Favourite mystery/detective novels

[TjW]

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.

Yes, and the wonderful thing is they kept much of the dialog from the books.
I've found this to be rare in screen adaptations.

 

[Mojo]

I have yet to track down any of P. P. Penrose's Lazlo Woodbine novels.

 

[MikeG]

Let's go classic:

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

 

[Foolmewunz]

In no particular order:

Sayers' Lord Peter books
Martha Grimes' Richard Jury series
Elizabeth George - Inspector Lynley
Ngaio Marsh - Roderick Alleyn
Christie's Poirot
John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee
Robert Parker's Spenser series

I think I enjoyed the Ngaio Marsh more than the others.
I'd say that Grimes' characters are by far the most fun to engage with.
And Elizabeth George never ceases to amaze me. Her characters and plots are far and away the richest and most human of any series I've ever read. And just when you think you've settled in for a latter day Tommy and Tupence, she kills off the wife and then gives you an entire heavyweight of a novel (What Came Before He Shot Her) that breaks the mold entirely.

Oh, and Dorothy Sayers, in spite of the misgivings people have about her anti-semitism, was far and away the funniest of the lot.

 

[pakeha]

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.

That sounds like a good summer reading plan!

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. ...

Seconded!
Sorry, fooledmewunz, I mean thirded.

 

[sophia8]

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.

I like Goddard as well - his books have a fine sense of place.
I'll read almost any crime novel that's set in Scotland; I've been through Ian Rankin's whole Rebus series, and Stuart MacBride's Aberdeen-set Logan McRae series. MacBride manages to combine horror and comedy very well and Logan's police partner, DCI Roberta Steel is a great comic character - a chain-smoking, sex-obsessed lesbian with a nice line in swearing.
I've just started Craig Russell's Lennox series. This is Glasgow Noir, set in the 1950s when WW2 is still a recent memory. It's pretty good and I'm looking out for more.

 

[Lisa Simpson]

I like Goddard as well - his books have a fine sense of place.
I'll read almost any crime novel that's set in Scotland; I've been through Ian Rankin's whole Rebus series, and Stuart MacBride's Aberdeen-set Logan McRae series. MacBride manages to combine horror and comedy very well and Logan's police partner, DCI Roberta Steel is a great comic character - a chain-smoking, sex-obsessed lesbian with a nice line in swearing.
I've just started Craig Russell's Lennox series. This is Glasgow Noir, set in the 1950s when WW2 is still a recent memory. It's pretty good and I'm looking out for more.

Have you read the Hamish Mcbeth mysteries? Cozies, rather than hard-boiled. I enjoyed the first ones, but haven't read one in a while.

 

[fuelair]

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?

Have you seen the Phryne Fisher tv series - I ask and am curious because the description of each novel they did being done in an hour and the actress being too old by half for the character makes me tend to believe that - and I was really looking forward to it until I heard the hour each thing......... Only have one book so far and much fail to see how that could be translated with even faint resemblance to such short time. And, of course I do not think they would duplicate some of the important scenes correctly either.

 

[fuelair]

In no particular order:

Sayers' Lord Peter books
Martha Grimes' Richard Jury series
Elizabeth George - Inspector Lynley
Ngaio Marsh - Roderick Alleyn
Christie's Poirot
John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee
Robert Parker's Spenser series

I think I enjoyed the Ngaio Marsh more than the others.
I'd say that Grimes' characters are by far the most fun to engage with.
And Elizabeth George never ceases to amaze me. Her characters and plots are far and away the richest and most human of any series I've ever read. And just when you think you've settled in for a latter day Tommy and Tupence, she kills off the wife and then gives you an entire heavyweight of a novel (What Came Before He Shot Her) that breaks the mold entirely.

Oh, and Dorothy Sayers, in spite of the misgivings people have about her anti-semitism, was far and away the funniest of the lot.

Just curious how you feel about the later Jury books. I have felt the interest (even seems like her interest) leaving. I actually just stopped on one of the more recent a hundred or so pages in - not remembering the title for me means it just wasn't important- though it seems there should be more good stories in Jury and friends.

 

[LaurelHS]

I like Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache novels, and Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks novels.

 

[Dr. Keith]

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

I think that is why I am hesitant to read his other work, even though it is more of what I typically read.

 

[fleabeetle]

In no particular order:
Oh, and Dorothy Sayers, in spite of the misgivings people have about her anti-semitism, was far and away the funniest of the lot.

Was she actually anti-semitic -- or just "a person of her time"? Various references in her novels about "kikes and (nasty word for black people, disallowed by the filter here)", come across as horrifying to readers in 2013 -- but in the context of most of a century ago, is such stuff perhaps, just "robust and affectionate fun"? I have difficulty seeing the seriously Christian and personally kindly Sayers, harbouring genuine hate against any particular sector of the human race.

 

[fleabeetle]

I'm rather a fan of Carola Dunn's Daisy Dalrymple mysteries -- twenty or so of them, so far. Set in England in the early 1920s -- fairly lightweight and light-hearted, but I delight in them, and consider the author to have captured the "feel" of the period well. Although the plots / characters / events are on the "cosy" side, there is conveyed the brooding continual presence of the recent First World War, with its multitude of memories and consequences.

