In recent years, the number of people reading detective mystery novels in China has increased a lot, thanks to the enthusiastic support of many publishers and many friends in mystery reading clubs. Douban, Post Bar and Zhihu can be seen everywhere discussing the theme of detective mystery novels. Among them, the annual list and recommendation list have become an extremely important topic, which of course has also triggered more discussion and debate.
The most common practice is to summarize the recommendation list by genre. For example, the three great writers of the golden age (Agatha? Christie, John? Dixon. Carl, ellery? Quinn's works can basically constitute an introductory, error-free and absolutely wonderful orthodox mystery novel reading.
Of course, if you have read enough, reading the list from the types of crimes (puzzles) is also an interesting classification, such as murder in the secret room, alibi, snowstorm villa, headless murder, nursery rhymes, passwords and codes, legendary murder, narrative tricks, multiple denials and so on.
This time, I recommend some mystery novels to you from the perspective of cities and resident detectives. After all, G.K. chesterton, an English writer who focuses on the reasoning mode of criminal psychology, once said, "The first essence of a mystery novel is that it is the first and only popular literature that can express the temperament of urban poetry."
London: The Complete Adventures of Father Brown
When you mention London, you will definitely think of Conan? Sherlock Holmes by Doyle. But in fact, Father Brown, portrayed by G.K. chesterton, is also a famous heavyweight detective in Britain who belongs to the craze of short story solving and reasoning. Like Holmes, he guarded the city of London.
Father Brown has keen insight and strict logical reasoning ability, but he usually does not rely on the investigation of external clues or the pursuit of his skills, but understands human criminal behavior through the understanding of human psychology through religious feelings and philosophical thinking. Instead, London became a stage for him to preach and observe human nature.
BBC began to remake the TV series Father Brown from 20 13, which is now in its fifth season and is deeply loved by the audience.
Oxford: The Death of Jericho
Colin? Dexter is known as one of the "Three Masters of English Classical Reasoning" in modern times. He not only created the famous series of novels about Detective Morse, but also participated in the production of TV series "Detective Morse Prequel" and the film "Detective Lewis".
Detective Moss is the most successful set of British detective novels after Sherlock Holmes, and the image of Detective Moss is also very distinct. He is addicted to crossword puzzles, English literature, draught beer and classical music. To some extent, he represents the image of middle-class white men in Britain in the second half of the 20th century, with superior intelligence, keen eyes and full of confidence, but his relationship with the authorities and superiors is at arm's length. The detective stories described in the series "Exploring the Case of Moss" mainly take place in Oxford, the academic capital, and involve the daily life of a large number of Oxford university teachers, students and ordinary citizens. Oxford has a long history and unique cultural atmosphere.
Oxford City and Oxford University have always regarded the series "The Exploration of Moss" as an important tourist selling point. In Oxford, there is a special tourism project, the theme of which is "Exploring the Case of Moss". Of course, the photo album of itv TV station contributed a lot to this.
Ustad: unknown black boy
Henning? Mankel, a national treasure writer in Sweden, is also a representative figure in the novels of Nordic Crime Department. The work has a typical Nordic narrative style, which is simple, gloomy and lonely, and the relationship between people is simple and complicated, depressed and unrestrained, broken and persistent.
His series of mystery novels, Detective Vilander, is both popular and popular. Most of the stories took place in Staade, a small city in southern Sweden. In the author's works, it seems that the weather in Staade is always bad, cold and humid. Coupled with Inspector Vilander's personality and family problems, we can see that people (detectives), life (family problems) and environment (in Staade's case) are always intertwined.
In "Black Boy Without Face", Inspector Vilander has to deal with his own chaotic and complicated family problems as well as various deep-seated social problems such as immigration and racial integration while investigating a thorny case. Generally speaking, this is a gloomy criminal mystery novel.
The TV series of the same name adapted by BBC after purchasing the copyright even won the gold medal of BAFTA's TV series, which made Detective Vilander a household name throughout Europe.
