Hello. I’m looking for some advice. I’m someone who mainly reads fantasy, sci-fi and a bit of horror, and I’m looking to read more modern thrillers, mysteries, and non-supernatural horror novels. I’d appreciate any recommendations.
I’ve always enjoyed crime movies, particularly serial killer thrillers like Silence Of The Lambs, and ‘domestic thrillers’ like Single White Female and The Hand That Rocks The Cradle. I also love classic noir films like Maltese Falcon and Double Indemnity. But I’ve only read a few thriller / crime novels.
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I’ve read Chandler’s The Big Sleep and Hammett’s The Thin Man and I enjoyed them but wasn’t really emotionally invested
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I tried a Nordic Noir by reading Jo Nesbo’s Nemesis, which was engrossing but maybe a bit too sprawling
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Some books I’ve really enjoyed are Chelsea Cain’s Gretchen Lowell series. I’d love more books in this vein
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I also really loved these Australian mysteries Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone, and Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson
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I’ve enjoyed some old 1990s ‘splatterpunk’ books like Endless Night by Richard Laymon, and Slob by Rex Miller
If it helps, here are some like and dislikes about certain tropes:
LIKES:
– Female protagonists
– Romance subplots
– Big melodramatic emotions and fixations
– Unique and disturbing crimes
– Empathy for the victims
– Justice being served (not a dealbreaker though)
DISLIKES:
– SA for titillation
– When the criminal taunts the hero like “We’re not so different you and I” or “If you kill me you’re no better than me”
– Invincible super-badass heroes like Jack Reacher
– Super-intelligent charismatic serial killers where you can tell the author loves the character so much they twist the story to make them the ‘hero’
– Burnt out addicted middle aged heroes with a dark past
(Those last two are not dealbreakers; they’re just cliched)
by MTBurgermeister