Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
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Are you a mystery book fan? Favorite mystery authors? Why?

I am a fan of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series. I like the books almost as much for their humor as for their neat, confounding puzzles...
--John

Are the plots very complex? If so, they're not for me.
Is there a large number of characters to keep track of? If so, the books are not for me.
Hate to admit it, but I like simple mysteries. But they have to be written with style.

Roger Zelazny released a new book, The Dead Man's Brother written in that genre. Zelazny was known for SF & Fantasy, blending the two until you really couldn't figure out which genre you were reading. Apparently he wrote this novel, but it never was published. He died in 1995, but his son & old agent found it while digging through his old stuff. It is available on Amazon & I had a copy as soon as it was released. It was excellent.
I'm also a big fan of Mickey Spillane. I like his novella's & singles better than the Mike Hammer series. I don't like his Tiger Mann series at all.


James Lee Burke
Stuart Woods
Robert Randisi
All the classic mystery authors

Below are links to the authors you mentioned, Don, for folks reading these posts:
James Lee Burke
Stuart Woods
Robert Randisi

Tami Hoag
J D. Robb's Eve Dallas series
Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone Mysteries
Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series
Agatha Christie & Iris Johansen deserve a mention.
And while Mary Higgins Clark is predictable, she's an easy read. I liked her Willie and Elvira series best.

If you enjoy short mystery fiction, a really good older anthology is The Delights of Detection (1961). It's edited by Jacques Barzun, a world-class historian who was also a mystery buff.

Tami Hoag
J D. Robb's Eve Dallas series
Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone Mysteries
Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series "
Thanks for adding those authors to this thread, Jackie.
Yes, they certainly do deserve a mention!
Perhaps folks will comment further on them.
PS-I didn't enjoy my first Agatha Christe book. So I never read another. I didn't like her style of writing. Same thing for Grafton.

Werner, Thanks for your post, so chock-full of comments and references. I enjoyed the Ellis Peters books. They certainly have a lot medieval atmosphere to them, which makes them even more spooky and mysterious. The TV versions didn't give me the same feeling as the books.
Thanks for recommending The Delights of Detection. Sounds like a good book to have on the shelf, both virtual and RL. I like short mysteries.
Seems to me I have a paperback of short mysteries lying around which is a collection by the great movie director... whose name escapes me at the moment. I believe he directed "Psycho". Ah yes, Alfred Hitchcock! He probably has edited a good number of short mystery collections.

I too like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. My grandfather must have had a dozen sets of his Sherlock Holmes books when he died. I got a nice 2 volume edition that I read, plus a copy of "The White Company" which I've been meaning to get round to.

Jackie, I should really give AC another try sometime. As you said, she's an easy read. I like that in a mystery. (g) You said that you "liked her Willie and Elvira series best." So perhaps I'll try to remember that. Is that one series, or two?


I've heard of those, but never tried them, Becky.
There's a whole new world to explore.
I don't know how anyone could ever say they're bored!!!

I love Rex Stout, Arthur Conan Doyle, Dorothy Sayers. I really enjoy Margery Allingham's Albert Campion character. I'm surprised nobody mentioned him yet. I like Peter Lovesy on occasion, but they can be a little heavy. I also like Lillian Jackson Braun's The Cat Who... series for a light read. P.D. James is also great, but also heavy. Her lighter ones usually involve Inspector Dalghliesh but even those are a little heavy.
I've been looking for new mystery authors and I appreciate all the great leads from this conversation. Thanks for letting me join this group!

Looks like you've read quite a few mysteries by different authors. Thanks for your comments about them.
When you describe a book as "light" or "heavy", what qualities are you referring to? I imagine "light" means easy to read and follow but what makes a book "heavy", in your opinion.
When it comes to mysteries, I don't enjoy a story with too many characters to keep track of. Is that what you mean by "heavy"? Or do you mean that the plot is convoluted? Or both?
I was able to follow the movie of Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express" which had quite a few different characters to follow, but in movies it's easier to keep track of characters because we recognize them from their faces as well as their names.
I haven't had a great deal of experience reading mysteries, but I have read some.
Right now I'm enjoying _Death Straight Up_ by Fay Rownell. I'd call it a light mystery. The author is one of the Mavens of Mystery.
See: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/6...
and
http://www.poststar.com/articles/2008...
She has a witty style of writing. This is her first book. When I first saw her at a book fair (on a panel of women mystery writers) I could tell she had a good sense of humor.
I'm plowing through another book at the same time (for an in person book club) and this book is a welcome relief. :)

Thank you for your detailed reply and for the additional leads. I do love mystery novels. I have wonderful memories of my father and me reading them aloud to each other and trying to guess "whodunit." Your definition of "light" coincides with mine. By "heavy" I generally mean mysteries that are brutal and violent or dealing with topics that are controversial, the latter of which can be interesting but I have to be prepared for that kind of book. I don't like a lot of graphic violence, which is why I stay away from some of the more contemporary authors. I enjoy a good puzzle, if you know what I mean. Agatha Christie is classic, and I especially love Miss Marple.
Mystery novels are a great way to provide relief from getting bogged down by the other novels that we want to read, but must "plow through." If I only read those books I probably wouldn't read as much as I do. :)
Thank you again.