Oslo: Snowman
Especially? Naisberg is known as "the king of a new generation of Nordic crime novels". He is the best-selling writer in Norwegian history and won all the crime novel awards in Northern Europe.
Snowman is one of Harry's detective novels written by Younisbo. The story mainly tells that when detective Harry was investigating the disappearance of a young mother, he found a mysterious snowman in the victim's yard, surrounded by a pink scarf, which was a Christmas gift from the child to his mother. So detective Harry dug up a series of old cases in the same situation. A serial murderer who always committed crimes in the first snow surfaced, which is not only a fixed crime pattern, but also a provocation to the police, and even more special. A symbol of Nesbo's childhood shadow.
When we open this book, we can easily find a map of downtown Oslo, which clearly indicates the locations such as "Forensic Medicine College", "Woolf Hospital" and "Police Headquarters". After the story and map, the book describes bloody dismemberment, abnormal sexual behavior and creepy criminal methods. With the switching of compact scenes, it focuses on crime description and reasoning, and also expounds the experience and inner turning point of the murdered woman.
Universal Studios is currently filming this adapted film, which is expected to be released in Britain and Europe in mid-October.
Marseille: Fabio? Detective Montal trilogy.
Jean-Claude Izzo's "Marseilles Trilogy" was written in1990s, which depicts a police detective Fabio? Montal's love and hate in Marseilles. Did this series pass Fabio? The eyes of Montal, an immigrant-born French detective, and his interaction with childhood friends, work partners and gang leaders show us the port city of Marseille.
As a leading figure in the genre of black detective novels in the Mediterranean, Izzo's works are ruthless in style, with less reasoning, more descriptions of characters' personalities and tense and suspenseful plots, and also vividly depict Marseille's arrogant, excited, wild but chic urban style.
Fabio? Inspector Montal's film was made by veteran French actor Alain? Played by Delong, the whole photo album is very beautiful and completely depicts the beauty of the city; Interestingly, however, the description of the dark side of the city has also been repeatedly protested by Marseille Tourism Bureau and local residents.
Los Angeles: sleepless.
1940- 1950 Whenever we mention Los Angeles, we have to mention Raymond, the most famous tough guy mystery novelist in America. Chandler. His famous detective is Philip? Marlowe, Marlowe is a person with strong personality and unique style. He lives a decadent life, likes drinking and sarcasm, and even uses some violent means to extract confessions.
Sleepless is Raymond? Chandler's first novel was originally a simple case of missing persons, but Philip? Marlowe met many people on the street and at the bottom of society in this process, such as gangsters, hooligans, homosexuals, shop assistants and so on. He used his sharp words, fists and pistols to deal with these people. This novel is not only selected as one of the best English novels in 100 by Time magazine, but also included in American libraries, which shows its position in detective novels.
Raymond. Chandler can also be said to be a great screenwriter in film history. He created an exciting "film noir" style for Hollywood (black suspense and tough guy elements). From 1942 to 1947, his four novels have been put on the screen six times. Humphrey bogart even became the most representative Philip in the eyes of Americans. Marlowe's best actor.
New york: Walking between tombstones.
Lawrence? Brock can be said to be the master of modern reasoning who has won the most honors and awards. Inherited the mantle of "tough guy" from 1970 s, and let Matthew be in his works? Scudder became the detective spokesperson in the eyes of Americans. Lawrence? Brock should be regarded as a wayward writer. He lives in new york, and every novel must be set in new york.
Starting with the work "Eight Million Ways to Die", what about Matthew? The discussion of detective Scudder's story is very polarized. After all, Matthew? Detective Scudder's personnel should not be described as "wonderful". He is not a hero, but an ordinary or even failed, not optimistic and unhappy person. But what is interesting is his outlook on life. He thinks it is good to be alive, so he should help his friends and find something to do. And in this recommended walk between tombstones, we can see Matthew? Scudder's personality has changed greatly, grasping clues and suspects tightly and examining every tiny possibility one by one. The characteristics of new york, of course, also set off the explosion of the whole story.
