Mumsnet Talk

Just hit ML and need some books to keep me going through the insomnia that is kicking in.

I can be a bit snobbish (hated One Day, Dan Brown, Jodi Picoult, Time Travellers Wife, Twilight, etc) but I do like thrillers and crime novels, provided the plotting and characterisation is half-way good. My favourite crime writer is Peter Temple. I will admit to having read all of the Sue Grafton Alphabet mysteries but would like something a bit more substantial than that.

Just read The Help and liked it, kept me reading until the end, although I found it a little clichèd in places.

I loved The Secret History (but does not stand up to re-reading), Shantaram, Room.

Grateful for any suggestions!

Have you read Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy? I'm half way through the second one at the moment. Also, you could try Jo Nesbo, Camilla Lackberg, Anne Holt, Henning Mankell for Scandinavian crime novels.

I loved The Help too but was a little disappointed by the ending.

Do you like ghost stories? Probably wouldn't help with the insomnia though . If you do, try Michelle Paver's Dark Matter. DH read it recently and said it scared him, so must be good.

If you liked The Secret History, have you read The Little Friend?

These are some of my favourites

Any Human Heart - William Boyd
either The Fall or The Glass Room by Simon Mawer
Life: An Exploded Diagram by Mal Peet
The White Woman on A Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey
either Home or Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (though those books are interlinked)
Mudbound by Hilary Jordan

Hope that helps a bit - though I have to say my brain left home while I was on ML and I just got hooked on a weird assortment of daytime tv and a lot of dvds of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Thanks, have read the Millennium Trilogy (loved), have read most of Nesbo, hated the one Lackberg I read (found it very poorly written), haven't read Anne Holt, have read some Menkell.

Will try Dark Matter, thanks.

Have read The Little Friend - found it disappointing.

Thanks again.?

Have you tried CJ Sansom's historical thrillers (Shardlake series)? They're a good read while not too taxing

Thanks

Loved Any Human Heart (and Restless)
Haven't read any of the others except Mubound which I liked.

(Trashy tv recommendations to SKY+ also welcome )

How about John Le Carré? Superb writing

You seem to like the same things I do (I've also just read The Help and Room, and like crime/thrillers too). So I would recommend Erin Kelly's The Poison Tree and Megan Abbott's The End of Everything. Read both just before Christmas and loved them - fantastic, intelligent psychological thrillers. You should also try Gillian Flynn, particularly her first, Sharp Objects - it's chilling and splendidly written. Agree with the Dark Matter recommendation - gripping and scary.

Also, have you read Jeffrey Eugenides? I haven't read his latest yet, but Middlesex is one of my favourite novels, and I'm currently reading The Virgin Suicides - brilliant.

Also agree with you that The Secret History doesn't bear a re-read very well and I found The Little Friend disappointing too.

Oh, just thought of another one: Suzanne Berne's A Crime in the Neighbourhood - won the Orange Prize in the 90s - haven't read it for years, but thought it was very good at the time. And, now I think of it, The End of Everything has echoes of this.

Plenty to keep me going here - thank you.

I recommend Sophie Hannah, Lesley Glaister and Paullina Simons for good slightly edgy contemporary fiction and for more crimey stuff look out for Marcia Muller, Laura Lippman and Sara Paretsky.

Yes, Sophie Hannah is good (psychological thriller/crime) although by her fourth I was finding them a bit samey.

Another good William Boyd novel is Ordinary Thunderstorms, a thriller set in London.

Try Susan Hill's Simon Serailler crime series - very readable. I think The Various Haunts of Men is the first one.

I enjoyed Shantaram too - I think you'd like Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese, A Disobedient Girl by Ru Freeman, and A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry - another unforgettable novel set in India.

Just finished 'Gillespie and I' by Jane Harris - great book, highly recommended!
Also agree with recommendations for the Susan Hill crime series.
If you like a touch of gruesome with your crime then Stuart Macbride is mighty fine in my opinion.

Pleased to hear that Gillespie and I is a great book because I loved The Observations by the same author. Quirky and entertaining; also well worth reading.

Gillespie and I is fab! Didn't want it to end but now it has and I have book depression....

Gillespie & I is on my Kindle e-pile as opposed to the actual pile which lurks by my bed (so much for the Kindle curing my habit of book stacking). Thought The Observations was wonderful but then found it was a bit of a Marmite book amongst my friends. Nearly finished my current read so will move on to that tomorrow, or possibly tonight if I get the chance.

Have thought of a couple of others to add to the list (these two were up amongst my top reads of 2011):

The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachan

Night Waking by Sarah Moss

Dark Matter is absolutely fantastic, I finished it yesterday and really REALLY enjoyed it. Last week I read The Sisters Brothers which was surprisingly good, I didn't think I'd like a 'Western.'

Just read the the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and really enjoyed that. Currently reading The Slap and really enjoying that. Agree Dark Matter is a fantastic book also the Summer of the Bear by Bella Pollen. A good thriller I read was Restless by William Boyd

I read the Woman in Black last night (very short book) blimey, very atmospheric and creepy!

I really, really loved The American Boy by Andrew Taylor - I couldn`t put it down. Fast-paced and atmospheric, a thriller set in Regency London and written in the style of the day, full of unexpected twists - an unexpected delight!

How about The Paris Wife by Paula McLain? I started reading it today, and am enjoying it so far.