In the his introduction to the NYRB edition of Don Carpenter’s Hard Rain Falling, George Pelecanos wrote:

“It is not, as it has been often described, a crime novel, though it does concern itself peripherally with criminals and their milieu.”

I thought of this line while reading The Mess and Nirvana is Here. Both books are crime fiction adjacent, and have crime fiction characters and elements, but aren’t fully genre pieces. Readers of a genre will typically like these stories and in some cases may even be the initial champions of them. There are some great crime fiction books in the pocket of space that Pelecanos describes. I’ve already written about and recommended books that don’t fully square with the genre in other ways, so here’s two more.

Both books are 2026 releases from Fantagraphics. Nirvana is Here is out October 20th and The Mess just came out at the end of September.

Nirvana is Here is a coming of age story where a brother and sister are going to come into contact with some people they shouldn’t have when they try and do the right thing and help someone out who seems to need it.

In The Mess a teen goes with his mom to clean out his estranged grandfather’s house after he died. She believes there is a Picasso somewhere in the house and finding it could solve a lot of their problems. They get to know the people in the neighborhood. Among them, the man who lives directly across the street that everyone thinks is a murderer and a couple of neighborhood petty criminals who are constantly getting into some shit.

Both books are about the motley collection of characters that come into contact with the main characters. Unlikely friendships are created and relationships are explored. They are also about first impressions and getting past them. The ostracized neighbor that everyone is scared of may just be lonely. I guess they are both coming of age stories in their own ways. Where the Body Was by Ed Brubaker is a neighborhood book like these that is at the opposite end of the genre spectrum.

I really enjoyed both of these books and highly recommend both of them. Fantagraphics is a great publisher and I’m always looking forward to what they bring out, which is why I wanted to give some of their releases from this year a shout.