Stella Gibbons "She liked Victorian novels. They were the only kind of novel you could read while eating an apple."

[TeaAndStrumpets]

I think this quote pretty well describes my literary taste these days. However the books churned out for light reading are often so dire. Who buys them? Had to bin The Thursday Murder Club, and that awful one about a very naive female whose name I have mercifully forgotten (sorry, can't recall...think she was meant to have autistic traits but it was laid on with a trowel.)

I thoroughly enjoyed Of Mice and Murder. I love Jasper Fford. I read a lot of 1930s fiction over lockdown, Angela Thirkell and also Miss Silver for light relief. There is probably a lot of Golden Age detective stuff I could read, but I have worked my way through loads of it over the years. I would really like to see what modern fiction has to offer.

What do you read which is enjoyable and doesn't annoy you? No dead children, mutilated women, etc etc.

Very little modern light fiction, I agree. I still look to the past.

Do you mean Eleanor Oliphaunt? It was terrible.

If you like detective fiction, try Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling) - some of them are quite long but I’ve really enjoyed them so far.

I also love Kate Atkinson, and Maggie O’Farrell (though I’m sure at least one of her novels features a child who died).

Oh Kate Atkinson's Transcription is marvellous. Spy novel but with a very light touch.

Yes! Thank you, that was the one. I had managed to forget.

I agree the old stuff still hits the spot.

At the risk of sounding poncy, I’d look for books by people who are writers rather than people who’ve sidelined into writing.

I’d also look at William Boyd (I really enjoyed Restless), Colm Toibin (Brooklyn/Long Island) and Helen Dunmore, who is sadly no longer with us but I never met a book of hers I didn’t get on with.

Thanks for the speedy suggestions! I have enjoyed Kate Atkinson before so that's a good tip. I keep meaning to dive into Galbraith. I have really treasured some of Helen Dunmore's poetry. A sad loss.

I enjoyed Mick Herron's books, Slow Horses series but also Zoë Baum. He is an auto buy for me.

They're not up to the minute contemporary writers, but I have similar fallbacks to you and also enjoy Jane Gardam, Marika Cobold and Barbara Trapido. Donna Leon for a comfortable crime series maybe?

Actually I have read your criteria. Is the "no dead children" an absolute? As in, no plot relevant miscarriages, infant deaths etc? Or do you mean no shock and gore and random violent deaths?

Yes I buy the Donna Leon novels as they appear! Will note the others, thank you.

There are some spy fiction novels (eg Box 88 I think it's called) written by a guy who used to be in MI6. Cummings. They're very good!

If dead children are an absolute no I can warn you off a couple of titles, but I don't read angst and gorefests so they wouldn't feature. Just sometimes as relevant, well handled plot points in women's lives.

@Yestothis I think I do mean no gore, really. I once tried to read one of Karin Slaughter's early books and someone had a body part nailed to the floor! Had to stop even though it was a well written book. Life events like baby loss as plot points fair enough, but long descriptions of torture are not for me.

Ideally i prefer the police procedural, detective stuff after the event. I think in recent years some authors have included extensive flash backs/prologues showing the actual crime. Quite cinematic, really.

Ooh thanks!

None of my others are detective stories - more riffing off Gibbons, Thirlwall etc to more recent fiction.

I know what you mean about gorefests. I am wary of continuation series anyway, but since I enjoy Josephine Tey's detective stories without loving them, I tried the recent continuation. Horrible and gratuitous cruelty - won't touch that again.

Have you read any Barbara Pym? She may just be who you’re looking for!

I agree with you about the poor quality of lighter fiction these days.

edited to add in a second vote for Jane Gardam. Also Fay Weldon!

John Sandford's Lucas Davenport novels are so well written but they have got nastier and nastier. The one featuring cannibalism was just too much for me. I do like the Virgil Flowers books, the odd murder but they seem to mostly consist of Virgil eating pie while chatting to potential witnesses.

Jane Gardam's "Old Filth" trilogy is not a detective work - wish it had a more attractive title, but it's just the old Failed in London Try Hong Kong acronym.

But it is a sort of mystery work, in that it slowly reveals one past crime (maybe?) in book 1, but much more memorably, it gives you three big chunky novels of the same events, told from different characters' perspectives. And none of it feels incomplete, contrived, inconvenient - it's hugely satisfying. I feel absolutely gorged by the end of a reread.

I discovered Christobel Kent last year and devoured her Sandro Cellini series. Beautifully written.

@Yestothis Oh no, thanks for the warning. I had wondered about those. Will steer clear.

Edited to add Old Filth!

Another one for the list, thank you!

Nasty and Annoying are exactly my two anti-criteria for my reading.

I must have learned too much from Miss Silver

She did not care for the book they had given her at the library yesterday, and she thought she would change it. She would prefer a novel in which the characters had at least heard of the ten commandments and did not begin drinking at ten in the morning after having kept it up for most of the night. Their behaviour under this alcoholic stimulus she considered to be totally lacking in interest.

And thanks for your thread title, I'm actually reading Cold Comfort Farm at the moment so it drew me in!

Watching with interest as modern light fiction doesn't appeal to me at all. I also did not enjoy Thursday Murder Club.
They are detective books, but when looking for a cosy, comforting read I tend to go for children's classics. Things like The Railway Children, The Secret Garden, Peter Pan. I'm currently re-reading Black Beauty.

Yes! Yes! I love Miss Silver.

I like when the hero rescues the heroine and they take refuge with his old nanny, she produces a light supper, then bed with TWO hot water bottles. My idea of heaven!