Auto-Buy Authors, Chapter 3

If you're a bookaholic, you've got one, without doubt. One what? A list of favorite authors that make your heart go pitty-pat. Each time one of these authors has a new book released, you simply cannot wait to get your hands on it. You have to have it. You have to feel those virgin pages beneath your fingertips. You have to wrap yourself up in those words and sink slowly, completely, into the story. These authors are the ones who really "get" you.

I call these authors "Auto-Buy Authors," and I've been sharing mine with you in a very leisurely fashion. If you'd like to refresh your memory on authors I've already listed, feel free to take a look at chapter one and chapter two. 

Today I'm sharing three more of my auto-buy authors with you. Each one of them is a wonderful storyteller who can lead me on a roller coaster ride of emotions through settings that are so clear to me it's as though I'm standing next to the main characters. Let's get started!

Harry Bingham

Harry Bingham grabbed me by the throat with his very first Fiona Griffiths novel, Talking to the Dead. Fiona is a detective constable in Wales. She's intense, she's strong, and she's not the easiest person to get to know. Why? Because she's not always truthful, and she tends to have more secrets than any of the investigations in which she becomes embroiled. 

What is Fiona's main goal in life-- besides putting the bad guys behind bars? She very much wants to be a citizen of Planet Normal. I know. It sounds strange, but Fiona had something happen to her when she was a teenager that sets her apart from any other character I've ever come across. 

Yes, her investigations are gripping, but discovering the real Fiona is at the very heart of these books, and the reason why I'm willing to pay extra for a UK edition of the latest book to feature her, The Strange Death of Fiona Griffiths. Which reminds me... I need to stop gazing at that book lovingly and read it so I can share it with all of you!

A.D. Scott

A.D. Scott fascinates me. She lives in a small fishing village in Vietnam and journeys back to her roots in the Highlands of Scotland whenever she needs to do research for her books. When she lived in Inverness, where her books are set, she was well acquainted with the Gaelic Church. It wasn't until she read my blog post about Leakey's Bookshop that she realized the church had been turned into a wonderful haven for the printed word. She knew she'd have to visit it on her next research trip. Yes, I do have a tiny connection with this author, and we've shared our favorite places in the Highlands. But even if we didn't, I'd still love her books!

They are set in Inverness in the 1950s and revolve around characters who work in the office of the Highland Gazette newspaper. The editor is a fish-out-of-water from Glasgow who wants to turn this small town paper into one of the best in Scotland. Another character is an older man who represents the past and is also full of common sense. Two young men have dreams they want to follow, and the main woman on staff fights against convention by leaving her abusive husband and making a life for herself and her two daughters. They are characters you grow to know and love. You care about their welfare whenever calamity strikes. And you fall in love with Inverness and the surrounding area. 

The world I live in fades away completely whenever I read one of A.D. Scott's books.

Tarquin Hall

I know of several fans of Tarquin Hall's Vish Puri series who meet in Indian restaurants to discuss his books. Being British, Denis has been a lover of Indian cuisine his entire life, but it wasn't until I began reading the case files of New Delhi private investigator Vish Puri that I decided i wanted to sample it myself. Now Denis and I go to Flavors of India at least once a month. Tarquin Hall has definitely tempted my taste buds, but that's not all he's done. 

Of all the series I read that are set in other countries, two come to mind immediately for the perfection of their settings. Tarquin Hall writes one of them. As I read, I can't help but feel that I'm getting a true picture of the real India in all its complexity. The importance of family in Indian life. How people really live-- from electricity to transportation to running water to government. How India's history still plays a role in people's lives. It's an intricate picture that Hall brings to life in all its vitality. 

But he isn't an auto-buy author simply because he paints a multi-layered portrait of a fascinating country. Vish Puri is my favorite private investigator-- a sort of Punjabi Hercule Poirot. He's solved more than one case that kept me guessing right to the end. However, the rotund private eye isn't the only character in the book whom I enjoy. His wife and his mother are guaranteed to make me smile as they bedevil him, and it's a pleasure to get to know more about his employees-- "operatives"-- who are referred to as "Facecream" or "Tubelight" to name two.

