Five top novels for learning how to write crime fiction

Thomas Perry is the bestselling author of over twenty-nine novels, including the critically acclaimed Jane Whitefield series, Forty Thieves, and The Butcher’s Boy, which won the Edgar Award. He lives in Southern California.

Perry's latest Jane Whitefield novel is The Left-Handed Twin.

[The Page 69 Test: Silence; The Page 99 Test: Nightlife; The Page 69/99 Test: Fidelity; The Page 69/99 Test: Runner; The Page 69 Test: Strip;  The Page 69 Test: The Informant; The Page 69 Test: The Boyfriend; The Page 69 Test: A String of Beads; The Page 69 Test: Forty Thieves; The Page 69 Test: The Old Man; The Page 69 Test: The Bomb Maker; The Page 69 Test: The Burglar; The Page 69 Test: A Small Town; The Page 69 Test: Eddie's Boy; The Page 69 Test: The Left-Handed Twin; Q&A with Thomas Perry]

At Shepherd Perry tagged five of the best novels for learning how to write crime fiction, including:

Thirteen Hours: A Benny Griessel Novel by Deon Meyer, K. L. Seegers

I picked Thirteen Hours partly because it’s a good sample of the work of a major writer born, raised, and living in a part of the world different from ours. This book is probably the most suspenseful novel I’ve read in recent years, and it’s the novel I recommend to people who ask me how to write suspenseful books. Meyer is South African and writes in Afrikaans. It features Meyer’s great character Benny Griessel. The action is an American tourist running for her life from the people who killed her friend, and it’s one desperate chase that takes thirteen hours.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue