but you didn't mention Dame Agatha Christie. Particularly Poirot. Have you read any of her books?

I think I've read all of the Poirot books, except the final one (Curtain).



And, of course, the Poirot series with David Suchet is also a favorite of mine.

started reading Agatha in grade school. I also loves Miss Marple.

There are many I've read, including Ngaio Marsh. Hoping to find some gems I've overlooked.

David Suchet was wonderful. But the classic movies with Peter Ustinov as Poirot are fun, too.

because there's not a lot of action-- lots of dialog-- pages and pages-- lots of prose, ditto. But I finally was able to enter into her subtle little world and appreciate everything about the books-- she had a keen mind and a subtle sense of humor, and her mysteries were so well thought-out, so well planned-- it kept me guessing through most of her books.

Anyway-- good luck with your quest!!

I like the Scandinavian writers, though they tend to be pretty dark. Karin Fossum, Jo Nesbø, Jussi Adler-Olsen, Arnaldur Indriðason and Camilla Läckberg are all very good.

sort of got bogged down with the whole storyline. Stopped before (SPOILER ALERT) Helen was killed (I think she was, right?) I may go back because it has been quite a while.

I read a lot of Henning Mankell's Wallander books. Will check out the others you mention. Thanks!

I know many raved about "... Fingerpost" so I may give that a try.

But my favorites were Dick Francis and Anne Perry. He was a former steeplechase jockey and his initial books took place in the racing world, but he branched out to develop characters from all sorts of worlds, from politics to tornado watchers to wine connoisseurs. He was very prolific. And Anne Perry writes historical mysteries, has two series, one about a police inspector from Victorian England and another from the early 1800s around the Crimean War. That character suffered amnesia, solves cases while trying to solve his own history. I enjoy history, so I liked the historical mysteries a lot. And I don't like the graphic type, either, so you might enjoy these.

I used to ride as well - not racing, but ring jumping and cross-country eventing. Not sure why I didn't really take to Francis.

I enjoyed Anne Perry's books - I read many of the ones set in Victorian England. Not the Crimean War ones; I might check those out.

Thanks!

My mother brought one of his books to my uncle - another voracious reader - when he was in the hospital, but it turns out he'd already read it, so she brought it home. I think that one was "The Edge," the one about the cross country train trip across Canada. I've read them all, several more than once, but I think that one is still my favorite. And, like I said, he did get away from the racing world in his later books. I think my favorite of those is "Straight," in which the main character inherits his late brother's Blackberry-like device and has to figure out what his brother had been up to...

And I also grew up riding, not racing, either, but dressage and jumping, same as you. I grew up in Saratoga Springs, NY, serious horse country, and when my cousin started riding, it was decided that I should do it, too. I also went to a riding camp during the summers when I was growing up. It's been a long time since I've been on a horse, but the friends I made there are still the best I have.

The second series of Anne Perry mysteries is about William Monk, set in the earlier 1800s, in which former police detective Monk tries to figure out his past before it catches up with him. There's a female protagonist in this series, too, Hester, a Crimean War nurse. There are almost two dozen in that series, as well.

And did you know about Anne Perry's background? I didn't learn until after I started reading the books that Anne Perry, as a young teen, conspired with her very close friend to kill the friend's mother to keep the friend's family from moving away. It was made into the movie "Heavenly Creatures," saw it a long time ago. Anne Perry obviously doesn't like talking about that much, believe it was big news when her history came out...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavenly_Creatures

And if you like historical mysteries, I also recommend Miriam Grace Monfredo. Hers are set before and during the American Civil War. The initial books take place during the women's suffrage movement in Seneca Falls, NY, while the later books, which I prefer, feature the niece of the original main character who becomes kind of spy during the Civil War, one of the first female Pinkerton agents. I met the author once at a book signing in Saratoga. She's very nice and was a college history professor.

I've read dozens more, used to have to have a book to read, but those are the ones I enjoyed most.

