Missing: It's a Crime!

I was pleased to see Charlie Huston featured in your July/Aug 2007 article on crime and mystery books. I'm 63 and really enjoy his Hank Thompson fast-paced thrillers--made even better by Huston's subtle brand of humor. I was introduced to Huston's work by my two sons, both in their 30s, who are fans.

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A couple other authors I'd like to see included in your noir list are James Crumley and Anne Argula. Crumley has been around for over 35 years now. His first book was One to Count Cadence, a semiautobiographical novel about the hard-working and hard-drinking men of the Army Security Agency in the 1960s, which has become a cult classic for veterans. He went on to write a fine series of PI books; his most recent is The Right Madness (2005).

Anne Argula is brand new, sort of. Last year she published Homicide My Own, a quirky crime book with hints of the supernatural and a female police-detective protagonist. Argula is a nom de plume for Darryl Ponicsan, a novelist who was successful back in the 1970s and then "disappeared" for years into the Hollywood screenwriting machine. He is perhaps best known for his books, The Last Detail and Cinderella Liberty, both tales of Navy life during the Vietnam era, which were also successful films. Look for a new Argula book, Walla Walla Suite, this fall.

While I dearly love young Mr. Huston's stuff, I have to plug the older guys' books, too, since I'm an old guy myself. I also love your magazine, although it often causes me to despair, knowing I'll never have quite enough time to read all the wonderful books reviewed therein. My mom, who is 91 and still reads two or three books a week, feels the same way, and often sighs, "So many books, so little time."

Tim Bazzett

www.ratholebooks.com

Reed City, MI

In the section on psychological thrillers, how could you have left out the master of them all, John Katzenbach? The Analyst and The Madman's Tale are two of the very best. They are dense, complex, well-written thrillers--a joy to read.

Lynn Stowers

Via e-mail

I'm writing to inquire why it is that both Michael Connelly and John Lescroart are missing from your otherwise excellent list of books and writers?

Dennis Bianchi

San Francisco, CA

We did cover Michael Connelly in Vol. I of Great Mysteries, published in our Nov/Dec 2004 issue. We'll have to consider John Lescroart (and John Katzenbach) for Vol. III!