Found: SF Novel by Mostly Mystery Writer

This SF book was written by a writer known more for mysteries. Came out back in the 80s or 90s, maybe even the early 2000s. Set in a dystopian future. A group of criminals, bandits or whatever, all males, numbering around 4-6. One member is needlessly violent. One is a young man or boy with retardation or some other mental handicap. I think he was the main character. The boy stops the group leader from killing the violent one at one point.
They break into a home where there's a small gap in the perimeter scanners of the home and this is where the incident of the boy stopping the violent one being killed occurs. I only read about 1/4-1/3 of the book, so I don't know how it ends or what the major story theme was. It was a full length novel, not a short story.
The setting was, I think, a wasteland with isolated pockets of modern technology. The home they break into was off by itself, I think. The book was recent or new when I read it.
I think the group leader wanted to kill the violent one because he had needlessly killed one of the people in the house they had invaded.
I need suggestions of a specific book, not just an author. I've had this question up over at Goodreads for a long while and had no luck. Many authors have been suggested, but none have been it.
I suspect it's an obscure, flop book by someone well known.

You might save us a lot of time and effort (and a lot of your telling us we're wrong) if you can copy over the ruled-out suggestions from Goodreads.

Will do.

Is this your Goodreads query?

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2066680-sf-novel-by-mostly-mystery-writer

Please note: just because an author is on this list, it doesn't mean they aren't the one in question, just that I couldn't find a specific book by them that matched. I may have missed it or it isn't listed where I've looked.

Authors suggested:

Fredric Brown
Isaac Asimov
John D. MacDonald
Donald E. Westlake
P.D. James
Lawrence Block
Rex Stout
Robert B. Parker
Dick Francis
Robert Crais
Ross Macdonald
Erle Stanley Gardner
Ron Goulart
Andrew Vachss
Andrew Greeley
Loren D. Estleman
Walter Mosley
Kate Wilhelm
Iain Banks
Dana Stabenow
Caleb Carr
Philip Kerr
Jack Vance
Lawrence Sanders
Harlan Ellison
Thomas M. Disch
Stuart M. Kaminsky
Frank M. Robinson
Thomas Scortia
Peter Lovesey
Reginald Hill
Jonathan Gash
Peter Robinson
Leslie H. Whitten Jr.
Richard Bachman
Ira Levin
Sheri S. Tepper
Ed McBain
Evan Hunter
John Dudley Ball
Rick Boyer

Specific books I've eliminated:

The Children of Men
God Game
A Clockwork Orange
Blue Light
Futureland
The Tomorrow File
Tathea
Come Armageddon
This Perfect Day

MyriadBooks, yes.

>7 Bargle5: Thanks a lot. That confirmation and the list of eliminated titles/authors are much appreciated. Good luck!

Bumping this back up. Here's a few more authors I've checked. I'm reasonably certain it was a male author. I'll mention this again. It may be by an author already listed, but an obscure, flop book.

Dan Wakefield
Ruth Rendell
J. D. Robb
James Patterson
Dean Koontz
James Crumley
Craig McDonald
George Pelecanos

And eliminated books.

The Stand
More Than Human
Dark Life by Kat Falls
Purity in Death
Blood Meridian

A bump up.

Another bump.

New Year's Eve bump.

You’ve got me curious

Another bump.

Bump, bump, da bump.

Another book eliminated A Gift Upon the Shore by M. K. Wren

Yet another bump.

Bumping again.

A hopeful bump.

A bump for June.

September bump.

December bump.

May bump.

Yet another bump.

Nov. bump.

I know Dana Stabenow is on the list of authors you've already looked at, but could it be her Star Svensdotter series? There are some similarities.

>26 HDLibrarian:

No, not those. There were no female characters in the book I'm looking for and I've never read any Dana Stabenow. Thanks for trying.

SF by Mystery writer bump.

Another SF by Mystery writer bump.

SF by Mystery writer bump again.

SF by Mystery writer bump yet again.