Thank you for your detailed reply and for the additional leads. I do love mystery novels. I have wonderful memories of my father and me reading them aloud to each other and trying to guess "w..."
You're welcome, Sara,
How lucky you were to have a dad who read with you and who chose mystery novels so that you both could try to figure out the mystery together. What fun that must have been. It gives me an idea for interacting with my own grandchildren.
Thanks for explaining the word "heavy" which you used to describe some mysteries. Now I see what you mean. I too would want to avoid violent or brutal stories. However, when I read the mysteries of Lawrence Sanders, I found them to be light reading despite the violent way some of the victims were killed. So I suppose it depends on the treatment of the violence in the story.
Unlike you, I've never enjoyed puzzles, especially those which are difficult. They're too much work. (g)
It's been fun sharing ideas with you. I agree that it's the enjoyment of light reading which enables me to stay motivated toward the reading of more serious literature. Kind of like comic relief. (g)


Werner, thank you very much for doing the manual search by scrolling. I tried that but missed the topic. Don't know why my "keyword search" didn't work. Maybe I didn't look at the results thoroughly enough.
Anyway, now that we've found it, I'll post the link to the other topic about "cozy mysteries", also in this section of our group discussions. Here 'tis: ====>
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...
Thanks once again!


Randi, about those twists and turns in the plots, are they difficult to follow? I've always wondered about Ann Perry's writings. Haven't read any yet.

Love the McNally's series by Lawrence Sanders. For whatever reason, my mind's vision of Archy is the tv character Frazier!!

I enjoyed the Lawrence Sanders mysteries too. I read the "Deadly Sin" series and the "Commandment" series. Below is a link to one of them:
_First Deadly Sin Part 1 Of 2_
So many of the authors mentioned above I've read and loved, so I won't list them. I didn't see Lawrence Block mentioned, he has a couple of series that are quite interesting, as well as a huge amount of short stories. He can be dark, but his sense of humor is dry to say the least. A good combination.
Also Henning Mankell has a most interesting detective series.
Another would be Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö for a detective series.
Oh, another... Jo Nesbo, I've only read one of those, The Redbreast but found it to be excellent.
Also Henning Mankell has a most interesting detective series.
Another would be Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö for a detective series.
Oh, another... Jo Nesbo, I've only read one of those, The Redbreast but found it to be excellent.

I think they are just distractions with different suspects until you find out the real one. She may turn to get people of their idea of who it is. You are paying so much attention to who you you think the suspect is that you don't see the real suspect till close to the end.

Pontalba, thanks for the links to those authors. I see that Lawrence Block has won a good number of awards for his mysteries.

Sometimes I lose patience with twists and turns. I don't think my mind was cut out for that type of mystery. It's always been my theory that readers who appreciate complex mysteries must have very good memories and therefore can follow the plot closely.

I loaned some of her books to a friend here at work who really liked them. I only have the first Aurora Teagarden book, Real Murders but she bought ALL of them & loaned them to me. I think there were 7 & I read them in about 4 days. They're candy books. Easy, quick reads & I just HAD to read the next. No paranormal stuff, just straight mysteries with a bit of romance.

Jim, thanks for the link to Charlaine Harris's webpage. I see that her character, Aurora Teagarden, is a Georgia librarian. Reminds me of another book about a librarian, _The Giant's House A Romance_ by Elizabeth McCracken. It was a good read.

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This week I watched "The Woman in White" (1997).
Below is a link to the Netflix description: ====>
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/The_Woma...
The movie is based on a famous mystery story written by Wilkie Collins in 1859.
The Goodreads description says:
"One of the greatest mystery thrillers ever written, Wilkie Collins' _The Woman in White_ was a phenomenal bestseller in the 1860s, achieving even greater success than works by Dickens, Collins' friend and mentor. Full of surprise, intrigue, and suspense, this vastly entertaining novel continues to enthrall readers today."
IIRC, I think I have to thank our member, Margaret, for telling me about Wilkie Collins and this celebrated mystery. Thanks, Margaret!
PS-To see more background on how I discovered the mystery, go to my review at:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/....
The above webpage contains more comments from various readers who gave further information about related readings.
Joy H. (of Glens Falls) wrote: "THIS IS A COPY OF A POST I MADE TODAY IN OUR MOVIE DISCUSSION THREAD.
=====================================================
This week I watched "The Woman in White" (1997).
Below is a link to the N..."
Have you read the book Joy? The film followed the book as far as it went, no real deviations that I can recall, although there was a pretty long time lag in-between my reading and watching. The one real inconsistency that I recall was the Count was, in the book, extremely overweight, so much so a great deal was made of it. His weight was almost a character onto itself.
=====================================================
This week I watched "The Woman in White" (1997).
Below is a link to the N..."
Have you read the book Joy? The film followed the book as far as it went, no real deviations that I can recall, although there was a pretty long time lag in-between my reading and watching. The one real inconsistency that I recall was the Count was, in the book, extremely overweight, so much so a great deal was made of it. His weight was almost a character onto itself.

