Best crime/ thriller you've ever read?

[HarrietPotterska]

I love police procedurals, crime and psychological thrillers, but I'm struggling to find something new! I feel like I've read everything! Am tired of the "twist you'll never see coming!" which one inevitability does, else it's just not interesting to truly grip!

Please help!

A few good crime series that I've really enjoyed are:

Jane Casey's Maeve Kerrigan series
Angela Marsons Kim Stone series
David Mark's DS McAvoy series
Lara Kepler's Joona Linna series

I also love the Serrailler series and anything by Val McD.

For those who like Dalziel & Pascoe, has anyone else read The Woodcutter? I was utterly blown away by it. Same author, Reginald Hill was it?

Patricia Highsmith's books are excellent.

best this year for me.,The lost man by Jane harper and believe me by j p delany. ,which was just a brilliant rollercoaster of a read!

JK Rowling's new one Troubled Blood is marvellous. It was the first book of her's I'd read (bar the 1st HP with the child which I wasn't that keen on) and I was blown away by it! An absolute masterclass of world building, it made me feel like I'd been dropped into the middle of the characters' lives. The storyline was a cracker too. Marvellous stuff, I was reading slower and slower the closer I got to the last page because I didn't want it to end.

Have done Highsmith and Troubled Blood ❤️

I like Mark Billingham's Tom Thorne series.
Loved Sue Grafton Kinsey Milhone - the character is so relatable

@devildeepbluesea

I also love the Serrailler series and anything by Val McD.

For those who like Dalziel & Pascoe, has anyone else read The Woodcutter? I was utterly blown away by it. Same author, Reginald Hill was it?

I listened on Audible!

A bit left field,but John Conelly books. It's a series with three main characters. Each is a stand alone story, but I think they are better read in sequence. The characters are drawn wonderfully, and if you read them in sequence you get to find out why some of the three main characters are how they are.

I say a bit left field because there are undercurrents of supernatural in them but they are mainly private detective/fbi procedurals

I couldn’t put down Then She was Gone by Lisa Jewell.

@timehealsmost

best this year for me.,The lost man by Jane harper and believe me by j p delany. ,which was just a brilliant rollercoaster of a read!

She wrote The Dry too, didn't she? That was good.

@kursaalflyer

Most thrillers don't hit the spot and the most hyped are usually the worst. Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris was very good and I didn't guess what was happening until the end. This was book one of a trilogy of which the other two are also worth reading.

Oh yes! Gentlemen and Players was excellent too.

@Todaywewilldobetter. yes she did and it was good, her other book forces of nature I didn't enjoy as much. ,but she has a new book coming out soon which I have on order!

Craig Robertson, particularly the last two are so gripping and have a different feel to other crime books I've read.

Thanks for this thread, OP. I've made a note of a few recommendations as I too was feeling that I had run out of authors.

One I don't think has been mentioned is Attica Locke. They might be slightly more legal and political but there is normally a murder and I've really enjoyed each one that I have read.

My favourite Ruth Rendell is 'A Sight for Sore Eyes'. Then years later she wrote a sequel to it called 'the vault'.

Louise Penny is my favourite. I started the series after I was hunting for good crime books and looked at who had won the Agatha Award. She'd won or been nominated so many times I tried the first one and now both my husband and I love them. Her writing and the characters completely draw me in. Interestingly a friend didn't think much of the writing, so it either gets you or it doesn't.

Peter Robinson's DI Banks are my favourite. Recommend years ago on here and I started at the beginning, think there are about 20 and he's still writing. (My Alan Banks is definately NOT Stephen Tompkinson!)

Yes loving this thread!

I’d recommend Patricia Gibney - Detective Lottie Parker series.

Go through CWA (crime writers association) award winners - esp Ian Fleming steel dagger? Their awards are the best for identifying really good and fantastically written thrillers. thecwa.co.uk/the-daggers/winners-archive?awardsyear=0&dagger=ian-fleming-steel&accolade=winner&s=

This thread is going to cost me a fortune. I love it!

Chris Carter

I love his first book!

User beat me to it but John Connolly's Charlie Parker series are brilliant. There's 15 in the series, his writing is wonderful, , they can be read alone, but are best in sequence.

There is a supernatural thread running through but they are thriller/procedural/mystery at heart.

I tore through the whole series at the beginning of lockdown and absolutely adored them.

You will fall in live with the characters!

The henning mankell wallander books are brilliant. They got me back into reading after years of abandoning books!

I've stopped reading 'best-selling' thrillers, they are inevitably utterly disappointing, predictable and quite poorly written.

The last one I read was Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware. Published by Penguin, rave reviews.

Absolutely dire, seriously embarrassingly bad. Plot holes all over the show, no real motivation for any of the characters' behaviour, utterly perplexing 'twist'. I was quite angry I spent money on it.

I'm not falling for it any more!