Yes, I did know about Anne Perry - but if I like a book, I tend to research the writer so I checked her out after I read the first few Victorian-era books. And now that you remind me, I did read one of the books with Monk and Hester - and I think I loved it. Not sure why I didn't read more of them. Will have to fix that.

I do like historical mysteries. Will look up Monfredo's books. I also really liked Margaret Frazer's "Dame Frevisse" novels, set from roughly 1430-50 in England. I just saw that Frazer died a few years ago. I was always hoping she'd write another Frevisse novel, though the last one seemed rather like she'd reached an end she could be satisfied with if another book didn't come out.

I haven't ridden in over 20 years. I have no desire to jump or anything like that anymore, but I'd love to go for a trail ride or two. I grew up in southern California, near Palm Springs. My trainer would buy thoroughbreds from local tracks and gentle/train them to be trail horses. I never really liked competing; I'd like to take the thoroughbreds out to the dry river bed and let them RUN! For horses that never or rarely won a race, they were super fast.

So the main story is him trying to figure out what was going on in his brother's life. I know I read that one twice...

And I did see the movie supposedly based on Anne Perry's young life, but it was before I read her books, so I guess I should see it again, though I don't remember enjoying that story...

I liked both of Anne Perry's series, seemed to prefer whichever one I was reading at the time. The Monk books are a little darker and the descriptions of medical care during the Crimean War are a little hard to take, but the stories don't focus on that.

And I know what you mean about mourning the death of a favorite author. I remember where I was when I heard Dick Francis died! I also liked the "Cat Who" books, was sad to hear that Lilian Jackson Braun died, as well. I got those for my mother and then I read them myself, can think of a few series like that, but you said you aren't interested in mystery solving cats...

This may be obvious, but have you read the Sue Grafton books, "A Is For Alibi" and the rest of the alphabet? Those are set in Southern CA and Kinsey Millhone is a pretty interesting protagonist.

It sounds like you had a wonderful riding experience and had a beautiful place for riding, as well. I started taking lessons at Skidmore College just before I turned 10, then went to camp for six summers. I was a little too timid to be a serious competitor, had a cousin who had her own horse(s) and had a life going to horse shows, competed in Madison Square Garden, but she rode Saddle Seat which I never did get.

I was in horse shows in Saratoga and at camp, participated in the drill team there which I liked especially. But the most amazing summer I spent was when I went with a group from camp to Ireland. We took lessons in Dublin from Iris Kellett (had ridden in the Olympics) and got a chance to ride all over the Irish countryside, including along the beach by the ocean in Kerry, an experience I'll never forget!

over the family franchise now and is a very good writer too.

I remember when she died, he said he wouldn't be writing anymore books, but then I thought his son took over her job and he wrote a few mire. A lot of research must have gone into his later books since they all had to do with settings and situations far removed from the race track he was familiar with.

And I liked his books so much that I read most of them more than once. When he came out with a new book most years it usually coincided with my birthday and I couldn't wait so I asked for his book in hardcover, have many of them this way. My mother used to like to read them too. I was terribly sad to hear of his death, but he lived quite a life and made a real success if a second career. And he sure left us with a large number of books, and quite a variety.

I'll have to check out Felix's books, will certainly like them if they're at all the same. Thanks for the heads up!

is great, although he's not the main character.

and am shocked how many more books there are in the series. Will see if my library has them. Thanks!

Unique characters and settings. If you'd like to be transported to New Mexico / southwest via good writing and mysteries, check these out. Should be able to find in most libraries.

That said, his "A Thief Of Time" is absolutely first-rate.

original ways of getting at the bad guy that I've ever seen.

I've got three hardcover Hillerman's on my desk (one of which is my mouse pad).

I think I've read them all now. Wonderful stories. But A Thief of Time is definitely my favorite and in a class by itself to me.

Really enjoyed them. Many images have stayed with me a long time.

I think there are three slated, but I've only read the first one. It was pretty good, but the focus was more on Chee's wife, Bernadette Manuelito.

and I happened to know him when he was practicing as a psychologist at Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles,
working with kids in the Hematology/Oncology service. We were there at the same time.


