Nonfiction
The Lineup: the World’s Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives

by ed. Otto Penzler
Little, Brown & Company, November 2010, $15.99

In 1978, this editor/publisher combo brought us The Great Detectives (see WAM #81), in which 26 writers discussed their series characters. In the 30 years since, many more have come into prominence, 21 of whom contributed to a series of chapbooks published for customers of Penzler’s Mysterious Bookshop. Contributors range alphabetically from Ken Bruen on Jack Taylor (setting a record for one-word paragraphs) to Alexander McCall Smith on Precious Ramotswe. Others taking a straight autobiographical approach are Lee Child on Jack Reacher, Michael Connelly on Harry Bosch, John Connolly on Charlie Parker, John Harvey on Charlie Resnick, Stephen Hunter on Bob Lee Swagger, Faye Kellerman on Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus, Jonathan Kellerman on Alex Delaware, John Lescroart on Dismas Hardy, David Morrell on Rambo, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child on Aloysius X.L. Pendergast, and Ian Rankin on John Rebus.

Varying the pattern slightly is Colin Dexter on Morse, who responds to common reader inquiries in a Q-and-A format. Robert Crais conducts an imaginary interview with Elvis Cole. Carol O’Connell does a straight character profile of Mallory using quotations from her books. Laura Lippman writes an imaginary newspaper profile of Tess Monaghan. Four choose to provide a fictional narrative, leaving the author out of the picture completely: Jeffery Deaver on Lincoln Rhyme, Robert B. Parker on Spenser, Ridley Pearson on Lou Boldt, and Ann Perry on Charlotte and Thomas Pitt.

Any fan sufficiently immersed in the genre to be reading Mystery Scene will take pleasure in this book’s insights into the contributors, their career arcs, and their creative processes. Some readers will be bothered by the masculine bias, though, with only four female writers included. Unlike The Great Detectives, no bibliographies of the authors’ series are included, but these are easily available elsewhere.

Jon L. Breen

penzler_lineupAn enjoyable read for fans of detective fiction featuring Ken Bruen, Lee Child, Ian Rankin, and Laura Lippman, among others.

Teri Duerr
1513

by ed. Otto Penzler
Little, Brown & Company, November 2010, $15.99

Penzler
November 2010
the-lineup-the-worlds-greatest-crime-writers-tell-the-inside-story-of-their-greatest-detectives
15.99
Little, Brown & Company