Philadelphia – Philly, the City of Brotherly Love, the start of Route 66 – biggest city in Pennsylvania and the sixth biggest city in the USA with over 6 million inhabitants. Founded on principles of religious freedom and an occasional capital of these here United States. And, of course, a city with a pretty decent amount of crime fiction too. So let’s dive straight in to some of the best revealing the many sides of the city…
Liz Moore’s Long Bright River (2020) is very contemporary Philly or at least one side of Philly life. The novel takes place in a Philadelphia neighbourhood rocked by the opioid crisis, where two once-inseparable sisters find themselves at odds. One, Kacey, lives on the streets and is an addict. The other, Mickey, is a cop. They don’t speak anymore, but Mickey never stops worrying about her sibling. Then, amid a string of murders, Kacey disappears, and Mickey needs to find her. A truly suspenseful novel set on Philly’s mean streets.
Rita Cameron’s The House Party (2022) is a very different Philadelphia. Maja Jensen is smart, stylish, and careful, the type of woman who considers every detail when building her dream home in the suburbs of Philadelphia. But when a group of reckless teenagers trash the newly built home just weeks before she moves in, her plans are shattered. Everyone tells her they’re “good kids” but maybe that’s just parents protecting their own. A dive into the hidden gang cultures and violence of the wealthy American suburbs and how communities can bond together for both good and bad reasons.
Poor Philly, rich Philly…and then there’s big and lonely Philly. In Andrea Bartz’s The Spare Room (2023) Kelly’s new life in Philadelphia is a nightmare: She’s friendless and jobless, and lockdown has her trapped in a tiny apartment with the man she gave up everything for…. who’s just called off their wedding without any warning. The only bright spot is her newly rekindled friendship with her glamorous bestselling author and childhood friend Sabrina, and her handsome, high-powered husband. A threesome in some luxury surroundings sounds like just the thing, until Kelly finds out that the last person to be third went missing in suspicious circumstances. Beware the Philly burbs!!
We should not forget that Philadelphia is one of America’s most historic cities so a fair amount of historical fiction involving the city is to be expected. Ritu Mukerji’s Murder by Degrees (2023) was an Edgar Award Finalist for Best First Novel in 2023. Mukerji is originally from Kolkata but studied at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. In Murder by Degrees it’s Philadelphia, 1875, and the start of term at Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. Dr. Lydia Weston, professor and anatomist, is immersed in teaching her students in the lecture hall and hospital. When the body of a patient, Anna Ward, is dredged out of the Schuylkill River, the young chambermaid’s death is deemed a suicide. But Lydia is suspicious, and she is soon brought into the police investigation. A great novel that indicates that perhaps a series may be in the offing.
And then there’s gritty Philly, as seen in David S Tanz’s Philadelphia Crime Series of 4 books. In A Shot of Brandi (2012) we jump between Atlantic City and Philadelphia meeting mobsters, murderers, and the Colombo-like crime skills of the Organized Crime Task Force (OCTF) and lead detective Stephen Davis. In Silk on the Rocks (2013) Stephen Davis and the OCTF of Philadelphia are baffled by two series of murders. The first involves mob related slayings of low-level criminals. The second set of homicides revolve around homicides involving suburban swinging housewives that wind up dead. Are they related? In A Toast to Justice (2013) Davis is tracking a sniper who has taken out several icons that represent several insurance companies. Finally in Rough Seas Ahead (2015) OCTF have to deal with rogue cruise ships, witness protection program characters and feuding brothers.
A few more Philly-set crime novels:
- Richard Montanari’s Shutter Man (2015) follows the Farren family, a plague upon Philadelphia’s most dangerous neighbourhood, the Devil’s Pocket, for generations. There, row after row of tumbledown houses hide dark secrets – none darker than Billy, the youngest Farren. When he goes bad it’s time for Detective Kevin Byrne and his partner Jessica Balzano to step in.
- John Florio’s Blind Moon Alley (2016) follows Jersey Leo, an albino of mixed race. Known as ‘Snowball’ on the street, he tends bar at a speakeasy the locals call the Ink Well. There, he’s considered a hero for having saved the life of a young boy. But when his old grade school buddy, Aaron Garvey, calls from death row and asks for one last favour, his life’s about get turned upside down in a Philly of crooked cops, the sultry Myra Banks, ex-boxers, street hoods, a dim-witted dockworker named Homer; and a dubious palm reader Madame Curio.
- Duane Sweirczynski’s Revolver (2016) moves across three timelines – Philadelphia 1965 when two street cops are gunned down in a robbery gone wrong and one of the fallen officers, Stanislaw Walczak, leaves behind a twelve-year-old boy, Jimmy. Cut to Philadelphia 1995 and Jimmy, now Homicide detective Jim Walczak, learns that his father’s alleged killer, Terrill Lee Stanton, is out of prison. Walczak will be waiting. And finally, cut to Philadelphia 2015: Jim Walczak’s daughter Audrey, studying forensic science in grad school, reinvestigates her grandfather’s murder for her dissertation. But the deeper Audrey digs, the more she realises: the man everyone thinks killed Walczak didn’t do it.
And finally, crime writing legend and one of the most successful American novelists of his time, (who sold an estimated 70 million books) John D. MacDonald was born in Pennsylvania, though his writing is more commonly associated with Florida. But he did write a few books set in Philly too including the short story, The Filly from Philly (1950) while his Travis McGee series is all Philadelphia Northeast-city grit adapting to Fort Lauderdale
