John asked James L. Thane:

can i get your top 5 crime fiction books? Thank you, JR

James L. Thane This is really a difficult question, John. There are so many crime novels that I love that it's virtually impossible to narrow the list down to five. But these are five that I've read any number of times and that remain important to me for one reason or another:

Sins of the Fathers, by Lawrence Block. This is the first novel in Block's Matthew Scudder series, which remains, hands down, my favorite crime fiction series of all. Scudder is one of the great characters in crime fiction and it's important to follow the arc of the character from the beginning.

Trunk Music, by Michael Connelly. This is the fifth novel in Connelly's Harry Bosch series. I think that Connelly is writing the best of the modern police procedural series, and this is my favorite of the series.

Rules of Prey, by John Sandford. This is the book that introduced Minnesota police detective Lucas Davenport. I love the character and the wry humor in the books; the plots are always entertaining, and twenty-six books later, Lucas is still going strong.

The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler. This is the classic of all classic P.I. novels, and paved the way for much of the crime fiction that would follow.

The Winter of Frankie Machine, by Don Winslow. I could have put any number of Winslow's books on this list--I love virtually everything he's written, but I have a particular fondness for this book, which I imagine I'll be rereading for years to come, as is the case with all the other books I've listed here.

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