Pontalba, thanks for pointing that out. Yes, I noticed that when I read the reviews of the book. I haven't read the book although I'm sure it must be a great read. I liked the way Simon Callow played the part of Count Fosco, even though he wasn't fat. :)

Oh, Werner, you've reminded me of another group of mysteries, short stories...
New Orleans Noir, Brooklyn Noir, London Noir, etc. There are versions for a lot of cities, in the U.S. and Europe.
All are collections of detective/mysteries that center on that particular city, and neighborhood. I've only read a few of them, and have enjoyed most of the stories.
I'm going to have to look up Magnolias and Mayhem. :)
AIE: http://www.amazon.com/Magnolias-Mayhe...
Neat. Thanks. :)
New Orleans Noir, Brooklyn Noir, London Noir, etc. There are versions for a lot of cities, in the U.S. and Europe.
All are collections of detective/mysteries that center on that particular city, and neighborhood. I've only read a few of them, and have enjoyed most of the stories.
I'm going to have to look up Magnolias and Mayhem. :)
AIE: http://www.amazon.com/Magnolias-Mayhe...
Neat. Thanks. :)

Werner and Pontalba, thanks for the recommendations.
Werner's interesting review of _Magnolias and Mayhem_ can be found at: ====>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/....
Below is a link to some of the "noir" mystery series (short stories set in different cities) which Pontalba mentioned: ====>
http://www.akashicbooks.com/noirserie...
Robert Knightly edited _Queens Noir_, a book from the above series. Last year I met Knightly at a meeting of the Mavens of Mystery, a group of NY mystery writers. Goodreads says: "Robert Knightly "is a trial lawyer in the Criminal Defense Division of the Queens Legal Aid Society. In another life, he was a lieutenant in the New York City Police Department."
Joy wrote: Below is a link to some of the "noir" mystery series (short stories set in different cities) which Pontalba mentioned: ====>
http://www.akashicbooks.com/noirseries.h...
Swell link Joy! But thanks a lot, now I want them ALL !! lol
http://www.akashicbooks.com/noirseries.h...
Swell link Joy! But thanks a lot, now I want them ALL !! lol

LOL - I wish I had time and energy to read them all! :)

One question, if you could recommend one author and/or book in this case, which would it be?

Jenni, I never was a big reader of mysteries. When I did read a mystery, I went for the lighter ones... the easy reads. I loved Robert B. Parker's "Spenser" mysteries. Also enjoyed Lawrence Sanders' stories. They were a bit darker than Parker's. Dorothy Gillman's light and entertaining "Mrs. Pollifax" stories were always enjoyable. See links to those authors below:

Lawrence Sanders
Dorothy Gillman
PS-How could I forget the James Bond books by Ian Fleming? Loved those.


