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Original poster

Crime/thriller/horror with a dash of humour, any recommendations?

28 replies

SinisterBumFacedCat · 27/10/2018 14:41

I really enjoy crime/thriller/horror books but I like it to be written with some funny bits, cultural references (though not constant) and in a familiar voice. I don't like it were the narrative is distant from all the characters.

Favourite authors so far are:
Nikki French (earlier books)
Paula Daly
Helen Fitzgerald (author of The Cry)
Christopher Fowler (horror)
Simon Booker

Also really like Maggie O Farrel and Margaret Atwood.

Is there any other authors with similar styles you can recommended?

OP posts:
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DonkeysDontRideBicycles · 12/11/2018 15:24

Stumbled across this thread, shall try Chris Brookmyre, thanks for recommendationm

elkiedee · 12/11/2018 15:10

And I think John Harvey - the Charlie Resnick series and one of his standalones especially - is one of the best writers on this side of the Atlantic.

elkiedee · 12/11/2018 15:09

People might think it's a bit mad to suggest Ian Rankin here, but he's great at dry humour and cultural references. Not really a humourous writer, but one of the wittiest I can think of.

For something completely different, the subject of Rankin's PhD dissertation, Muriel Spark.

iklboo · 11/11/2018 18:42

Dave Turner's How To Be Dead series is humorous horror.

sushisuperstar · 11/11/2018 18:35

@gussiefox I love his female colleague too she hilarious!!

TonTonMacoute · 06/11/2018 09:43

You could have a look at Fred Vargas's books, which are translated from French. There are two series, the Inspector Adamsberg book, and the Three Evangelists who are amateurs. Occasionally they overlap.

FiveShelties · 04/11/2018 08:14

Another vote for the Logan McRae series - I have just finished the first one and moved quickly onto Number 2 - excellent read.

Dard · 31/10/2018 15:35

Jo nesbo

Original poster
SinisterBumFacedCat · 31/10/2018 15:02

Great suggestions. I've not read any of them yet, am going to the library with a list!

Margaret Atwood is not really crime, but I love her style. Also Diane Setterfield (the thirteenth tale). I forgot to mention Ruth Rendell (RIP) Sad

OP posts:
NotCitrus · 31/10/2018 10:13

Seconding Brookmyre. PD James if you don't mind more dated realism?
Or for up to date culture and humourous police novels, with a bit of magic included, try the Rivers of London series?

thinkofablinkingnamewoman · 30/10/2018 18:06

Another vote for Robert Crais - Elvis Cole is a great creation.

Can I also recommend M R C Kasasian's Gower Street books, starting with the Mangle Street Murders. Clever and very funny.

Bitconfused75 · 30/10/2018 18:05

I second Chris Brookmyre and the Logan McRae books.
Also love Ben Aaronvitch Rivers of London series - humour, history, supernatural and detective work!

StoorieHoose · 30/10/2018 18:03

Another vote for Christopher Brookmyre. I have reread his books several times (the crime ones but not his sci-fi ones).

LittleMouseontheDairy · 30/10/2018 17:58

TheOnlyLivingBoy I agree, nearly suggested them! The earlier ones are better I think.

TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross · 30/10/2018 17:41

Nothing like your list but I love Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series. Properly laugh out loud.

LassWiADelicateAir · 30/10/2018 17:38

Carl Hiassen's crime novels too. I haven't read them in years but they were very funny.

PiggeryPorcombe · 30/10/2018 07:59

Robert Crais books - Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. Great crime stories and full of subtle humour. Elvis is my favourite fictional character ever.

LittleMouseontheDairy · 30/10/2018 07:24

Belinda Bauer’s are shot through with a wry humour and wit.

If you like Paula Daly you might like Catherine Ryan Howard - a very accessible and witty, chatty narrative.

And Susie Steiner might fit the bill too?

DancelikeEmmaGoldman · 30/10/2018 01:40

Kinky Friedman’s crime novels are very funny, the sort of books which embarrass you when you’re reading in public.

Carl Hiaasen’s books are funny and a little surreal. If you enjoy some social comment, bizarre characters and Florida (I like all those things), then well worth reading.

Older books, but Robert Parker’s Spenser novels (the ones written when he was alive, not the current ghostwritten lot), have spectacularly funny dialogue between Spenser and Hawk. I’d stop at the point Spenser meets Susan, because she might be the most irritating woman in fiction.

LassWiADelicateAir · 29/10/2018 20:15

Oh and obviously just about any Kate Atkinson.

LassWiADelicateAir · 29/10/2018 20:13

Catriona Macpherson's Dandy Gilver series. Upper class lady on a Perthshire estate (as in country estate, not municipal housing estate) does crime sleuthing. Starts just after the end of WWI.

BreconBeBuggered · 27/10/2018 23:10

Second Chris Brookmyre. Very funny, with engaging characters you can always relate to at some level, even the baddies. That goes for the earlier novels (from Quite Ugly One Morning to A Snowball in Hell) - the later ones are a bit more 'serious' crime books, I think. I don't normally read much crime fiction.
Agree it's nothing like Margaret Atwood!

OrdinaryGirl · 27/10/2018 21:03

I'm on my first Dorothy L Sayers (properly old school reading) and loving her prose. The Lord Peter Wimsey series. She writes so well and wittily.

fleshmarketclose · 27/10/2018 18:36

I'm reading the Logan McCrae series currently and agree that at times it is laugh out loud gussiefox

Cornishblues · 27/10/2018 18:29

I recently enjoyed mick herron’s slow horses, a spy thriller with a seam of dry wit. It’s the first in a series so I’m looking forward to the next one.

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