Mysteries by Western Writers



Mysteries by Western Writers

Mystery, or detective, novels began with Wilkie Collins, and flourished with British writers Arthur Conan Doyle, Dorothy Sayers, and Agatha Christie. But a particularly American version is indigenous to California. In the 1920's Dashiell Hammett wrote classics based on his real life experience as a Pinkerton operative in San Francisco. In the 1940's Raymond Chandler took the same idea, of a hard-boiled private detective, but placed him in Los Angeles. Movies were made of both Hammett's and Chandler's books. The Maltese Falcon starring Humphrey Bogart (on everyone's list of the greatest movies ever made) moves the action forward to 1940's San Francisco, but is otherwise remarkably true to the book. A whole series of movies starring William Powell and Myrna Loy were based on the one original Thin Man story, and based in both New York and San Francisco. Humphrey Bogart also played the role of Philip Marlow in the movie versions of several of Raymond Chandler's works. Contemporary writers continue the tradition - Dana Stabenow lives in, and writes about, Alaska. One of her protagonists, Kate Shugak, is an Aleut (Native American). Excellent portrayals of the land and people of Alaska. Nevada Barr's protagonist, Anna Pigeon, is a national park ranger, which provides for some interesting locales. Not surprisingly, Barr is a park ranger in real life. The park settings are very faithfully portrayed.- I took a panorama at the spot where Pigeon fell off a cliff in the Guadalupe Mountains, and another at the old Frijoles Ranch ranger office. Sue Grafton places her alphabetically titled works in a thinly disguised Santa Barbara.

	Dashiell Hammett The Maltese Falcon (more) The Glass Key The Continental Op The Thin Man The Dain Curse

	Raymond Chandler The Big Sleep (more) The Long Goodbye Farewell, My Lovely The Lady in the Lake The High Window

	Dana Stabenow Fire and Ice: A Liam Campbell Mystery Midnight Come Again A Cold-Blooded Business: A Kate Shugak Mystery Killing Grounds A Cold Day for Murder Nothing Gold Can Stay A Season of Knives So Sure of Death: A Liam Campbell Mystery Dead in the Water Hunter's Moon: A Kate Shugak Mystery A Fatal Thaw The Singing of the Dead Play With Fire: A Kate Shugak Mystery Breakup Blood Will Tell

	Sue Grafton A is for Alibi B is for Burglar C is for Corpse D is for Deadbeat E is for Evidence F is for Fugitive G is for Gumshoe H is for Homicide I is for Innocent J is for Judgement K is for Killer L is for Lawless M is for Malice N is for Noose O is for Outlaw P is for Peril

	Nevada Barr Track of the Cat A Superior Death Ill Wind Firestorm