From Wikipedia

Her detective is a Los Angeles homicide cop who meets and marries an Orthodox Jewish woman in the first book. He converts to Judaism, and Orthodox Jewish life is part of the background, but Faye is a keen observer of contemporary society and writes mysteries grounded in social issues.

She uses Jewish works and names often. I would love to know what they mean but I read upstairs in bed. The computer is downstairs. So...I pass without knowing what the words mean. Great books otherwise.

I also read one of the Golem books (Paris) recently that Jonathan wrote with his son, Jesse. It was interesting to see if I could
detect two different writing styles--which I could--and the plot didn't move quickly enough for me.

I'm married to a psychiatrist and enjoy the psychological aspect of the Alex Delaware books.

The main characters are Ute Detective turned PI and rancher Charlie Moon and his elderly aunt who is a mischievous medicine woman.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Doss

James D. Doss (1939, Kentucky, -17 May 2012) was a noted American mystery novel author. He was the creator of the popular fictional Ute detective/rancher Charlie Moon, of whom he wrote 17 mystery novels. James "Danny" Doss was born and raised in Kentucky and died in Los Alamos, New Mexico. He was also an electrical engineer who worked on particle accelerators and biomedical technology for the University of California's Los Alamos National Laboratory, while writing his novels. After retirement from Los Alamos National Laboratory, he continued to write his popular novels while living in Taos, New Mexico and Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Books[edit]

Charlie Moon Series[edit]
1. The Shaman Sings (1994)
2. The Shaman Laughs (1995)
3. The Shaman's Bones (1997)
4. The Shaman's Game (1998)
5. The Night Visitor (1999)
6. Grandmother Spider (2001)
7. White Shell Woman (2002)
8. Dead Soul (2003)
9. The Witch's Tongue (2004)
10. Shadow Man (2005)
11. Stone Butterfly (2006)
12. Three Sisters (2007)
13. Snake Dreams (2008)
14. The Widow's Revenge (2009)
15. A Dead Man's Tale (2010)
16. Coffin Man (2011)
17. The Old Gray Wolf (2012)

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=James+Doss

I love the desert southwest; will be interesting to read these.

about Navaho cops on the rez in Arizona. A couple were made into movies.
Great suspense and Indian lore.

... Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. Totally slapstick comedy, which is a really refreshing change from the usual sort of cozy/intellectual approach. Plus it's set in Trenton, New Jersey, which is a real change from all the Scotland Yard and big city 'tecs. (I swear, there are more fictional Yard Inspectors than the actual force ever had).

For something else completely different, but not so comedic, one might try the Brother Cadfael series by "Ellis Peters" (Edith Pargeter): a 12th-century Benedictine who solves all sorts of mysteries. (Also made into a series on Mystery). Or one might go with Lindsey Davis's Marcus Didius Falco, a PI in Rome during Vespasian's reign. She's not as good a writer as Pargeter, but she does her homework and is not as bad as some of the modern authors.

For something really out-there, Glen Cook's Garrett files combines Spillane-like noir with high fantasy in a frequently comic mix, but there is also possibly more violence than you would prefer.

For a more traditional style, Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series, set in Santa Barbara (called Santa Theresa in the books).

Presumably you have already been acquainted with John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series, which are classics of the genre.

-- Mal

Actually, never heard of Travis McGee. Will have to fix that!

...they've been virtually forgotten, but in their time they were every bit as famous as Agatha Christie. In my opinion, they're better. The plots are unmatched in their complexity, and alone among mystery books, there really and truly is only one possible murderer, if you're clever enough to follow the clues. The latter books in the series, especially the ones set in the fictional Wrightsville, kept all the complexity but added some human dimension, and are my personal favorites. Worth looking up.

I discovered Ellery Queen while I was a teenager, and I have most of them in print. Great stories, loads of period color!

...there are few enough of us today...I'd love to see a good, period, leisurely TV production of all the Queen books--no 90-minute rush jobs...it'd kill them. But imagine giving, say, the Greek Coffin Mystery a three-hour production...and did you ever wonder what became of the Quenan community, when interstates and satellites came along? *Sigh*...OK--enough geekdom for one day...

