Ruth Rendell!!! (aka Barbara Vine.)
I
love her! I'm not normally a mystery fan, because too often they're just not very well written, IMO. But her books are
so well-written, good characterizations, compelling plots... Not quite "mysteries," in that it's not usually a question of whodunit, but more, How are all these different threads and peculiar people all going to collide with each other? I just finished one of hers, now I've gotta go start another right now!
Anything by James Lee Burke, except his first novel which was just too depressing. A bit heavy on casual violence, but he's also one of the best descriptive writers I've run across.
Diane Mott Davidson is much less violent. Her stuff is well written, but a tad more recipes than I'm interested in. To explain, here principle character is a caterer.
My favorite mystery writer is Dame Ngaio Marsh. Good, old-fashioned whodunits with interesting characters and good writing.
I also greatly enjoyed the works of the Swedish married couple Maj Sjöwall and Peter Wahlöö. More police procedurals than outright mysteries, but they present a dark and complex world that is easy to be drawn into.
Lilian Jackson Braun writes the "Cat Who" mysteries. I enjoyed the earlier ones. Idiosyncratic characters, fun stories. The later ones got lame. Too bad.
I've neglected this thread.
Roberta--
Ngaio Marsh is excellent.
Roger--
James Lee Burke is a keeper.
Cybercat--
Sometimes Ruth Rendell is a little dark for me. I'm biased towards frivolous whodunits.
Mame--
Our tastes overlap.
Just put in requests at the library for a lot of books, mostly from Mame's list of authors.
Am looking forward to some good reading, and since I've now finished reading all of Janet Evanovich's books, I was in need of some more good laughs too. Every single one of her books had me grabbing my belly in pain from laughing so hard at the hilarious visions she paints. Have to thank my cousin for turning me on to her as a way to get through mourning my dad. It worked well to keep my mind occupied and give me a bunch of laughs about families.
I'll give some reviews as I work my way through the list.
John Sandford has written over a dozen whodunnits in his "prey" series. They are quite good.
Another author I've enjoyed is Lindsey Davis. She has a series of whodunnits set in ancient Rome.
Ann Rule writes non-fiction crime stories that have been solved. She will not write about unsolved cases. I like her writing style. She was a former Seattle Police Officer and a lot of her books have been made into movies. What I really like about her is she works with the family who had a love one killed. She also stays in touch with them and relays information on the family and the convicted killer to her readers. She personally knew Ted Bundy. If you like you can read about her here:
http://www.annrules.com/bio.htm
I am probably partial to her anyway since she lives where I do.
Also, I don't know if you wanted opinions on non-fiction or were set only on fiction.
If we're talking frivolous, you've got to look into the series by British author Liz Evans, featuring Private Eye (disgraced ex-cop, squat dweller) Grace Smith: Barking
Don't Mess With Mrs. In-Between
Sick As A Parrot
Who Killed Marilyn Monroe?
JFK is Missing
Cue the Easter Bunny.
As you'll have guessed, there is usually an animal connection involved; e.g. Marilyn Monroe is the name of a donkey -- the kind small children ride at the seafront in Britain. They're hilarious.
I just reread Sharyn McCrumb's Bimbos of the Death Star set at a science fiction convention.
Very satisfactory.
That should be Hamilton Crane, not Heron Crane (yeah, I'm a bird-brain)...
Most series are progressive, as in Martha Grimes, Rex Stout, Anne Perry, M.C. Beaton, Hillerman, Peters, and you should read the first book first, etc.
Another lighthearted writer is Emily Brightwell who writes the Mrs. Jeffries series. She's a housekeeper for a cop and all the staff surreptitiously help their boss solve the crimes.
A couple I got from the library which I haven't tried before:
Lauren Durham
Michelle Scott
Cynthia Baxter
Denise Swanson
I've read most of the writers mentioned here (Diana Mott Davidson, Janet Evanovich, Sue Grafton) but there are so many more who deserve mention. Susan Conant who writes doggie mysteries - in fact, there are several of those, and there are several others who write food ones. I really love the Gregorkian (sp?) mysteries, as well. Jane Haddam does those, I think. Again, progressive in her case. All these are lighthearted.
