Other people have added several people I meant to include. Definitely Nevada Barr. BTW, the latest one is excellent. I also really like Margaret Maron. I prefer the Deborah Knott ones, mostly because the Sigrid Harald series came to such an abrupt
and depressing
end, but also because I think she had come more into her stride as a writer with the second series.
Her antisemitism and snobbery might have earned less than a perfectly friendly welcome.
She was a creature of her era. Not everyone can be more enlightened than the people around them.
t / just a teeny bit defensive of my biggest literary girlcrush next to MFK Fisher
Sharon McCrumb (the funny ones)
That's the great thing about different points of view, because I would have said "not the funny ones," or, more to the point, not the Elizabeth MacPherson books, except for "Killing Susan," in which she takes such sly advantage of the fact that her main character is an idiot. The Ballad books are wonderful, though.
I also forgot to mention James Lee Burke, who I think is one of the better current writers in any genre, at least in the sense of "Ain't those words purty. Damn, I wish I could write like that."
Did anyone mention Deborah Crombie's Kincaid/James series? It's good British mystery and sort of Elizabeth George-lite, which I appreciate, much as I love George.
Beautiful writing, but tough stories.
They're making a movie of
In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead
[link]
She was a creature of her era. Not everyone can be more enlightened than the people around them.
just a teeny bit defensive of my biggest literary girlcrush next to MFK Fisher
Hmm don't want to harsh on your girl crush. But on just about anything but feminism she was reactionary even for her time. Anti-labor at a time when huge labor struggles were taking place. A supporter of aristocratic privilege at a time when even many Tories admitted that privilege needed reform. Even her feminism including the view that the suffragettes of the preceding generation were dull and dowdy, and that she was part of a more conservative fun branch of feminism. A lot of this arose from her particular interpretation of Catholicism which (in her view) seemed to require a lot of very reactionary. You don't have to end your girlcrush. She was a brilliant writer, a brilliant theologician, probably a witty and charming person to know. But even with the context of her time, she chose to side with the right. If she was alive today that would translate into some sort of very conservative feminism. Megan McArdle AKA Jane Galt is about where her relative position on the political spectrum then might translate on the political spectrum into today.
Dana Stabenow has two good series of mysteries set in Alaska. The Kate Shugak ones involve a lot of Native issues; the Liam Campbell ones are set on the coast and involve fishing and bush pilots. Both have ongoing arcs dealing with the lead character's love lives. I like them: they have a real sense of place, and Dana Stabenow is a big Buffy fangirl.
I love Nevada Barr, so Dana Stabenow sounds fascinating.
I got to copyedit a Dana Stabenow once, and I sort of fangirled all over it. I had never read her, and at the time I had done a bunch of really disappointing mysteries for St. Martin's (like, "why did they publish this?!" disappointing), and I loved the Stabenow book.
Try the Crombie books sometime, though, Kristin! I promise you'll like them.
Amy, I admit that while I really enjoy Stabenow's storytelling and characters, her tendency to change povs in the middle of a paragraph never ceases to annoy me. I've become kind of a hardass on pov.
On edit: not, of course, that you are to be blamed for her failings...
t grins and shrugs
It's so long ago that I can't say for sure, but if she did that in the manuscript I had, I would have queried it. Big no-no in my eyes.
And while I did like it and read one other, I didn't keep up. Too many books, too little time (too much good porn fic to read on the intarwebs...)
She's done it for her entire career, so I suspect a query wouldn't have made much difference.
And the newer stuff? Occasionally kinda porny.
