Do you enjoy reading crime novels?

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I like true crime books and also, I like to watch the Court TV channel and watch Forensic Files and things like that. I can’t really explain why I like them. I think it’s because I like to read how things are finally solved, good police work, etc.
 
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antiaphrodite:
well, i like mystery novels–does that count?🙂
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as long as it involves some illegal acts and detection works then it counts
 
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AuntMartha:
I like true crime books and also, I like to watch the Court TV channel and watch Forensic Files and things like that. I can’t really explain why I like them. I think it’s because I like to read how things are finally solved, good police work, etc.
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what a coincidence, I like Court TV too!
 
I don’t. But my 86 year old mom can’t get enough of them True stories are her favorites. All of which is wonderful as she suffers from the usual infirmaties of age. I drop off some lurid crime books and she’s happy as a clam at high tide for a week. Recently she has gotten into ominious medical books. “The Hot Zone” (Ebola/Marburg), “The Demon in the Freezer” (smallpox) and a book on the flu epidemic of 1919 delighted her.

Somedays I wonder about my mom. I fear cops will knock on my door someday, question me and then ask her for a DNA sample.
 
Although I have read some in the past, I have not done so in years.

When I do read fiction, I prefer Science Fiction/Fantasy or Spy novels (i.e. Ludlum and Clancy).

PF
 
One reason I like true crime is that one of the top authors lives here and often features NW criminals. What is it about this area we have so many serial killers? The writer is Ann Rule and she gained noteriety writing about Ted Bundy, with whom she worked on some kind of suicide hotline. I remember the “Ted” murders before they caught the guy so it made the story somewhat familiar. Also I know the territory where he started (Lake Samamish). She also wrote about a man who was relatively well known in Portland and he was eventually convicted (Death by Sunset). It makes the story more interesting when you know the exact place things happened and some of the people involved. Talk about creepy, my husband used to work with a woman who lived with the I-5 killer Randall Woodfield. Even more creepy is that he used her as an alibi for one of his murders, saying he was with her at the time so she had to testify. EWWWWW!

I also like that Ms Rule spends very little time on the crimes and the gore but focuses on the people, mostly on the victims and how their story should be told. Her latest book on the Green River Killer is full of stories of women whose lives were short and frankly often very sad. They are treated very humanely by Ms Rule and certainly are the sympathetic characters.

So anyone who likes True Crime genre will like Ms Rule’s books.

Lisa N
 
I like both - but read more fiction crime novels than true crime ones. (There was a murder in the park behind my parents house and someone wrote a novel about it. Very creepy to live so near such a site. ) One of my favorites is about a police homicide detective set in NYC in 2059. 😃
 
Ann Rule is my absolute favorite true crime writer. After reading her books, the characters stay with you and you want updates. Updates on the people in her books can be found at annrules.com
I’ve read other true crime authors but their names usually escape me. The book Until The Twelfth of Never by Stumbo is an excellently written book documenting the case of Betty Brodrick. Also The Mormon Murders by Steven Neifeh & Gregory White Smith.
 
I love crime/mystery books – true or fictional. I particularly like the series by Patricia Cornwell about Kay Scarpetta, a forensic pathologist – interesting stuff. Her last book was a complete stinker, though, in my opinion. I think she ran her characters into the ground.

I haven’t read Ann Rule, so I’ll put her on my list!

'thann
 
mysteries for me! YAY! I love them(all and any as long as I don’t read anything too scary or gorey before bed…middle of the day books not nighttime stories!)… playign dectective and forensic patholigist! Wow! Fun… and it all started with Sherlock Holmes… so long ago… when Daddy used to read them to me before bed…ahhhhh
 
My favorite fictional detective is Columbo (“just one more question”).

I also enjoy the true crime books which let you see through the eyes of the police drawing from the evidence to catch the culprit.
 
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thann:
I love crime/mystery books – true or fictional. I particularly like the series by Patricia Cornwell about Kay Scarpetta, a forensic pathologist – interesting stuff. Her last book was a complete stinker, though, in my opinion. I think she ran her characters into the ground.

I haven’t read Ann Rule, so I’ll put her on my list!

