savinhill posted:

I had the same type of experience with James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheuix novels. They're such great well-written noir detective novels, with characters and a place(in this case a Louisiana very reminiscent of True Detective's first season, down to having mild supernatural elements and all) you become very attached to. But, oh boy, do they overstay their welcome after a certain point. I remember reading one of the later novels in the series and thinking "I already read this one, but how, it just came out". I swear the author had to be so obviously not giving a gently caress anymore that he was just copying whole plots and relationship arcs from earlier, better books. He also just froze the main characters' development and aging at a certain point, but didn't do the same for the world they live in, so it feels very weird to have two guys who have Vietnam flashbacks and must be in their 70s at the least still solving cases by just kicking rear end and intimidating everyone involved. I think they may have gotten some of the "grumpy old author" syndrome too, where the main character too often blatantly acted as a mouthpiece for what the author hates about the modern world(ugh, that last Dennis Lehane Kenzie/Gennaro one is terrible for this too). I loved that series too, they were automatic reads for me whenever a new one was released. I still highly recommend any noir or crime lit reading fan to read them til you get to your own burn out point. Mine was probably a book or two after he touched on Hurricane Katrina in them. I thought the one set during the hurricane was probably the last one worth reading, where Burke was actually invested in what he was writing.

I haven't read any of the Ace Atkins' Parker books, but he's a good crime author when writing his own, original IP. His Quinn Colson series has been great so far, I know I've recommendeed it itt before. He's also written some historical crime fiction that've gotten some acclaim. I know I have a copy of his one centered around the Fatty Arbuckle case that has Dashiell Hammett as a main character when he was with the Pinkertons I still have to read.