What are your favourite crime novels?

[feastofstevenmom]

Started off ploughing through Agatha Christie's in my teens - read nearly all of them

now I like:
Peter Robinson (especially Aftermath and the Summer that Never was)
Donna Leon
Henning Mankell (though recent ones gone a bit downhill a bit with all this international conspiracy stuff)

Ian rankin- the Rebus ones.
John Grisham
Geraint V Jones- (they're Welsh)
The ones with Tweed in them but I can't remember the author

Maigret!

Loved Agatha Christie in my teens, also. Now I like books where the bad guys get it with a bit of humour thrown in, so: Carl Hiaasen, Christopher Brookmyre and Malcolm Pryce. With all, you should start with the first book written, I think. Of course, I'm anal like that.

Will keep your list in mind (haven't read any, so I might be really off course) when I go to the bookshop!

I used to love Albert Campion. Also the 87th Precinct ones.

Peter Robinson
Minette Walters
Barbara Vine
Harlen Coben
Ian Rankin
Janet Evanovich (but they're comedy/crime)

Ian Rankin
Peter Robinson
Peter Livesey
Sue Grafton

I don't like really gory ones.

'More serious'
Ian Rankin
Donna Leon
Dorothy Sayers
Elizabeth George

'Light'
Ruth Dudley Edwards
Margery Allingham
Catherine Aird

'Historical'
Lindsey Davis
Susanna Gregory

And, yes, I am an addict...

Ian Rankin,
Dorothy Sayers,
Elizabeth George,
Claire Rayner (seriously !),
Patricia Cornwell,

but my favourites are Sara Paretsky's V I Washawski novels.

Minette Walters
Reginald Hill

I love Rankin (the Rebus ones) and also Ruth Rendell.

This is a new genre for me. I never really liked the idea of crime novels. Read an Ian Rankin and am hooked. Have read the first four and am going to buy the rest. Am also reading Walter Mosley (Devil in a Blue Dress etc). Can't stand Grisham (boring).

I'll read this thread with interest as I'd like to increase my repetoire. I read one with Kay Scarpetta(?), but I can't remember the author and wanted to try a few more.

I'm an addict, but they have to be contemporary with a female protagonist. Liz Evans is pretty good, but my faves come from the US: Sara Paretsky's VI books, also Sue Grafton's ABC series (although the last one was a big disappointment). Also like SJ Rozan. Think Kathy Reichs and Patricia Cornwell are overrated (but I read them nevertheless) and love Janet Evanovitch...

I like Ian Rankin's psuedonym (Jack someone?) LOVED 'Witch Hunt', but can't get on with the Rebus character.

Marselectionboxlady :Kay Scarpetta is Patricia Cornwell's heroine. I really enjoyed her first 3 or so, then she seemed to go off on a bit of a tangent and I lost interest.
Arabica - you're the first mumsnetter I've ever seen who likes Janet Evanovich! I love Stephanie Plum (and Ranger, and Lula, and grandma...)

Dior - Ian Rankin also wrote as Jack Harvey.

Thanks WWB!

has anyone read any John Franklin Bardin? I think he's brilliant

Forgot to mention Agatha Christie, but only:

Ten Little Indians (have the original book where the title is less pc!). The films have never done it justice. I love the reasoning behind the murders, and the fact that you find out 'who dunnit' from a letter in a bottle.

Murder on the Orient Express

Death on the Nile

My favourite Christie is definitely The Death of Roger Ackroyd. It's the only one where I couldn't work out whodunnit. Loooove Christie and Conan Doyle too. The current Miss Marple adaptations on ITV are very good, though not exactly true to the text. Just watched Murder in the Vicarage and really enjoyed it.

Love, love, love Evanovich, Grafton and Paretsky. I'm a sucker for a gutsy female PI or bounty hunter.

Ive always loved the Lawrence Block books, just not enough of them!!

Glad to hear there are some more fans of Stephanie Plum around! Janet Evanovich is the only laugh-out-loud crime writer I know...grandma and Lula have to be the best comedy duo in contemporary fiction.
I really want to write my own book featuring a feisty female PI of my own. She lives in north london, rides a bike and kicks ass. Kind of like me but more assertive and with heavy weaponry.

Oooooh....

Minette Walters
Val McDermid
Nicci French
Reg Hill
Robert Robinson

V partial to gore, me.

I can't take gore. Something about the only Kay Scarpetta novel I ever tried made me very uneasy.
Encountered Stephanie Plum in a holiday cottage and must follow that up, I liked her a lot, ditto Kinsey Mulhone.
Also liked VI Warshawski and Kinky Friedman, have not re-read these for ages.
And some of Susan Isaacs' crime-comedies are good...Compromising Positions made me LOL.
I'm a weed in this company, clearly

Oh yes, forgot VI.

I like to feel my spine chilling with horror at psychopathic acts, Marina.

arabica, i think you've been pipped to the post. have you read sarah dunant's Hannah Wolfe novels? fatlands is good. (pretty sure HW is a n london girl.)

Henning Mankell ROCKS. when last in IKEA hotdog bar , I saw large poster of fetching scandinavian homestead in midst of cornfield. the caption read, 'Skane... where the locals are as friendly and welcoming as the landscape'. NOT quite the impression i'd got from the wallander novels, i must say.

The Fashion in Shrouds, M Allingham, and Murder Must Advertise, Sayers, are my alltime comfort reads