• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Favourite mystery/detective novels

If you're a fan of this genre, you just have to read Peeper by Loren Estleman. It's a spoof on the whole genre that involves an inept private dick who couldn't find his ass using both hands in a well-lit room. The scene regarding Macs vs. PCs never ceases to make me laugh.

It was so good, I read a couple of other books by him. Waste of time.
 
SezMe said:
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.
Click to expand...

I mentioned the Spenser series but agree that some of the stuff is formulaic, as is Travis McGee, for instance (and many others). I think those books lend themselves to beach reading or travel reading. Catch up with a new title (e.g. one you haven't read) periodically. The characters are welcome old friends that way. That's where Christie and Marsh and Tey flourished. They wrote </= 200 pages and fleshed out the characters in the dialogue, but any one of the books can stand alone. If you try to read some of the series I mentioned (James, Grimes, George) out of sequence, you spoil the ones you've skipped or confuse yourself no end. Sort of like picking up Harry Potter from the fifth book (or starting Star Wars on the fourth episode.... Oh, wait....)
 
SezMe said:
If you're a fan of this genre, you just have to read Peeper by Loren Estleman. It's a spoof on the whole genre that involves an inept private dick who couldn't find his ass using both hands in a well-lit room. The scene regarding Macs vs. PCs never ceases to make me laugh.

It was so good, I read a couple of other books by him. Waste of time.
Click to expand...


If you want a cross-genre spoof, try Gun, With Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem. Imagine that Philip K Dick has rewritten The Big Sleep with the cast of The Maltese Falcon...
 
Other cross-genre stuff, if you like that sort of thing (NB: beware plot spoilers in links):

Jon Courtney Grimwood's Arabesk Trilogy - All three are good. Sort of SciFi/alternate history/detective, set in a future version of North Africa.

When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger - The first of another three-book series. I really liked the first one, found the second a bit disappointing, and haven't read the third.

Quarantine by Greg Egan

Or if you prefer your detective to be 17th century and Japanese, Shinjū by Laura Joh Rowland - again, this is the first of a series, of which I've only read the first two books. Mrs. Mojo Really liked them.
 
Foolmewunz said:
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.
Click to expand...

To my personal taste, the Wimsey novels started going down the toilet as soon as bloody misery-guts Harriet showed up. That woman is one of my most cordially hated fictional characters. I gather that the last couple of books in the series, where the lovers do finally manage to get together -- "Gaudy Night" and "Busman's Honeymoon" -- are (on top of the 'tec stuff) very highly regarded by the romance-buffs, as a couple of the greatest romantic novels ever written. I struggled through both, but to me they were cringe-makingly embarrassing -- goo to the nth degree.
 
I'd recommend -- with a couple of reservations -- Val McDermid. She's written a considerable number of IMO excellent mystery novels, usually with British settings -- comprising a few series (Kate Brannigan; Lindsay Gordon; Tony Hill and Carol Jordan), and quite a number of stand-alones.

The author's being gay; and having a lot of her characters gay; would seem to me to have the effect of more harping on matters of sexual politics, than I'd really want in any whodunnit. Also, in the last two / three years, the plots; and especially denouements; of McDermid's novels, have struck me as tending toward the preposterously far-fetched. I do wonder whether she's losing her grip; or perhaps, just churning out too many books.
 
Lisa Simpson said:
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.
Click to expand...
I'd forgotten about Alexander, one of the better historical series. Alas I only have them as hardcopies so they don't travel with me.

Mojo said:
Christopher Fowler's Bryant & May series.
Click to expand...
I've read a couple, I must get the rest.

Foolmewunz said:
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.
Click to expand...
I like Sayers and Marsh, though I prefer the forgotten member of the 'Big Three' women writers, Gladys Mitchell. At least she's getting reprinted.
I'm not a fan of Elizabeth George, MacDonald or Robert Parker; for some reason they don't appeal to me.

fuelair said:
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.
Click to expand...
Yes it's terrible. I grabbed the eps as they aired in Australia (they don't seem to have made it over here) and didn't like it. Drastically oversimplified, characters changed and dropped, a pointless back-story added. Plus they omitted most of the grit of the setting and Phyrne's sexual antics.
Doctor Blake was far better.

LaurelHS said:
I like Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache novels, and Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks novels.
Click to expand...
I liked Penny's books (I haven't seen the TV adaption) but I haven't tried Banks for some reason.
 
Mojo said:
Or if you prefer your detective to be 17th century and Japanese, Shinjū by Laura Joh Rowland - again, this is the first of a series, of which I've only read the first two books. Mrs. Mojo Really liked them.
Click to expand...


But if you'd rather your detective to be an 12th century English monk, you could try the Cadfael series by "Ellis Peters" (real name Edith Pargeter).
 
Yes, the Doctor Blake TV series wasn't bad. The Brother Cadfael series on TV was also good.
 
SezMe said:
My Kindle overfloweth.
Click to expand...

Lucky you. With all the Science fiction, fantasy, mystery/detective book list, my flat is overflowing with paper book , my bank account crying in shame. I wish I would be able to switch to kindle...But it does not look possible. Around 1/2 of the book I read are not on ereader, so I am stuck on paper.
 
I like the Lee Child/Jack Reacher series.

The conceit: His hero owns nothing but a toothbrush and an ATM card. Big guy bums around finding trouble and fixing it.
 
Aepervius said:
Lucky you. With all the Science fiction, fantasy, mystery/detective book list, my flat is overflowing with paper book , my bank account crying in shame. I wish I would be able to switch to kindle...But it does not look possible. Around 1/2 of the book I read are not on ereader, so I am stuck on paper.
Click to expand...
Yeah I have that problem also, hell there are a lot of older books that aren't even in print in hardcopy any more.
Try collecting Gladys Mitchell or Carter Dickson. :(
 
Mojo said:
Second-hand bookshops are fun. :)
Click to expand...
Indeed, I've a collection of old green Penguins, most older than me, and many predating WW2. And there are some useful websites for scans..........
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom