The Surreal Detective

I love a good detective story, especially those with hard-nosed protagonists, dangerous dames, and a plot pulled from the foxed pages of pulps. Think Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer or Carter Brown's Al Wheeler.

However, today's blog post focuses on something a little different...the surreal detective. Books set in far away places or the past where normalcy is the extraordinary. Robots walk (or have walked) the earth in the 1960's, paranormal activity is common place, and killing is a business shared by both organic and artificial intelligence. 

Some of my favorite books fall into the surreal sub genre of detective/crime fiction. The Collector series by Chris F Holm sees Sam Thornton tasked with collecting souls of the damned, naturally this isn't as straight forward as watching, baiting, and waiting. Especially when some of the souls aren't exactly damned...when questions get asked, all hell breaks loose... Starting with Dead Harvest, this three-book series is a heady mix of urban fantasy and noir - ah, just what the doctor ordered. 

I was fortunate enough to interview Chris on way back in 2014. You can read the full interview HERE. 

In Empire City, a town bursting at the seams with weird and wonderful science, a robot detective with nerves and a chassis of steel makes ends meet as a tough hardboiled detective. Mack Megaton was the first surreal detective character I read and I instantly wanted more. Sadly, author A. Lee Martinez penned the one novel featuring the robot, The Automatic Detective. I can't recommend this book enough. 

Having just finished re-reading Killing is my Business by Adam Christopher, I couldn't leave this 1960's robot hitman series off the list. Starting with Made to Kill, the last robotic detective off the production line, Ray heads up the Electromatic Detective Agency, an agency which dabbles in murder more than finding missing people - unless said missing persons were scheduled for elimination that is. The 4 book series is a lighter look at a dark side of surreal crime fiction with Ray instantly likable and down to earth.