Best P.I. Novels Of This Millennium? 

The Preliminary List

Okay, so in January 2024, a discussion broke out on Rara-Avis about how, essentially, they don’t write ’em like they used to. Of course they were talking about the whole hard-boiled/noir universe, but I jumped in and asked them what they consider the best P.I. novels of THIS millennium.

I got enough of a response that I started asking in a few more places, mostly Twitter (oh, sorry, Elon– “X”) and Facebook, and got even more suggestions.  

I’m still asking. In fact, you can comment here or email me, and I’ll add your suggestions to the list.

I’m not sure what I’ll eventually do with the results, but just listing them right now is sorta fun. So far, there are no obvious “winners,” but we’re compiling one hell of a reading list. 

Oh, and they’re not in any sort of order…

• The James Deans (2005) by Reed Farrel Coleman
  Featuring Moe Prager.
• The Second Murderer (2023) by Denise Mina
  Featuring Philip Marlowe.
• The Running Grave (2023) by Robert Garthwaite
  Featuring Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott.
• Everybody Knows (2023) by Jordan Harper 
  Featuring Mae Pruett.
• A Man Named Doll (2021) by Jonathan Ames
  Featuring Happy Doll.
• The Twenty-Year Death (2012) by Ariel S. Winter
  Featuring Dennis Foster.
• The Cuckoo’s Calling (2013) by Robert Garthwaite
  Featuring Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott.
• Already Dead (2005) by Charlie Huston
  Featuring Joe Pitt
• All Kinds of Ugly (2020) by Ralph Dennis
  Featuring Jim Hardman
• The Evil That Men Do (2008) by Dave White
  Featuring Jackson Donne
• Bye Bye Baby (2021) by Ace Atkins
  Featuring Spenser.
• Loyalty (2013) by Ingrid Thoft
  Featuring Fina Ludlow.
• Little Girl Lost (2004) by Richard Aleas (Charles Ardai)
  Featuring John Blake.
• Celine (2017) by Peter Heller
  Featuring Celine.
• Racing the Light (2022) by Robert Crais
  Featuring Elvis Cole.
• The Long and Faraway Gone (2015) by Lou Berney
  Featuring Wyatt.
• Only to Sleep (2018) by Lawrence Osborne
  Featuring Philip Marlowe.
• All the Flowers Are Dying (2005) by Lawrence Block
  Featuring Matt Scudder.
• Magic City Blues (2023) by Bobby Mathews
  Featuring Kincaid.
• Taken (2012) by Robert Crais
  Featuring Elvis Cole.
• Fortune Favors the Dead (2020) by Stephen Spotswood
  Featuring Lilian Pentecost and Will Parker.
• Brenner and God (2012) by Wolf Haas
  Featuring Simon Brenner
• The Final Country (2001) by James Crumley
  Featuring Milo Milodragovitch.
• Trigger City (2008) by Sean Chercover
  Featuring Ray Dudgeon
• Holly (2023) by Stephen King
  Featuring Holly Gibney
• Lost Light (2003) by Michael Connelly
  Featuring Harry Bosch
• Sunset and Jericho (2023) by Sam Wiebe
  Featuring Dave Wakeland
• The Dawn Patrol  (2008) by Don Winslow
  Featuring Boone Daniels
• The Goldenacre (2022) by Philip Miller
  Featuring Shona Sandison.
• The Last Detective (2002) by Robert Crais
  Featuring Elvis Cole
• I.D. (2016) by Joe Ide
  Featuring Isaiah “I.Q.”Quintabe
• The Gentleman’s Hour (2011) by Don Winslow
  Featuring Boone Daniels.
• Dead West (2020) by Matt Goldman
  Featuring Nils Shapiro.
• When One Man Dies (2001) by Dave White
  Featuring Jackson Donne.
• City of Dragons (2010) by Kelli Stanley
  Featuring Miranda Corbie.
• Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead (2011) by Sara Gran
  Featuring Claire DeWitt.
• Secrets Typed in Blood (2022) by Stephen Spotswood
  Featuring Lilian Pentecost and Will Parker.
• Canary In A Coal Mine (2022)
  Featuring Pete Fortunato.
• The Wheel of Doll (2022) by Jonathan Ames
  Featuring Happy Doll.
• Big City, Bad Blood (2007) by Sean Chercover
  Featuring Ray Dudgeon.
• Burning Midnight (2012) by Loren D. Estleman
  Featuring Amos Walker.
• Inherent Vice (2009) by Thomas Pynchon
  Featuring Doc Sportello.
• The Wrong Kind of Blood (2006) by Declan Hughes
  Featuring Ed Loy.
• Generation Loss (2007) by Elizabeth Hand
  Featuring Cass Neary.
• The Good Son (2008) by Russel D. McLean
  Featturing J. McNee.
• The Do-Right (2015) by Lisa Sandlin
  Featuring Delpha Wade & Tom Phelan.
• No Good Deeds (2006) by Laura Lippman
  Featuring Tess Monaghan.
• This City is Every Other City (2021) by John McFetridge
  Featuring Good Stewart.
• Street Level (2000) by Bob Truluck
  Featuring Duncan Sloan.
• Black Maps (2003) by Peter Spiegelman
  Featuring John March.
• The Silkworm (2014) by Robert Galbraith
  Featuring Cormoran Strike.
• The Last Place You Look (2017) by Kristen Lepionka
  Featuring Roxane Weary.
• Death Of A Showgirl (2013) by Tobias Jones
  Featuring Castagnetti.
• Sunburn (2018) by Laura Lippman
  Featuring Adam Bosk.
• Blind Vigil (2020) by Matt Coyle
  Featuring Rick Cahill.
• Midnight Lullaby (2015) by James D.F. Hannah
  Featuring Henry Malone.
• The Guards (2000) by Ken Bruen
  Featuring Jack Taylor.

Thanks, but not really a P.I. novel…

• A Thousand Steps (2022) by T. Jefferson Parker
  Featuring Matt Anthony
• Night of the Jaguar (2006) by Michael Gruber
  Featuring police detective Jimmy Paz
• The Serialist (2010) by David Gordon
  Featuring novelist Harry Bloch.