Find me a new book to love

[LadyPeterWimsey]

I am desperate, desperate I tell you, for new books. I have spent the weekend trying to find things I might fancy and I have lots of samples on my Kindle and nothing I feel like continuing to read.

A few years ago, a lovely MNetter introduced me to two writers she thought I might like - Dorothy Dunnett and Lois McMaster Bujold - and I loved and adored them, especially Bujold. But now I need another hit of new fiction, and the problem is that I am quite fussy, if my weekend of reading downloaded samples is anything to go by. There are lots of books I enjoyed - for example, the last couple I read were Case Histories and Station 11 and they were great - but I want something I love so much I have to read it again as soon as I have finished it and then bore my family endlessly with how wonderful it is.

So if I write down the authors that I read and read again, would anyone be kind enough to cast their eye down the list and recommend me something new? I'm looking for humour, intelligence, excellent writing and a happy ending. (I do not like sad endings.) I love crime, don't really read chick lit unless it is very, very funny, and have a penchant for historical fiction. I'm willing to branch out in terms of genre, but don't do horror. As you can tell from the list below, I love a romantic plot line but don't really like romance novels as such (Heyer excepted).

Here goes:

Dorothy L Sayers (of course) - crime, humour, romance and intelligence. Gaudy Night is probably my Desert Island book choice
Jane Austen - but no Brontes because I don't really enjoy Victorian literature
Georgette Heyer
John Le Carré - earlier books are much better than his later ones
Nancy Mitford
Josephine Tey - very fond of Golden Era detective fiction
John Wyndham - closest I get to science fiction, apart from Bujold, who is absolutely wonderful
Dorothy Dunnett
Douglas Adams
Lee Child -

Books I loved as a child and still re-read when I need consoling:

Emily of New Moon, and Anne of Green Gables
Ballet Shoes, and all the other Streatfeilds
The Sue Barton series
My Family and Other Animals
The Swish of the Curtain
My Darling Villain (I do like other Lynne Reid Banks but this one is my favourite)
I Capture the Castle
Daddy Long Legs
What Katy Did Next
All the Little House on the Prairie books
Eagle of the Ninth and other Sutcliffs

If you do decide to give Sansom a try, the series starts with Dissolution.
But as you don’t like anything too gory, I’d give that a miss (you can always come back to it) and instead, start with Dark Fire.

Another vote for Aubrey/Maturin, although set in Napoleonic wars, it’s really about the friendship between Jack & Stephen.

IRC, The Morning Gift was originally aimed at the light adult market and then repackaged as YA - I'd say it really is spot on for your criteria.

@LadyPeterWimsey
Dead lovely and my last confession are a 2 parter so maybe start there 👍😀

Have you tried the Outlander books or the Matthew Shardlake books

AdaColeman I feel like I read Dissolution ages ago in the haze of having little children and always meant to go back to them, so perhaps this is the prompt I need. They certainly tick all my historical crime boxes.

I'm reading Dissolution now and it is really good, but I'm having to skip big chunks because of the gore factor, so I'm glad to hear later ones are less blood drenched AdaColeman.

LadyPeterWimsey are you on the 50 book threads - I think maybe not? I've found them a fantastic source of good recommendations over the past 3 years (why I'm now reading Shardlake despite not generally liking murder mysteries)

Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh are more or less contemporary with Dorothy Sayers and both are intelligent and subtle writers. They are both favourites of mine.

Patricia McKillip’s Riddle-Master if Hed trilogy.

Laurie King’s Sherlock Holmes series starting with The Beekeeper’s Apprentice. I love these books so very much.

Mary Stewart’s romantic suspense books. Nine Coaches Waiting might be my favourite or maybe This Rough Magic.

Elizabeth Peters’ Vicki Bliss series. Night Train to Memphis is one of my all time favourite books.

Emma Bull’s Freedom and Necessity and War for the Oaks.

On another thread we’ve been discussing Diana Wynne Jones, so I’ll suggest Fire and Hemlock.

Kate Ross’s Julian Kestrel mysteries and Sylvian Hamilton’s series which starts with The Bone Pedlar. Both these authors have died and their books seem a bit forgotten which is sad, they are both lovely writers.

