And now for crime literature

       Right off the top,  I confess to being an unashamed junkie for crime fiction. Hard boiled private eye, world weary cop, intellectual crime solver - just doesn't matter, I like 'em all as long as they're well written.

         Of course, the genre as we know it, at  least in English, may be traced back to  Edgar Allan Poe's 1841 short story, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." Poe's  brainy, logical  Auguste Dupin, provides the prototype of  what Conan Doyle  fleshed out in Holmes, as the "consulting detective."  Between Dupin and Holmes, English novelist,  Wilkie Collins, expanded the genre from short story to novel. Collins is generally  credited with the first great mystery novel, "The Woman in White."  Dorothy L. Sayers singled out  Collin's second crime novel, "The Moonstone,"  as  "probably the very finest detective story ever written".  In support of that, even though Collins is unknown to most American crime fiction fans,  "The Moonstone" contains a number of ideas that have established, in the form, several classic features of the 20th century detective story:  The "inside job," red herrings, skilled, professional investigator, Bungling local cops, detective inquiries/ methods, large number of false suspects, the "least likely suspect," a "locked room" murder,  reconstruction of the crime, and a final twist in the plot. Collins incorporates all these in "The Moonstone."

        The genre has been broken down into several subtypes. From the quirky eccentricity of Miss Marple, Nero Wolfe, Hercule Poirot - all civilians drawn into mysteries, to the equal eccentricity of some fictional cops, From Inspector Morse, Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast,  Columbo,  quadraplegic savant Lincoln Rhyme, to Tony Hillerman's  Navajo  master detective, Joe Leaphorn.   

        On the other end of the spectrum, we are presented with world weary, jaded cops, exemplified (in my humble opinion) to its finest example in Connelly's Harry Bosch, with  Burke's Dave Robichaux  a close second.  This group includes  Lennie Briscoe, Ian Rutledge,  Bobby Goren, Thomas Pitt, Jesse Stone,  

        Private detectives in American fiction tend to be descendents of Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade, Mike Hammer, Spenser, Lew Archer, and Elvis Cole/Joe Pike - jaded, sarcastic running to smart ass, and chick magnets.  Some atypical exceptions such as Easy Rawlins,  VI Warshawski, and Kinsey Milhone  also occupy a place on the "private eye"  roster,  different in demeanor and method, but effective, nonetheless.   In the corner all by himself, because he defies definition, is Lee Child's  terrific Jack Reacher, not a detective, but you have to call him something.

        Recently (actually the last several years) while I constantly look for and read books by the staple group above, I  have been immersed in Scandinavian crime fiction. There are some terrific authors and some amazing characters to be explored if you are unfamiliar with this treasure trove of great writing. I started with Norwegian, Jo Nesbo, whose protagonist Harry Hole is an Oslo homicide cop. Read them in order, as Nesbo develops the character sequentially.

       A close second place is actually a tie between Jussi Adler-Olsen, a Dane, and Henkell Manning, Swedish master author.  Adler Olsen's Karl Morck has been relegated to the equivalent of the Copenhagen cold case squad. All you need to know is that there are (so far) five terrific novels.

         It was with almost a sense of loss that I recently finished Henning Mankell's final Kurt Wallander novel, "The Troubled Man" There are 11 novels and 1 volume of short stories in the series, again best read in order. All the novels were feature length movies, played on BBC with subtitles, and so loved in the UK that they were all remade in English starring  Kenneth Branagh  in the title role.  A second superb Swedish series are the novels of Helene Tursten,  featuring Stockholm  police inspector Irene Huss.  These have all also been made as films with subtitles.

        A final recommendation is Icelandic Author Arnaldur Indridason, whose  series set in Reykjavik and environs (pretty much all of Iceland ) features Inspector Erlandur. There are 14 books in the series, the last 12 of which are available in English.

        I have found all these authors  extremely refreshing in their great detail to character development and in may cases the international  connections and scope of the material.  Henning Mankell now 68 and recently diagnosed with cancer will be a great loss to the genre, but the others mentioned above remain productive, I urge you to give them a try.