Tarquin Hall's Vish Puri books are filled with honesty, humor, and love... and I can't get enough.  

And thus my latest chapter of Auto-Buy Authors draws to a close. Are any of these three on your own list? Which one(s)? Which of your auto-buy authors would you recommend to me? Yes-- this mind is still inquiring and still wanting to know!

 

Auto-Buy Authors, Chapter 2

This is one of my favorite types of posts to write because of the research involved. I rolled my desk chair out to the living room, sat down, and with pen and notepad in hand, I rolled back and forth in front of my bookshelves. I would stop, take a book off the shelf, leaf through its pages, smile, put the book back on the shelf, scribble a note, and move on.

Some of you may not be familiar with the term I'm using. What is an auto-buy author?  An auto-buy author is the best of the best; someone whose books you love so much that when you hear a new title has been released, you buy it without even reading a synopsis of the story.

I didn't accumulate over 6,000 books by having only a handful of auto-buy authors. No, I have several, and I posted my first list in July 2012. Once again I've been selective with my choices. There are several authors whose writing I love, but they may not be auto-buys-- especially if they write multiple series. Of all the examples of multiple-series-writing authors I can think of, I have to admit that there's always at least one that I don't particularly care for. Does that bother me? Not at all. I think it's great that these authors have so much to say and so many different ways of saying it. The larger the audience, the more chance these talented writers will be able to continue to entertain me with the series that I do enjoy.

Are you ready for Chapter 2? I hope so, because here it comes!

Martin Walker at The Poisoned Pen

I was shopping through the pages of one of my favorite "book procurement sites" (Book Outlet) when I came across a book titled Bruno, Chief of Police, and thus began my love affair with a policeman in a small French village and his creator, Martin Walker.

Martin Walker brings to life this small village in southern France as well as its inhabitants, its customs, its food, and its wine. The relationships between the villagers are pitch perfect. Everyone knows the foibles and virtues of everyone else, and for the most part they've learned how to get along with each other for the good of their community. I've learned the various seasonal traditions in the ways of food and gatherings of friends and families. This series is the complete package for mystery-loving armchair travelers, and I can't get enough. A few words of warning: You'll be hungry during and after reading a Bruno, Chief of Police mystery, and... Do not stand between me and the newest Martin Walker novel!

Julia Spencer-Fleming at The Poisoned Pen

I'd been shying away from Julia Spencer-Fleming's series set in New York state and featuring the Reverend Clare Fergusson and Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne for an entire decade. Why? Because of all the awards and hype the first book, In the Bleak Midwinter, received. That's always been a part of my make-up: when everyone starts raving about something, I take a step back and keep doing my own thing.

However, due to writing posts in which I kept tripping over this author's name while doing research, I figured it was time to see what all the hype was about. I could kick myself for waiting so long. Clare and Russ are the heart and soul of this series, and reading about these two good people who always try to do the right thing is a joy. This series is a must for mystery readers who think characterization is the absolute best part of a book.

Kate Ellis

British author Kate Ellis has written two series, and I love them both. One series is set in South Devon, England, and features Detective Sergeant Wesley Peterson and Detective Inspector Gerry Heffernan. Wesley's best friend just happens to be an archaeologist, and Ellis does a superb job of combining an old mystery with a new one in each book in the series.

In her Detective Inspector Joe Plantagenet series set in Eborby in North Yorkshire, England, Ellis uses the history of the place to a wonderful, gothic effect.

Both series have strong casts, absorbing mysteries, a keen eye for history, and an excellent sense of place. I've been a fan for so long that I can't even remember when or how I first learned about the author!

Zoë Ferraris

When Finding Nouf was released, I started hearing all sorts of good things about it. I read a synopsis of the book and thought it sounded like something I'd enjoy, so I put it on my wish list... where it languished so long that I actually read the second book in the series first. I fell head over heels for City of Veils, immediately got my hands on a copy of Finding Nouf, and Zoë Ferraris instantly became an Auto-Buy Author.

