I love a good detective story. Grew up reading sherlock, watching csi and becoming obsessed with forensics.
I’m struggling to find detective series that have good books that are cases or one or two murders, not killing sprees or on the chase of a serial killer. (I like figuring out the “why” and with serial killrrs there never really is one)
Preferably female lead but I’m open to
anything
by beawhisktaker
2 Comments
Hard to make specific recommendations without more info, there’s a pretty broad swath of books that covers that description, but I’ll name a few that I like.
Tana French, Dublin Murder Squad series. The first is *In the Woods*. Very well written detective series. Character driven, spends a lot of time examining the motivations of the suspects and detectives alike. I haven’t finished the series but no serial killers so far. First book is a male lead with a female partner, second book is a female lead. I wouldn’t describe her writing as exactly literary but it’s not your typical detective series.
The Dublin Trilogy by Caimh McDonnell. Very funny detective series about a pair of amateur PIs and a former Irish cop. No serial killers that I can recall. Kind of the polar opposite of Tana French but I think the mysteries are quite good even if the humor isn’t your thing. Kind of shifts between the male and female main characters IIRC.
The Bill Slider series by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. Police procedurals set in early 90s London. Male lead, female author. Criminally underlooked series IMO, she’s a better writer than a lot of the people writing police procedurals.
Michael Connelly’s Renee Ballard series (which becomes the Ballard and Bosch series after a couple of books). First book is The Late Show.
Nevada Barr’s Anna Pigeon series. First book is Track of the Cat.