It was none other than the great Stephen King who put it best when talking about the importance of a writer reading other people’s work. King says he reads about 80 books a year. He takes a book with him everywhere he goes, and frequently reads during meals. “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write,” he believes. “Simple as that.”
And so here are five books that have had a tremendous impact on my own writing career:
THE LONG GOODBYE, by Raymond Chandler
I never thought about writing mystery novels – or even read many of them – until one day I picked up one of Chandler’s Philip Marlowe books in a store. He only wrote seven of them, and they’re all great. But, to me, THE LONG GOODBYE is the best mystery novel ever written. Beautiful, haunting and so much more than just a mystery. Reading it inspired me to try to write books like that. None of us can ever match the brilliance of Chandler, but it’s fun to try.
A IS FOR ALIBI, by Sue Grafton
This is the first book in Sue Grafton’s wonderful “alphabet” series featuring private investigator Kinsey Millhone. Before it came out in the ‘80s, most of mystery fiction was male dominated – with women only appearing as “victims or vixens,” as someone one said. But Grafton – along with Sara Paretsky and later Janet Evanovich – changed all that. I realized then that a mystery protagonist didn’t have to be like Philip Marlowe, he could be like Kinsey Millhone too. I’ve written 17 novels in my career, and 13 of them (including my current one in Abby Pearce from HER OCEAN GRAVE) have featured female characters.
THE LAST COYOTE, By Michael Connelly
Michael Connelly is in my opinion the best mystery writer around today. Has been since the early ‘90s. He’s written 35 mystery novels, and I’ve read all of them. But THE LAST COYOTE is at the top of my favorites list. Like THE LONG GOODBYE, it’s so much more than just a mystery – written with the same kind of elegance and magical atmosphere you find in a Chandler novel. And oh yes, Connelly used to be a journalist like me.
PRESUMED INNOCENT, by Scott Turow
A great thriller that became a phenomenal best seller in the ‘80s. It was Turow’s first novel, and he wrote it on a commuter train going back and forth to his job as a lawyer in Chicago. I interviewed him once and asked he if had any idea when he was doing that how big PRESUMED INNOCENT would be. He said he alternated between feeling it would be a hugely popular best-seller and worrying that “no one would ever see it.” The first-person narrator (a bit of an “unreliable narrator”) kept me and so many others racing through the pages until the shock ending.
SALEM’S LOT, by Stephen King
Yes, I saved the Master for last. I devoured all the books he wrote back in the ‘70s – The Dead Zone, Firestarter, The Shining. But SALEM’S LOT was the first King book I read back then, and it had a special impact on me. Scary, of course. But also brilliantly written. More recently, I loved 11/22/63 – his fictional book about what might have happened if JFK had survived in Dallas. The man has been putting out great books for almost a half-century now. Along with Chandler, King was my biggest inspiration when I started writing. His non-fiction book “On Writing” is a must read too. Oh, and by the way, he also writes some pretty good mystery/thrillers!
Dana Perry is the penname for thriller author R.G. Belsky The third Dana Perry book, HER OCEAN GRAVE, is being published on June 2 by Bookouture. It features a former NYPD homicide detective named Abby Pearce who now solves crimes in a small town on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. Previous Perry titles have been THE SILENT VICTIM and THE GOLDEN GIRL. Belsky has also written 14 novels under his own name, including the ongoing Clare Carlson series. He is a longtime New York City journalist who worked as a top editor at the New York Post, the Daily News, Star magazine and NBC News.
