What do you call this type of book, anyway?

Okay, we've got genres of mystery, thriller, suspense... but most of the stuff I read doesn't fit any of that.

Who dunnit isn't the drivin force. Thilling and keeping in suspense is not the issue. I never know what to call it, which is a bummer because I'm writing it.

Cool tough guy books?

It's not a small genre. You take Elmore Leonard, Ross Thomas, Thomas Perry, John D McDonald, James Ellroy, Carl Hiaasen...these aren't mysteries or thrillers, are they?

So what are they?

Ah. Thank you.

Makes sense when you put it that way. I could quibble that much of their writing is not about actual crimes, but I won't.

Trouble is...is that an accepted genre? I see few bookstore signs with "Crime" on them and most of those are "True Crime". This forum has no section for Crime, in fact. Most of them don't.



So, I went around and googled "crime fiction" and it's a weird selection. I got a data base of crime writers than includes none of those names...some of the best selling writers of recent times...but has Doyle...the classic mystery/detective writer, and even Gore Vidal.


Some other ones to seem to slice the loaf that way, though. I ran into those writers, plus others I like, such as Lawrence Block, Daniet Hecht, Daniel Bourginon.

This is puzzling.

Thanks. that's pretty cool. I loved that pulp stuff back when I was too young to be allowed to have it.

At present I find the hard-boiling a little overdone and prefer the writers I mentioned.

By the way, anybody who likes Elmore Leonard and looking for similar stuff should check out Timothy Watts and Tom Kokonis

Thanks everybody, but there is more than agent submission going on here. I'm beyond that.

But you continually run into "genrification" that makes no sense. (For one thing...is there a difference between "suspense" and "thriller"?)

Okay, you've got a website for the book...where to you catalog it in directories? What about review sites? Where do you post announcements of it? It's pretty odd.
(and has nothing to do with pulp)

It's odd to me. I just read my first John Grisham book, "The Partner". Not bad, but structurally peculiar. But there is no suspense, no thrill, no mystery. Not even any threat, just as aside, the god-like genius of the MC just bulldozes over everything until the predictable last minute twist)

So...what is it? I think I'll just call my stuff "best-sellers" and let it work out.