Well-written detective fiction

[StalkerEx]

I've been reading the Cormoran Strike books and enjoying them, but I'd like something written slightly better. Apart from Agatha Christie, which detective stories would you recommend? I've never really read much of this genre, but need something fairly light to get me through a tough few months.

I really enjoy L J Ross's books - she has a police procedural series set in Northumberland - Holy Island is the first one. Her characters are well written and engaging, and the plots are good too.

I also enjoy Ann Cleves, Dorothy L Sayers, Agatha Christie, and, if you like slightly futuristic fiction, JD Robb, who writes books set in 2060s New York.

The Inspector Brunetti series by Donna Leon. Not necessarily light, but they're set in Venice and it's magic

I don't think I responded well.! I missed that you have a tough time coming up. In that case I would avoid most modern crime fiction and start with Golden Age detective fiction, which is gentle and easy and more like Christie. So:

Dorothy Sayers
Margaret Allingham
Ngaio Marsh
Josephine Tey
Honourable mention to Anthony Horowitz and Janice Hallett.

Robert Crais
Sue Grafton
Harlan coben
Lee child (not Andrew child though)
France's Brodie

J D Kirk books for me - the Logan series and the spin-off Hoon series. Set in Scotland, very gritty but also with flashes if humour.

I agree about the Slow Horses books, I'm just finishing the last one and they are superb. There are a few deaths along the way but in the whole series I have only found one incident a bit disturbing.

I also love the Jackson Brodie books.

I'd class Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond series as detective fiction, in its weird way -- have you read those?

Peter Grainger writes about sergeant Smith. Brilliant characters at the police station. I listen to them on Audible as the narrator is excellent.

I enjoyed the Jackson Brodie ones and also Elly Griffiths' Ruth Galloway series.

Also Natasha Orme's two Jason Hunter books are a bit different and very readable. Plus Andrew Mayne's Naturalist series which is set in America. Both aren't strictly 'detective' stories, but folllow same format.

Would definitely recommend the Rebus books by Ian Rankin. Also very well written are the three books by Susie Steiner featuring DC Manon Bradshaw.

Read 'A Dark Adapted Eye.' It's so cleverly written.

Definitely Shardlake. Cracking plots.

As a Christie fanatic , my next two choices are either Dorothy l sayers , or Ellis Peters who wrote the Cadfael series . Or MC Beaton who wrote Agatha Raisin and the Hamish Mcbeth series .

Janice Hallet is brilliant, v clever and unusual.

Ian Rankin’s Rebus series is top tier, but I wouldn’t say it’s especially light.

Christopher Brookmyre is another brilliant Scottish author, his Jack Parlabane series is so good - lots of dark humour and quite sweary

Claire Mackintosh The Last Party - about a youngish Welsh DC, great writing, a bit of humour, complex familial relationships, gripping plot

Benjamin Stevenson - Everyone in my family has killed someone - really entertaining, pacy, couldn’t put it down.

Another vote here for the brilliant Mick Heron too.

Let us know what you choose!

I second Janice Hallet.

Alexander McCall Smith. The Ladies' Detective Agency series

Beautifully written. Crimes in African villages investigated by Precious Ramotswe. Simple yet profound. Stuffed with unforgettable characters.

Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes short stories. Far better in my view than the four full-length novels. Very atmospheric.

If you do want to try some Golden Age whodunnits, Anthony Berkeley is good. The Poisoned Chocolates Case is great fun. Under the name Francis Iles, he also wrote two excellent psychological suspense novels. Malice Aforethought was inspired by the real life case of Dr Armstrong. Before the Fact was the inspiration for the Hitchcock film Suspicion.

Oooo following this, some great recommendations so far!

So many of these I concur and then some I don't, so it's odd to see pp recemmending both my own personal loves and hates in the same list!
I always revert to Christie, Sayers, Ellis Peters any many others in pp.

Recently I've found several good reads in the British Library Crime Classics series.

To add to all the recommendations above!
Christobel Kent's italian detective, can't remember his name.
Montelbano books by Andrea Camilieri
Brother Althelstan mysteries by Paul C Doherty

And i usually dislike American detective fiction but i've just re-read some Raymond Chandler. He is an exceptional writer.

And for a series you'll want to read from start to finish, Sue Grafton's A-Z books.

Dorothy L Sayers, if you haven’t already. Start with Gaudy Night, though the first novel involving Harriet Vane is Strong Poison.

I'd read them in publication order. The characters develop over time, and if you jump straight into Gaudy Night without knowing the background, I think you'd miss a lot.

Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club is good on the impact of the First World War. The Nine Tailors is very good on atmosphere and landscape.

I like E.C.R. Lorac's Robert Macdonald series - a Golden Age author recently republished.

Also, if you want something very undemanding, Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver series.

I like Reginal Hill, On Beulah Height is a masterpiece and the rest of the seires is good too.

Agree with lots above - Elly Griffiths I have enjoyed, some of the golden age too. T E Kinsey writes stories featuring Lady Hardcastle and her maid Florence. Light and satisfying.

For me, I need a large bastion of Harriet before I have the smallest patience with Lord Peter! Had I read Strong Poison first, I’d have thought he was a ninny, falling in love with the ultimate in inaccessible women, an accused prisoner in the dock, and thought Harriet was just some irrelevant mildly bohemian love object for a bored aristocrat. (Though Miss Climpson is the real hero of Strong Poison….)

I do think Murder Must Advertise is brilliant, despite the endless cricket match and the absence of Harriet. I must reread The Nine Tailors.

Oh I love the cricket match, despite never having played cricket in my life. But then I used to binge on PG Wodehouse's school stories as a child, and there was often a lengthy blow by blow account of a sports fixture in those, too.

Anthony Horrowitz has a Hawthorne detective series starting with The Word Is Murder. He places himself as a character, which initially I found a bit self-important of him (he talks a bit about his work as a TV writer), but soon realised that it's an incredibly clever device that puts the reader on the same footing as the narrator. They're so readable. I absolutely loved the series.