Hi Justin,
If you're looking for "heist novels," you might want to do a
search of the archives. They get discussed every now and
then. The words heist or caper should find you a few threads,
cons, too, if you also like con novels.
You're missing a few of the best in your list:
Richard Stark (AKA Donald Westlake) -- his Parker (character,
not the author) series is great, one of my favorite
hardboiled series, period. I've just started the new one, the
27th.
Duane Swierczynski -- The Wheelman is a great after-the-heist
goes wrong book. It includes brief homages to Stark and
Marlowe (see below) I've got his The Blonde on deck.
James Sallis -- you mention him. Although they are very
different books, I'll always associate Sallis's Drive with
Wheelman, because they are both about getaway drivers and
came out around the same time. However, Drive actually has
far more in common with those great '70s existential
car/crime movies like The Driver, Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry,
etc.
Ken Bruen -- American Skin has a heist at the center of it,
but it, too, is more about he aftermath.
Tying this in to the recent best contemporary writers thread,
those four are among the very few I buy in hardback; I
usually wait for the paperback.
Some others:
Russell James -- I really liked his first several books. I
need to get back into him.
Dan J. Marlowe -- The Name of the Game of Death is one of the
best. The sequel, Endless Hour, isn't bad, but after that the
Earl Drake series morphs into some kind of spy-crime amalgam
that I thought was a huge drop-off. However, every standalone
I've found by him is also very good, particularly Four for
the Money.
Ross Thomas -- most of his are more con job than straight out
heist, but I cannot recommend him highly enough.
Mark
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