Where are the good books??

[1wokeuplikethis]

I usually read crime/thriller and judging by my kindle bestseller list, so do most others. However, I have recently noticed a whole bunch of these books have a plot of some kind involving babies; being murdered, or lost or kidnapped or abused.
WTF?
I am currently 8 months pregnant and so it's possible I am noticing this theme so frequently because of my own 'stuff' but basically, I just want to read a good book that doesn't feature any of this disturbing nonsense.

I've recently devoured all of liane moriety's books (the last one included a woman suffering PND & fantasising about smashing her baby's head in) which wasn't great. And means it's not just crime/thrillers that feature this sort of thing.

Anyway, given that my days of reading at leisure are limited, I would really like to get stuck into something. Any recommendations? What have you read that's good recently?

Recently I have enjoyed the 3am series by Nick Pirog and Unallocated Space by Jerry Hatchett.

I can't read anything involving child peril or unhappiness, so I sympathise. It's horrible to get stuck into a book and realise that it's going to be upsetting for child-related reasons.

Whatever you do, don't read The Slaughter Man by Tony Parsons. I read it recently and loved it, but it has child abduction and murder in it. It's brutal and violent but an utterly brilliant read.

Would you like historical thrillers? If so, then I would recommend S J Parris's Giordano Bruno series, starting with Heresy. A bit bloodthirsty, but no child murders as far as I can recall.

What about an Agatha Christie novel if you are looking for mannerly, sanitised murders?

I’ve also enjoyed No Night Is Too Long by Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell). It’s very atmospheric and well written.

But don’t do what I did whilst pregnant – don’t, don’t, don’t read The Cider House Rules by John Irving!

If you want crime then try the Rebus books or the Quintin Jardine Skinner books, if you want to throw a bit of history in the the Inspector McLevy series.

If you're okay with other genres then "The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August"

I have just read the Winter Children and The Other Child which are mysteries without child abuse featuring. Winter Children is on offer for £3 in Tesco and I found them both enjoyable whereas I usually go for more heavy duty crime novels. I completely avoid anything featuring child cruelty although I have just read a detective novel set in Ireland and drug gangs which featured deaths I had never even imagined. Gross.

Donna Leon is good - especially the earlier books. Al set in Venice & her detective, Brunetii, is lovely & not an alcoholic misogonist - which makes a change!

I can't cope with thrillers involving dead/kidnapped children at all. I like Christopher Brookmyre's books - they're thrillers, and quite violent, but they tend to be more political, and also very funny in places. On the whole the earlier ones are (somewhat) less violent.

I like Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks (fraudulent psychics), Boiling a Frog (corrupt churchmen in Scotland) and The Sacred art of Stealing (starts with a bank robbery).

The other one I'd recommend (if you've not read her) is Sara Paretsky. Unusually for someone with a long series, I think her more recent VI Warshawski novels are at least as good as her early ones. As far as I recall in all the ones I've read there aren't any dead/kidnapped babies.

I'm currently working my way through the Genevieve Lenard series by Estelle Ryan. The protagonist is a woman with autism who works for the fraud department of a company specialising in high-end art insurance, and she has a 'team' of interesting characters working with her. The first book in the series is a Kindle freebie so worth a go. No children at all.

Thank you for that, Turducken - I've just grabbed the first one as a freebie.

I liked the Robert Galbraith series. There are 3 written so far. No children injuries in any of these.