Then there's the serious - Patricia Cornwell, Ruth Rendell, Barbara Vine (same person, isn't it?),
Margery Allingham
Robert Barnard
Claudia Bishop
Amanda Cross
Mary Higgins Clark
Mary Daheim
Susan Dunlap
Elizabeth George
Ian Rankin
Reginald Hill
Caroline Graham
Carolyn G. Hart
Georgette Heyer
P.D. James
J.A. Jance
H.F.R. Keating
Charlotte McLeod
Margaret Maron
Ngaio Marsh (as already mentioned by others)
Sara Paretsky
Nancy Pickard
Dorothy Sayers
George Simenon (does the Maigret Series)
Jane Langton
Sharon McCrumb
E.X. Ferrars
Deborah Crombie
Ed McBain
Colin Dexter (of course)
Harry Kemelman - Rabbi David Small series (Monday the Rabbi ... Tuesday the Rabbi ... etc)
Joyce Christmas
And who does the Frost series? Someone named Wright, I think, and there are several of those...You know, Frost at Christmas, A Night Frost... etc.
L.R. (Bunny Wright) - does a B.C. series
Eric Wright
Serious and psychological - Lawrence Gough - I find his stuff very chilling.
There are so many others... happy reading.
I just ordered from A2k's amazon link on the Home Page, these six, with the total about $12. for the books and $24. for the shipping -
"Out: A Novel" Natsuo Kirino (new to me)
"The Return of the Dancing Master" Henning Mankell (have liked his writing before)
"All She Was Worth" Miyuki Miyabe (new to me)
"The Company of Strangers" Robert Wilson (liked Small Death in Lisbon)
"Murder in the Sentier" Cara Black (I like her Soho Crime series)
"Murder in Belleville" Cara Black
these ten from Powell's ($52. - no shipping over $50. total)
"Concourse", S.J. Rozan (liked something by Rozan before)
"Winter and Night", SJ Rozan
"Certain Justice", John Lescroart (liked Dead Irish ok)
"Alibi", Joseph Kanon (liked his Los Alamos)
"The Legacy", DW Buffa
"Trouble", Jesse Kellerman (I'm weary of his parents' writing - Jonathan and Faye, but liked a recent book of Jesse's)
"Sunstroke", Jesse Kellerman
and
so-called travel writing --
"A Death in Brazil: A Book of Omissions", Robb, Peter (I've read Robb's Caravaggio and Midnight in Sicily).
"Rambling on the Road To Rome", Peter Franci Browne
"Danube", Claudio Magris
My list of 'I wants' that I'll take to the most local library, in hope they can order them a some point -
Hakan Nesser's "Borkmann's Point"
Karin Fossum's Inspector Sajer series
Denise Mina's Garnethill
Ake Edwardson's Erik Winter novels
anything by Magdalen Nabb
Louise Welsh's The Cutting Room
All this takes me a while - though I can do quick looks at pages on either site, 75 pages of Powell's can weary even me. The books I'm most interested in on Powell's tend to be too pricey, so I take the names and look at Amazon, where I may or may not find them listed. At Powell's, I try to keep it at $5.00 a book or under, but a couple of those travel writing books were more; seemed worth it.
Once these arrive, these should keep me going for a bit!
Mame--
You're an eclectic reader of trifles.
Osso--
I wish were were close enough to swap paperback.
@Noddy24,
I recently published the second in a series of murder mysteries with a strong Brazilian flavor. The titles are:
1. Brazilian Saints, Manhattan Mortals
2. A Manhattan Mortal In The Bay Of All Saints
Both books are available on Amazon.com The first has some very good reviews, while the second just came out two weeks ago. They are both entertaining,fun reads.
M Featherstone
