+1 on Sean's tip for the Slough House books by Mick Herron. It's the characters rather than the plots that make them so enjoyable which tbf would describe most of the non-serious fiction I read. Jackson Lamb is a drunken, cynical, abusive, compulsively farting, washed-up spymaster who generally ends up as the hero. Who then tells everyone to fuck off, scratches his balls ostentatiously and opens another bottle of whiskey.
Others in this category would be Leif Persson and his inimitable Swedish detective, Backstrom. Andrea Camilleri and his epicurean Sicilian police inspector Montalbano. Donna Leon and her Venetian Commissario Brunetti. Ian Rankin and his gloriously prickly alcoholic Inspector Rebus.
I love the last two in particular for the wonderful depictions of two of my favourite cities; Venice and Edinburgh.
And of course the utterly unique crime thrillers of Kinky Friedman, private detective, amateur philosopher, coke aficionado and lead singer of The Texas Jewboys (with such hits as Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and your Buns in my Bed, or indeed They Ain't Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore. A true Texas original. Who lives in New York, of course.
Others in this category would be Leif Persson and his inimitable Swedish detective, Backstrom. Andrea Camilleri and his epicurean Sicilian police inspector Montalbano. Donna Leon and her Venetian Commissario Brunetti. Ian Rankin and his gloriously prickly alcoholic Inspector Rebus.
I love the last two in particular for the wonderful depictions of two of my favourite cities; Venice and Edinburgh.
And of course the utterly unique crime thrillers of Kinky Friedman, private detective, amateur philosopher, coke aficionado and lead singer of The Texas Jewboys (with such hits as Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and your Buns in my Bed, or indeed They Ain't Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore. A true Texas original. Who lives in New York, of course.
Comment