In a reading rut, help!

I also returned to reading Stephen King recently, after being quite scathing about him since i was a teenager. But what a writer...
What about
Susan Hill, detective series
Daphne du Maurier
Patricia highsmith
Also all the detective writers that frouby recommended.
Have you tried p d james ot Barbara vine/ruth rendell?
I also like the scandi noir writers.

Curtis Sittenfeld is just sublime.... loved American Wife, Prep and Sisterland.

Also Maria McCann who writes really intelligent but fabulously plotted hist fic.... As Meat Loves Salt is my fave but they are all great.

OP your reading tastes sound like mine. I like Kate Atkinson but don't love her. I don't have particular genres I prefer but just want good books. Finding thrillers all very meh atm too.

I probably replied up thread but recent favourites have been the Shetland series and Vera by Anne Cleeves. The Tana French Dublin Murder Squad series. The Peter May Lewis triology. I did enjoy Kate Atkinson Life After Life. I enjoy Lisa Jewells stuff.

Am currently reading Anatomy of a Scandal and enjoying that.

Have you tried Literature Map? You put in the name of an author that you like and it gives you other authors that are similar.

Wilbur Smith Egyptian Series
Diana Gabaldon
Michelle Moran
Christine Feehan

I'm a Kate Atkinson fan too. The best nook I've read recently was The Light Behind the Window by Lucinda Riley. I've read a few of her other novels and have always seen them as quite frothy holiday reading but this is excellent. Young woman working as a secret agent in Paris during the war right under the nose of the SS.

I second Sarah Waters: Fingersmith and The Little Stranger, in particular. I also really enjoyed The Paying Guests but couldn't get on with The Night Watch.

I'd also recommend Rose Tremain: Music and Silence and Trespass.

I love anything by Anita Shreve. I was so sorry to read of her recent death.

Also recommend Eleanor Oliphont is Completely Fine. Really liked it and it was a complete change from the run of the mill.

I’ll second ‘the paying guests’- I thought it was brilliant. And it’s a bit thrillerish, kind of.

If you’re into reading hist fic at the mo, I’d recommend ‘dear mrsbird’ by a j Pearce or ‘The war nurses’ by lizzy page set in the 2nd and 1st ww’s respectively.

I’m reading ‘the awkward age’ mumsnet book club at the moment- it’s v well written but not me. Yet.

I want to read ‘darling’ next by Rachel Edwards, ‘Post Brexit novel...’

I've just read Wool by Hugh Howley - first of a trilogy. Really enjoyed it. It's a bit different, basic premise is set in the post-apocalyptic future where people live in a giant underground silo with no knowledge of what is outside, other than it's not survivable. There is a camera which people get sent to 'clean' if they express the forbidden desire to go outside or commit some forms of crime. That description doesn't really do it justice though - never was any good at book reviews! Look it up online and I'm sure you'll find a better description!

Can I ask what Kate Atkinson book you hated, 1woke? I’ve really enjoyed her books. Could not put down Case Histories!

Have you tried Sarah Waters? Would highly recommend The Little Stranger and The Paying Guests.

I’m currently reading Wilkie Collins’ The Dead Secret, as I really enjoyed The Woman in White on BBC1.

We just read True Story by Michael Finkel in book club - my first True Crime as I never thought I’d get on with but it was fascinating.

Also feeling the same about recent GIrl on the Train style thrillers being too same-y.
However I picked up Lullaby a French one and am loving it so far. Trigger you know some children are murdered on the first page.

I never read thrillers or crime books.

The Seven Sisters series by Lucinda Riley (a nice, not too challenging but still interesting read)

The Neopolitan Series by Elena Ferrante

I recently read the Hunger Games series as well which I couldn't put down.

Other young adult fiction I have read recently and liked -
The Changers series by Cooper and Cooper

If you like thrillers which are more complex than the action hero type, Lisa Unger writes terrific mysteries. I particularly enjoyed her first two, Sliver of Truth and Beautiful Lies, (they're related), and found them genuinely unsettling.

Jane Goodall's The Walker is haunting and unusual - set in the 1960s, it's a genuinely scary detective story.

Zoe Sharp's series featuring Charlie Fox are action thrillers, but Charlie is a kick ass heroine. The Blood Whisperer is a stand-alone, but it's terrific and I keep hoping for a sequel.

I was in a real reading rut last year. Then I read 'spill simmer falter wither' by Sara Baume and it completely kick started my year again. I love those books where you're itching for just five minutes to read another couple of pages and this was the first I'd had that with for a while.

A misfit man finds a misfit dog. Compelling story, interesting writing and - warning - you WILL cry.

I agree with using charity shops (and libraries obviously).
My local one does 5 books for £2 or 50p each. It's not such an expensive mistake if I don't enjoy them. I also couldn't afford to read as much as I do without this fab shop!

I think I'm quite lucky though, because in the last couple of weeks I've bought from there,
The Essex serpent
Alias Grace
Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine
The sudden appearance of Hope
His bloody project
Hag-seed
What the dickens
Shift
And finally Dust (I already have Wool although that was there too).

Some weeks I'll go in and there nothing I want. Others it's overflowing! It's my favorite shop ☺

Hi everyone, I'm new here but there are so many good suggestions on this thread! I know the feeling of a reading rut, there's so much choice out there and still I felt like I was reading the same things over and over again. I joined an online book club subscription last year to try and find new books. (Rare Birds Book Club... it's brilliant!) One of the books was The Silent Companions, which had a few great twists in it. Never would have picked it myself but when I started reading I couldn't put it down. Great for anyone who likes atmospheric ghost stories, old houses, Daphne du Maurier-ish

I loved the Light Between the Oceans. I gave it to my daughters who wanted to read it on a long haul flight. She said, I should have warned her to save the end until she got home. One of the Cabin Crew asked her if she was O.K. I found the whole book so believable and the moral dilemma faced by them all really well expressed.

The Light Between Oceans.

Anthony Horowitz is a great author of thrillers with a brilliant story line that isn't usual sensationalist nonsense, ie don't rely on violence against women or children. Magpie Murders and The Word is Murder both very enjoyable