What is your favourite detective series

[Haahoooo]

I have just finished the wonderful Chief Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny... I loved it and am distraught at the thought of having to read something else tonight

Can you recommend a cosy mystery / detective series to me please?

I also loved Ann Cleeves, Elly Griffiths, Andrea Camilleri, Donna Leon and some of the Scandi detectives eg Karin Fossum and Henning Mankell. Bit nothing too violent / action packed - don't particularly like Jo Nesbo for example.

Thank you so much for any tips!

I like Susan Hill's Simon Serrailler series.

I'd second the Simon Serrailler series.

Also love Ian Rankin's Rebus series and Adam Dalgleish series by P D James.

I have just had flu and am still recovering and the only reading I could cope with was Miss Marple Normally I like quite strong stuff: Jo Nesbo, Mo Hayder, Karin Slaughter, Val McDermid, etc.

If you want something really cosy and quite humorous, have you tried Agatha Raisin?

Or how about Ruth Rendell's Wexford, Dorothy L. Sayers Lord Peter Wimsey, Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley (although her writing does begin to grate after a while - American writing novels set very firmly in the English upper classes and she doesn't quite capture the tone all the time).

Sorry, Polar, but Agatha Raisin sets my teeth on edge -- though I like everyone else you've mentioned.

Elizabeth George needs to stop thinking of herself as the American answer to D L Sayers, really, doesn't she?

Haahooo, have you read the Brother Cadfael series for true cosy-detective-ness?

The V I Warshawski series by Sara Paretsky - no graphic gore.

Ooh yes, Cadfael!

Thanks everyone! Now I can keep going for a while.

I read the Cadfael books as a slightly odd teenager and did like them a lot. Ditto Agatha Christie.

I wonder what is so appealing about cosy crime...

In case any of you haven't yet, really do try the Louise Penny ones - lots of lovely food being eaten in a picturesque tiny village with a very high murder rate

Just googled her... looks good!

How about Josephine Tey?

Another vote for Sara Paretsky ' s V I Warshawski. Female PI in Chicago. No gore and wonderful characters including VI herself.

Johan Theorin

I quite liked Alison Bruce's series set in Cambridgeshire - starts with Cambridge Blue and a series set in the Lake District by Martin Edwards (starts with The Coffin Trail)

I LOVED the Dandy Gilver series, by Catriona McPherson - blackly comic and very clever and engaging protagonists.

I've made a list! Thanks all!

Agatha Christie, Ann Cleves, Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole

I think really it's the lifestyle we go for in lots of books and tv, the characters have to be interesting and the plot comes pretty much last usually. We fancy joining Holnes and Watson on a Victorian train first class carriage, Poirot on the Nile in luxury, massive stately homes and cosy cottages, maids and butlers etc.

I would be very worried if Poirot was on the same holiday as me as you know someone will be murdered

Try Camilla Lackberg. Loved Louise Penny - isn't there a new one due or just come out?

If you like Henning Mankell you should try the Martin Beck series by Sjowall & Wahloo, they are the original scandi crime books from the 1960s. Better than Mankell who got a lot of his style and ideas from these books.

Have you tried the Roy Grace books?

Do you want modern or vintage?

My mum has mentioned two things to me recently - Phil Rickman's books and a website called www.themurderroom.com/

if vintage...

Margery Allingham (Albert Campion)
Christianna Brand (she wrote the Nurse Matilda children's books)
Michael Innes
Michael Gilbert
Gwendoline Butler/Jennie Melville
ECR Lorac/Carol Carnac (these are quite hard to find, but rewarding if you like your detective fiction from the 30s to 50s)
Pamela Branch
Elizabeth Ferrars
MG Eberhart

I hated the Simon Serrailier series!

Logan Macrae series by Stuart Macbride

Try Laurie R King's Mary Russel series - I've really enjoyed them - www.laurierking.com/

Jackson Brodie series by Kate Atkinson. Lovely and unusual.

Robert Galbraith (aka J K Rowling) very readable

Christie over and above... but then love the Inspector Wexford novels(apart from the last couple), Shetland Quartet, Falco novels,the wonderful Jackson Brodie of course....and quite liking Kate Ellis's Wesley Peterson series,too.