Somehow the idea of the hard-boiled, babe-chasing, long-drinking protagonist who goes home each evening to his kids hasn't really taken off in the world of crime fiction. There are a few single fathers, such as Alex Cross in James Patterson's novels, and you have an author like Jeffrey Cohen who created protagonist Aaron Tucker, a part-time stay-at-home-dad to a son with Asperger's Syndrome (a form of autism, a condition that afflicts Cohen's own son). But the list of such crime fiction Dads isn't very long.
Likewise the roll call of Father's Day-themed crime fiction/mystery novels and stories is fairly scant, but there are a few to be found running the gamut from noir to cozy:
The Father's Day Murder, A Holiday Cozy by Lee Harris, is the 11th in a series of holiday-themed murder mysteries by the author featuring ex-nun (and amateur detective) Christine Bennett. In this outing, one of the students in Christine's poetry class calls her for help when the girl's grandfather is accused of murder.
Father's Music by Dermot Bolger. Gerard Brennan's blog Crime Scene NI (Northern Ireland) recently profiled this book which Brennan says "may slip under most crime aficionado's radar's as Dermot Bolger is better known as a literary novelist. However, this offering is crime fiction through and through."
Dear Old Dead by Jane Haddam features Gregor Demarkian, an Armenian-American detective, in this tenth holiday mystery which has a Father's Day theme of sorts and centers on a gang war raging around a Harlem medical clinic.
Father's Day Murder by Leslie Meier has protagonist Lucy Stone investigating the murder of a nearly bankrupt newspaper dynasty patriarch right before Father's Day, with suspicion falling on the man's children.
The Blue Religion is a 2008 MWA Anthology edited by Michael Connolly which also features a story by Michael Connelly titled "Father's Day," in which Harry Bosch faces one of his most emotionally trying cases, investigating the death of a young boy.
If readers know of others, please feel free to add them in! And don't forget Dear Ole Dad today. (Hint: from my experience, men like chocolate, too. The hubster's addicted to Godiva's Petite Mousse Biscuits.)
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