One joy of being an Oregonian is the number of writers the state can claim. From Raymond Carver to Beverley Cleary, not to mention Ken Kesey, Brian Doyle, and Ursula Le Guin, we have an almost embarrassment of literary riches.
For crime fiction fans, here are some of the Oregon classics you should check out:
Ken Kesey’s Sometimes A Great Notion is frequently overshadowed by One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, but avid crime readers should check the book for its creepy, heavy ambiance. The novel features the Stamper Family, contract loggers with a “never give an inch” motto. The story explores the dynamics of the Stamper family compared to each other and the town, and it’s set during a union strike against the local logging company. The Stampers step in as strikebreakers; tragedy ensues.
Fun fact: the film adaptation of Sometimes A Great Notion was the first movie shown on HBO. Paul Newman directed and starred in it, and the cast includes Henry Fonda, Michael Sarrazin, and Lee Remick. Plus, Richard Jaeckel received an Academy Award nomination for his supporting role in the film. To quote Quentin Tarantino, the film is “justly famous for one of the greatest scenes in early seventies cinema.” The movie was shot in Lincoln County, Oregon. You can even stay in the family’s home on the Siletz River since it’s available on the short-term rental market.
MK Wren’s Conan Flagg series, starting with Curiosity Didn’t Kill The Cat, features a former secret agent and licensed PI who buys a bookshop on the Oregon Coast. The novel feels like a time capsule of Oregon. The sixth book in the series, Wake Up, Darlin’ Corey, is set against the backdrop of developing previously untouched natural areas. It echoes the same environmental arguments Oregon has been dealing with for decades. The series touches on cold war politics and spies, regional politics, and coastal life.
Wren based her fictional bookshop on the real-life Robert’s Bookshop in Lincoln City, Oregon. This family-owned shop specializes in rare books, and it’s still going strong. They now have a second new-and-used bookshop featuring commercial fiction. When I was young, around ten, I met Wren at a book signing. I still have my signed copy of Curiosity Didn’t Kill The Cat, along with the memory of telling Wren that I, too, was going to be a writer. (She was encouraging!)
In addition to her mystery and suspense novels, Kate Wilhelm was known for her science fiction work, including her Hugo-winning Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang. She’s also known for establishing the Clarion workshop alongside her husband, Damon Knight, and Robin Scott Wilson. Crime fiction fans will be most interested in her Barbara Holloway mysteries, featuring a defense attorney who solves crimes alongside her retired attorney father in Eugene, Oregon. Or her Constance Leidl and Charlie Meiklejohn mysteries about a former arson detective turned private investigator who solves cases alongside his psychologist wife.
For non-fiction fans, Wicked Portland: The Wild and Lusty Underworld of a Frontier Seaport Town by Finn JD John, creator of the Offbeat Oregon podcast featuring quirky Oregon history, is worth a look. It tackles Portland’s seedy past with a side of humor. If you’d like something more serious, check out Dark Rose: Organized Crime and Corruption in Portland by Robert C. Donnelly. The book explores the union and police corruption that led the McClellan Committee (aka The U.S. Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field) to investigate the Oregon mob. Which led to evidence proving the Teamsters’ president Dave Beck’s embezzlement of union funds. It also brought Jimmy Hoffa’s mob connection to light.
If you’re looking for contemporary Oregon mystery authors, you’re in luck. We’ve continued our tradition of producing crime novels that cover the gamut from hipster to dark and atmospheric, funny to heartfelt.
If you’re a fan of graphic novels, Greg Rucka’s Stumptown features a female PI, and the art in the series has a very noir feel. You can dive into Portland and even attend a Timbers game in the four-volume series.
Phillip Margolin’s latest legal thriller, The Darkest Place, came out in March 2022. Margolin is a former Portland defense attorney as well as a best-selling author.
Elle Marr’s Strangers We Know comes out on May 1, 2022, and features a young woman adopted as a baby. When she does a DNA test as an adult, she finds out she’s the PNW’s Full Moon Killer. Things really get interesting when she connects with a biological cousin and some of her new found biological family.
Sisters Lisa Jackson and Nancy Bush both write romantic suspense from their home bases in the Portland Metro region, and they sometimes co-write! If you want to read one of their collaborations, start with Wicked Game, the first in their Wicked series. Jessie Brentwood disappeared from St. Elizabeth High School twenty years ago. When her body is found on the grounds of their old high school, her friends meet up to discuss what happened. . . and start dying.
If you’re looking for a touch of magic in your books, check out Angela M. Sander’s Witch Way Librarian cozy series, starting with Bait and Witch.
Dana Haynes might report the news in Portland, Oregon, but he travels the world in his “high voltage” thrillers. His new The St. Nicholas Salvage & Wrecking series features a firm of largely illegal bounty hunters who track down some of the world’s worst criminals.
If you’re buying mysteries for teens, you probably already know April Henry’s name, as she’s written over 26 novels for teens and adults. Her next book for teens, Two Truths and a Lie comes out in May 2022.
Writing novels is Warren Easley’s second career. So he should write about a former prosecutor who moves to Oregon’s wine country after a traumatic event and now takes on the impossible cases of clients who have no else to turn to. The series starts with 2013’s Matter of Doubt and continues to the eighth book in the series, 2021’s No Witness.
You can visit Ashland, Oregon, and maybe stop by the Shakespeare Festival in Ellie Alexander’s Bakeshop Mystery series. The fifteenth book in the series, Donut Disturb, comes out in June 2022.
Renee Denfeld’s novels about Naomi, a private investigator known as the “child finder,” meet at the corner of literary and mystery. The Childfinder and The Butterfly Girl are excellent choices for readers looking for atmospheric, character-driven narratives.
Mary Keliikoa’s Kelly Pruitt series featuring a Portland private investigator starts with Derailed.
You can visit Portland in Bill Cameron’s Skin Kadish series or Eastern Oregon in Crossroad (written as W. H. Cameron).
And, of your course, you can visit a Portland, Oregon food cart pod and solve a murder in the Ground Rules Mystery series, written by me (Emmeline Duncan). In Fresh Brewed Murder, Sage Caplin opens a new coffee cart in Portland. Not long after launching her business, she finds one of her customers dead, killed with her box cutter. Will she be able to find the killer before the investigation, and maybe her life grinds to a halt?
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