Derek Raymond dares you to look

On the hunt for something new, I was recently convinced to try out some Derek Raymond novels, largely on the back of a podcast telling me they're the best crime novels ever written, and I am a sucker for suggestion.

So I started with I Was Dora Suarez and I don't know if they're the best crime books ever - that will require further effort - but they are genuinely the nastiest things I've ever read. The stories are so grimy and so vulgar, it's still shocking, decades after the author died. The killer is disgustingly awful and the hero is a complete arsehole, but he's the good guy because everybody else is so much worse. (Plus his insane wife also killed his daughter, so there's that.)

It's all so evocatively rendered in Raymond's stark prose, and it's so gory and unflinching, that it actually makes me feel a little ill when I read too much of it in one go.

But I can't stop now. Because if you're going to be nasty, you need to be full nasty. Half measures is cowardice, so if you're going down that path, go all the way. And there's a tawdry and absolute rush in any story that can actually make you have a physical reaction, even if it's one of the worst ones.

I'm going to have to try more of Raymond's books to really have an informed opinion on the writer's worldview, and it's going to be hard, but anything worthwhile needs to take some effort. And a strong stomach.