If you want to be a writer, you need to read first. Read a lot.

That advice coms from none other than Stephen King who says in his book On Writing: “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have time (or the tools) to write.”

King has also said that he reads – mostly fiction – for at least three hours a night and goes through 75 to 100 books a year.

I can’t match those numbers, but I know I could have never become an author myself of mystery/suspense/thriller novels without reading books by some of the great ones.

Here are five of the most important writers who have inspired me:

RAYMOND CHANDLER: Have to start with him. Pretty much every mystery author owes a debt of gratitude to the man who created Philip Marlowe and transported us so eloquently into his world of 1940s and ‘50s Los Angeles. I’d never even thought about writing a mystery novel until I picked up a copy of The Big Sleep one day in a used bookstore. Since then, I have never stopped writing. 24 published books for me since that day.

ROBERT B. PARKER: It was shortly after I discovered Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe that I read the first Spenser book, The Godwulf Manuscript. Spenser was like an updated version of Philip Marlowe – cool, funny and damn tough. I’ve read all the Spenser novels since then, including the ones written by others after Parker’s death in 2010. No one ever wrote dialogue as great as Parker. He also created the Jesse Stone and Sonny Randall books, which were all different but still captured the greatness of Parker’s writing.

MICHAEL CONNELLY: I read my first Michael Connelly book, The Concrete Blonde, in the early ‘90s – then have continued reading him for the past 30 plus years. His Harry Bosch character is the closest I’ve ever seen to achieving an iconic LA figure as memorable as Philip

Marlowe was. Plus, he’s created the Lincoln Lawyer and done plenty of other books. Oh, and he does great TV shows featuring both Bosch and The Lincoln Lawyer. In my view, Michael Connelly is the best mystery writer of our time. One of the highlights of my own career was getting an author blurb for him on one of my own books – it doesn’t get any better than that!

STEPHEN KING: Yes, that Stephen King. It might seem strange to see Stephen King mentioned in a list of the best mystery thriller authors like this. But King is more – much more – than just a horror writer. Some of the books he’s written are pure thrillers, but most of his supernatural stuff has a thriller feel to it too. I started with Salem’s Lot, then moved on to Firestarter and The Dead Zone and so many more. I haven’t read all of King’s books, like I have with Chandler, Parker and Connelly. But that’s only because it’s hard to do with King, since he’s so prolific.

SUE GRAFTON: Some readers might prefer V.I. Warshawski or Stephanie Plum as their favorite female mystery character, but for me it’s Sue Grafton and her quirky Southern California PI Kinsey Millhone. Sadly, we lost Sue Grafton after 25 books (just after she finished Y in her alphabet series). But Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone still sets the standard for me in writing a likable, relatable and fascinating female protagonist in a mystery novel. Like Raymond Chandler, Robert B. Parker, Michael Connelly and Stephen King, she remains an inspiration for me to this day.

Hey, I couldn’t have written my own books without them!

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I am a New York City author who writes mystery thrillers under the pen name of Dana Perry – and also as R.G. Belsky. My new thriller for Bookouture is The Nowhere Girls, the first in a series featuring Detective Nikki Cassidy. Book 2, Last One to Die and Book 3, The Lost Ones, will also be published on April 2nd.
Contact me at DanaPerryAuthor@yahoo.com
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Facebook: @danaperryauthor