The best crime fiction sagas with cops in pursuit of the bad guys

Having worked bank robberies as a former FBI Special Agent, I have a keen sense as to what makes these people tick. Most are quite ignorant, however, occasionally clever planning takes place by those as brazen as Hogan has portrayed here. A true masterpiece, Chuck Hogan does a splendid job bringing his characters to life in all the real-life depictions you will enjoy. This is a gut-wrenching roller coaster mixing crime with romantic infatuation to the point you can’t stop reading. I’ll admit, once the movie came out, I had to get the book and now it’s one of my all-time favorite crime thrillers.

My Clive Cussler favorite, The Chase kept me in pursuit of the villain with all the suspense and adventurous imagination I’ve come to expect from Cussler’s long line of good guy/bad guy novels. I identified with Detective Isaac Bell as I, too, once pursued bank robbers and killers from one State to another while employed as an FBI agent. In this story, Bell is put to the challenge in an audacious plot of robbery and murder. To identify this despicable felon, Bell finds that a woman plays into it adding intrigue to the outcome.

If you’re looking for someone who can develop characters, it’s Don Winslow. I chose Winslow’s novel, The Cartel, due to my close association with drug enforcement while employed as an FBI agent. The choice I made couldn’t have been more fascinating. The character descriptions were so well written that I felt I was in the same room with them as they carried out their riveting schemes. Winslow employs betrayal, corruption, and dialogue in ways that bind you, as the reader, to the pages with all the tenacity and veracity you can handle. A dramatic and deep insight into the drug trade with all the realism you can imagine. This book is thorough and I was very impressed.

From the days of my youth, I’ve always had an interest in stories relating to the pursuit of murderers by a Sherlock Holmes type of character. Anthony Horowitz excels in this novel with his character, Daniel Hawthorne, an ex-detective who is determined to solve the mystery Horowitz so artfully lays out. While attending a literary festival at an island once held by the Nazis, two murders take place which throw shadows over those attending as they each are faced with Hawthorne, now on loan by the police, to aid in finding the killer. As a former federal investigator, I found myself relating to the characters, their personalities, and how they parlayed back and forth with Hawthorne. As such,  I heartedly recommend it.

Once the movie came out and I viewed it twice, I had to have the book. Now that I have it, I’ve read it twice as well. Cormac McCarthy has written a gem. A genius storyteller, his villain grips you with the way he so ruthfully takes people out while pursuing his lost drug money. Regardless of where you’re from, you’ll find this tale of Texas and it’s border with Mexico intriguing, desolate, and frightening when McCarthy’s characters go full-tilt with no mercy in mind. It’s all about an innocent find of two million dollars and what an impossible task it will be to hold on to it. You’ll read it like the wind.