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Character-driven Crime Fiction – did I find any new favourites?

In a previous post I told about my search for modern character-driven crime fiction, which seems excessively difficult to find. Amongst contemporary writers, I can only think of Ann Cleeves and Jane Harper, who really hit the mark for me.

The first batch in my search was mixed, with one success and one failure. Unfortunately, Liz Moore doesn’t normally write crime thrillers, but I would be happy to read her other novels in the future.

  • Long Bright River by Liz Moore ★★★★★
  • Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk ★★

Below you can see my assessment of the remaining books in the search.

1. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

Case Histories is the first Jackson Brodie novel. I read it over a relatively long period of time, which wasn’t ideal. With three different cases, three sets of character and constant jumps back and forth in time, there was a lot to keep track of. We don’t get to spend a lot of time with each character and I never really got invested in any of them. Atkinson’s humour, which many readers seem to appreciate, often made me cringe rather than laugh. The initial premise for all three cases was excellent and I did enjoy following the cases. However, due to my failure to connect with the characters, I probably won’t continue with the series.

Rating: 3 out of 5.
Title:  Case Histories  [2004] 
Author: Kate Atkinson
Format: Audiobook, narrated by Susan Jameson 
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Crime Fiction
2. The Likeness by Tana French

In The Likeness we follow a police officer, who infiltrates a close-knit group of students, who are all under suspicion, when a fellow student is murdered. I had high hopes for Tana French, who was the author popping up most often in searches for character-driven crime fiction. The Likeness started out fantastic, but with 21 hours on audio it couldn’t keep up momentum. Still, it was a solid read and I will definitely continue with the Dublin Murder Squad series. As a bonus, this crime novel had a strong dark academia vibe.

Rating: 4 out of 5.
Title:  The Likeness [2008] 
Author: Tana French 
Format: Audiobook, narrated by Grainne Gillis 
Genre: Crime Fiction, Dark Academia
3. His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet

His Bloody Project is the story about a horrific crime committed by Roderick Macrae. It reads like true crime and we know from the beginning that Roderick committed the murders. The story is partly a narrative from Roderick himself, partly reports from the court case. I found the setting (1860s Scottish Highlands) fascinating and it was interesting to learn about the conditions for the crofters in that period. The crime aspect, I found considerably less captivating and we never learn the true version of why the murders were committed.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
Title:  His Bloody Project [2015] 
Author: Graeme Macrae Burnet
Format: Audiobook, narrated by Crawford Logan, Cameron Mowat
Genre: Historical Fiction, Crime Fiction

So this concludes my crime project. Whilst not unequivocally successful, I am quite happy with the results. It was always going to be difficult to find books matching my quite specific requirements. As it is, I’ve identified one additional author, Tana French, whose Dublin Murder Squad series, I mean to continue with. Furthermore, I found one excellent stand-alone (Long Bright River). Going forward, I will continue my search, although in a less systematic fashion. In my original post, commenters came up with different suggestions, which I will try out as well. I haven’t given up hope finding others like Jane Harper, P.D. James or Ann Cleeves. Surely, they must be out there?

26 comments

  1. One suggestion would be the novels of Will Dean featuring deaf journalist Tuva Moodyson as a delightful character driving the stories on their relentlessly gripping way.
    Or perhaps the crime novels of Canadian Louise Penny and her stubbornly honourable Inspector Gamache and a rich cast of odd but believable characters.

    • Hmm, not sure about Penny. I’ve read 3 books by her and still not convinced. I’ve heard that her books improve over the series, so maybe I should try one of the later instalments. The series by Will Dean sounds interesting, will definitely check it out. Thanks for your suggestions!

  2. Well, my two favourite characters in crime novels are no longer particularly new, and in any case I included them in my comments last time. I’ll have to look around for more!

    • Well, I’ve already checked out one of your recommendations. I read the first instalment in Donna Leon’s series and absolutely loved it. So I will certainly try out your second suggestion as well.

    • That sounds like a great recommendation, I enjoy when the author combines more serious social issues with entertaining crime fiction.

  5. I think you might want to consider the Ryan DeMarco series by Randall Silvis, I think they would fit in this categorym and they are superbly written – to be read in order (5 books)

    • Ah thanks, that sounds good! And thanks for mentioning the “to be read in order”. I’ve ruined it for myself a couple of times by starting with one of the later instalments in a series and getting spoilers from the previous books.

  6. Here’s hoping that you find some new-to-you authors who meet your criteria. It sounds like a few of us will add any authors you find to our own lists!

  8. I agree about your rating for His Bloody Project and the fact that the crime aspect was less than perfect there. I also thought that Burnet paraphrased some of the Camus (notably, The Stranger) there. Nothing wrong with that per se, but it had a negative effect on my personal overall impression of the novel.

    I also love character-driven crime fiction. I am now reading some Friedrich Dürrenmatt. I think his crime fiction, such as The Pledge, is character-driven, and I can also recommend books by Frédéric Dard (for example, Bird in a Cage). Perhaps I did recommend them before.

    • I will bear that in mind, when I get to Camus’ The Stranger (hopefully later this year). I’ve always thought my love for character-driven crime fiction was a bit contradictory – surely you read crime novels for the plot? However, judging from the comments and the number of views of my original post, it seems that a lot of people are fond of this type of crime fiction. Thanks so much for your recommendations, will definitely check them out!

  9. I agree that Liz Moore’s novel was a 5 star read and audio! So good. I will watch for whatever she writes next. I like crime fiction if it’s as good as that …. but often crime fiction doesn’t live up to the hype — so I find myself picking it up a bit less these days. Still I hope to find good ones.

    • Have you read The Unseen World by Liz Moore? I put it on my wish list, but unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be available as audiobook (at least not in the UK). Yeah, I am struggling a bit with crime fiction as well, but it is still my favourite genre and when it’s good it’s really good!

    • Her novels seem to be rather long, which makes it more tricky to keep up the tension. I don’t mind long crime novels, when they are character-driven, as long as I am sufficiently invested in the characters. Let’s see how I get on with the next one.

  11. One author you might want to look at is Ragnar Jonasson – his Dark Iceland series which begins with Snowblind is very much about the character of his main detective. I’ve read three of them now and all are enjoyable. Just reviewed two of them on the blog today if you are interested

    • I checked out your review, thanks for the excellent recommendation. I think, I already have a crime suggestion from you on my TBR (Snow by John Banville) which I hope to get to soon.

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