crime fiction inspiration please.

[wrinklytum]

I love crime fiction and am in need of inspiration

I have exhausted Rankin's Rebus books
Ditto Connelly and his Harry Bosch series.Enjoyed both of these

I am irritated by Cornwell and her Scarpetta character.Gerritsen is also annoying and I hate the romance bolleaux she adds to her books.

Will often re-read some classics by Christie/Marsh etc.

Any ideas?TIA

Have you tries Carl Hiaason? Very funny, books set around Florida, a lot of commentary on the enviromental destructio taking place there. Nature Girl is a good one to start off with.

Ian Rankin and Martha Grimes are my favorites.

Val Mcdermid
Linwood Barclay
Robert Goddard

I've enjoyed all of them and also like the Rebus books.

Joe Lansdale is my recommendation Also I just read The Brutal Art by Jesse Kellerman which was excellent.

How about something completely different? Well, not completely, but historial crime novels? Lindsay Davis sets hers in ancient Rome, Stephen Saylor too. Someone does ancient Greece and I think there's an author doing ancient Egyptian crime. The detection methods are rather different and the backgrounds are fascinating. There are others, but my books are so disorganised I can't see them, or remember.

Jux, they sound good, will look them up in the library later

Crime but not crime fiction could be a direction to go in....

The Unburied by Charles Palliser
Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg
The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld

All appealed to me in the mystery sort of vein and all are connected with crime and the discovery of the guilty parties but have an additional element.

David Peace, Red Riding books. James Ellroy in 1970s West Yorkshire. If you like that sort of thing...

fizzpops didn't you find The Unburied rather disappointing after the astonishing Quincunx? (sorry to hijack)

Oooo oooo have you read any Peter Lovesey yet? Can really recommend the Peter Diamond series he's written - am on the edge of my seat reading them!

Have read (all out of time sequence, but doesn't matter they stand alone) - The Secret Hangman, The House Sitter and just started on Diamond Dust. Have The Circle sat on my bookshelf ready to read too!

Agree with Jux - Lindsay Davis and Steven Saylor great. The latter is a bit more serious than the former, but I do love both in their own ways.

OP, if you like Christie, have you read other 'Golden Age' crime fiction? My favourites are Dorothy L Sayers and Josephine Tey. Sayers is my all-time favourite crime writer because she is so literate and fun at the same time, and Tey's books are a little offbeat which makes them stand out from the normal country house Christie stuff.

I go on and off Elizabeth George, Adore Connelly and Rankin. Have a soft spot for Sue Grafton's 'Alphabet' novels and loathe Patricia Cornwell. Lee Child books are my guilty secret, although not quite crime fiction in the traditional sense.

karin slaughter....all time favourite...try and read in sequence
mo hayder....the earlier stuff like birdman, later stuff like pig island a bit so-so
mark billingham ...sleepyhead
greg iles...set in deep south..24 hours is good as is angel turns
jonathon kellerman's alex delaware(forensic psychologist) novels...but get a bit samey if you read a lot close together
faye kellerman's books set in orthodox jewish community eg ritual bath

ps wouldn't touch interp of murder with a bargepole....like a couple of psychology essays stitched together with cottonwool

peasholme - I read The Unburied first and then The Quincunx so I actually found The Quincunx quite hardgoing in comparison. I can imagine if you read them in the opposite order The Unburied might seem a bit thin/ short.

For me The Unburied had a really sinister edge made me uneasy throughout the whole book which contrasted with The Quincunx's more convoluted storyline. Just as you think things are working out something else happens and you are back to square one. Sort of a different vibe.

Enjoyed both in their own way though. The Quincunx is a great one to take on holiday as depending on how much/ how fast you read you only need to take a couple of other books. Keeps you busy reading the Afterword (I think! It is a long time since I read it) and trying to work out exactly what has gone on.

Andrea Camilleri, Inspector Montalbano series. I picked up The Snack Thief in the library this morning.

Roman Mysteries?

Kate Ellis
Janet Neel
Robert Barnard
Kathy Reichs
Ann Grainger

all good imo

Kathy Reichs definitely better than (later) Cornwell.

Ruth Rendell - a wide range of good reads, from Wexford series to stand along novels like the Crocodile Bird, Live Flesh etc. She also writes as Barbara Vine.

I also second Camilleri and PD James.

Le Carré is also good, as is Raymond Chandler (the two are in no way related).

In addition to Kathy Reichs and Karen Slaughter who I like.

I would suggest Minette Walters, Lee Childs and some of Mary Higgins Clarks books.

Oh yes, Tey is wonderful.

Hullo wrinkly I like Jo Bannister, set in yorks. Have many of them if you want to borrow. Also Kate Atkinson but not proper crime IMO. Would love to catch up soon?