Ten American masterpieces that are actually crime fiction

Smith Henderson is the author of Fourth of July Creek and lives in California and Montana. Jon Marc Smith teaches English at Texas State University and lives in San Marcos, Texas. Make Them Cry is their first novel.

At CrimeReads, the authors tagged ten American masterpieces that are actually crime novels, including:

Marilou Is Everywhere, by Sarah Elaine Smith

In her fantastic debut Marilou Is Everywhere, Smith pulls off a similarly incredible shift: premised on the abduction of a teenage girl, the novel focuses on the way a neighbor girl slowly insinuates herself into the life of the missing girl’s mother. While the book is steeped in the troubles and mores of rural Pennsylvania and rendered in gorgeous prose, what Smith pulls off narratively is just as crucial as the craftwork: as the crime of the missing girl curdles the relations in this troubled community, new, subtler crimes and transgressions occur, as the roles between and within families morph into new silent agreements.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 69 Test: Marilou Is Everywhere.

My Book, The Movie: Marilou Is Everywhere.

--Marshal Zeringue