I can't remember the last time I've read a crime novel, it's never been my genre – so what would you suggest for me to get into it? Open to anything really, it's an unknown genre for me.
Preferably something with interesting female characters (doesn't have to be a lead), but other than that I am completely open. Normally I read sci-fi and fantasy, plus the occasional non-fiction book if the topic interests me. I can handle dark themes, but preferably not anything that veers into trauma porn territory.
by nemi-montoya
7 Comments
The Poet by Michael Connelly. If you like it move on to his Bosch series.
The Mirror Man by Lars Kepler is genuinely one of my favourite books of all time- it reads moreso like a TV show (difficult to explain but it makes sense when you read)
Random selection. All lead female characters.
No Rest for the Wicked by Rachel Louis Adams
The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager
House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen
Mother Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon
A Murder of Magpies by Judith Flanders
The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch are fantasy crime books so might be a good way into the genre. Especially if it’s not usually your thing. Though the main character is male, there are certainly plenty of interesting and complicated female characters throughout the series.
John Sandford has three Letty Davenport novels. She is a terrific character.
It gets recommended a lot, but Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series. They’re all stand-alone books and can be read in any order, but there is some minor cross-over between the books (the main character in one book is a minor side character in another, etc). The Likeness is my favorite, but they’re all fantastic.
Richard Price and Elmore Leonard are my go-to guys for cops and crime books. Price had a major influence on The Wire and Leonard wrote Jackie Brown, 310 to Yuma, and other books that have had big adaptations.