Looking for a gift for my dad. He is a huge reader and it’s hard to find books he hasn’t read, but thankfully the last two years he’s been on Goodreads, so I can see what he has/hasn’t read on there.
Previous books he’s loved have been anything by Amor Towles, James Elroy, Don Winslow, Adrian McKinty, Dennis Lehane, Erik Larson (non fiction), and most John Grishams and Michael Connolly.
I’d love any and all help! Thank you in advance!
by travelgarden25
3 Comments
Why does it have to be written by a man?
A legal thriller he might enjoy is The Local by Joey Hartstone, it was published in 2022. A small-town legal thriller in which a wealthy businessman is accused of killing a federal judge and it is up to a patent attorney to figure it out. Lighter than Grisham but a good read.
Ace Atkins Ranger series might be something he hasn’t read yet. Ace took over for Robert B Parker on the Spenser series, writing 10 of them after Parker passed. The Ranger series is his own. I haven’t read Grisham in a long time, so I can’t say they’re similar. But this series is set in Mississippi, crime/detective thriller, small town corruption stuff. If he hasn’t read the series, this one where it’s best to start with the first.
The Reacher novels by Lee Child. The Tv show is based on a series of novels. The last couple of entries are cowritten by Child and his brother, but still fun.
Jana DeLeon’s Miss Fortune series are a hoot. Kinda like Burn Notice meets golden girls meets the ateam. I know you said written by men, but I’m an older guy and I love these books, so he may too.
Same with Karin Slaughter’s Will Trent series. But these are much darker, mystery/psych thriller type stories, but compelling. It was just turned into a tv show, which captures the characters well, but is a good bit lighter.
If he’s a lifelong reader he may be familiar with teh Spenser series by aforementioned Robert B Parker. They date back to the late 70s. Mike Lupica is writing the series now and captures the voice and tone of the originals fairly well. The most recent entry was published last month. The Spenser novels are a mainstay and influential in the world of detective fiction, and there are 50 of them if he hasn’t read them before.
Chaos by Tom O’Neill – non-fiction -is a deep dive into the Manson murders, and what O’Neill’s journey trying to uncover a lot of mysteries around the murders that remain.