Favourite mystery/detective novels

[catsmate]

I've been doing a fair amount of travelling recently and reading a lot of ebooks. I've read and re-read a lot of stuff, mysteries, scifi and fantasy along with non-fiction and a lot of althist.
So, as there don't seem to be any threads devoted to favourite and recommended mysteries I decided to start one.

My top three atm:

• John Sandford: his Prey series and the Flowers' spin-offs. Superb mystery/police procedurals with excellent writing, good plots.

• Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher series. Think a female Wimsey in Australia.

• Laurie King's Holmes and Russell. A cut above the usual Holmes pastiches.

Anyone else got any to recommend?

 

[malicus]

Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series.

I have the Prey series to tackle soon, looking forward to it!

 

[patchbunny]

[*]Laurie King's Holmes and Russell. A cut above the usual Holmes pastiches.
[/LIST]
Anyone else got any to recommend?

I'm a fan of Larry Millett's Sherlock Holmes book, Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon. I'm not as much of a fan of his later books where Shadwell Rafferty comes into play as I've found Holmes works best when he's the brightest one in the story (I'm not a Laurie King fan for the same reason). Still, King does write very well so it's a matter of taste.

I've recently discovered Robert van Gulik's series of Judge Dee novels about a detective in ancient China. You need to get into the mindset of the era's sensibilities ("You beat a woman? Your paperwork appears to be in order proving you own her, so it's ok."), but I've been enjoying them.

I've always thought Lawrence Block wrote some of the best dialogue I've read in a book. His Tanner series about the guy who can't sleep is a lot of fun.

George MacDonald, who wrote the Fletch series of books, is also very good. I love the dialogue, and they're very funny.

Dashiell Hammett. Definitely find his books and short stories.

 

[Tiktaalik]

Not sure I have a favorite, but I've always enjoyed mysteries, from Holmes through Mrs. Pollifax! Recently I've read a couple Steve Hamilton novels, which take place in an area I visit with some frequency, and a C.J. Boxx novel that also takes place in an area I'm familiar with. I was really into Hillerman for a while - I like the first few of Nevada Barr's books but am kind of burned out on them now. And of course, there's Joseph Wambaugh. His first book was a recreation of a true event ('The Onion Field') but subsequent books are novels, and I was really into them for a while.

 

[Jack by the hedge]

Dashiell Hammett. Definitely find his books and short stories.

And then* read Raymond Chandler. Yes, he's an awful snob, and there's some toe-curling bigotry but there's such glee to be had from lines like "From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away".

*Don't do it the other way round as Chandler's snappy dialogue makes Hammett's look rather dated (well of course they're both dated, but Chandler's pace and wit make Hammet sound like something from the previous century rather than the previous decade).

And of course you get to read it all with Humprey Bogart's voice in your head, which turns out to be one of life's great joys.

 

[Mojo]

Colin Watson's Flaxborough novels.

 

[catsmate]

I'm a fan of Larry Millett's Sherlock Holmes book, Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon. I'm not as much of a fan of his later books where Shadwell Rafferty comes into play as I've found Holmes works best when he's the brightest one in the story (I'm not a Laurie King fan for the same reason). Still, King does write very well so it's a matter of taste.

Ditto, I liked the earlier novels by Millett but they trailed off.

Not sure I have a favorite, but I've always enjoyed mysteries, from Holmes through Mrs. Pollifax! Recently I've read a couple Steve Hamilton novels, which take place in an area I visit with some frequency, and a C.J. Boxx novel that also takes place in an area I'm familiar with. I was really into Hillerman for a while - I like the first few of Nevada Barr's books but am kind of burned out on them now. And of course, there's Joseph Wambaugh. His first book was a recreation of a true event ('The Onion Field') but subsequent books are novels, and I was really into them for a while.

I've sampled most of these, and plan to try Johnson's Longmire books.

Colin Watson's Flaxborough novels.

I re-read the series recently. Good stuff, a little dated, but his style is still excellent.

 

[Brian-M]

The Kinsey Millhone novels by Sue Grafton are okay. There's a fair number of them too. She's naming each book after a letter of the alphabet, most recent one I read was "U is for Undertow".

What I like better are the Maggody mystery novels by Joan Hess. More of a lighter tone to them.

I do have a fondness for Fantasy-Mystery novels (ie, a mystery novel set in a fantasy environment), such as the Garret P.I. series by Glen Cook.

 

[catsmate]

The Kinsey Millhone novels by Sue Grafton are okay. There's a fair number of them too. She's naming each book after a letter of the alphabet, most recent one I read was "U is for Undertow".

Yeah, they (and the V.I. Warshawski series by Paretski are good, but never engaged me for some reason.

What I like better are the Maggody mystery novels by Joan Hess. More of a lighter tone to them.

I like those too.

I do have a fondness for Fantasy-Mystery novels (ie, a mystery novel set in a fantasy environment), such as the Garret P.I. series by Glen Cook.

Or the Lord Darcy series.

