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.

Anthony Horowitz and PDJames. The Morse books.

You could also try some spy novels, John le carre, similar feeling in a way. And beautifully written.

I don't like the gory books that have lingering descriptions of women dying in most modern detective/crime fiction.

Big second for Sayers! Reread Gaudy Night recently and it was just as excellent.

Shamelessly marking place to come back to.

i can’t stand psychological thrillers but love a good murder mystery!

I’m with you! Also can’t stand books with women/children kidnapped and held in some far off shack by a psychopath. Just horrible lazy suspense writing.

I havnt read all the posts here but I have to mention James Lee Burke, he is the absolute god of what they call Southern or Cajun noir. His detective the complex Dave Robicheux is just superb. His novels are beautifully written and so very vivid. They are set in southern Louisiana and his descriptions are so brilliant I have found myself googling the actual places as I feel as if I am so invested in them, and they are real!
Another American writer I adore is Richard Stark who wrote a series of books about an amoral professional thief called Parker. I know they don't sound like detective fiction but they are. They have a cult like following you even love them or don't get it. I dislike the first one in the series so feel free to start with the second one The Man with the Get-away face. They are all fairly short but so impactful!

@Notgoodatpoetrybutgreatatlit I bloody love James Lee Burke. My favourite detective fiction writer.

Lots of great suggestions on this thread. I love the Ian Rankin Rebus novels and many others listed. If you like Rebus I suggest you read the Harry Bosch novels by Michael Connelly - he's like the US version (to me anyway I'm sure others will disagree).

I laughed at pp's comment about the Murder Most Unladylike novels being her guilty pleasure. They are also mine. I buy them for my niece and then she lends them to me when she has finished.

I actually like them better on the audio books. Steven Pacey is terrific - it's just great storytelling.

Great thread!

I love DL Sayers. Also enjoy the Gevase Fen series, and Margery Allingham.

Anyone like Frances Brody? They are waaaay below Sayers in terms of complex writing, and whilst the books are good standalone, there are some inconsistencies across the series which irritates me, but I enjoy the Yorkshireness.

I thought I would give Miss Beeton's Murder Agency a go, anyone read that?

His detective the complex Dave Robicheux is just superb. His novels are beautifully written and so very vivid. They are set in southern Louisiana and his descriptions are so brilliant I have found myself googling the actual places as I feel as if I am so invested in them, and they are real!

Many of them are real, and not only have I googled "Buy house Iberia Parish LA" (very affordable) but I have also wandered around some of the areas he mentions on street view.

Hakan Neser is a good author to try if you like Scandi crime.

Damyanti Biswas has absolutely gorgeous writing. The Blue Bar and Blue Monsoon are fantastic.

I like H.R.F Keating's "Inspector Ghote" series set in Bombay and written through the 1960s to the 2000s, about 20 altogether. Some are available for Kindle but many are out of print and not easy to find.

Abir Mhukerjee's recent "Wyndam and Bannerjee" series set in Calcutta shortly after WW1 is also well written. The relationship between the British and native detectives shifts during the series along with the politics.

Marple is 12 short stories featuring Miss Marple, each by a different female author. Might help you get your eye in for one or two new to you crone writers.

The Red House Mystery by AA Milne - classic country house stuff.

Anything by Nicholas Blake but especially The Private Wound. Nicholas Blake was a pseudonym for Cecil Day Lewis, and in The Private Wound his vocation as a poet shows up in the prose. You may as a child (or since!) have read The Otterbury Incident, published under his own name.

Simon Mason is good. Tana french, Clare McIntosh, Erin Kelly, Belinda Bauer Catriona McPherson

P D James. Start with her first book... Cover her Face.

Such brilliant command of English, ie very easy to read but very elegant and well written at the same time.

Anthony Berkeley: Not to be Taken, A Puzzle in Poison is on Kindle Unlimited right now. It’s hugely entertaining.

Returning to suggest that anyone who owns a Kindle and enjoys crime fiction should make a beeline for Peter Grainger whose DC Smith novels and Kings Lake series (many of the same characters) have absorbed most of my last three weeks. Never published on paper, but truly excellent. Beautifully written and not a single dud out of the 12 I have galloped through.

Just discovered a somewhat forgotten Golden Age detective writer, JB Harris-Burland. The Middle Bridge Mystery and The Tower of Silence are both rather fun little books.

I've been enjoying the series of Sherlock Holmes new stories from Titan Books (various authors, some of which are just as fiendish in their plotting as Arthur Conan Doyle) https://titanbooks.com/catalog/?series=the-new-adventures-of-sherlock-holmes&page=1

I have just come across (and enjoyed!) Marsali Taylor's murder mysteries - set in the Shetland Isles with a sailing theme.

Is she the one whose detective never forgets to make sure the cat is fed before whizzing off to do some detecting, Baital?

I'm only three books in, but she has acquired Cat, so maybe!

I approve of responsible pet ownership 😉😂

I have just come across (and enjoyed!) Marsali Taylor's murder mysteries - set in the Shetland Isles with a sailing theme.

I enjoyed those too, and also learned a lot about the Shetlands.