Thrillers! Detective fiction type stuff - what's good?
- Thread starter trashpony
- Start date
butterfly child
Well-Known Member
From the mouth of husband:
Raymond Chandler
Harlen Coben
Peter Robinson
Michael Connolly
Henning Mankell
From me:
Coben
Robinson
Connolly
Mankell
Sue Grafton
Raymond Chandler
Harlen Coben
Peter Robinson
Michael Connolly
Henning Mankell
From me:
Coben
Robinson
Connolly
Mankell
Sue Grafton
trashpony
Hag
Have read all of them except Peter Robinson. I like Michael Connolly and Henning Mankel a lot.
Cid
Proper break this time
Yep... Reading Dan Brown is like what I would imagine having a con artist round for dinner would be like; You have several hours of intense conversation then you wake up the next morning feeling slightly dazed, realise the conversation was actually totally inane and find that they've walked off with all your valuables and left a pipe-blocker in the toilet.
imposs1904
Thread Killa'
Denise Mina's Garnethill Trilogy is excellent.
AnnO'Neemus
Is so vanilla
Kathy Reichs and Patricia Cornwell? Although they're more of the forensic pathology/crime type of thing. I was in to those for a while a few years ago after South African guy I knew passed on a Patricia Cornwell to me and said he loved her books.
Michael Chrichton? (sp?) Richard North Patterson? The latter especially are the kind of books that you sometimes pick up cheaply in the supermarket bookshelves. A bit kind of formulaic easy reading, but if you're reading as you're nodding off, sometimes that's the kind of thing that does the job, not literary masterpieces, but entertaining enough, with a few plots twists and turns to keep you guessing.
Michael Chrichton? (sp?) Richard North Patterson? The latter especially are the kind of books that you sometimes pick up cheaply in the supermarket bookshelves. A bit kind of formulaic easy reading, but if you're reading as you're nodding off, sometimes that's the kind of thing that does the job, not literary masterpieces, but entertaining enough, with a few plots twists and turns to keep you guessing.
Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
Elmore Leonard, but few detectives in those, mostly criminals
George V Higgins, mostly concentrating on the lawmakers. Brilliant prose
Derek Raymond
George V Higgins, mostly concentrating on the lawmakers. Brilliant prose
Derek Raymond
Mrs Magpie
On a bit of break...
Margery Allingham
Mrs Magpie
On a bit of break...
There's a great series translated from the Italian, can anyone remember the author?
iirc they're set in Venice.
iirc they're set in Venice.
Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
Are you thinking of Andrea Camilleri?
Fedayn
Well-Known Member
I did a book review and interviewed her for the SSP years ago when she first released Garnethill. Like you I thought the trilogy was really good.
Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
Forgot to mention Leonardo Sciascia -- the best writer about crime ever. Possibly the best writer full stop 
I found them highly disappointing. That one that's just a couple of blokes reading a paper? Rubbish.
Mrs Magpie
On a bit of break...
Nope, just did some googling.
Donna Leon
Dirty Martini
gets what he cant want
Any good?
Mrs Magpie
On a bit of break...
Really very good. Great descriptions of food as well, which is a bonus.
Bernie Gunther
Fundamentalist Druid
Hasn't been mentioned yet, but the hardest of the hardboiled (at least according to Raymond Chandler, and I would definitely agree with him) is probably Paul Cain: 'Fast One' if you can find a copy (No Exit published my copy)
Mrs Magpie
On a bit of break...
Just did more googling. I thought they were translated from Italian. I wuz wrong!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Leon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Leon
Fictionist
Serving Eargasms....
Read them again and remember that they represent a starting point, not the ultimate manifestation of the possibilties of the form. I love their relative simplicity.
another vote for Joe Lansdale- his Hap and Len series is inspired and darkly funny. 'Bad Chilli' may be the best.
