Crime fiction fans

Lee Child is great - new find - and loving that there are books I still haven't read.

Just finished the new Elizabeth George - What Came Before He Shot Her - fabulous (though you do need to have read the one immediately before to understand it). Really great idea and quite unexpected.

Christopher Brookmyre is another favourite though the latest (A Tale Etched in Blood and Black Pencil) wasn't his best. I think The Sacred Art of Stealing probably holds that particular title.

Others include Meg Gardner, Lisa Gardener, Greg Iles (more thriller than crime but really gripping), Linda Howard (for comedy value), Laura Lippman - love hers, she doesn't write enough - Lisa Scottoline, PJ Tracy.

Have tried and struggled with James Lee Burke - worth trying again? What would you recommend to get into them?

Aufish - are you talking about Triptych. I thought it was very cleverly done and was a welcome change from the "County" series that she does although I'm looking forward to reading the new one!

Anything by James Lee Burke.You get a real feel for the area of Louisiana the stories are set in.
Sue Grafton
Ian Rankin
Sara Paretsky-wish she'd write some more.

I will check them out - are there any female writers I should know about? V.I. Warshawski books are good but can get bogged down in details - I like the clarity and detached atmos you get in British crime novels... iykwim.

'Rankin' even...

Love Ian Rankine
James Patterson
Dan Brown
Been reading Kathy Reichs lately - quite good.
Agree Patricia Cornwell has lost the plot. Her last book was absolutely dire.
Jeffery Deaver is my latest find - really enjoying his books.

Mark Billingham
Peter James

both excellent

I have avoided the Karin Slaughter books because I didn't like her name. I need some inspiration too as I have just finished a load of Rankin and Cornwell books I got second hand and absolutely do not want to read any more Patricia Cornwell as she has started to grate with the unrelenting misery of murder rape torture and underlying right-wing sentiment in the novels...

some more Minette Waters would be good but I have read them all...

Did you read her last book? I gasped out loud when the 3 people that I thought were the main characters actually became 2, I thought that was great, really changed how I was reading the book.

Aufish - I love Karin Slaughter but unlike you I thought her first book was the best. Fantastically written and kept you guessing right to the end of who it was!!

Have just started Karin Slaughter's new book, "Skin Privilege" haven't got very far with it as yet but is very good from the small amount that I have read. She has gone back to the ME in her first books. Would definitely recommend her, her writing has improved from the first book she wrote to this new one, after the first part I had to put it down for awhile!

(New name btw, tring out the HP variations)

Doh ignore me just re-read your post and saw you are reading the first one.

MollyWW - I know, it takes a bit of getting used to as some are written in the first person and some in the third person.

My favourite I think is Persuader but then I like them all . Die Trying is very very good too. Which one are you reading at the mo?

I read a few out of order (courtesy of Readers Digest!). Then found my Dad has them all so on the first one now (odd as written in first person) and have 2 more waiting.

Which is your fav?

MollyWW - are you enjoying them then? I love them and can re-read them over and over. Jack Reacher is just the best hero ever swoon

Which one are you up to?

Sidge - I am working through all Lee Childs Jack Reacher books at the moment.

I love the Rebus series by Ian Rankin

Oh and I know it's not fiction but I found the criminal psychologist Paul Britton's books fascinating - they are The Jigsaw Man and Picking Up The Pieces.

I absolutely love Lee Child - brillant brilliant brilliant! Mine and DHs favourite author.

Also like Dennis Lehane, Harlan Coben, Christopher Brookmyre, Kathy Reichs, Linda Fairstein, Janet Evanovich, Sue Grafton. I used to love Patricia Cornwell but after about 10 books she went all loopy and her last half dozen books have been dire.

Sarah Paretsky - her female character V I Warshawki, based in Chicago. She hasn't written many recently, but they are a great read.

Have just discovered Lee Child, and his Jack Reacher series. Brilliant! Was completely obsessed with them and really disappointed when I finished the last one (till I discovered that there is a new one out now - just waiting for it to come out in paperback)

And in a slightly different vein - i.e. comic rather than serious - Janet Evanovitch.

SilentTerror, in the Nadell books, didn't you think the way she wrote down the undertaker's speech grated a bit?

Enjoyed the plots, though

friend reminded me of a good psychological thriller i read ages ago...the analyst by Katzenbach (?john can't remember first name)

Elkiedee,I love the Lydmouth series by Andrew Taylor too! Agree about contemporary authors writing 'golden age' fiction and I like Barbara Nadell's books set in the Blitz,also Catriona Mcphereson's,set just after the first world War.
My bookshelves are full of
P.D. James
Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine
Peter Robinson
Stephen Booth
Andrew Taylor
Jim Kelly.

I have just read and really enjoyed a book called "Diamond Dove" by first time author Adrian Hyland. It is set in an Aboriginal community in the centre of Australia and the heroine is a young feisty and funny Aboriginal woman.