Particularly the Inspector Wexford series would appear to be exactly the kind of thing you'd like.

She's a brilliant writer in any case, and many of her non-Wexford books published under the name of Barbara Vine are absolutely brilliant. A Fatal Inversion and a Dark-adapted Eye are particular fine examples of those.

Definitely psychological thrillers (esp. Vine).

Stick to Burke's mysteries situated in South Louisiana (his Texas and Western States novels aren't as good). C.J. Box's mysteries feature a Wyoming game warden protagonist, getting himself enmeshed in human crime solving; they're very well done.

Lots of good discussions about worthwhile reads.

I'd try to reserve his latest book, and there would be 100 or more people ahead of me on the list. He has a huge following in the West.

Same kind of story with James Lee Burke. He came to Houston for a book reading/signing gig at a local book store, a few years ago. I drove over after work, figuring I'd just be there a few minutes---and there were a couple of hundred people lined up, intent on the same thing.

I liked the one Billy Bob Holland books on my list. I might have read others that I failed to write down.

Of the Robicheaux books, my favorite is probably "In The Electric Mist With Confederate Dead."

Mystery page-turners, with a sense of humor and good dialogue.

the old John Dickson Carr's Dr. Gideon Fell.

Pendergast books are mystery/thrillers with a sci-fi flavor. I've read them all except the most recent two.

Carr's book - like Ellery Queen's - have mostly been forgotten, and there are good reasons for it (stories are dated, dialogue is weird, etc.), but there is no denying the creepy quality of his stories, and even moments where I jumped in fright (not making that up, see/read The Crooked Hinge).

Ellery Queen ... might look through the list and see if any jump out, begging to be read.

at least the Arizona - Joanna Brady series. haven't read any of her other two characters.

and there's another one, but I can't remember the character's name.

Will look out for the Arizona series. I spent a fair amount of time as a kid in Flagstaff and Sedona ... I love the state.

Each book is set in a different National Park. Her protagonist is a park ranger.

Have never forgotten the one where she (protagonist) had to suffocate a deer that had been hit by a car because she didn't have a gun on her (or for some reason couldn't use it). Haunts me.

And I like the interplay between the character and her boyfriend / fiance...

Incredibly good.

Thanks!

End of cold war spy novel series that is killer good. Start with Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and get lost in brilliant writing.

And the movie of "Tinker, Tailor" with Gary Oldman as Smiley is absolutely wonderful---even better than the old TV series with Alec Guiness......

many different adaptations - which I realize probably pale in comparison to the books (as movies usually do).

I'll make a note to read them. Thanks!

Last edited Wed Apr 6, 2016, 06:10 PM - Edit history (1)

Now that we've lost P.D. James, Ruth Rendell, Reginald Hill (the Dalziel and Pascoe series), and Robert Barnard (never the same characters twice for dozens of books), some next-generation writers have taken up the fine old British tradition of complex, character-driven mysteries.

1. Stephen Booth: A British author whose mismatched pair of detectives live in the Peak District in north-central England. One of his detectives is a young local man whose family still lives on a nearby farm, while the other is a woman who was raised in foster care in Manchester and hates having been assigned to a rural area. Both the sratories and the character development (and local lore) are excellent.

2. Aline Templeton: A Scottish writer whose main character is a woman police detective in a Scottish coastal town. She actually lives on a farm with her husband and two children, and some of the mysteries revolve around tensions between the farmers and the tourists who come during the summer.

3. Susan Hill: Her stories take place in an English town that seems an awful lot like Wells, and her detective is a loner who goes off and does art whenever he can. He is a triplet, with a brother who has emigrated to Australia and a sister who is the local doctor, and the family dynamics add a human interest touch to the mysteries.

4. Peter James: I read the first book in his series, Dead Simple, about a stag party prank that goes terribly wrong, leaving one missing groom as the wedding date approaches, and I was hooked. The detective in this series, Roy Grace, is haunted by the disappearance of his wife on her thirtieth birthday, and clues come up as the series progresses.

