Highly Recommended Reads for 2007

My number one pick for 2007 came right down to the wire--the last book I finished last year. I've been a big fan of Andrew Klavan for years. I am bigger fan still, after Damnation Street. I read some fine novels this year, but this one easily tops my list. It will be especially enjoyed by those who've read the previous two books in this series, Dynamite Road and Shotgun Alley. They're all beautifully written, exquisitely plotted, and every book is a compelling read. The principle characters are ex-cop turned private eye, Scott Weiss, and his borderline psycho operative, Jim Bishop. Through the series, Weiss obsesses over a beautiful prostitute being stalked by a serial killer known as Shadowman.

But what makes Damnation Street, and the Weiss/Bishop books sing, is the voice of the narrator, a fictionalized Klavan who supposedly worked at the agency before beginning his writing career. According to the novels, Klavan collected these stories as he watched them happen. You don't have to have read the first two to appreciate the genius of Klavan's use of this voice. Especially when a subplot involves the young man's hopeless desire for the girl of his dreams. The boy's duties and relationships at the agency constantly drive a deeper wedge between the couple until our narrator decides he must do something to become worthy of her. The narrator's effort at achieving worth is one of the finest chapters I've read in many years. "Now here's an interesting thing some of you may not know about getting punched in the head," the young man tells us in a scene that's laugh-out-loud funny and catch-in-your-throat moving, all at the same time.

But enough. Here's my list.

• Damnation Street by Andrew Klavan 
• Little Faith by Michael Simon
• Mad Dogs by James Grady
• Ellipsis by Stephen Greenleaf
• The Forgotten Man by Robert Crais
• The Last Jew Standing by Michael Simon
• Impulse by Frederick Ramsey
• The Two-Minute Rule by Robert Crais
• Echo Park by Michael Connelly
• Concrete Desert by Jon Talton

I don't think Michael Simon is that well known yet. He should be. His Jewish cop in the heart of Texas is grim and gritty and wise and thought provoking. Read him, including Body Scissors and Dirty Sally, two earlier and equally excellent episodes in the series.

I haven't seen a James Grady book in ages. This very late sequel to Six Days of the Condor makes me wonder why.

It still saddens me to know Stephen Greenleaf has quit writing. I'd been looking for Ellipsis for some time and finally found it in 2007. It was written with the knowledge that it would be his last book. He says goodbye to Marsh Tanner's friends gently, and that softens the impact a little. Still, this book makes it clear we've lost one of the masters of the mystery genre.

Finally, I want to mention three books that would have cracked this list. Elizabeth Gunn's Cool in Tucson was released in December 2007, though I read it in manuscript form before publication in 2006. Still, it belongs on a 2007 or 2008 top ten and would have made this one if I'd read it in the normal course of events. This is her first in a new series following the amazing Jake Hines books. McCafferty's Nine, apparently the last of those, is to be published in 2008 and also deserves to be on this list. Again, I read it in manuscript earlier. The last was a re-read, and I hated to knock something fresh off the list with what I knew was a classic when I pulled it from my shelf and blew the dust off. Walter Walker's Rules of the Knife Fight was published back in 1986 and was recommended to me as something I could learn from by my first editor. It's still a wonderful story and a valuable resource for writers who want to expand their horizons, even now that it's old enough to vote.

My Non-Mystery Reads for 2007

In the order I read them:

Fiction

• The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
  A brilliant account of Vietnam. The things they carried are letters and pictures and good luck charms, as well as the emotional scars of their experiences.
• You Suck and Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore
  I read these in this reverse order. They're light, hilarious accounts of the lives, and afterlives of a pair of young vampires (and, in You Suck, their goth minion, Abby Normal). Outrageous fun.
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
  A complete change of pace and anything but fun. Still, a fascinating view into life in a nation we hardly understand and yet seek to influence.
• The Accidental by Ali Smith
  A thirty-something young woman insinuates herself into a family on holiday and proceeds to change them all forever. Odd, quirky, and unforgettable. I found this one, thanks to our co-membership among New York Magazine's "" list.The Best Books You've Never Heard Of
• Trail of the Red Butterfly by Karl H. Schlesier
  Again, one that should fit in here, since it was published in 2007, though I read and blurbed it earlier while it was still a manuscript. Its other blurb is from N. Scott Momaday. This is the fascinating story of a small band of Cheyenne and Kiowa who, in 1807, conduct a raid into Northern New Spain in an effort to rescue the twin brother of the raid's leader. The story is told with immaculate attention to the history and culture of the peoples involved and is incredibly original in concept.

Non-Fiction

• A Sweet, Separate Intimacy: Women Writers of the American Frontier, 1800-1922 by Susan Cummins Miller
  A compelling and very different view of the opening of the American West.
• The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam by Barbara Tuchman
  I came to this very late (since it was published in 1985), but was curious about parallels between our involvement in Vietnam and Iraq. If only Ms. Tuchman were still alive to examine and compare those parallels herself.