Recommendations for not too gory crime authors?

[YouCantCallMeBetty]

Please can anyone help me find some new authors to read? I love crime/detective fiction series but have lost my stomach for anything too gory and am a bit fussy!

I have read & enjoyed everything by:
Elly Griffiths
Ann Cleeves
Damien Boyd (just finished, v good!)
Ian Rankin

Read all the Agathas years ago in my teens.
Have tried Reginald Hill but struggle a bit with old fashioned attitudes. Don’t like Peter James as think he’s a bit sexist in his writing. Don’t mind Peter Robinson but haven’t been gripped. Have read some stuff by American authors like Mary Higgins Clark and Linda Fairstein.

I’d like to read Val McDermid but hear her books are quite gruesome...

Have you read Ruth Rendell? She was the absolute best.

I just read a good new series, forget the authors name but first book is Holy Island. All set in Northumbria.

Stephen Booth, crime series set in Derbyshire.

JD Robb - American writer, sets her stories in the mid-21st century, in New York. They are good thrilling detective stories, with excellently written characters. Plus, if you enjoy them, she has written lots!

Have you tried any of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels, by Dorothy L Sayers? Set post WW2, if I recall correctly, not gory, but very clever detective stories.

Ah thanks loveka Ruth Rendell has been on my list for ages but always forget about her. Will look & see if any deals on kindle...

Will check out the other two as well, thank you

I think earlier Peter Robinson is definitely better. Agree on Peter James, I can feel midlife crisis oozing off the pages. One of my absolute favourites is Michael Connelly (American, set in LA). Also like Mark Billingham

Nicci French, the books are written by a couple so you get both sides of the story.

P.D.James. Listening to her on audible at the moment. Set in the 80's but very enjoyable and not gory.

Dick Francis.

I love crime fiction but can't cope with graphic gore. Adrian McKinty is my absolute favourite. The Sean Duffy series set in NI during the 80s. Great characters, plots, plenty of humour in an unusual historic setting.

I've just recommended Gillian McAllister's Anything You Do Say on another thread.

I met Louise Penny recently - she's a big Canadian writer. Her books might be what you're after.

Fantastic, thanks everyone, lots of authors I haven’t heard of before. Lots to keep me going through sleepless nights with newborn DD

James Oswold's DI McLean series are good; the first in the series is 'Natural Causes'.
Elizabeth George is another good author, there's the Inspector Linley series and Phil Rickman's another to try.

Sara Paretsky's VI Warshawski series. Excellent and feisty. Definitely start at the beginning as they follow her career over time.

The alphabet series a is for alibi etc. Complete blank who wrote them though.

JD Robb is pen-name for Nora Roberts...who also writes crime/romances. How about Lee Child?? Reacher series is fab!

Harlan Coben books are great.

I've just got in to the books by the Norwegian author Jo Nesbo. They aren't gory but follow the typical alcoholic/renegade detective theme.

What about M.C.Beaton? She writes the Agatha Raisin books and the Hamish McBeth books. Easy to read and nice and gentle.

Quintin Jardine - the Bob Skinner books are excellent
G.K. Chesterton - the Father Brown books
Reginald Hill - Dalziel and Pascoe series
Edward Marston - Railway Detective

I used to read a lot of Ngaio Marsh, a new zealand writer from the 50s I think. Gone off them now, but might be worth trying.

Has anyone else heard of Dorothy Simpson, an english writer from the 80s I think. Cosy crime I think you would call it.

Elizabeth George is very good - am also big Ian Rankin fan

Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie series, starting with Case Histories. Brilliant. (Think there's one scene with a lot of blood but not remotely gratuitous.)

Josephine Tey is another good classic one.