Recommended Reading

Kirkus Reviews asked me which book I'm most looking forward to in 2011. There are lots, but the return of Kurt Wallander is definitely at the top of my list:

Paul Doiron: “One book I’m really looking forward to in 2011 is the English translation of Henning Mankell’s The Troubled Man(Knopf, March 29). I can't think of a character in contemporary crime fiction that feels as real to me as Kurt Wallander. I’ve read reviews that criticize the way Mankell chronicles the mundane details of Wallander’s day-to-day existence—all those rumpled shirts and take-away hamburgers—but I’m more captivated by the prosaic quality of these books than I am by the political issues at their centers. Because we identify so closely with Wallander, we share his shock and moral repulsion at the horrific crimes he investigates. Mankell’s achievement is that he takes us inside the lived experience of another human being who just happens to be a police detective. He makes us believe in Wallander’s reality.” Doiron made our Best Mysteries of 2010 list with The Poacher’s Son. His next book, Trespasser, is out June 21 on Minotaur Books. 

I should have mentioned that Mankell's mysteries have damned good plots, too.

Do Novels Make You More Empathetic?

A new study suggests they do. Unfortunately, we seem to be trending in the wrong direction in our habits:

The number of adults who read literature for pleasure sank below 50 percent for the first time ever in the past 10 years, with the decrease occurring most sharply among college-age adults. And reading may be linked to empathy. In a study published earlier this year psychologist Raymond A. Mar of York University in Toronto and others demonstrated that the number of stories preschoolers read predicts their ability to understand the emotions of others. Mar has also shown that adults who read less fiction report themselves to be less empathic.

As a novelist, I naturally believe this observation to be true. I'd go further and say that writing fiction forces a person to develop their empathic capabilities even further. Then again, many novelists are self-involved jerks, so who knows?

Hat tip: Zoe Pollock.

"One of the Best Mysteries of 2010"

Kirkus Reviews is out today with its list of the fifteen Best Mysteries of 2010. I was stunned to learn that The Poacher's Son was one of the reviewers picks. When you consider that hundreds of mysteries were published this year—many by authors who are truly masters of the form—well, all I can say is that being selected is a pretty overwhelming honor. Here's the fine fifteen:

  •  Nowhere to Run by CJ Box
  • The Brick Layer by Noah Boyd
  • The Glass Rainbow by James Lee Burke
  • Worth Dying For by Lee Child
  • Edge by Jeffery Deaver
  • The Poacher's Son by Paul Doiron
  • The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths
  • The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths
  • The Hanging Tree by Bryan Gruley
  • Crystal Death by Charles Kipps
  • The Charming Quirks of Others by Alexander McCall Smith
  • Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny
  • Still Missing by Chevy Stevens
  • Gone 'Til November by Wallace Stroby
  • The Taken by Inger Ash Wolfe

As an author, I'm delighted to be in such distinguished company. As a reader, I'm excited to have some intriguing new books to add to my Christmas list.