Hard Case Crime discussion

As part of my Goodreads Challenge foe 2023, I plan on focusing only on Hard Case Crime during the month of January, Hope to read at least 10 books, if not more.

Reading, "The First Quarry". Good one!

The Quarry books are all super quick, and very entertaining- if quick reads are a focus.
Also recommend- little girl Lost & Songs of Innocence (they go together, quick and amazing), gutter and the Grave, Joyland, most of the Michael Crichton books are quick and good, Blood Sugar is quirky yet very good…

Slightly longer but still very good and very quick- 5 Decembers, Soho Sins and Charlesgate Confidential are 3 of the better books I’ve ever read.

A wrote: "The Quarry books are all super quick, and very entertaining- if quick reads are a focus.
Also recommend- little girl Lost & Songs of Innocence (they go together, quick and amazing), gutter and the..."

A, thanks for the recommendations. I've read all the Quarry series. Not really focused on quick reads, am more interested on the genre. By the way, if you like Quarry, have you read the Parker series by Richard Stark [Don Westlake]. Not Hard Case, but the series that Quarry is modelled after.

Ray wrote: "Reading, "The First Quarry". Good one!"

Ray, I highly recommend the entire Quarry series.

While I’ve read about half of the Quarry books, I just started- today- True Detective by Max Allan Collins,
Loving it so far!

And from what you said- couldn’t recommend more: 5 Decembers, Soho Sins, Charlesgate Confidential and the Richard Aleas books.
All are as good as they come.

A wrote: "While I’ve read about half of the Quarry books, I just started- today- True Detective by Max Allan Collins,
Loving it so far!

And from what you said- couldn’t recommend more: 5 Decembers, Soho S..."

Thanks A, Charlesgate Confidential was already on my to read list, and just added Little Girl Lost. Started off with Binary, and may need to check out the other John Lange (Chricton) .

With half of the month gone, I thought I'd update my self- challenge. I've read the following 8 Hard Case Crime books:
* Binary Michael Crichton
* The Twenty-Year Death Ariel S, Winter
* The Cocktail Waitress James M. Cain
* Robbie's Wife Russell Hill
* Gun Honey Vol 1 Graphic Novel Charles Ardai
* Blood Sugar Daniel Krause
* Honey in His Mouth Lester Dent
* Snatch Gregory McDonald

While I have enjoyed some more than others, all have been great fun. I appreciate the recommendations from Blair, A, and Ray. I have an idea of most of the books I will try to read before month end, but definitely Ryuko (graphic novel), Robert Silverberg's The Hot Beat, and Christa Faust's Money Shot.

Money Shot is a favorite from HCC!

Howard wrote: "Ray wrote: "Reading, "The First Quarry". Good one!"

Ray, I highly recommend the entire Quarry series."

Ray, I just went back and checked, I've read 48 M.A. Collins books so far, doesn't count the Mike Hammer/Mickey Spillane books he coauthored. I guess you could say I like his work. That said, I've barely touched the Heller series of his.

I'm trying to remember if I've read his Heller books, but nothing comes to mind :(

I will be reading the Big Bundle, the Nathan Heller series book that was just published.

So I ended up reading 16 Hard Case Crime books in January. In addition to the eight I previously listed, I also read:
* Ryuko Vol 1 and 2, Eldo Yoshimizu (graphic novels)
* Lucky at Cards Lawrence Block
* The Hot Beat Robert Silverberg
* Money Shot Christa Faust
* The Gutter & the Grave Ed McBain
* The Comedy is Finished Donald E. Westlake
* The Big Bundle Mas Allan Collins

Besides the Ryuko graphic novels, I would say I finished strong and would recommend any of the last 6 I read. In one sense, this was a failure. I planned to clear out the Hard Case Crime books from my to read list, and instead added more than i read. I will give HCC books a rest, but definitely will return to Christa Faust's second book, Roger Zelazney, Richard Aleas, Mickey Spillane and many more!

I think I'm going to try to read 1 HCC book a month to try to get caught up. At that rate, it would only take me 12 years to read them all if they stopped publishing tomorrow.

Tyler, think I've read about 45 HCC books now. It's great to have a source for reliably enjoyable reads!

I finished reading the entire HCC library in 2022. Well worth the trip. Enjoy!

Blair, that is very cool,