Arthur C. Clarke? Looking at it from the opposite angle.

Have you tried asking in one of the LT Mystery groups?

>32 humouress: Not Clarke. It was someone I was familiar with as a Mystery writer.

No, I haven't tried any other of the LT Groups other than the Science Fiction Fans group. I may look into that.

An SF by Mystery writer bump.

Another SF by Mystery writer bump.

SF by Mystery writer bump once more.

Do you remember when you read it/ when it might have been published? What country?

>37 humouress: I read it in the 80s most likely, possibly as late as the early 90s. U.S. publication. It was a library book that has since been removed.

SF by Mystery writer bump again.

You say sci-fi but is it just dystopia or do you remember other aspects of sci-fi? Would you say it was set in America or just a generic wasteland?

Maybe ask in one of the mystery book groups?

>40 humouress: Seemed to be a dystopia, but I'm not dead certain. Was set in North America, I think or was unspecified. Might try the Mystery groups.

Could be The Death of Grass by John Christopher. If not, at least it's another one to cross off the list.

>42 spaceowl: I've read that one and it isn't it. Thanks for trying.

I'll try a long shot.

Could it perhaps be Hello America by Jim G. Ballard, by any chance? It's one of his lesser-known books, came out in 1981, and I suppose that better-known novels such as Cocaine nights and even High-rise could be described as "mysteries".

When you say in >33 Bargle5: that you were familiar with the author as a Mystery writer, what kind of mystery do you have in mind? A police procedural or Agatha Christie type crime novel? Or more like legal thrillers? Contemporary mysteries or historical?

>44 Petroglyph: I don't think it's Hello America, though I'll get a copy through interlibrary loan and check it out. I didn't read much Ballard until recently.

IIRC, and I'm not sure I do, the Mysteries were something like Lawrence Block's books.

It wasn't "Hello America", so bumping this up again.

SF by Mystery writer bump.

Another SF by Mystery writer bump.

Damnation Alley by Roger Zelazny? Aspects of your description tweaked my vague memories of this one. I'm not aware of him writing mysteries, but he was prolific, so it wouldn't shock me.

It occurs to me that it might be O-Zone by Paul Theroux. There are certainly some similarities, and Theroux was dipping his toe into Science Fiction which was not his usual thing.

>49 clivers: No, not Damnation Alley. I've read that one and it isn't it. Thanks for trying.

>50 spaceowl: I don't think that's it, but I'll give it a look. Thanks for the suggestion.

>50 spaceowl: Got O-zone through the library and that isn't it. Thanks for trying.

Do you have an idea of the type of mysteries the author wrote?

IIRC (and I'm not at all sure that I do) they leaned towards the hardboiled style of things.

Christopher Brookmyre?

>56 poppycocteau: No, the author of my book was publishing back in the 70s at least, maybe earlier. Thanks for trying.

Hope springs eternal bump.

SF Novel by Mostly Mystery Writer bump.

This sounds interesting, so I hope you find it. The only name that occurs to me that isn't already on your eliminated list is Henry Slesar. Probably a long shot, because I think his stuff was mostly short stories and pre-1980s. But he is (undeservedly) out of print and obscure, so maybe...

>60 ms529212: I don't think it's him, but I'll have a look through his stuff anyway. Thanks for the suggestion.

>60 ms529212: No luck with Slesar, so a bump back up.

A bump up.

Why not another bump?

One more bump.

No need for anymore bumping. This one is solved. Solved over at the PrintSF subreddit by Chortnik. It's Tom O'Bedlam by Robert Silverberg. I got the stuff about the author badly wrong, but that's the book.

Yay! It must feel so good to finally retrieve that memory after years of fruitless searching.

Happy re-reading!

Phew!!

Congratulations!

>67 Petroglyph: Actually, it's just as boring as I remember. I'll not be going any further than I did the first time. Still, thanks!

>68 humouress: Phew, indeed. :)

>69 jollyavis: Thanks!