 

[Brian-M]

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

I've heard of it I stumbled on the name of the series when doing a search to try and remember the name of one of the fantasy detective series I've read. (It's been a while since I've read them.)

One problem I have is that it's one of those hidden-magic scenarios, like Harry Potter or MIB. While I did enjoy both of those, the whole idea of all this going on without the general public being aware of it irks me a little.

The explanations as to why they're keeping all this secret, and how it came to be kept secret in the first place never seem satisfactory to me.

But I suppose it makes it easier to write, as the authors can just set their stories in the world as it already is.

 

[Foolmewunz]

Just curious how you feel about the later Jury books. I have felt the interest (even seems like her interest) leaving. I actually just stopped on one of the more recent a hundred or so pages in - not remembering the title for me means it just wasn't important- though it seems there should be more good stories in Jury and friends.

I sort of agree. She still gets the sparks going in the in-village repartee of the side characters, but I think maybe she worked too hard through the middle of the series to develop the love interests/conflicts and got far too wrapped up in them. When you're more concerned as to whether our hero gets together with his gal than the development of the case, you're sort of slipping away from the central idea... MYSTERIES. I think the problem is that after 8/10 books, you've probably written as much on the side characters as Tolstoy wrote on Anna in that one book. As a writer, you probably feel you have to flesh 'em out.

I think Elizabeth George did this much more effectively but have to suspect she killed off the wife and unborn baby to give the character more tortured angst in coming novels. She started with deep dark moody characters and too much happiness just wouldn't work in the long run.

I think the best example of successfully fleshing out a tec's life was Sayers and Peter Wimsey. Maybe a little too symbolically she introduced a mystery author(herself?) as the love interest, made her a foil as strong and as intelligent as Wimsey, and intended to marry him off and kill the series. The relationship and characters took on such a life in the novel that she couldn't part company with them and we got a few more books out of the deal.

I think the worst example is a writer I gave up on, P.D. James. Her early mysteries were great, but she started wrapping the mysteries in more and more "serious writing" and it got too difficult to get to the meat of the things. (Unlike George, who also falls victim to the "seriousness" accusation, but actually made the non-mystery parts as interesting as the mystery.)

 

[fuelair]

I sort of agree. She still gets the sparks going in the in-village repartee of the side characters, but I think maybe she worked too hard through the middle of the series to develop the love interests/conflicts and got far too wrapped up in them. When you're more concerned as to whether our hero gets together with his gal than the development of the case, you're sort of slipping away from the central idea... MYSTERIES. I think the problem is that after 8/10 books, you've probably written as much on the side characters as Tolstoy wrote on Anna in that one book. As a writer, you probably feel you have to flesh 'em out.

I think Elizabeth George did this much more effectively but have to suspect she killed off the wife and unborn baby to give the character more tortured angst in coming novels. She started with deep dark moody characters and too much happiness just wouldn't work in the long run.

I think the best example of successfully fleshing out a tec's life was Sayers and Peter Wimsey. Maybe a little too symbolically she introduced a mystery author(herself?) as the love interest, made her a foil as strong and as intelligent as Wimsey, and intended to marry him off and kill the series. The relationship and characters took on such a life in the novel that she couldn't part company with them and we got a few more books out of the deal.

I think the worst example is a writer I gave up on, P.D. James. Her early mysteries were great, but she started wrapping the mysteries in more and more "serious writing" and it got too difficult to get to the meat of the things. (Unlike George, who also falls victim to the "seriousness" accusation, but actually made the non-mystery parts as interesting as the mystery.)

I'll buy that on Jury, and definitely agree on Sayers w/Lord Peter -and thought the Beeb series covering their meeting through Marriage was nicely done. Don't think Petheridge or the lady (real life actress) did as major a roll again afterward.Apologies to both/either if I am wrong.

Agreed on James also, some very good and enjoyed others a touch too literate - Sayers much cooler on that front.

 

[Lolly]

fail to see how that could be translated with even faint resemblance to such short time.

No, it wasn't. The TV series was pretty crook. They did what a lot of those TV shows do. Go all cutesy with the period stuff and make everything seem ridiculous. They changed a lot of the stories about. The stories are lightweight and putting them on TV just made them even fluffier.

Lots that I like have already been mentioned. Some authors I haven't heard of. Yay! New books to look for at the library.

I quite like John Lescroart's Dismas Hardy. Georges Simenon Inspector Maigret. I just took out some audio books by Malla Nunn, A Beautiful Place to Die was one title, I can't remember the others, but they have the same main character. I liked those. I've always liked Dick Francis.

 

[SezMe]

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.

The Onion Field is a riveting story - because it is true. It is a harrowing story of the horrors of the criminal justice system. Don't miss it. His subsequent books lacked the realism that made it such a captivating story so I couldn't get into them as much.

 

[SezMe]

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".

This series is the only one that I have read that is set in my home town (except for one Spenser book). It is really fun to see her use of local settings, streets, people, etc. to flesh out the plot. It is really interesting to see how she does it. For example, there is a real street in town named "De la Vina". She calls it "Dan Levine". What a hoot.

 

[SezMe]

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've read all of those. If you like snappy dialog, they're great. Unfortunately, after a dozen or so, the characters become stale, boring and predictable. That said, if you're in for a long flight, any of them are a fun, easy read to pass the time by.