The 13 most essential Los Angeles books of mystery or crime

The L.A. Times asked writers with deep ties to the city to name their favorite Los Angeles books. One of their top titles of mystery or crime:

Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha, 2019

In this magnificent novel, Cha overturns all the conventions of crime fiction, even as she employs them to broader ends. Inspired by the 1991 murder of Latasha Harlins, the book moves from the 1992 uprising nearly to the present, tracing the effects of that killing on two families (one Black and one Korean). Cha is a deft stylist and a vivid creator of character, and she understands that there are no glib solutions in a situation such as this. “Some might call this a crime novel — and of course it is,” notes Tod Goldberg. “But it’s also the most profound look at modern Los Angeles I’ve read in recent memory.”

Read about the other entries on the list.

Your House Will Pay is among Jordan Harper's three top novels in the new L.A. crime canon, Erin E. Adams's seven titles that use mystery to examine race, María Amparo Escandón's eight books about living in Los Angeles, Alyssa Cole's five top crime novels that explore social issues, Sara Sligar's seven California crime novels with a nuanced take on race, class, gender & community, and Karen Dietrich's eight top red herrings in contemporary crime fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue