Dunno where to put this (or the children's/ya) topic so here I'll put it.

I'm kinda new to this genre and have only read a few, though I am collecting novels!

I have decided I love Andrew Taylor and have read his Roth trilogy which I'd recommend if you like the whydunnit kinda genre.

I've also read A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George which was okay and I've seen the TV series of course.

One Under - Graham Hurley which is a procedural thingy. I only got that cos it's set in Portsmouth - they good books and portray the city almost as a character as well as a setting. Funny reading a book that describes things and places that you know - also he has got Portsmouth people down to a tee.

I kinda grew up watching crime dramas so I don't know why I'm not more into the books...

I have got a couple of Rebus books, some other ones I can't remember the name of and a load of Minette Walters books because someone else recommended them.

So, what authors, books etc do you like in this genre?

I like James Patterson's books. I have read 1-3 of The Women's Muder club series. I think it has just the right crime and mystery to it. I like the short chapters also.

authors: Patricia Cornwell, Jeffrey Deaver, Jeffrey Archer

I have the following authors:

Jeffery Deaver
Patricia Cornwell
James Patterson
Kathy Reichs
Karin Slaughter

Which I think are brill authors to read.

Try Gone, But Not Forgotten, Die For Me - Karen Rose, Down River, John Hart and True Evil - Greg Iles.

Mystery authors I like: Dorothy L. Sayers, Elizabeth George, C.J. Sansom, Steven Saylor, Robert B. Parker. Sansom and Saylor write historical mysteries.

Patricia Cornwell
Kathy Reiches
PD James
agatha Christie
Clive Cussler
Dexter Colin (Morse)
Elizabeth George
Robert Harris
henning Mankell


Fiona, you have to completely get into crime reading!!!!!!!

C.J Sansom - I got Dissolution to read... ahhh so many books. Has anyone read all of that series and is Dark Fire and the other one beginning with S any good?

Okay, Jeane, I am, I am. Perhaps you should read Andrew Taylor's the Roth trilogy as that's the first like crime book I read. It tells the story of a female psychopath - starting at the end and working backwards into her childhood too see what made her the person she became. It's so good.

haven't heard of it...did you here TBR shelf, add it!!! :-) It should go automaticly, the adding.

Andrew Taylor there's the author - I have in my bookshelf under Fallen Angel - the omnibus edition. Fallen Angel also known as Requiem for an Angel.

S'fantastic books!

I have read all four of them, Fiona, and really enjoyed all of them (Dissolution, Dark Fire, Sovereign, and Revelation).

I knew one of them began with an S!

I keep putting off reading it, I think I will this December though as it has the feeling of a winter read.

Dissolution has a lot of snow and ice in it, yep.

Added them Fiona. :-)
We only get richer in our heads and experiences through this group!

Yes, now go out and buy it! My friend has my copy, wish I could get it back without sounding like some obsessive book-fanatic demanding whether she's read it or not and if she isn't going to whether I can have it back.

Well, I guess I'd have to say that Agatha Christie is my all-time favorite, but I have a lot of favorites that are a little more contemporary, too. I love Laurie R. King and her Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series, starting with The Beekeeper's Apprentice. Val McDermid's The Grave Tattoo is wonderful. It is a literary mystery, which is one of the kinds of mysteries I love best. Ariana Franklin is a new favorite with her book Mistress of the Art of Death and its sequel The Serpent's Tale. Franklin also wrote City of Shadows, which I loved. Another all-time favorite is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Hound of the Baskervilles. I will add some more mystery later, as I actually have to go do something else right now. However, before I go, more in the area of crime/mystery, I've enjoyed most of Linda Fairstein's books and Harlan Coben.

Fiona, I told you: still on the not allowed to buy books for several reasons and till I am not in Dublin and have a job....it will be TBR list!

But keep remembering me all of them in about a month, when I will be settled in Dublin....the country of writers, I am coming!!!!!!!

I like Michael Connelly and Jeffrey Deaver a lot.
George Pelecanos, Dennis Lehane and of course Elizabeth George.
I have read ALL of the Lynley Havers series.
If any of you have read What Came Before He Shot Her
Would love to hear your take on it. I loved it but it received some bad reviews.

I second Michael Connelly. He is simply the best. Here are my favorites:

All Around Best: Dennis Lehane.
Police Procedural: Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly.
Private Eye: Elvis Cole series by Robert Crais.
Female Author: Irene Kelly series by Jan Burke.
Most Bizarre Protagonist: Kathleen Mallory series by Carol O'Connell.
Most Humorous: Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich (of course).
From the UK: Tom Thorne series by Mark Billingham.
Best Newcomer: John Hart, who has two standalone books to date, "The King of Lies" and "Down River", both of which are excellent.
(ETA) Legal Procedurals: The Andy Carpenter series by David Rosenfelt, who makes the courtroom scenes interesting and fun.

You have a lot of good reads ahead of you, Fiona!

Agatha Christie:

THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD
CURTAIN: POIROT'S LAST CASE
AND THEN THERE WERE NONE

Ed McBain:

ICE
LADY, LADY, I DID IT!
KILLER'S WEDGE

Fredric Brown (not as easy to find):

HIS NAME WAS DEATH
THE SCREAMING MIMI
THE FAR CRY

Ngaio Marsh:

OFF WITH HIS HEAD (aka DEATH OF A FOOL)
A MAN LAY DEAD
SURFEIT OF LAMPREYS

William Marshall (not so easy to find):

THIN AIR
OUT OF NOWHERE
THE FAR AWAY MAN

Rex Stout:

PRISONER'S BASE
AND BE A VILLAIN
MURDER BY THE BOOK

Plus: my all time favourite murder mystery is THE FALSE INSPECTOR DEW, by Peter Lovesey.

There are many other great ones out there: VENDETTA, by Michael Dibdin; THE VALLEY OF FEAR, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; SMALLBONE DECEASED, by Michael Gilbert; THE NEW SONIA WAYWARD (aka THE CASE OF SONIA WAYWARD), by Michael Innes...to name just a few more really great ones.

River of Darkness by Rennie Airth is one of the best books I've ever read. I can't remember the name of the sequel...but it is good, also.

Love Minette Walters.

If you can find them there, the Southern Sisters series by the late Anne George is sweet, sassy, and very much about my home town.

I adore the Maisie Dobbs series by Jaqueline Winspear.

Alright, you asked and I can answer a little bit :
Harlen Coben : Any of his books outside the Myron Bollitar series ( just because I haven't read them) Gone for Good,The Innocent,Just One Look,Tell No One, All of the above are excellent seat of your pants page turners.

Michael Connelly: anything in the Harry Bosch series, More police work but great books.

Greg Iles evrything of his is pretty good.

John Connolly; All of the Charlie Parker books have been exciting reads.

Frederick Forsyth Rules... Sam Bourne, Robert Ludlum, Erle Stanley Gardener (Perry Mason novels), Clive Cussler, David Baldacci, Minette Walters, Agatha Christie(Poirot ones) are some names I can remember now. There're bound to be many more. I love this genre.

I love mysteries, and I don't think anyone can outdo Christie. I have to add a few of my other favorites: Chasing the Devil's Tail by David Fulmer about the red light district of New Orleans at the turn of the century and centers around Jazz; and James Lee Burke's In The Electric Mist of the Confederate Dead. Where an old mystery is solved with some ghostly help(perhaps).

On a lighter note: The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz, it's Get Smarts with an edge. Also enjoyable are the series by Dorothy Cannell. These are English mysteries with titles like How to Murder your Mother-in-Law.

For the younger crowd I love the Sally Lockheart mysteries. Starting with The Ruby in the Smoke these with written by Philip Pullman and take place in Victorian England. To my knowledge there are four. I also have read almost everything John Bellaire ever wrote. His story always have a mysterious element to them, I still miss this man.

I feel like I have left out so many people. Maybe I'll sit down another day and add some more mysterious name to this wonderful list.

I haven't read a lot of this type of genre but am very curious. Many great suggestions.

Harlan Coben, James Patterson, Erica Spindler, and Joy Fielding are my favs.

John Sandford's Prey novels were the first crime novels i've read. they're interesting but sometimes gets very tiring, sort of a crime overload, if read one after the other. i still have to finish all prey novels, though.

try The Maltese Falcon. although it is older, it is seriously fantastic!! I loved every word!

Agatha Christie's ("Murder on the Orient Express" is my favourite) and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's are my best. I also enjoy reading the books of David Baldacci and Robert Ludlum. I'm now reading "Bangkok Haunts" by John Burdett. It's fairly good.

Authors I have read & have got:

Patricia Cornwell
Jeffery Deaver
James Patterson
Tess Gerritsen
Kathy Reichs
Karin Slaughter
Stephenie Meyer
Harlan Coben
Michael Connelly
John Grisham
C.J. Sansom
Jonathan Kellerman
Faye Kellerman

this is one of my favorite genres.
i am crazy about patricia cornwell, although i do prefer the earlier scarpetta books.

if you are interested in true crime books try:
the innocent man- john grisham
in cold blood- truman capote
the black dahlia- james mcelory
the bitter harvest- ann rule
switching time- richard baer (not so much crime, but it follows a woman with 17 multiple personalities- very interesting)

other mystery type books i enjoyed:
an absolute gentleman- r.m. kinder
the historian- elizabeth kostova
in the woods- tana french
the lovely bones- alice sebold

The Killings of Stanley Ketchel: A Novel by James Carlos Blake.