Some I forgot to mention:

• Lauren Berenson's poodle mysteries and Susan Conant's Holly Winter books, for the dog lovers. There aren't that many good mysteries involving cats, except perhaps The Cat Who series by Lilian Jackson Braun
• Denise Swanson - the Scumble River Mysteries
• D.M. Greenwood's now defunct Theodora Braithwaite series.
• Amy Myers' Edwardian chef/detective August Didier
• Reginald Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe series, ignore the TV adaption.
• Caroline Graham's Midsomer books, rather darker than the TV series.
• R. D. Wingfield's Frost books
• Catherine Aird's Inspector Sloan series
• James Anderson's modern cosy series with Inspector Wilkins.
• For the fishermen Victoria Houston's Loon Lake Mysteres.
• The golden age classics classics: Ngaio Marsh, Patricia Wentworth, Gladys Mitchell, Margery Allingham
• Isaac Asimov's Tales of the Black Widowers
• Michael Jecks' historical mysteries, at least the earlier ones

 

[Bikewer]

My wife is the big mystery reader...All the classics; Holmes and Poirot and Marple... I can't even remember the current ones she's into.

Not a huge fan of the genre myself... I got turned off to Holmes when I realized that Doyle pulled things out of the air... We read "the speckled band" in school and I rather testily pointed out that snakes are deaf and certainly wouldn't drink milk.. (amateur herpetologist...)
I liked bloodier stories... Read all the Mike Hammer numbers when I was in the army.

 

[commandlinegamer]

My wife is the big mystery reader...All the classics; Holmes and Poirot and Marple... I can't even remember the current ones she's into.

Not a huge fan of the genre myself... I got turned off to Holmes when I realized that Doyle pulled things out of the air... We read "the speckled band" in school and I rather testily pointed out that snakes are deaf and certainly wouldn't drink milk.. (amateur herpetologist...)
I liked bloodier stories... Read all the Mike Hammer numbers when I was in the army.

Much as I love SH, a lot of the time you just can't figure out the ending from what has gone before, because as Watson opines, Sherlock has the habit of keeping things close to his chest. At least Christie gave you half a chance of working out who done it.

 

[Dr. Keith]

I'm not a big fan of the genre, but I recently read something that was in that ballpark:

The City & the City is a novel by British author China Miéville, combining weird fiction with the police procedural; it was written as a gift for Miéville's terminally-ill mother, who was a fan of the latter genre.

I absolutely loved this book. I'm actually hesitant to read anything else by the author because I don't want to taint the image I have in my head of his genius.

 

[Hutch]

Not a major mystery fan, but I do have a complete set (in paperback) of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries, which given my girth is a detective I can truly admire (even if I don't care much for Orchids...)

 

[Johnm53]

I recently read and greatly enjoyed a number of books by Robert Goddard. His stories involve ordinary people who become entangled in circumstances that require investigation of past events in order to solve the present day dilemma. Caught in the Light and Beyond Recall are two very good examples of his fine work.

 

[jenspen]

[*]Reginald Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe series, ignore the TV adaption.

Reginald Hill is probably my favourite. Clever, complex, funny, literate, very productive - he wrote even more than the many Dalziel and Pascoe novels, which are set in Yorkshire, though Dalziel, the farting ex-Rugby forward, is probably his star creation.

Donald E. Westlake is another very clever, funny writer who was also very productive (like Hill, under several pseudonyms). The slope-shouldered, dour New Yorker, John Dortmunder, and his gang of mostly hapless thieves are probably his greatest creations.

Minette Walters (also productive) writes complex mysteries set in very up-to-date times in London and Dorset. She does not have recurring characters and doesn't attempt humour or gloss over the horrors of murder and brutality in general - a very humane writer.

Laura Lippman seems to me to share many of the qualities of Minette Walters but her many novels (of which I've read only 3 so far) are set in Baltimore.

 

[bruto]

It's been some time since I read a lot of mysteries, but one could do far worse than some of the English classics like Dorothy Sayers and Josephine Tey. Agatha Christie is fun, but those two are better literature. For more modern stuff, I seem to recall I enjoyed P.D. James a good deal too.

Long ago I also read through all the Travis McGee mysteries of John D. McDonald. Bloody and violent but rather good fun, and the characters make for a pretty good series.

 

[Bikewer]

We've been working through the Nero Wolfe TV series that aired some years ago; we're getting the DVDs from Netflix.
If you didn't catch this when it aired, it's worth a look even if you're not a fan of Wolfe.
These were superbly (and likely expensively) produced by the "A&E" network back then, and stars the late Maury Chaykin as Wolfe.. He chews the scenery wonderfully.
Timothy Hutton does his leg-man, Archie Goodwin, to a turn, and the ensemble cast is great... They do a kind of repertory turn with the same actors in different roles.

 

[Mojo]

I'm not a big fan of the genre, but I recently read something that was in that ballpark:

The City & the City is a novel by British author China Miéville, combining weird fiction with the police procedural; it was written as a gift for Miéville's terminally-ill mother, who was a fan of the latter genre.

I absolutely loved this book. I'm actually hesitant to read anything else by the author because I don't want to taint the image I have in my head of his genius.

I haven't read that one yet. The rest of his output is pretty good (but off-topic for this thread).

 

[Lisa Simpson]

I love mysteries. Of the almost 700 books I have listed on Goodreads, 450 of them are mysteries. I have all of the Travis McGee, Perry Mason, and Spenser books. Lately I've been reading Bruce Alexander's Sir John Fielding mysteries.

I do have a fondness for Fantasy-Mystery novels (ie, a mystery novel set in a fantasy environment), such as the Garret P.I. series by Glen Cook.

Have you read the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher? I enjoy them and I don't much care for Sci-Fi/Fantasy.

 

[Mojo]

Christopher Fowler's Bryant & May series.