Welcome Reacherfan. I can see you were practically weaned on mystery!

Reacherfan - have you read Dorothy L. Sayers?

Yes I have read Sayers. I even own some of the BBC mystery series DVD's. She was one of my mom's favorites.

And yeah I was kind of weaned on mysteries. What other 6th grader has her nose stuck in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd? Right next to it would sit one of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars books! LOL What can I say, I was and still am a book fiend.

I enjoyed A Beautiful Blue Death very much. If you like Victorian mysteries have you read Anne Perry series with William Monk or Charlotte and Thomas Pitt?

I read Anne Perry years ago and got a got bored. I do like most of the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters, but I am very partial to Egyptian history and archeology, so for me it's a win-win.

Nobody has mentioned Michael Dibdin whose Aurelio Zen series is wonderful. I'm please that Ian Rankin got one mention but he should be on everybody's lists; he's about as good as it gets when it comes to crime fiction and indeed his works stand up as novels which transcend genre. I see one nod to Lindsey Davis for her wonderful crime books set in Rome of 70s AD. I'd like to second the choice of a classic crime writer of the past, John Dickson Carr, the greatest ever exponent of locked room mysteries; he had a series with one detective, Gideon Fell and then he wrote a few really classy historical-crime novels.

As well as the gritty realism of the likes of Rankin, I do like crime mysteries with an historical setting. As well as John Dickson Carr, I'd recommend Patricia Finney whose three books set in the England of the 1580s and featuring Simon Ames are cracking novels which transcend their crime genre.

I used to like P D James but find her dull and conservative now. I've never liked Agatha Christie, way too overrated. Yes she was prolific and Poirot and Marple are interesting characters but she really wasn't a terribly good writer and she quite often cheated, ignoring the convention that the reader must know as much as the detective. She was good on poisons though but so she should have been. It was her area of expertise.

Donna wrote: "I enjoyed A Beautiful Blue Death very much. If you like Victorian mysteries have you read Anne Perry series with William Monk or Charlotte and Thomas Pitt?"

Donna, I have A Beautiful Blue Death waiting in my short list pile. I'll have to get to it soon.

I'm getting into Henning Mankell now.

Deirdre wrote: "...I'd recommend Patricia Finney whose three books set in the England of the 1580s and featuring Simon Ames are cracking novels which transcend their crime genre..."

These sound good... what's the title of the first?

Fiona wrote: "I've heard of Connolly and had him highly recommended to me. I think The Lincoln Lawyer is the first in one of his series?

I'm quite 'new' to this genre of fiction which is one reason why I wante..."
Hey Fiona,
Which Andrew Taylor would you start with? I have never yet read him. Thanks for starting this group!

Oooh... I loved the Roth trilogy so you could start with The Four Last Things. It tells the story of a female psychopath starting at the end and working its way backwards - through her teenage years and then her childhood - never told from her POV but from another's.

It's dark, but it isn't morbid.

Or if you'd rather start with a stand alone - The Unpardonable Crime (or if you are from the UK it is An American Boy)

Or An Air That Kills which is set in 1950's - part of a long running series.

My personal favourite though is The Four Last Things and the rest of that trilogy and I'd recommend starting with that one.

It was that book that really made me more curious about this genre.

Few of my favourite authors are

Sir Arthur Connon Doyle.

His character Sherlock Holmes has become a legend.He is hard to match and easily an all time great.

John Dickson Carr.
His novels are gripping.I think he has written about 8 or 9 books.They are hard core mysteries.Dr. Gideon Fell is one of his famous detectives.In his books the crime scenes are described vividly.Picking up the clues from there the mystery is very rationally unraveled.Much like sherlock Holmes.

And of course the Queen of mystery novels Agatha Christie.

Earl Stanley Gardner.

I am still looking for a modern author who can match the intense suspense and logical mystery solving these authors generated in their books.