This is another series that's perfect for mystery-loving armchair travelers. Ferraris opens the curtains on Saudi Arabia, a country that is very much a mystery to most of the non-Muslim world.  We learn of the country and its customs through a variety of characters: non-Muslim Westerners, both male and female, who are completely unfamiliar with the place; a young Muslim woman who wants more from her life than is prescribed by the teachings of the religious leaders of her country; and Muslim men, both traditional and non-traditional.

Zoë Ferraris's writing is beautiful and absorbing-- and I want to read everything she writes!

Todd Borg

I came late to the Todd Borg fan club, but at least I arrived.  His (so far) eleven book series featuring private investigator Owen McKenna and his harlequin Great Dane, Spot, became an instant favorite when I read book nine, Tahoe Hijack.

Borg writes high octane plots like nobody's business, and he makes you fall in love with the Lake Tahoe area. If that's all he did, he'd be a very good writer. What makes him an Auto-Buy author for me are Owen and Spot-- two of the best characters going. Borg's thrillers have plots that grab you by the throat, throw you in a Formula One racecar with no brakes, and send you down a steep mountain road... but they also have tons of heart and soul. You get to know the characters. You get to care about them. You just can't beat a combination like that.


Thus endeth chapter two of my Auto-Buy authors. What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Are any of the authors new to you? Inquiring minds need to know!

Auto-Buy Authors

This is a question I've been asking myself on and off for several weeks now. What are "auto-buy" authors, you ask? They are the crème de la crème-- the authors that, when you hear they've got a new book coming out, you know you're going to buy it regardless what it's about. They're the authors you recommend to anyone who asks-- or anyone who'll listen. You devour their books with a passion... and then regret that you read them so quickly and now have a long wait till the next one. That's what an auto-buy author is.

As I compiled my list, I discovered that it had to be refined. There are some authors who write several series, but I may only be passionate about one, so I can't say they're auto-buy; I've got to find out to which series the new book belongs.

As I look at the authors' names I've scribbled down on a small piece of paper, I see that they all have things in common: their plots, their characters, and their settings all blend into potent brews that i simply cannot resist.

Here, for good or ill, is my list of auto-buy authors (in no particular order). Perhaps some of mine are on your own lists as well.

Deborah Crombie

I fell in love with Deborah Crombie's books from the very first one. She's written fourteen books in the Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series. This American's a bit unusual in that she lives in Texas but writes about England. When my British husband asked me for a book recommendation and I suggested Crombie, I was interested to see what he thought of them. Denis gobbled them up even quicker than I did, which put an insider's stamp of approval on her books. (Not that it matters; I'd keep on reading them anyway!)

The settings she chooses and the stories she tells are marvelous, but what puts her on my Auto-Buy List is her characters. Duncan and Gemma's relationship grows and changes over the course of the books. They are real people facing real problems. Midway through the series, they stopped being fictional characters to me and became living, breathing people.

Nevada Barr

Way back when, someone recommended Nevada Barr as an author I might enjoy. I've now been with her through seventeen books featuring National Park Service law enforcement officer Anna Pigeon.

In her line of work, Anna has taken me back and forth across the United States visiting several of our wonderful national parks and recreation areas. Wildlife and the outdoors both mean a great deal to me, and Anna allows me my nature fix in her own inimitable way.

Like all memorable characters, she never remains static. She changes and adapts as a result of all her experiences, and I love following her progress through each book.

Betty Webb

Betty Webb writes two very different series, and both of them are on my Auto-Buy List.

Her seven-book series featuring Scottsdale, Arizona private detective Lena Jones is hard-edged and tackles some very important (and sometimes little known) issues. Lena opens my eyes and my heart, not only to the cases she solves, but to the state in which I live, and to Lena herself and her troubled past.

For the lighter side of Betty, I've come to love her Gunn Zoo series featuring Teddy Bentley, a zookeeper living on a houseboat on the central coast of California. With Teddy, I get to laugh and to learn about some fascinating animals.

Craig Johnson

Craig Johnson writes the wonderful series featuring Sheriff Walt Longmire of Absaroka County, Wyoming. My love affair with his writing began from almost the very first page of The Cold Dish and has grown stronger through each of the seven books that have followed it.