I'd say that a critical factor here --and I haven't read much in the mystery genre, and very little in the really "dark" vein, so I'm no expert!-- is the nature of the author's (for want of a better term) moral vision. Most mysteries deal with human evil, and recognize it as tempting, pervasive, and hurtful; but how much they focus and dwell on depicting it makes a significant difference in how dark the novel or story appears. John Gardner and Laurie King, for instance, both write Sherlock Holmes spin-offs, and probably both share similar moral principles; but whereas in The Beekeeper's Apprentice the protagonists are the sympathetic representatives of good, the protagonist of Gardner's two Moriarty novels is evil --so those books make the reader feel more closely immersed in the evil goings-on and leave a darker taste in the mind, even though Gardner's message is anti-evil. An even deeper contrast runs through many modern mysteries. The genre traditionally has reflected the belief that though evil is real, it is morally anomalous in the universe, and the virtue and intellect of the detective will unmask and suppress it. The really dark modern mysteries repudiate that tradition; they see evil as the norm of the universe, and the idea of justice ever really being achieved as a naive and hopeless dream. (Now, that's an extremely dark kind of vision!)
Werner wrote: I'd say that a critical factor here --and I haven't read much in the mystery genre, and very little in the really "dark" vein, so I'm no expert!-- is the nature of the author's (for want of a better term) moral vision. Most mysteries deal with human evil, and recognize it as tempting, pervasive, and hurtful; but how much they focus and dwell on depicting it makes a significant difference in how dark the novel or story appears.
I have read a lot of mysteries, over many years. What you say makes perfect sense to me. Some authors do dwell on the puzzle solving and redemption angle of a story, while others seem to wallow in the crime itself. An author like, say for example, Patricia Cornwell started out showing the forensics side, but in a more non-confrontational manner. No, that's not exactly right, but on the right track anyhow. I guess what it boils down to for her in my opinion is that finally she started dwelling more on the gory aspects of a case. Yes, by their nature, her books have to be......bloodily descriptive, however in her first ones, that was not the main thrust, or at least she didn't seem to be going so much for the shock value of those descriptions. I've stopped reading her books, many books back because, while I find the procedures interesting, she seems to be putting more and more gory details simply for shock value, and not for story value. I'm sure it's a trap many authors have fallen into.
A good murder mystery is a little like a love affair, revealing layers upon layers, over time in not too graphic a manner.
I have read a lot of mysteries, over many years. What you say makes perfect sense to me. Some authors do dwell on the puzzle solving and redemption angle of a story, while others seem to wallow in the crime itself. An author like, say for example, Patricia Cornwell started out showing the forensics side, but in a more non-confrontational manner. No, that's not exactly right, but on the right track anyhow. I guess what it boils down to for her in my opinion is that finally she started dwelling more on the gory aspects of a case. Yes, by their nature, her books have to be......bloodily descriptive, however in her first ones, that was not the main thrust, or at least she didn't seem to be going so much for the shock value of those descriptions. I've stopped reading her books, many books back because, while I find the procedures interesting, she seems to be putting more and more gory details simply for shock value, and not for story value. I'm sure it's a trap many authors have fallen into.
A good murder mystery is a little like a love affair, revealing layers upon layers, over time in not too graphic a manner.

...I'd say that a critical factor here ... is the nature of the author's ... moral vision. Most mysteries deal with human evil ... but how much they focus and dwell on depicting it makes a significant difference in how dark the novel or story appears. ... for instance ... the protagonist of Gardner's two Moriarty novels is evil --so those books make the reader feel more closely immersed in the evil goings-on and leave a darker taste in the mind, even though Gardner's message is anti-evil.... The genre traditionally has reflected the belief that though evil is real, it is morally anomalous in the universe, and the virtue and intellect of the detective will unmask and suppress it. The really dark modern mysteries repudiate that tradition; they see evil as the norm of the universe, and the idea of justice ever really being achieved as a naive and hopeless dream. (Now, that's an extremely dark kind of vision!)"
Werner, thank you for picking up where I left off, and for continuing the discussion in this thread about the mystery genre. Your idea (that the point of view of the writing accounts for the difference between "lighter" and "darker" mysteries) is a valid one. When a book depicts evil as dominant over virtue, we're left with a hopeless feeling, or, as you say, "a darker taste in the mind". Perhaps when a story ends by giving us hope that good will triumph, we don't see the writing as being too dark.
Thanks for the interesting analysis. It has clarified the issue for me.

Pontalba, you've pointed out another factor which makes a mystery seem darker... the gory graphic descriptions. Not too pleasant.
Another angle is the fear factor. I find that when a novel fills me with tension and fear, I can't handle it. I'd call that novel dark. A good example is _The Firm_ by John Grisham. I felt compelled to read it to the end, but it took a toll on my nerves. Ever since then I've avoided reading Grisham's books.


Werner, I've put Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters on my "keep-in-mind" shelf. Thank you for the recommendation and for the informative posts on this book.

Books mentioned in this topic
The Big Sleep (other topics)The Long Goodbye (other topics)
The Firm (other topics)
The Woman in White (other topics)
Two for the Dough (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Robert B. Parker (other topics)John Grisham (other topics)
Raymond Chandler (other topics)
Ian Fleming (other topics)
Roger Zelazny (other topics)
More...
What mystery writers are your favorites and why?
I've enjoyed Lawrence Sanders and Robert B Parker's "Spenser" series. I suppose they would be called Detective Stories too.
Sanders mysteries were easy to follow. I also liked the sandwiches he described. (g)
I liked Parker's wry humor, his sidekick (name?), and his girlfriend, Susan. They had a great relationship.
Of course, who could forget the _The Big Sleep_ and _The Long Goodbye_ by Raymond Chandler! He was a master of similes. Here are a few from _The Big Sleep_:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"...her face fell apart like a bride's pie crust."
"She brought the glass over. Bubbles rose in it like false hopes."
"The sunshine was as empty as a headwaiter's smile."
"The purring voice had an edge, like sand in the bearings."
"The incident [is:] closed...as tight as a vault with a busted time lock."
"I hung there motionless, like a lazy fish in the water."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Who are your favorite mystery writers and why?