Who is your favourite American detective novelist?

Question

I recently read a few Hammett and Chandler books. Good reads. Interesting differences of the American-English colloquial terminology employed during that era.

Any suggestions for detective novels from early to mid 20th century?

Answer 1

I was assigned a Tony Hillerman novel as a collage read. His books are crime stories with a Native American (current day) twist. They may not fit you criteria exactly but the Native American setting and cultural spin may satisfy you colloquial/terminology interests. He is a great author I have read many of his Novels since then. He has just come out with a new novel called Skelton Man. Here is a review from Barnes & Nobel:

Hailed as "a wonderful storyteller" by the New York Times, and a "national and literary cultural sensation" by the Los Angeles Times, bestselling author Tony Hillerman is back with another blockbuster novel featuring the legendary Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Sergeant Jim Chee.

Former Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn comes out of retirement to help investigate what seems to be a trading post robbery. A simple-minded kid nailed for the crime is the cousin of an old colleague of Sergeant Jim Chee. He needs help and Chee, and his fiancée Bernie Manuelito, decide to provide it.

Proving the kid's innocence requires finding the remains of one of 172 people whose bodies were scattered among the cliffs of the Grand Canyon in an epic airline disaster 50 years in the past. That passenger had handcuffed to his wrist an attaché case filled with a fortune in -- one of which seems to have turned up in the robbery.

But with Hillerman, it can't be that simple. The daughter of the long-dead diamond dealer is also seeking his body. So is a most unpleasant fellow willing to kill to make sure she doesn't succeed. These two tense tales collide deep in the canyon at the place where an old man died trying to build a cult reviving reverence for the Hopi guardian of the Underworld. It's a race to the finish in a thunderous monsoon storm to see who will survive, who will be brought to justice, and who will finally unearth the Skeleton Man.

Synopsis
Since his retirement from the Navajo Tribal Police, former lieutenant Joe Leaphorn is running out of stories to tell at the weekly coffee klatches with his buddies. That is until he gets sucked into helping investigate what at first seems to be a simple trading post robbery. The simple-minded kid nailed for the crime is related to a former colleague of Joe's, and he needs help. Sergeant Jim Chee and his fiancé Bernie are also on the case, which turns into a search for the remains of a passenger on one of the planes that went down into the Grand Canyon 50 years ago. That passenger happened to have handcuffed to his wrist an attaché case filled with a fortune in diamonds - one of which turned up in the robbery. Lots of bad guys are looking for the gems, and it's a race to the finish during a monsoon in the canyon to see who will survive and who will be brought to justice.

From The Critics
Marilyn Stasio
In his masterly reworking of this powerful myth, Hillerman creates a kachina for contemporary times -- a hermit who lives in a cave at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and dispenses diamonds (''the symbol of greed,'' according to one wary recipient) that can corrupt anyone who mistakes their cold glitter for true light.

Corrigan Corrigan
Leaphorn says at the outset of Skeleton Man that the story "illustrates his Navajo belief in universal connections. . . . The entire cosmos being an infinitely complicated machine all working together." With spare elegance, Hillerman makes good on Leaphorn's promise, even conjuring up a nuptial finale worthy of that non-Native-American master of happy coincidences, Charles Dickens.

Answer 2

Ross McDonald and the Lew Archer series
Ed McBain and the 87th Precinct novels.
Jim Thompson. Movies made from his books include "The Getaway", "The Killer Inside Me", "Grifters", and "After Dark My Sweet".
Patricia Highsmith may be classified as mystery but check out her work which includes "The Mr. Ripley" series and Stangers on a Train.

Answer 3

Erle Stanley Gardner

Answer 4

Patricia Cornwell

Answer 5

Donald Westlake

Answer 6

Earl Emerson, the Thomas Black Series and the Mac Fontana Series.

Answer 7

Nero Wolfe

Answer 8

Micky Spillain The mike hammer books are great

Answer 9

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is good also.

Answer 10

Even though it's a mystery and classic, I would say Agatha Christie.