Elisa Shoenberger has been building a library since she was 13. She loves writing about all aspects of books from author interviews, antiquarian books, archives, and everything in between. She also writes regularly for Murder & Mayhem and Library Journal. She's also written articles for Huffington Post, Boston Globe, WIRED, Slate, and many other publications. When she's not writing about reading, she's reading and adventuring to find cool new art. She also plays alto saxophone and occasionally stiltwalks. Find out more on her website or follow her on Twitter @vogontroubadour.
We’ve all heard of epic stories with heroes battling for honor and duty in sprawling stories, including the Odyssey, the Ramayana, and Game of Thrones. More recently, we’ve seen an expansion of the term epic to include epic crime, including films like The Godfather and Goodfellas.
But what exactly is an epic crime novel?
The British Film Institute offers this definition:
In its standard definition, the term applies to a longform poem recounting the deeds of a legendary figure or dynasty, often spanning several years or even lifetimes. The same description might apply to epic cinema, as we follow our hero through the eras of their life, across years, decades and even generations. In the case of the epic crime drama, this often means following a ruthless character’s steady rise to power – or their final fall from grace.
CrimeReads had a different definition:
The epic crime novels of the past few decades have made up for the brevity of their forebears in both length and complexity…A long novel might be a chance to really dig into an individual psyche, but long crime novels tend more towards the multicast epics of power and confrontation, often on a historical stage or in a present day marred by the real implications of past actions.
Does epic necessarily mean a long story? Does it mean the rise and fall of a villain or anti-hero? I think the answer is somewhere in the middle.
To me, an epic crime read is a sprawling, multi-faceted, long-ranging narrative with crime at its center. It doesn’t have to be a long read, nor does it have to be about one single person’s rise and fall. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that many books described as crime epics tend to be related to organized crime–there’s a larger-than-life feeling where the stakes are literally life and death. Of course, there’s crime in the center of an epic crime novel, whether organized crime, a kidnapping scheme, or something else. It’s not an accident that so many epic crime novels exist in fantasy worlds.
To celebrate the rise of epic crime novels, here’s a list of 8 BIPOC Epic Crime novels.
House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias
This book really takes the idea that violence begets violence to heart. Taking place in Puerto Rico, five teenage boys have been friends since childhood and have literally weathered the constant threat of death. But this time, death has come too close: the mother of one of five friends, Maria, has been gunned down, just as a hurricane is about to hit the island. Bimbo, the dead woman’s son, demands revenge, and his four friends are all going to help him. But the murderer may be connected to a powerful cartel on the island. Can Bimbo finish his quest, or will he and his friends die trying? Or will the hurricane sweep them away first?
Machinehood By S.B. Divya
It’s 2095, and humans can only compete with robots thanks to a pill that makes them live longer and be more productive, focused, and resilient. But not everyone is pleased with the development of this pill. Welga Ramirez watches her client being killed by the terrorist group called the Machinehood, who are picking off people related to the production and manufacture of the pills. The group wants pill production to stop in a week. The threat spreads panic around the world as people fear the loss of the life-saving pill. Welga has to figure out who is behind the Machinehood and stop them.
Sins of Survivors: A Carter Brothers Novel By Blair Underwood and Joe McClean
Brothers Benjamin and Jasper have fled their home in Alabama after racist violence claimed the life of their father. They find themselves in Detroit in the neighborhood known as “Black Bottom.” There, they can pull themselves up to become the crime heads in the neighborhood. But as they grow and flourish with their criminal kingdom, cracks begin to fracture in the brothers’ relationship and empire. Sins of Survivors is listed as the first book in a series, so be ready for the additional book or books in the near future! It’s described as Harlem Shuffle meets The Godfather. And yes, it’s that Blair Underwood.
Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara
Nine-year-old Jai has watched so many TV crime shows that he thinks he can use his skills to investigate the disappearance of a classmate. He brings on two friends, Pari and Faiz, to investigate the Dijin Patrol, but there’s no fantasy here. They soon learn that children have been disappearing from their slum for a long time, and no one seems to care. Soon, one of the missing has become extremely personal.
This is a dark story that is based on a real crime epidemic in India, where children go missing without concern from the media, police, and the rest of society.
Harmattan Season by Tochi Onyebuchi
This recently published standalone novel features private eye Boubacar, down on his luck. He’s underwater financially, and a giant Harmattan–a dust-laden wind–has taken over the entire city. One day, Boubacar finds a woman in need of help, bleeding at his doorstep. He helps hide her from the officials looking for her, but when he checks on her, all he finds is a bloodstain. Her appearance and disappearance set Boubacar on a mission that takes him into a messy conflict about to erupt in the city.
Harmattan Season is an homage to Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe, but in a fantasy and decolonial context.
The Mayor of Maxwell Street by Avery Cunningham
In 1921 Chicago, Nelly Sawyer came from a wealthy Black family who made their fortune in race horses. After the death of the heir apparent, her older brother, Nelly’s parents are planning her debut and hope to marry her to establish themselves in Chicago society.
But Nelly has other ideas. She’s an aspiring journalist at the legendary Black newspaper, the Chicago Defender. She has gotten the big break she hoped for: she’s been asked to go undercover to learn the identity of the Mayor of Maxwell Street, the man behind the criminal gangs throughout Chicago. Nelly meets Jay Shorey, a young speakeasy owner who was orphaned at an early age due to racial violence. But soon, Nelly realizes that her assignment is dead serious and that she may be over her head in this investigation.
The Missing American by Kwei Quartey
The first in the four-book “Emma Djan Investigation” series, Emma Djan has resigned herself to a life as a private investigator. She’s lucky for it, since she was kicked off the police force, and she got the PI role from a former cop. Her first case involves a middle-aged widower from the US who has gone missing. He had been corresponding with a Ghanaian widow who asked for monetary help after an accident. Not only does he give her the money, but he also travels to Ghana to find his new love, and then goes missing. Can Emma find the lost American and potentially bring the scammers to justice?
A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark
It’s 1912, and Cairo is a whirlwind of djinns, robots, steamships… and British colonizers. The city is on edge after the massacre of a secret brotherhood dedicated to Al-Jahiz, a powerful mage who had opened up a portal between the mundane world and the world of the djinns. The murderer? A man claiming to be Al-Jahiz returned. The victims? British aristocrats.
Working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, Fatima el-Sha’arawi is assigned to the case along with a new partner, a rookie named Hadia. Together, they have to figure out who is murdering people in Cairo while also working together.
If you want more mysteries and thrillers, check out this list of books by Black authors. Or if you want some noir, the darkest side of the crime genre, check out this list of new noir novels.
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