For humour, Sarah Caudwell’s extremely funny legal mysteries. The are very clever and sly.

More contemporary books. I really enjoy both of Deanna Raybourn’s historical mystery series.

Elly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway series.

I think you might appreciate quite a few things from the Persephone catalogue - maybe start with one of Noel Streatfeild's books for adults: Saplings,
or maybe the all-time Persephone bestseller, Miss Pettigrew.

You must have read Enchanted April, right, LadyPeter?

How about Gladys Mitchell - the Mrs Bradley crime books?

Or Barbara Pym?

Also, at Christmas, I read "Who Saw Her Die?" by Patricia Moyes. It's classic crime style but set in 1970; made a change. It's a very quick read, probably more for easy entertainment rather than unforgettable though.

If you like Ballet Shoes, is it worth looking at Noel Streatfeild's books for adults? I'm just starting Saplings, and you can recognise her style but it is not a children's book. Same with LM Montgomery, if you are an Anne and Emily fan. I read Blue Castle and really enjoyed it. It had never occurred to me to look for adult fiction by those authors before, despite loving the kids stories!

So I read Nine Coaches Waiting and think I might have found a lovely new author for holiday reading - thank you, ribbonsinabox

mynameiscalypso just downloaded a sample - thank you

PurplewithRed I have been recommended Patrick O'Brien so many times I think I am going to have to give in...

tararabumdeay good opening but does it fulfill its initial promise?

lovely36 I'm not a Danielle Steel fan but thank you for the recommendation

cooroo sample downloaded, thank you

MadameJosephine for some reason, the plot just doesn't appeal... but thank you anyway

AtrociousCircumstance she's new to me but I have downloaded a sample

piebald I read the first Outlander and bits of the next two. Outlander is the crack cocaine of historical romance, and left me with a bit of a hangover and a lot of self-loathing. It was a ride while it lasted, though

Sadik I dabbled briefly but must get myself back over there

DancelikeEmmaGoldman thank you, lots there! None of which I've read except Mary Stewart, today, and few of which I've even heard of. I read the first Amelia Peabody on Saturday but didn't know Elizabeth Peters had another series.

cherrypi The Ruth Galloway series was one of the few that I gulped down a couple of years ago, so spot on in terms of my taste.

exexpat Is Saplings sad? Just checking because I can't do sad.

tobee No, no, and not for a very long time. Thank you.

babybythesea I reread The Blue Castle quite often - what a joy it is.

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

Utterly boggingly baffling and enjoyable. The first 80 odd pages are so odd they will have you 🤔🤔, but then it gets fun and things make a (bit) more sense.

Bear Town by Fredrick Backman

The Stays by Emily Bitto

Saplings is about a family disintegrating as they are engulfed by war. It isn't so much sad as heartbreaking. Beautifully written.

Shardlake series.
Rebus?
Definitely Ngaio Marsh
The Art of Fielding by Chad someone
A spool of blue thread by anne Tyler
We are all completely beside ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
Also - I know you said no Victorian but Trollope can be wonderful - beautifully written, a bit arch, happy endings.

I’d second Gladys Mitchell. Also Ruth Dudley-Edwards academic mysteries. If you’ve ever sat through a committee meeting and lost the will to live, you might enjoy these.

Emma Lathen wrote a series of books featuring a ban executive. It’s an older series, but the gore factor is low and they have a quiet, gently sardonic charm. If you enjoy Georgette Heyer’s mysteries, I suspect they’d appeal.

And Gillian Linscott’s Nell Bray series about the sleuthing suffragette.

Another vote for allingham and marsh. You might also try the dornford yates thrillers? The chandos books are the place to start. Glorious, 1920s, page turners

Have you read any Robert Harris? Pompeii would be right up your street.

And have you discovered Marcus Corvinus? A good fun holiday read.

I share some of your tastes , love Austin no to Bronte and don't enjoy Dickens.
I have recently discovered Helen Dunmore and am reading Birdcage Walk set in Bristol at the time of the French revolution. Also enjoyed the Greatcoat which was quite creepy.

If you want silly historical, read the story Mary's chronicles 😎

St Mary's chronicles. Blooming auto correct