Boston: The Lost Lamb
Robert? Parker, did you learn Dahir in your early years? Hammett and Raymond? The detective role in Chandler's works later began to write by himself, belonging to the standard tough guy style writer, and even considered as Raymond? Descendants of Chandler. He served as the chairman of the American Detective Fiction Association (MWA) for a long time and created a famous Boston private detective Spencer.
Robert? Parker's novels gradually made the colors and atmosphere of Boston familiar to everyone. Detective Spencer wandered the streets of Boston, shuttling between bars, restaurants and office buildings. His down-to-earth approach makes the protagonist more vital, and famous literary sentences are often quoted in novels, which also echoes Boston, a city with profound temperament.
The book The Lost Lamb begins with a runaway child and extends to extortion and murder. The content pays more attention to homosexuality, family education, social concepts and other issues. This is a detective story of sunshine tough guy.
Tokyo: Malicious
As a country with concentrated and developed schools of mystery novels, Japanese itself has nurtured and nourished many famous writers, among whom Keigo Higashino is one. Because a large number of works have been introduced and adapted into Japanese dramas and movies, domestic book fans are no strangers to him.
Keigo Higashino's works span a lot in style, with the color of new prototype reasoning, showing a lot of concern for social humanities, and paying more attention to the exploration of human nature and motivation in writing. As a masterpiece of handwriting, Malicious is actually a written record and dialogue between Kaga Kyouichirou, a criminal policeman, and criminals. However, it vividly describes the complex mentality of criminals "not hate, not hate, not jealousy, not inferiority, not fear, but hate, hate, jealousy, inferiority and fear". All the injuries and murders are due to the malice in my heart. It will really make people feel cold after reading it.
Malicious has been adapted into a Japanese drama for a long time, and its evaluation is relatively general. But this book has been at the top of the polls in japanese mystery for many years. At the same time, it is regarded by critics and many readers as Keigo Higashino's masterpiece, and it is also a microcosm of Tokyo's distorted human nature.
Hokkaido: Fantasy, the sky moves.
Soji Shimada, as one of the founders of "New Ben Gur School" in the field of mystery novels, most of his works are cases with grand scenes and bizarre techniques. In recent years, domestic publishing houses have successively published his works, which has also given him a wide readership in China.
In fact, it's hard for us to put whimsy? The book "Heaven Moves" was summarized in a city in Hokkaido. After all, it belongs to criminal cases such as transportation and timetable, involving different places. In particular, this book mentions five puzzling independent incidents, one happened on the streets of Tokyo and the other appeared on the night train of Hokkaido National Railway, but through the series of time, their occurrence is connected.
Interpol Gifu Shi belongs to the crime type of travel reasoning. He belongs to the Tokyo metropolitan police search class. He is mature and handsome in appearance, strong in action and quick in thinking, and can always find tricks from complicated schedules. There are many representative works featuring him, including Sleeping on the terrace is a1/60second obstacle, Izumo Legend 7/8 Killing Event and Beixihe 2/3 Killing Event. This series also gradually laid the foundation for Soji Shimada's works and turned to the style of social realism.
What is your city of crime?
This paper introduces ten mystery novels, which are the records given by detective mystery writers to ten cities and also the gifts left to us. Among them, which city's representative story do you like best? Which city in China do you think is the most suitable for incubating crime stories?
Reading detective mystery novels is a subjective preference and lonely enjoyment. The book list is just a summary suggestion, which may not be suitable for getting started or satisfying everyone. But I hope this recommendation has also aroused your interest. Read more detective mystery novels, and you will find that the study of crime, motivation and human nature, although complicated, is full of fun; And these pleasures are what you must experience yourself when you enter the world of detective mystery novels.