9 Books Shaping The Next Generation Of Mystery Writers

You're apt to find lists ranging from the best books of the year to the year's sexiest authors. One list that is as much a standard of the season as The Christmas Song is the Top Ten Most Influential Novels in the History of Mystery Fiction.

And just as we might sing along with Nat King Cole about roasting chestnuts, we can recite the names of the authors on that list: Poe, Conan Doyle, Christie, Hammett, Chandler, and so on. Been there. Done that.

What follows is a list that is the flip side of that old standard, a list of novels I think should be influential to the next generation of mystery writers. I have excluded novels by Dan Brown, Janet Evanovich, Lee Child, Stieg Larsson, Charlaine Harris et al. because these authors have already spawned armies of imitators.

My focus is on narrative style, not on the story itself, but in how it is told. I believe that's where innovation in the genre will come in the next generation. There's nothing scientific here and only the future will tell. Here are my nine choices. Which mystery novel would you nominate?

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Comments

[c-tom]

08:15 PM on 12/19/2011

Don Winslow and Thomas Pynchon have both set mysteries in the same milieu. That's gotta be strange to have Thomas Pynchon stepping on your turf.

[BlackJAC]

07:29 PM on 12/19/2011

The Yiddish Policeman's Union is alternate history, which would put it in the same general category as The Two Georges.

[Jason Greenwood]

04:19 PM on 12/19/2011

In this vein, try "Pilate's Cross" and "Pilate's Key." Quirky mystery thrillers.

[spotlope]

02:47 PM on 12/19/2011

I was tickled to see you include "Last Night at the Lobster" in your list. I read it a while back and enjoyed the hell out of it. Another mystery that knocked me out (and continues to do so on every re-read) is Diana Abu-Jaber's "Origin". Its taut, tightly-woven plot coupled with the main character's dreamlike visions drew me in the way few books have. The way she describes Syracuse, NY in the throes of winter gives the city an other-worldly surreality. My only disappointment is that the author doesn't seem inclined to write more in this genre. I hope she changes her mind at some point.