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)

Forgot Hannah W too, isn't she fabulous?

I quite like Donna Leon.

Used to be a big fan of the various Pluto and Women's Press crime novels, as well. Anyone remember Murder in the Collective?

Oh I adore Murder Must Advertise, BP, and also Gaudy Night.
And the "older" Mumsnetter might remember a TV adaptation (with Hywel Bennett) of Francis Iles' classic Malice Aforethought, one of the very few 30s crime novels that was even better on telly than on the page. Fab.
And have just remembered Joan Smith's Why Aren't They Screaming? - Another woman whose every word is worth reading, journalism or novels.
I never thought I'd see the words MI and psychopathic in the same post.

Murder in the Collective! Now that takes me back.

Manda Scott is fabulous too.

Love Ian Rankin and sort of like Val McDermid. Peter Robinson is also a bit of a fave. Cannot abide Ruth Rendell tho.

Quentin Jardine's Skinner books are ok too. I'm biased towards Scottish writers tho - esp from East Neuk/Fife!

I love

Johnathon Kellerman
Faye Kellerman
Ed McBain
Michael Connelly
John Connolly

and like just about anything else!

Thanks for the Hannah W recommendations. Murder in the Collective! Was that somebody Wilson? I read all those womens press ones...and the Gillian Slovo crime novels...and my fave was 'She came too late' about a cool dyke detective called Emma Victor.

I semed to have killed this thread stone dead! Not much of a mystery who did it then!

oooh Mark Billingham - had forgotten him - very good - have read them all

Batters, have just read two Nicci French books and loved them. Read the Red Room first and it was so good borrowed another one and read it straight after. It was actually better than the first. Can't remember what it was called but it was about the woman who was abducted, has amnesia and no-one believes her.

James Patterson (though the films were crap!!!)
Harlen Coben
Johnathan Kellerman

James Patterson
Jeffrey Deaver is supposed to be great but I couldnt read anything gruesome while I was PG!!
Sue Grafton

Am interested in the Mark Billingham books as they have been recommended here by a few MNs. Where should I start?????

I'd forgotten Mark Billingham - v gory and twisted IIRC (I liked them ). Don't think it matters hugely about the order, but I think Sleepyhead was the first?
THere's also some with "Prey" in all the titles, can't remember who by (John someone?) that are good, and of course Dennis Lehane is brilliant. I'd recommend him to anyone who wants a more thoughtful, less schlocky thriller.

I was at university with Mark Billingham. This latest career path is quite a surprise...I won't be reading them if they are gory and twisted though, too much of a wuss.
It was Barbara Wilson and it's not in print any more. Boo...

Batters, ahem, I was 14. Got into some trouble buying the book for my impressionable 11 year old sis who had been barred from the programme!

I love crime novels- rarely read anything else. Not so keen on modern ones, but do like Henning Mankell, Rankin, Peter Robinson, Donna Leon and Michael Dibdin.

I love the "Golden Age" novels, which seem to be set between the wars, and where the sleuth is someone rather (or very) posh. He invariably has a "man" to help out, or a female, but rather unconventional sidekick. Like Dorothy L Sayers, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh, Agatha Christie (in moderation- BTW What happened in last weeks' Marple story, the Body in the library- I'm sure the denouement didn't involve a lesbian plot in the book!)Edmund Crispin, David Roberts,P.D.James, Gladys Mitchell.

MerryTissMas, it was made over by Kevin "My Night with Reg" Elyot, in a postmodern, campy sort of way. I really enjoyed it but "real" Miss Marple it most certainly was NOT.

You've got time to read?!?

Don't know whether these books count as crime, probably more mystery, but I got hooked after the first one...

Gillian Jackson Brown 'The Cat Who...' series

Oooh, twisted gore, must go and look.

Jonathon & Faye Kellerman
Tess Gerritsen
Jeffery Deaver
Mark Billingham
Patricia Cornwell
Kathy Reichs
& I could go on & on!

I like Ian Rankin's Rebus novels - but maybe that's because I'm from Edinburgh

This has given me some good ideas not that I need encouraging on the excessive book purchase front!

Kathy Reichs (Turcquey if you liked the early Patricia Cornwell ones you might like her)
Barbara Vine
Donna leon
Janet Evanovich (I am amazed but quite relieved that none of them have been filmed yet)
Phil Rickman/Will Kingdom for spooky type crime

Have started working on jeffrey Deaver at present.

Sorry I am late to this thread but I love Patricia Highsmith, Margery Allingham, some Agatha Christe (especially the Tommy & Tuppence ones), Sara Paretsky and Janet Evanovich.

I like (in no particular order):

Elmore Leonard
James Elroy
Tony Hillerman
Patricia Highsmith
Donna Tartt (surely her first is a crime book?)
Janet Evanovich - if you like her, you'll like:
Sparkle Hayter

I'm not sure about Sue Grafton, I've only read one, I is for Innocent. I liked it ok.

Ooh love this thread.
Agatha Christie (of course)
Patricia Wentworth
Dorothy L Sayers
Ngaio Marsh (basically all the the "Queens of Crime' from the golden age).

Georgette Heyer (she did write detective stories too).

Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine
PD James (although her books are quite cold and her characters have NO sense of humour)

Minette Walters OK ish but a bit odd - lots of her characters seem to disapprove of women having sex (or am I thinking of someone else?)

Elizabeth George (but only in desperation).

Never realised until I wrote this list that I only read female crime writers ... hmm