Rappin' 'bout Jeremiah Healy

Celebrating its first year as a blog, The Rap Sheet asked authors and fans, What one crime, mystery, or thriller novel do you think has been most unjustly overlooked, criminally forgotten, or underappreciated over the years?

I was too busy to answer in time, but my answer is Spiral by Jeremiah Healy. I've always felt his John Francis Cuddy series was under-appreciated next to Spenser and Kenzie and Gennaro, as The Rap Sheet's J. Kingston Pierce mentioned in an interview with Healy back when Spiral was released.

While many fictional PIs have increasingly longer, drawn-out relationships, Healy had the the courage to kill off Cuddy's significant other and see how this would affect him. And while Healy planned to write more Cuddy at the time, Spiral is also a fitting end to a series that never rested on its laurels.

I posted a tribute to Healy on his birthday two years ago. Elizabeth Zelvin of Poe's Deadly Daughters posted a new interview with him today.