The First Crime Novel You Read?

[Coffin Nail]

Up until a couple of years ago I avoided crime novels, I just thought that they weren't for me really. But my love of film noir and film history brought me to the work of Hammett and Chandler and from then on I was hooked.

And Lynda La Plante kicked off my love of british crime novels.

 

Who started you off on the criminal path?

[Chrissy]

Arthur Conan Doyle and his creation Sherlock Holmes.

 

It was a quiet and boring grey afternoon. I was scanning through my M & D's bookshelves and came upon a collection of crime stories, two of which were SH. I fell big time into the genre and have been hooked ever since. I was around eleven years old.

[Stormi]

Lol the first crime novel I read has to be The Famous Five by Enid Blyton - does this count? Okay then it would have been The Thirty Nine Steps (sorry bad with names and can't remember the author!!!)

[Chrissy]

Lol the first crime novel I read has to be The Famous Five by Enid Blyton - does this count? Okay then it would have been The Thirty Nine Steps (sorry bad with names and can't remember the author!!!)

I hadn't even thought of Enid Blighton! 'The Mystery Series', 'The Secret Seven' and 'The Famous Five' ~ they must count as they did solve crimes of a sort!

 

ps 'The 39 Steps' was written by John Buchan.

[madcow]

Martina Cole's Ladykiller kick started my crime fest and since joing BCF I've become hooked on Tess Gerritsen, Karin Slaughter, Richard Montanari and Lisa Gardener to name but a few

[megustaleer]

Who started you off on the criminal path?

 

In answer to the question posed in the title, I have no idea which was the first crime novel I read, it was all so long a go.

But I know who started me off on the criminal path, it was Sherlock Holmes.

There were very few books in my parents house when I was growing up, but among their small, strange collection were two bound annual editions of the Victorian monthly publication Strand Magazine. In each of these were several of Conan Doyle's Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and the story that captured my imagination was The Speckled Band - that's the one that woke in me a fascination with criminal mysteries.

[mtjm]

I guess its The Vision by Dean Koontz even though its more Sci-Fi however she is a psychic working with the police.

[Kylie]

Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden were favourites of mine when I was a youngster (I still reads loads of Trixie Belden but not Nancy Drew for some reason).

 

I've only recently started getting into 'grown-up' crime with the likes of Raymond Chandler, Arthur Conan Doyle and Stieg Larsson.

[Vladd]

As a kid I read Enid Blighton's The Secret Seven, The Mystery Series, and The Adventure Series, I never really touched the Famous Five, also there was The Adventure Series by Willard Price. However the first crime stories I guess I read were the Saint books by Leslie Charteris.

[no-1-book-fan]

I like John Grisham. His best books for me are The Chamber, The Client and The Confession. But I love all of them really!

[Kell]

I don't remember a time when I didn't read mysteries. I probably started off with Famous Five stuff when I was very young and moved onto Sherlock Holmes by the time I was in my early teens, along with other crime stuff...

[deneng]

I started with all the Enid Blyton Adventure ranges about 52 years ago !!!! I then went on to Agatha Christie in my teens.

[pickle]

Nancy Drew, I got my first one when I was about 6-7 and had the first 50 or so I think they are still in my mum and dad attic, for adult crime it was either Sherlock Holmes or one of Agatha Christie's I absolutely love the genre

[dave165]

I started with the Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh mysteries in my teens. These days I prefer US authors such as Michael Connolly, James Lee Burke etc or more hard-boiled British authors like Ken Bruen.

[lopeanha]

Mark T. Sullivan > The sepent's kiss

 

I started very late with this genre.

Edited August 17, 2010 by lopeanha

[Maureen]

It has to be Agatha Christie for me too!

[no-1-book-fan]

It has to be Agatha Christie for me too!

I can't stand Agatha Christie books nor any of them hideous, boring programmes on ITV 3/4.

[Greta]

Agatha Christie started me off, I was like on drugs, I only read crime for weeks and weeks. Then it suddenly stopped and I went back to fiction. Then I discovered Elizabeth George and read most of her novels until I discovered Henning Mankell. After having read most of his books I had enough and only read fiction for years. I've only come back to crime novels because of Stieg Larssen.

[my-sweetheart-is-drunk]

Lol the first crime novel I read has to be The Famous Five by Enid Blyton - does this count? Okay then it would have been The Thirty Nine Steps (sorry bad with names and can't remember the author!!!)

 

Same for me, well Secret Seven, I also read a few Nancy Drew books as a kid. After that I mainly read school books to be honest so the next would probably be "An Inspector Calls" if that counts? Ian Rankin was the author who actually got me choosing to read crime novels, loved the Rebus books especially as they're set in a city I'm very familiar with.

[prittinnpink]

Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. It was a required book in the 6th grade and I am SO grateful. She never seizes to dissappoint.

[Weave]

The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy which I enjoyed more than I thought I would

[Raven]

Last Bus to Woodstock, an Inspector Morse novel by Colin Dexter (finished 03/03/93 - I have records going back to '89!).

 

I don't read a lot of crime novels; I've read a few other Colin Dexter books, and some Patricia Cornwell, but that is pretty much it.

 

I really need to read some Sherlock Holmes, and Poirot.

Edited August 25, 2010 by Raven

[Guest Eliza1]

Sherlock Holmes (does that count?)

[Ms Squiggles]

I think the first proper grown-up crime book I read was Cruel and Unusual by Patricia Cornwell.

[pontalba]

Arthur Conan Doyle and his creation Sherlock Holmes.

 

 

Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden were favourites of mine when I was a youngster (I still reads loads of Trixie Belden but not Nancy Drew for some reason).

 

 

I started with Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden too. Not too much later I read all of Sherlock Holmes. Nowadays my favorites are James Lee Burke (thanks Muggle!), Stieg Larsson, Lawrence Block, Henning Mankell, Dick Francis.....and many more.