A true story about self determination, bravery, nastiness, liaisons, crime and murder.

Celeste, I agree with you on the Sally Lockheart mysteries my Pullman and all of the John Bellairs mysteries--great reading. Another of my favorite younger readers' mysteries is The Westing Game by Ellen Raskins. Double Helix is another good one, and then there are the Zelpha Keatley Snyder mysteries. Oh, I need to stop. There are a lot of young adult and children's mysteries I love.

As a mystery author myself, I read widely in the genre and tend to prefer straight mysteries to thrillers that might have over-the-top violence scenes in them. Some of my fellow Colorado mystery authors that I recommend are:

Margaret Coel
Christine Goff
Kathy Brandt
Diane Mott Davidson
Robert Spiller
Maggie Sefton
Mike Befeler

Other mystery authors I enjoy include Donna Andrews, L.C. Hayden, Tim Cockey, and Alexander McCall Smith.

And, of course, I recommend my own A REAL BASKET CASE, the first in the gift basket designer series. It was well-reviewed in Booklist, Kirkus Reviews and other national publications and was nominated for a 2007 Best First Novel Agatha Award.

Beth, what books do u write. What can u recommend for a UK fan?

I've read the first of the Burke novels by Andrew Vachss, "Flood", and it's pretty heavy stuff. Vachss is an expert in child protection and abuse, and his Burke character is one of those "anti-heroes" that likes taking revenge against child abusers. I'm looking forward to checking out the rest of the series, but they are the kind of books that require a break after reading.

My publisher, Echelon Press, has quite a few mysteries and suspense thrillers available, which you may never have heard of before. My own recommendations from the list would be:

Murder Off the Books, by Evelyn David
Blood and Bone by Austin Camacho
Bitter Pill by Stacey Klemstein
The Brimstone Murders by Jeff Sherrat
Murder @ Work by Yvonne Walus
A Merry Little Murder by Mary Welk
Bloody Halls by Carl Brookins
The Gifts by Linda Prather (psychic powers)
PSI Blue by Robert Walker (psychic powers)
The Diva's Fool by Sylvia Foti (mildly occult, with a Tarot Card theme)
A Hotel in Paris by Margot Justes
and the entire Grace Marsden series by Luisa Buehler, especially if you an Agatha Christie fan.
The Rosary Bride: A Cloistered Death
The Lion Tamer: A Caged Death
The Station Master: A Scheduled Death
The Scout Master: A Prepared Death
The Lighthouse Keeper: A Beckoning Death

Allison, besides The lovely bones I think your list is really interesting. And youa re crazy too about Patricia Cornwell her books!!!!

You know, I don't know what people are doing to Patricia Cornwell's books in my library, but both hardcover and paperback versions seem to be in repair.

Nooooooooooooo, dn't share those kind of facts to me!!!!! My books!!!! Well not my books but...my favourite books!!!!!
Fiona, will have to send you her books!
Okay, arrive in Dublin, get a job, wait first payment, send Fiona the frist Patricia Cornwell book, bother her every hour to see and hope she adores it....

LOL! Poor Jeane. You really should start up a Battered Book Society, or a Hospital for Battered Books at least.

I can see you giving each book a proper little bed and rocking them to sleep every night...

Fiona, get out of my mind!!!!! How do you know I would do that...really people should care more about books or just leave them alone!

Lol, Jeane, Defender of Books.

hehe

I enjoy Delores Johnson also for a cozy mystery. She writes about the Denver area.

I absolutely LOVED this book!

Brenda wrote: "River of Darkness by Rennie Airth is one of the best books I've ever read. I can't remember the name of the sequel...but it is good, also.

ScottK wrote: "Alright, you asked and I can answer a little bit :
Harlen Coben : Any of his books outside the Myron Bollitar series ( just because I haven't read them) [b:Gone for Good|43930|Gone for Good|Harlan..."

Scott, I am sooooooooooooo hooked on Harlan Coben and now I have gotten a friend doing Coben on a regular basis as well. Just started Gone for Good and loved, loved, loved Just One Look.

Oh and what about Joy Fielding - Mad River Road and Charley's Web.

Fidali's Way: A Novel is a great new literary thriller about an American who gets in trouble with the authorities in the conflicted border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and in Kashmir. Great story. And it's more than just a page turner, it's much deeper than that. If you like thrillers, or if you literary fiction like Kite Runner or Corelli's Mandolin or English Patient (there's a love story in thee too), I'd say it's a must that you give it a try.

I knew there was a reason why I was avoiding this thread... I just added 15 thousand books to the TBR list!!

I've been stuck on the oldies, but goodies (Sayers, King, PD James, Ruth Rendell, Dick Francis), so I'm very glad to have new candidates!