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Wed 21 Jul, 2004 02:40 am
Can anyone recommend some great crime thrillers for summer reading?
Thanks
The "oldies" from: Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Alfred Hitchock, Edgar Wallace etc.........
You want crime only, go for John D. Macdonald, telling us a lot in the Travis McGee-series about Florida some 30-40 years ago.
You want crime thrillers per excellence, go for Jonathan Kellermann, George P. Pelecanos, John Sanford.
You want action packed crime, go for Robert Crais.
Just my 2 cents...
After Dark, My Sweet, by Jim Thompson is classic pulp fiction.
I would consider it a great crime thriller.
Try it.
(And don't listen to bigdice; he'll lead you down a dark path)
Practically anything by Lawrence Sanders or Stuart Woods.
You want Pulp Fiction? I, the Jury by Mickey Spillane...
Darn, Gus, I thought that was his chosen path...
Don't know if you'd consider this crime / thriller but....
James Patterson -- he wrote the books that the movies "Along Came a Spider" and " Kiss the Girls" were based on. (Those are the names of those books as well)
Very short writer. His chapters are really really short and he is very direct. No flowery details. I like the books and they are quick reading.
Truman Capote "In Cold Blood" is still the one. Sets the standard
Patterson is good.
For thrillers with a serious twist, try Kay Hooper.
If you don't mind Supernatural/Preternatural Crime, you could try the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton. The main character, Anita Blake, is a necromancer who works on retainer for the regional preternatural investigation team. ::shakes head:: wonderful series.
I've been reading some swedish 'police procedurals' lately by Henning Mankell, in English. I've found them pretty sharp.
And I really enjoyed "Happy Birthday, Turk", a book set in Germany with an immigrant Turkish detective, written by Jakob Arjouni. I will now read anything I see by him.
I forget the name of the author at the moment, but there is a good series: One for the Money, Two for the Dough, Three to get Deadly, Four to Scour, High Five, Hot Six, etc. I've only read the first, but its interesting and fun to read, even though its not very high class.
The Author of that series is Janet Evanovich
I don't believe I saw John Sandford's prey series, Michael Connelly (sp?), Stuart Woods, and my favorite Lee Child!
IF he hasn't already been mentioned, Ridley Pearson is also great!
I'd recommend In cold blod by Capote or any of Patricia Highsmith novels, like The Talented Mr Ripley. Plus there's a swedish author named Henning Mankell who's a great thriller writer; however, I'm not quite sure if there're english translations of his work. Maybe you could look for one of his novels that should be titled "Murderes without a face", that's a great one.
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