Once again, the stories and the setting are vivid, but Johnson's ensemble cast is absolutely sublime. Humor, heartbreak, honesty and integrity. If I'm ever kidnapped, I want Walt Longmire coming to get me. I know he'd get the job done. My only regret is that he's fictional and I can't vote for him!

Colin Cotterill

Like Betty Webb, Colin Cotterill writes two series that I love.

Through eight books set in 1970s Laos, I've come to adore Dr. Siri Paiboun, the country's septuagenarian National Coroner, his able Nurse Dtui, and his morgue assistant Mr. Geung. I get to learn about life in a poor Southeast Asian Communist country while I'm trying to find out if I'm as smart as the wily Dr. Siri in knowing what's really going on.

Cotterill's newest series is set in rural southern Thailand where Jimm Juree, a former crime reporter for the Chang Mai Daily Mail, has moved with her wacky and wonderful family. I'm used to reading books set in the cities of Southeast Asia, so the chance to learn about rural Thai life is fun.

The strength in both series? Cotterill's wonderful ensemble casts of characters, his honesty and humor, and his love for his creations.

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles does write a mystery series featuring Bill Slider, but it's her thirty-four volume historical fiction series called the Morland Dynasty that I'm nutty about.

The series follows one family-- the Morlands-- from the time of Richard III in 1434 and is supposed to end with World War II. (Right now the series is in the 1920s.) Earlier volumes have floorplans of Morland Place (just outside York) showing how it changes with each generation. Harrod-Eagles brings the history to life through her generations of characters, and each book has given me characters to love or to hate with equal intensity.

As I've sat here typing this post, I've been adding more Auto-Buy Authors to my list, so this shows all the signs of turning into a series. I'm going to end this installment of my list with two authors whose books I'd automatically buy... if they were still writing.

In the 1980s and 1990s, British author Lyn Macdonald spent thousands of hours researching written first-hand accounts of World War I. She then spoke to as many survivors of the horror of that war as she could find, capturing oral history that is beyond price. Her books--1914, 1915: The Death of Innocence, The Roses of No Man's Land, To the Last Man, Somme, and They Called It Passchendaele--are among the very best I've ever read about military history because they're not about kings and generals. They are about the common soldiers trying to survive in the trenches; they are about the nurses and doctors and ambulance drivers who risked their lives to save others. To read these stories... this history... told in these people's own words for me was, quite simply, incredibly powerful and mind-altering.

Suzanne Massie

Suzanne Massie wrote two books about Russian cultural history that I'll only turn loose of once someone's pried them out of my cold, dead fingers. Like Lyn Macdonald, if she were still writing, I'd still be buying.

Land of the Firebird: The Beauty of Old Russia brings pre-Revolutionary Russia to aching, wonderful life. As I read, Massie created the most vivid pictures in my mind-- pictures that were also accompanied by sounds and smells. I could also feel the cold, and touch various surfaces in beautifully furnished rooms. It's rare that a book affects all my senses to such a degree, and when I find one that does, I get my hands on it and keep it close.

What is so wonderful is that Suzanne Massie did it not once but twice when I bought my copy of Pavlovsk: The Life of a Russian Palace. I've walked into many old houses that "spoke" to me. Massie took me through a splendid palace and let me listen as it told me its secrets. It's a journey that I will never forget. So many of the Russians Massie interviewed for this book quoted a line from Dostoyevsky-- "Beauty will save the world." After reading about Pavlovsk, I believe that very well may be true.

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It is my hope that you'll give this some thought and leave a comment (or write your own post!) telling me what your Auto-Buy Authors are. As you can see, not all of mine are crime fiction writers, so there's no need for yours to be either. If you do decide to write your own post, please please please leave me a comment letting me know so I can visit your blog and read your list!

Do we share some of the same Auto-Buy Authors? Which ones are they? Did I happen to persuade you to try any of mine? Which ones?  I know, I know-- questions, questions! I'll shut up now because I really want to know the authors' names on your lists!