some good guys in books

I love British crime fiction. In the last year I've read almost everything by Ian Rankin, Ruth Rendell, Caroline Graham and Paul Charles. Long before that was Agatha Christie and Colin Dexter. I've seen more television adaptations than one human being should ever see. Yet, I am always thrilled to re-read a good murder mystery. Now, I'm going through P.D. James and John Harvey. I've also read all of the Kurt Wallander mysteries by Henning Mankell and some Ngaio Marsh, just to show once a good crime fic shows up, with a great detective, I'ma loving it.

I've always loved Morse. I think he is always going to be my favorite. I learned the meaning of "irascible" and would love to include it more in my daily life. I'm very loyal to Poirot and Marple because I cut my mystery teeth in Agatha Christie.

I met John Rebus quite by accident. I came across one novel in the library and couldn't put it down. I immediately found a list of all of Rankin's Rebus novels and requested them. I would up buying the last, and final, Rebus novel because I couldn't wait for the library to get it. I am desperately in love with John Rebus and I wish I owned the entire set. At least, I read them all.

Paul Charles was cool. His tea-loving Christie Kennedy was almost dreamy, certainly the dreamiest of the lot. His so-called girlfriend, ann rea, is a real dud, though, and [SPOILER] I was happy when, in the last book, she left him... yet again! Charles makes it difficult to see what Kennedy sees in her. And it always kills me when, in promos, she is referred to as "ann rea, always in mysterious lower case". It's NOT mysterious. She says it in the first book and EVERY book thereafter: she's a journalist and, in looking to boost her profile, borrowed the lower case name think from k.d. lang, who, in turn, stole it from e.e. cummings. No fucking mystery and the fellas that write the copy for the book flaps need to actually read the books.

Ok. Rant over. See why I need a blog?

I missed one Kennedy novel, "The Justice Factory", which, from what I hear, is the best one. And the one where all kinds of good stuff happens. It's almost impossible to find in the States and a new copy costs an arm. I did find one second-hand and hope to be able to get it somewhere down the road.

John Harvey is my new passion. I didn't think I'd like his jazz-loving Charlie Resnick (what is it with these guys and music — Rebus likes rock, Morse had his Wagner, Paul Charles' day job was in the music industry so his books were peppered with references). But, if the mystery was good, did I need to like him? Harvey himself described Resnick as someone who thought like Morse but "dressed like Columbo". But love him I do. I could not find all the novels in the library (most of them appeared to have been stolen!) so I've only been able to read a few in the series. Unfortunately, a lot of good shit happens in the ones I missed. Harvey is also one of the few to bring back characters (some very minor) in later books. This is also a collection I would love to own.

However.

I am reading the very last Resnick novel, "Cold Hand". I am about halfway through when a beloved character is killed. I couldn't take it. I closed the book and put it down and went to watch "Twilight", just mercifully arrived from Netflix. I have yet to pick it back up.

I enjoyed Harvey so much, I read his Frank Elder trilogy in lickety-split time. Good stuff. Not sure I like [SPOILER] that Frank went back to his wife at the end of the last book. Still, I was hooked into those three like nobody's business.

I loves me a good British detective fiction. Can you tell?