A call for book recs

[stillsostrange]

I would like suggestions for good books (or shorter works) set in Boston. Particularly ones that give good place-porn. I'm partial to spec fic and mysteries, but any genre is up for grabs if it's readable.

Comments

[readingthedark.livejournal.com]

Michael Marano's Dawn Song and Paul Tremblay's two Mark Genevich novels come to mind quickly. I don't really know Matthew Pearl's The Dante Club, but it comes to mind slowly.

[readingthedark.livejournal.com]

Oh, should've noted that these are all ones that work the locale hard and Pearl's is Civil War era or so. (Robert B. Parker was the big Boston mystery writer, but I wouldn't recommend him to you because his work lacked texture, coming across as Chandler's stale leftovers.)

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

I'm quite enjoying the Parkers, which're set mostly in Cambridge. But the books are mostly about Spenser adhering to his moral code than the places they're set. (I've been surprised at how well and non-facilely he handles queer issues often, such as in LOOKING FOR RACHEL WALLACE. Not that he can't otherwise simplify these or other issues on occasion.)

But Linda Barnes may give better Boston place-porn with her Carlotta Carlyle series.

[readingthedark.livejournal.com]

Barnes never worked for me, but I enjoyed most of the Parkers. He was also a literary lion in the Boston scene, very supportive and lots of blurbs. His witty banter, Chandlery metaphors, and some really subtle literary alusions were all my kind of thing.

[stillsostrange.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I should have read Paul's books by now anyway.