My Favorite Crime Novels in a Series

“When the phone rang, Parker was in the garage, killing a man.”

That right there is one of the best opening lines in American crime fiction. It comes from a novel called Firebreak by the great – and I mean great – writer Richard Stark (real name Donald Westlake). Firebreak is one of a series of crime thrillers by Stark about his sociopathic hero Parker. No first name. Just Parker. Parker is a big-time crook and murderer. The reader, people like you and me, are on his side the whole time.

The Parker series is an American treasure. Let’s be clear, in this essay I am not talking about TV adaptations. I am talking about novels, baby.

Here are some other series I love.

The Harry Bosch novels by Michael Connelly. Bosch is a cop who sometimes breaks the rules going after bad guys. He takes no shit and has the most exquisite taste in jazz. After my wife read a Bosch book, she bought me the jazz albums he listened to in that novel. One of the lovely things about the Bosch novels is that Connelly makes Bosch age, so we see Bosch as his life ascends and descends.

The Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child. Jack Reacher is the toughest guy in the world. He will gauge out your eye or kick you in your privates, and he can beat you up one-on-one or he can destroy four guys in about ten seconds. He is my wish fulfillment. He never stays in one place very long. He is a restless roamer, sort of like the Lone Ranger. And he is on the side of good even if he does bad things. I love Reacher.

The Gabriel Allon novels by Daniel Silva. Allon is the best art restorer in the world, restores some of the most famous paintings in history. And he adores his work, except when he’s involved in his other job which is assassin for Israel’s feared Mossad, at which job he also is one of the best in the world. Allon always gets his enemy, and he is ruthless, although he is softspoken and polite when he kills you.

The Myron Bolitar novels by Harlan Coben. These novels, all 12 of them, are my latest love. I finished the final one last night and, oh, I hope there are more to come. Bolitar is a sports agent, not a major agent, but he’s working on it. He was a first-round pick of the Celtics but ruined his knee in preseason and never played a game in the NBA. He’s learned to live with that. He also lives with his parents in New Jersey although he starts the series at 31 years old. For some reason, he always gets involved in murder cases which he has a knack of solving. He is aided by his best friend, Win, who is a psychopath who loves the act of murder, and these murders are especially helpful to Myron and Myron appreciates them.

Also on Myron’s side is Esperanza, his bisexual, beautiful partner in the agency, Big Cindy, who weighs in at just over 300 pounds and is the most wonderful loveable character in the series. And there are Myron’s parents. Coben describes parent love in the most touching ways. And Coben is funny and gifted, and I feel like his Myron Bolitar is my best friend.

If you have other suggestions of crime series, please let me know. I am hungry for another series that allows me to enter its world and care about its characters. And I don’t mind a little violence.