. I don't like JP's stuff, and was wondering, is the chapter thing the only way in which Callaghan is similar?
Does anyone have any ideas? I'd be really grateful if anyone could help me out. I have a good pile of other books on my TBR pile, but would welcome any recommendations for the next time I go library raiding.

[Grammath]

I can't think of any straight ahead cop writing based in NYC, Georgie, but here are some suggestions from the crime genre.

Richard Price might fit the bill. Try "The Wanderers" or "Clockers". Alternately David Benioff's "The 25th Hour" is a pretty good read. All of these have been filmed too.

There are a couple of titles at the more literary end of the spectrum, Paul Auster's "The New York Trilogy" and Jonathan Lethem's "Motherless Brooklyn", that I'd recommend to anyone, as well as the mighty "The Bonfire of the Vanities".

Hope this helps.

[SlowRain]

Paul Auster's "The New York Trilogy"
I'll second that. But, be warned: it'll mess with your head.

Although I haven't read it yet, you may want to look at The Alienist by Caleb Carr for a historical mystery set in New York.

[Adrian]

Adrian McKinty's Dead I Well May Be (http://www.bookgrouponline.com/forum/showthread.html?t=3324) was the first that came to mind. He really captures the atmosphere of Harlem. Also there's Kinky Friedman in the Village, and is Ed McBain's 87th precinct set in New York?

[Georgie]

I can't think of any straight ahead cop writing based in NYC, Georgie, but here are some suggestions from the crime genre.

Richard Price might fit the bill. Try "The Wanderers" or "Clockers". Alternately David Benioff's "The 25th Hour" is a pretty good read. All of these have been filmed too.

There are a couple of titles at the more literary end of the spectrum, Paul Auster's "The New York Trilogy" and Jonathan Lethem's "Motherless Brooklyn", that I'd recommend to anyone, as well as the mighty "The Bonfire of the Vanities".

Hope this helps.
I've read the 25th Hour, and liked it a lot, and am waiting for the film to come from Love Film. I have Auster's NY Trilogy at home and it's on my TBR pile. I loved his Brooklyn Follies though it's not crime. I'll try the others too. I did try another book by Lethem but it was very long and I gave up halfway through, but I am going to try it again. As for Motherless Brooklyn, I keep seeing that on the shelves at the library, and people quite often take it out (I work there) so I'll get it next time I go library raiding.

Thanks everyone else for all the suggestions. In regard to McBain's 87th precinct, I don't know whether it's NY - I thought it was an unnamed city. I do enjoy those though, must get another one the next time I get new books.

[GERBAM]

Give Me Park Avenue by Joyce Christmas
N.Y.C. P.I. by Parnell Hall


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[Fat Buddha]

may I support the recommendations for Motherless Brooklyn, which is a wonderful book, can't say I have manged to finish any other Lethems though.

There are quite few books of short stories available which might be of use, Brooklyn Noir, Queens Noir, Bronx Noir and so on, they all have good reviews on Amazon.

Do the Richard Price books count as New York? Clockers, the Samaritan? Damn fine novels anyway.

[Curt Connors]

You might try the Dortmunder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dortmunder) novels by Donald Westlake if you don't mind a touch of humor in your crime fiction. Many of them are set more or less exclusively in NYC, and revolve around the world's most skillful but unlucky thief and his cohorts. If you want something really hardcore then you might try The Burke Series (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burke_Series) by Andrew Vachss, but they're not to everyone's taste.

[Fat Buddha]

May I just second Donald Westlakes "Dortmunder" novels...............they are all ace.

[Binker]

I just joined BGO, which is why this post is so late. However, I just had to say that I very much enjoyed the Nero Wolfe books by Rex Stout. There are a lot of books (more than 30, I think). It would be best to read them in order and for once I almost, but not quite, did that. I borrowed them from a friend who gave them to me in order, but she didn't have a complete set, so I had to fill in the gaps.

The best ones take place in the 30s through 50s, so you'd have to like the time period. They are written from the point of view of Nero Wolfe's confidential assistant, Archie Goodwin. Archie is a good deal younger than anyone else associated with Wolfe and likes to go out on the town, so you read about the old-time New York restaurants and bars, particularly The Stork Club. The stories and characters are wonderful and they can be very funny, especially when Archie is describing Wolfe's numerous eccentricities.

Among other things, Wolfe raises orchids fanatically. My father also raised orchids (pretty fanatically, so I think that goes with the territory). PLUS, one of the characters in one of the books has our somewhat-uncommon surname. I really wanted him to be the murderer, but sadly, he wasn't. He was a suspect for a good long time, so I guess he was the first runner up murderer.

[Mungo Binkie]

I really like Chester Himes. A Rage in Harlem, The Real Cool Killers, etc...