What crime/mystery books do you like?

[tillyfernackerpants]

I need suggestions and/or inspiration!

I love crime & mystery books but seem to have pretty much read everything by my favourites atm and am looking for something new!

I've read Robert Crais, Harlan Coben, Michael Connelly, Jonathan & Faye Kellerman, Kathy Reichs, James Lee Burke.

I don't like Val McDermid (or anything overly gory!), Patricia Cornwell, James Patterson, John Grisham, Tami Hoag.

Oh, and I quite like books with a continuing character.

Other than that I'm not particularly fussy . So please help!!

Have you read PD James and ELizabeth George for a more old fashioned type

erica spindler
tess gerritsen
mary higgins clark

Second PD James and would add Reginald Hill (Dalziel and Pascoe but 10 times better than TV series)

If you like a little touch of supernatural with your thriller, John Connolly is hard to beat

If it's the Wire in the Blood Val McDermids you don't like, try the Kate Brannigan set.

Or Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone books.

Kate Atkinson - Case histories, One good turn and When will there be good news.

The woman in white for a period setting

Linwood Barclay - no time to say goodbye was fab, and i love harlan coben. just read a james patterson about school girl killings? It was like a weird Janet and John - you know, no long words/plot/characterisation. Strangest book i ever read.

Peter Robinson

ooh yes loved Linwood Brclay's books
James Patterson is odd - quite like most of his books (but wouldn't go out on a limb to buy them) but then I read 8th confession which was dreadful. Makes you wonder if someone is actually writing on his behalf

The Shardlake series by C.J Sansom are very good if you fancy trying some with a historical setting (tudor times).

I like Mark Billingham and Stuart McBride, - but they might be a bit gory for you.

Have you read Sarah Waters 'The Little Stranger'? not exactly the same genre, but certainly a mystery story and a very good read IMO.

Dennis Lehane's Kenzie/Gennaro series is great.

Ian Rankin, John Harvey

Sara Paretsky

Lee Child - long running character of Jack Reacher.
Jeffery Deaver - Lincoln Rhyme/ Ameila Sachs
Karin Slaughter (quite gory though.)

I love all the authors you have mentioned in your OP!

John Sandford

Stephen Booth
Linda Fairstein
P J Tracy
P J Parrish
Quintin Jardine
Louise Penny
Robert B Parker

All of the above have long running characters.

Some of my favourites:

Susan Wittig Albert ? The China Bayles Mysteries
Linda Barnes ? The Carlotta Carlyle series
Sue Grafton - Kinsey Milhone series
Ann Granger ? Mitchell and Markby Mysteries
Sara Paretsky ? V I Warshawski series
Kate Wilhelm ? Barbara Holloway series
J A Jance ? Joanna Brady series and J P Beaumont series
Nevada Barr ? Anna Pigeon series
Janet Evanovich ? Stephanie Plum series
Deborah Crombie ? Duncan Kinkaid/Gemma James series

Also:

Edna Buchanan
Ruth Rendell
Minette Walters

A couple of more lighthearted series:

Joanne Fluke - Hannah Swenson series (with recipes!)
M C Beaton - Hamish Macbeth series and Agatha Raisin series

Colin Forbes

Jean-Christophe Grangé - spine-chilling with a weird twist at the end. Only problem with them is, late at night you have to find a safe place to stop. Originally in French, but available in English.
and if you like spine-chilling ones any of the books by Jean-Christophe Grangé,

Donna Leon features an Italian police detective based in Venice. Very quiet, no gore but lots of wonderful food!
For vintage try:
Edmund Crispin, slightly whimsical, funny 40s and 50s settings.
Margery Allingham
Ngaio Marsh

Thanks everyone, didn't expect such a response!!

I have read Lee Childs, Kate Atkinson and some of the others but lots there I haven't seen. Will make a list & work my way through them!

I guess my library's going to be pretty busy ordering these in

liz evans - shes great, i have re read almost all of her books.

if you only want to read books once this site is brilliant

Stealth, thanks, I already use that site! Also like green metropolis

Oh, I'm katy_tt on it :) Wonder if we've ever swapped!

Another vote for Quintin Jardine's Skinner novels fantastic, with a very strong central character throughout the series, probably my favourite. He has another series with Oz Blackstone as the central character, but I'm not quite as keen on those.

Also for something a bit different Deryn Lake, central character is an apothocary, set in Georgian period.

David Lawrence is excellent - and he has a female protagonist, DS Stella Mooney. They're set in London and are exceptionally atmospheric and gritty (except I rather suspect you might find them a bit gory). He's an interesting example of a literary writer having an a parallel career as a crime writer - in RL (as it were) he's the poet and opera librettist David Harsent. V highly recommended.

The Donna Leon Brunetti novels are also fab (someone mentioned them) but they're good more for the characters - who develop from book to book like old friends - and the mouthwatering descriptions of Italian food, rather than the plotlines, I find.

And another vote here for the immortal Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh and Patricia Wentworth, whose Miss Silver is a sort of Miss Marple-a-like. Gladys Mitchell too - very funny and slightly twisted.