5. Peter Robinson: If your PBS station has shown the DCI Banks series, then you're familiar with Peter Robinson, Yorkshire detective. Some of the plots carry over from one book to the next, so it's best to read the story in order.

6. Andrew Taylor: He's written a lot, but the so-called Roth Trilogy is his masterpiece. It works backwards, starting with a series of crimes and working backward into the sociopathic criminal's teenager years and childhood. The three titles are The Four Last Things, The Judgment of Strangers, and The Office of the Dead.

7. Simon Brett's Charles Paris series is a must for anyone who has ever been involved in theater or broadcasting. Paris is an aging actor with an estranged wife and a drinking problem and a mediocre career, and as he travels from obscure job to obscure job (summer theater, making commercials, being in the chorus of a musical, being in a radio play, etc.), he keeps encountering murders. The dry, unforced humor is what makes this series worthwhile.

8. Tana French: This Irish writer structures her series of novels so that a minor character in one novel becomes the major character in the next one. The Ireland she portrays is a far cry from the leprechauns and shamrocks of legend.

10. Yrsa Sigurdardottir is an Icelandic author whose novels always have a touch of the possibly supernatural about them, and indeed, she has written at least one stand-alone ghost story. The first novel, Last Rituals, is about a German student who is murdered and mutilated while researching Icelandic folklore and superstitions, and it introduces the character of Thora, a lawyer and single mother of two children.

Also does ghost stories, though not in a series, which is what you asked about.

I have read both and iLife the ghost stories.

Cher

about a week a while back.
Riveting. Violent, but riveting.

and then a few of them got dark / depressing. Always interesting, though. A dear and close family member is struggling with a very serious bout of cancer and I just can't mentally cope with that kind of book at the moment, not when real life has me on pins and needles.

I saw a few Rebus shows on BBC, I think. I'll check out the books, as well as the others you mention. Thanks.

We have a poster here on DU who goes by Ian David Rankin. Wonder if he's any kin?

But my favorite place to look for mysteries, to find new works by my favorite authors and to keep track of the order of series is Stop You're Killing Me. Not only do they list books by author and main character, they also let you search by location, jobs, historical period, diversity and genre. They even have a "read alike" index so you can find mysteries that are similar to ones you like.

Great site though they now support it by linking books to the Amazon page for the title.

series on BBC was great, though I haven't read any of the books. Loved the Gently character on the teevee

The author is Kerry Greenwood. The books are set in the 1920s and 193os. I enjoy them.

but haven't watched any... will try the books first.

See many old favorites and next time in the market for mysteries will check here.

I think this is the most replies to any thread I've posted (and I've been here 14 years). Lol

I seldom make OPs and it is certainly my busiest in The Lounge (granted my responses are 1/2 the posts).

I came to DU in 2003 under a different screen name and have made maybe 8500 posts total.

I am about 2/3rds of the way thru his books. You can look him up and get a list of his books in order. Key people are the same from book to book. Each book stands alone tho I recommend reading them in order. I can't remember if it is the first three books or books 2, 3, 4 that form a subset of books.

Thank you for posting this. I have enjoyed browsing thru the responses.

to come out later this spring. They're fun.

thanks

Anything by Greg Iles or

The I.T. series by Pamela Clare (contemporary romantic suspense)

Thank you!

And thanks for your comment ... I am better; we got good news about my sister yesterday (her cancer came back last year; she had a stem cell transplant and the drs were worried it hadn't 'taken' but the test results came back with good news). So, at least the major crisis is over ... the rest is just work bullshit; if family is OK, I can handle the rest.

And there are so many interesting choices I have no idea where to start! I'm going to have fun trying, though.

You might already be familiar with John Sandford. I have read them all and I'm waiting for the next one. https://www.fantasticfiction.com/s/john-sandford/

Randy Wayne White. https://www.fantasticfiction.com/w/randy-wayne-white/

Don Winslow. Winslow might be a bit violent for you. But he is a cut above. https://www.fantasticfiction.com/w/don-winslow-2/