Andrew Vachss- the early ones- very dark, all about the nasty underbelly of new york as seen thru the eyes of a paranoid hit-man for hire... 'strega', his second, is the best, and a good starting place
Robert Ferrigno- a smart, sharp, sassy writer. Got the tip from Vachss' website a few years back - 'you're gonna thank me forever for telling you about this guy'- well, for once the writing lived up to the hype... "heartbreaker"'s the best one.
Doug Swanson- again, witty, with good plots. '96 tears' is my fave.
also you could check out Kinky Friedman (crime, comedy style) Nicholas Blincoe (slightly silly & satirical) and Dexter Dias (well-written crime novels from the perspective of a (iirc) practicing UK barrister)...
Andrew Vachss- the early ones- very dark, all about the nasty underbelly of new york as seen thru the eyes of a paranoid hit-man for hire... 'strega', his second, is the best, and a good starting place
Robert Ferrigno- a smart, sharp, sassy writer. Got the tip from Vachss' website a few years back - 'you're gonna thank me forever for telling you about this guy'- well, for once the writing lived up to the hype... "heartbreaker"'s the best one.
Doug Swanson- again, witty, with good plots. '96 tears' is my fave.
also you could check out Kinky Friedman (crime, comedy style) Nicholas Blincoe (slightly silly & satirical) and Dexter Dias (well-written crime novels from the perspective of a (iirc) practicing UK barrister)...
imposs1904
Thread Killa'
Got a link? I'd love to read the interview.
No.
I know they're seminal, they're just not entertaining. Dupin is a cipher.
AnnO'Neemus
Is so vanilla
I've only read the Da Vinci Code, because there was so much hype about it, I wanted to know what everyone was reading and going on about.
They were page turners, I'll give him that, he does write in that quite gripping way where most if not all of the chapters end on some kind of cliffhanger. Which is a bit annoying if you're in the habit of reading at bed time, and you're used to getting to the end of a chapter and putting the book down, because you end up thinking, Ooh, wonder how they get out of that, or wonder what that means? Just one more chapter... just one more... and before you know it it's 4am in the morning.
But.
BUT.
I did find other aspects of his style intensely annoying. I got the feeling that a lot of what he'd written, some of the descriptive stuff about buildings and places, didn't move the story on, and was completely superfluous in terms of story telling (or maybe some detail was there as a red herring so as you'd be wondering about it's significance?
). I just got the feeling that a lot of the detail was thrown in to justify tax write-offs for holidays: Dear Mr IRS man, yes, I know I'm claiming my holidays *ahem* visits to Italy and France as business expenses, they were research trips, they were essential to my book - see, I wrote about them! see! I wrote about those little statues in that chapel, I wrote about what that quaint little town actually looks like! - so they were a legitimate business expense and thus should be offset against any of my earnings.And I found that off-putting, as if some of the writing was there for some other purpose, i.e. justifying his research trips or business expenses, instead of being there to take the story forward or for the enjoyment of the reader.
May Kasahara
take me to the feeling
I'm reading The Brutal Art by Jesse Kellerman at the moment and finding it very good indeed, so an in-progress recommendation from me.
QueenOfGoths
Fuck you Dave!
Saw that in Waterstones the other day - it does look good
Thanks to this thread, I am reading a Peter Robinson and am gripped so ta for that. Only name I could remember - need to print the thread out and put it in my bag
Oooh - which one? I like his books
trashpony
Hag
Saw that in Waterstones the other day - it does look good
Oooh - which one? I like his books
It's called All the colours of darkness.
Geri
wasn't born to follow
Mo Hayder is great - Birdman, The Treatment, Ritual, Pig Island.
Ritual annoyed me slightly with some errors but if you're not Bristolian it won't really matter.
http://www.mohayder.net/books.html
Ritual annoyed me slightly with some errors but if you're not Bristolian it won't really matter.
http://www.mohayder.net/books.html
QueenOfGoths
Fuck you Dave!
That's his latest I think - it's a good one!
I also like them because they are set around the Yorkshire Dales so it reminds me of home
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