I *love* literary mystery/detective fiction (I mostly listen to them as audiobooks – the best genre to listen to, IMO), but I've read enough of them to be pretty picky whenever I need to find a new book or series. Like now. Got any recs for me? Authors and books I've enjoyed:
- Tana French
- Jane Harper
- Gytha Lodge
- Some Anthony Horowitz
- Kala, by Colin Walsh
- The God of the Woods, by Liz Moore
- The Maeve Kerrigan series, by Jane Casey
- The Karen Pirie series, by Val McDermid (but really I loved The Distant Echo and her standalone A Place of Execution more than any of the rest of the books)
- The Maggie D'arcy series, by Sarah Stewart Taylor
- If We Were Villains, by M. L. Rio
Authors and books I did NOT like: Ruth Ware, Lucy Foley, Gillian Flynn, Lisa Jewell, Paula Hawkins, Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie books (sorry, I just COULD NOT STAND him), Anne Cleeve's Raven Black (couldn't make it through), The Secret History, by Donna Tartt (ughhhh).
In case that isn't specific enough – my favorite thing about the genre is going through the process of solving the mystery, so I generally dislike the trope of introducing the villain to the reader early on as a viewpoint character, since it kindof ruins the fun for me.
TIA!
by National-Rhubarb-384
7 Comments
The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker. One of my all time favourites now. Maon character is a writer who sets out to investigate when a dead girl is found buried in the garden of his mentor who is arrested for murder. Full of twists and turns. Impossible to know exactly what happened until the end and even then there’s always one more twist. But they aren’t twists for the sake of it. There’s 2 other books in that series so far and 2 stand-alones by the same author. All truly excellent in my opinion. I’ve not stopped recommending them to everyone since I read the first book last year. I would assume there are audiobooks but I haven’t listened to them
Another option could be the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch. Those have great audiobooks. They’re fantasy/crime books. Main character is a London police officer who meets a ghost and ends up joining the magical arm of the metropolitan police and training to be a wizard
Have you read Adrian McKinty’s Sean Duffy books? They’re procedural cop mysteries, set in Northern Ireland in the 70s, during “the Troubles”. They’re absorbing, funny, literate, and as a bonus our hero has great taste in music.
I like authors on both your liked and disliked lists so I think I can kind of guess the difference. Have you tried Louise Penny’s books? I binged most of the inspector gamache series in a matter of weeks and really made me want to move to a small Canadian town for a while.
I also quite like Alex Finlay, who I don’t see recommended often – it’s a little less detective-y than requested.
How do you feel about Alafair Burke? I like her more standalone ones than her Ellie Hatcher series, but I’ve found most diverting.
The DCI Ryan series by LJ Ross
The Force by Don Winslow is a banger.
Dennis Lehane
Read Liz Moore’s other books — they’re so good. I’d also recommend Erin Kelly’s novels.