Anyone care to discuss some of their favorites?

John Updike
Kem Nunn
John Irving
Douglas Adams
Tom Wolfe
Kurt Vonnegut

I just finished Lawrence Block’s two ‘Hitman’ books…they score high on my Elmorometer.
Anything by Saul Bellow ... RIP.

Hunter S. Thompson
William Shirer
Gore Vidal
Euripides
William S. Burroughs
Raymondo Chandler

Hunter Thompson is awesome.  Gonzo journalism at its best.  Too bad he got tired a livin in his own skin.

Annie Proulx (The Shipping News, That Old Ace in the Hole)

Yes, but who does Elmore like to read?

In the area of influences:

Ernest Hemingway
John Steinbeck
Richard Bissell
George V. Higgins

He likes short story writers:

the above mentioned Annie Proulx
Bobbie Ann Mason
Raymond Carver
Andre Dubus

Jim Thompson, Mickey Spillane, Edward Bunker, Donald Westlake ...

I was at the Bouchercon convention in September and it looks like there are a lot of new and fairly new crime fiction writers worh checking out. They all pretty much, whether they even know it or not, owe a debt to Elmore Leonard.

Duane Swierczynski had a book out last year called The Wheelman, about bank robbers Philadelphia, and he has a new one just out now called The Blonde, which is very good. Ken Bruen isn’t new, but his most recent book American Skin is just out. There’s a guy from Chicago named Michael A. Black and a guy from North Carolina named J.D. Rhoads who are very good. J.D. Rhoads writes something he calls “redneck noir” and there’s a lot of Elmore Leonard styling in it.

My own favourites usually aren’t “series” writers. I like the touchstone stuff in Elmore Leonard’s work, but I don’t like the same main character in every book.

Elmore went to Bouchercon in 2000.  He was amazed at all the mystery writers.  He couldn’t believe there were so many, at least 400 that he never heard of or read.  He was just developing his ten rules then.  He recited them to those in attendance.  The audience was appreciative but Elmore figures “guilty” of breaking them all.

It’s true, many of the new writers “break” most of Elmore’s rules. Especially making the writer invisible and adverbs. And using things other than “said.” These are real tip-offs for me when I pick up a book. As Elmore says, these are the writer sticking his nose in where it doesn’t belong, not letting the characters thell their own stories.

And a lot of writers are hung up on “plot” instead of theme.

But having the rules on the website is a good idea.

Hopefully we’ll hear from some of the newer mystery writers you mention, chiming in on this forum.  The home page is a great source of info on anything ELMORE.

I like Dennis Lehane a good bit

Donald Westlake/Richard Stark
Jim Thompson
James Ellroy
Victor Gischler
Charlie Stella

Cornell Woolrich
William Irish
George Hopley

All the same guy.

“First you dream, then you die.”

Charles McCarry (The Tears of Autumn, The Secret Lovers, The Last Supper) - as good as it gets
James Crumbley (The Last Good Kiss, Dancing Bear, The Wrong Case) - almost as good as it gets
Hunter Thompson (Hells Angels through The Great Shark Hunt) - pure genius, especially “Vegas” & “Campaign Trail”
Ross Thomas (anything) - consistently excellent
Thomas Harris - The Silence of the Lambs is one of the 10 best books of the 20th century, IMO
Lawrence Block (the Scudder books) - solid, dependable, terse, very well written
James Lee Burke (early stuff) - a writer’s writer
Andrew Vachss (Strega, Blue Belle, Shella, Born Bad) - Vachss over-writes, his prose sometimes is overwrought, but these titles are winners

Roddy Doyle, at least The Woman Who Walked Into Doors, after that the books got too long. Haven’t read the new one.

If you can get past the first fifty pages, then Michel Hquellebecq’s Platform is good (The Possibility of an Island, not so much).

Camus, Albert - The Stranger
Irving, John - A Prayer for Owen Meany
Thurber, James - My Life and Hard Times
Frost, Robert - Collected Works
Hemingway, Ernest - The Old Man and the Sea and “The Killers”
Jackson, Shirley - The Haunting of Hill House and “The Lottery”
Hughes, Langston - Not Without Laughter
Rand, Ayn - We The Living and, of course, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged

Connolly, John - Every Dead Thing and other good fun murder books

Anything by Otis Redding and/or Johnny Cash.