'thann
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thann you should enjoy Ann Rule. She is a good writer and does significant research. Her book on Bundy, The Stranger Beside Me was particularly creepy because he was such a wierdo. I don’t recall the name but she wrote a book about Diane Downs who killed one of her own kids because she wanted a man who doesn’t want kids. (Rather like Susan Smith) Diane was living in the Willamette Valley and again I knew the very road she was on when she staged the abduction and murder of her children. Oh and guess how she earned money? As a SURROGATE MOTHER!!!Honestly truth is stranger than fiction.

As to Patricia Cornwall, I agree her recent stuff is TERRIBLE. I loved her early work. BTW did you notice she HAD to turn a character into a lesbian. Guess she felt it was necessary to have a specimen homosexual to get her books up to date. UGH!

If you like “chick” crime books, the Sue Grafton alphabet series is pretty good as well although like Cornwall she kind of had a dry spell lately.

I’m looking forward to book reviews!
Lisa N
 
Lisa N:
thann you should enjoy Ann Rule. She is a good writer and does significant research. Her book on Bundy, The Stranger Beside Me was particularly creepy because he was such a wierdo. I don’t recall the name but she wrote a book about Diane Downs who killed one of her own kids because she wanted a man who doesn’t want kids. (Rather like Susan Smith) Diane was living in the Willamette Valley and again I knew the very road she was on when she staged the abduction and murder of her children. Oh and guess how she earned money? As a SURROGATE MOTHER!!!Honestly truth is stranger than fiction.

As to Patricia Cornwall, I agree her recent stuff is TERRIBLE. I loved her early work. BTW did you notice she HAD to turn a character into a lesbian. Guess she felt it was necessary to have a specimen homosexual to get her books up to date. UGH!

If you like “chick” crime books, the Sue Grafton alphabet series is pretty good as well although like Cornwall she kind of had a dry spell lately.

I’m looking forward to book reviews!
Lisa N
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Ann Rule is my all time fav crime writer…Joe McGinnis and Gregg Olsen…are good also.
 
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WanderAimlessly:
Although I have read some in the past, I have not done so in years.

When I do read fiction, I prefer Science Fiction/Fantasy or Spy novels (i.e. Ludlum and Clancy).

PF
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I read both crime novel and science fiction. My favorite in the crime novel is the Historical Mystery (Brother Cadfel series is the best) There is a series about Ancient Egypt by Lynda Robinson that is very good.
 
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aimee:
Ann Rule is my all time fav crime writer…Joe McGinnis and Gregg Olsen…are good also.
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I have read books by the first two; I’ll have to look into Gregg Olson’s books.

One book that I thought was very good by Joe McGinnis was Blind Faith. This was the story of a New Jersey businessman who arranged to have his wife murdered. It was very sad, of course, but the author gave a lot of information about the various people involved in the story. So you really got a sense of how lovely the wife was and what a shame it was that the husband threw her life away like that. Plus all the good police work to discover how it all came about. I particularly liked his description of the prosecutor, who went to an old-school, Catholic school in New Jersey in the 50’s.
 
Aunt Martha didn’t Joe McGinnis also write a book about that military doctor who killed his wife and children…Jeffrey??? At first they thought he was innocent but a dogged detective finally ran him to ground. It was made into a TV movie. Again, the victims were so sympathetic and the killer was a narcisstic self absorbed monster. I can almost understand a fight between spouses where one kills the other. But the premedited murder of your own children? There is something wrong upstairs on all of those killers.

Lisa N
 
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AuntMartha:
I have read books by the first two; I’ll have to look into Gregg Olson’s books.

One book that I thought was very good by Joe McGinnis was Blind Faith. This was the story of a New Jersey businessman who arranged to have his wife murdered. It was very sad, of course, but the author gave a lot of information about the various people involved in the story. So you really got a sense of how lovely the wife was and what a shame it was that the husband threw her life away like that. Plus all the good police work to discover how it all came about. I particularly liked his description of the prosecutor, who went to an old-school, Catholic school in New Jersey in the 50’s.
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Very well written book.
I read it some years ago.
 
My favorite thing in the world to read are the Sherlock Holmes mysteries.

Eamon
 
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