Crime/thriller/horror with a dash of humour, any recommendations?

[SinisterBumFacedCat]

I really enjoy crime/thriller/horror books but I like it to be written with some funny bits, cultural references (though not constant) and in a familiar voice. I don't like it were the narrative is distant from all the characters.

Favourite authors so far are:
Nikki French (earlier books)
Paula Daly
Helen Fitzgerald (author of The Cry)
Christopher Fowler (horror)
Simon Booker

Also really like Maggie O Farrel and Margaret Atwood.

Is there any other authors with similar styles you can recommended?

Stuart MacBride - the Logan McRae series. The female DI is appallingly funny.

Christopher Brookmyre - excellent crime/thrillers and very funny so long as you don't mind a LOT of gore. Plenty of cultural references if Scottish will do

Having said that they are nothing like Margaret Atwood....

I recently enjoyed mick herron’s slow horses, a spy thriller with a seam of dry wit. It’s the first in a series so I’m looking forward to the next one.

I'm reading the Logan McCrae series currently and agree that at times it is laugh out loud gussiefox

I'm on my first Dorothy L Sayers (properly old school reading) and loving her prose. The Lord Peter Wimsey series. She writes so well and wittily.

Second Chris Brookmyre. Very funny, with engaging characters you can always relate to at some level, even the baddies. That goes for the earlier novels (from Quite Ugly One Morning to A Snowball in Hell) - the later ones are a bit more 'serious' crime books, I think. I don't normally read much crime fiction.
Agree it's nothing like Margaret Atwood!

Catriona Macpherson's Dandy Gilver series. Upper class lady on a Perthshire estate (as in country estate, not municipal housing estate) does crime sleuthing. Starts just after the end of WWI.

Oh and obviously just about any Kate Atkinson.

Kinky Friedman’s crime novels are very funny, the sort of books which embarrass you when you’re reading in public.

Carl Hiaasen’s books are funny and a little surreal. If you enjoy some social comment, bizarre characters and Florida (I like all those things), then well worth reading.

Older books, but Robert Parker’s Spenser novels (the ones written when he was alive, not the current ghostwritten lot), have spectacularly funny dialogue between Spenser and Hawk. I’d stop at the point Spenser meets Susan, because she might be the most irritating woman in fiction.

Belinda Bauer’s are shot through with a wry humour and wit.

If you like Paula Daly you might like Catherine Ryan Howard - a very accessible and witty, chatty narrative.

And Susie Steiner might fit the bill too?

Robert Crais books - Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. Great crime stories and full of subtle humour. Elvis is my favourite fictional character ever.

Carl Hiassen's crime novels too. I haven't read them in years but they were very funny.

Nothing like your list but I love Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series. Properly laugh out loud.

TheOnlyLivingBoy I agree, nearly suggested them! The earlier ones are better I think.

Another vote for Christopher Brookmyre. I have reread his books several times (the crime ones but not his sci-fi ones).

I second Chris Brookmyre and the Logan McRae books.
Also love Ben Aaronvitch Rivers of London series - humour, history, supernatural and detective work!

Another vote for Robert Crais - Elvis Cole is a great creation.

Can I also recommend M R C Kasasian's Gower Street books, starting with the Mangle Street Murders. Clever and very funny.

Seconding Brookmyre. PD James if you don't mind more dated realism?
Or for up to date culture and humourous police novels, with a bit of magic included, try the Rivers of London series?

Great suggestions. I've not read any of them yet, am going to the library with a list!

Margaret Atwood is not really crime, but I love her style. Also Diane Setterfield (the thirteenth tale). I forgot to mention Ruth Rendell (RIP)

Jo nesbo

Another vote for the Logan McRae series - I have just finished the first one and moved quickly onto Number 2 - excellent read.

You could have a look at Fred Vargas's books, which are translated from French. There are two series, the Inspector Adamsberg book, and the Three Evangelists who are amateurs. Occasionally they overlap.

@gussiefox I love his female colleague too she hilarious!!

Dave Turner's How To Be Dead series is humorous horror.