Help me decide on a book to take on holiday next week

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

A real, live book - not Kindle. Has to be one I've not read before and has to be big. Ideally it will - be well written without being literary, have either a who-dunnit or historical or dystopian or apocalyptic element to it, or indeed all of those.

Things that would tick those boxes but that I've already read are:
Anything by Wilkie Collins
The Passage / The Twelve
CJ Sansom's Shardlake books
This Thing of Darkness

Don't fancy sci-fi at the moment and don't want anything in the best seller lists.

Thanks in advance.

[MrsBungle]

How about the lighthouse by Alison Moore although it's not that long

[Lomaamina]

The children's room by AS Byatt ticks 'thick' and 'historical'

www.theguardian.com/books/2009/may/09/as-byatt-childrens-book

[Parliamo]

Or shantaram? The only of your criteria it really fits is big, but it is different, and some parts very funny without being in the slightest bit fluffy. It all gets a bit dark.

Anna karenina?

[Dilidali]

Kate Mosse Labyrinth? It is next in my pile to read.
Oh, I think I might have one: Out
Deeply dusturbing book, it marked me, never read anything like it.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Have read most of Wilkie C's now. Not overfond of Marakami - have read Bird Chronicle; most of his too short too. Didn't like Eco but would fit length wise!

Why do I need to read The Luminaries? Deffo don't want to take it away with me, but happy to try it later.

PS - not sure if I dare admit it on here, but am finding that my patience with female writers is getting lower and lower. I want something manly, I think! :)

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Hate Kate Mosse - dreadful writer imvho. Sorry - am being v awkward, as usual. :(

[Parliamo]

I never even finished foucault's pendulum but loved in the name of the rose.

Birdsong?

[SheherazadeSchadenfreude]

The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon by Richard Zimler.
When I Lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant

[CoteDAzur]

The Luminaries ticks a lot of your boxes - Big tome, historical (New Zealand during the gold rush of 1860s), very well-written, beautifully drawn characters. I was very impressed by it and couldn't believe that it was written by a 27-year-old.

[MrsBungle]

I like Alison Moore, the lighthouse is quite a simple plot although very difficult to explain at the same time! Quite dark. Not sure if it's manly but it's definitely not womany either!

[CoteDAzur]

You know how I feel about woman writers. I was doubly impressed that its author is a woman.

[tumbletumble]

I expect you've read it, but - Wild Swans?

[Dilidali]

Never read anything by Kate Mosse, so don't know :)
Awww, hope you find something. Enjoy your hols anyway :)

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Dili - ignore me. Am a bloomin' fussy bugger.

Wild Swans - read it / didn't like it. Told you I was a fussy bugger!

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

The Lighthouse looks promising - not for this hol, but maybe one for later.

[traviata]

Hilary Mantel - Beyond Black, or Fludd, or Vacant Possession

Jane Harris - The Observations, or Gillespie & I

Marcel Theroux - Strange Bodies ( modern Frankenstein tale)

alas these are not very big, but you could take two.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Ooh Marcel T - I read one of his once and liked it. Brilliant.

Can't be doing with Hilary M though - hated Beyond Black & Fludd and just about coped with Wolf Hall.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Thank you. Sorry.

[CoteDAzur]

I'm reading Wolf Hall now and frankly regretting it.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

[booksshoescats]

How about Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian? Very chilling and gripping. Or Andrew Pyper's The Demonologist. Both a bit gothic, mystery, thriller-y. The Historian has it for size, though - kept me going for ages!

Just read and loved The Goldfinch - I would actually say that although Donna Tartt is 'literary' this is very page turning, but it seems a bit of a Marmite book as I know some people have found it not as gripping as I did. There is a very dreamy section in the middle - dreamy and disturbing and quite dystopian, actually, set in Las Vegas.

[traviata]

China Mieville does a lot of urban dystopia, and he is a man.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Read The Historian. Not going to bother with The Goldfinch as didn't think a great deal of her other two. Will google Andrew P, thanks.

[booksshoescats]

Have you read Alias Grace? Big, historical (in that it's based on a true story), don't usually like Margaret Atwood but I love this one. Wonderful book.

And another writer who's thoroughly brilliant is Katherine Webb, and her latest, The Misbegotten, is fab - I'd describe her as a commercial author but her writing is as good as any 'literary' author. Her sense of place is amazing and she gives equal weight to plot and characters, which makes for a thoroughly satisfying read.

[Cheboludo]

Oh, I've just remembered Carter beats the Devil by Glen David Gold. I loved it in the way that I loved Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, The Crimson Petal and the White and Fingersmith. All very different books with fully created worlds/ societies.

Gothic any good? Melmoth the Wanderer is long (I haven't read it). The Monk and The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner are shorter but excellent.