Crime fiction

[JimC]

I enjoy a variety of crime fiction, with certain authors and styles being favourites, generally police procedurals with a certain edge of darkness...
To start with British authors, they would include:
Reginald Hill – the Dalziel & Pascoe series
Ian Rankin – the Rebus series
Peter Robinson – Inspector Banks
Barry Maitland (actually an Australian, but his books are set in London)
Then there is the Swedish series by Henning Mankell about Inspector Kurt Wallander, very impressive, although rather dour...
The best crime writer in the States, IMO, is Michael Connelly with his series about Harry Bosch...
There are a few others here and there, plus I enjoy some styles of books about private investigators, going back to Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald...

Who else on the forum likes this genre?

[Achtland]

if i may be so bold jim.
this genre of books are my least read as i find them very samey.
that is not to say that i do not enjoy tiles in this range because i do.
my additions are
the gut that wrote the Morse books
the guy that wrote the Frost books
can spy or law books be considered?
ie
La care
Ian Flemming

[JimC]

if i may be so bold jim.
this genre of books are my least read as i find them very samey.
that is not to say that i do not enjoy tiles in this range because i do.
my additions are
the gut that wrote the Morse books
the guy that wrote the Frost books
can spy or law books be considered?
ie
La care
Ian Flemming

The Frost series was good, although repetitive towards the end.
Le Carre was a master, of a closely related genre, particularly Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People...

[Clinton Huxley]

I hear that fellow Conan-Doyle is working on a crime series....

[AshtonBlack]

I tell you a criminal author, that twat Dan Brown. He should be arrested.

Oh CRIME! mea culpa.

[Clinton Huxley]

I tell you a criminal author, that twat Dan Brown. He should be arressted!!

Oh CRIME! mea culpa.

Lady Huxley loves Dan Brown. And all the sub Dan-Brown-a-likes. She knows they are execrable but she finds them relaxing. "Archway books", I call 'em, because there is invariably an archway on the front cover...

[Xamonas Chegwé]

My favourite in that genre, mainly because he effortlessly transcends it, has to be James Elroy - Author of L.A. Confidential.

I've read a few P.D.James, RuthRendell, Ian Rankin, etc. but they tend to be a bit samey if you read too many close together. I sometimes pick such things up in second hand shops if they are super-cheap. I borrow others from my dad, who reads little else.

[Clinton Huxley]

I particularly enjoyed this thriller about the trade in baby gorillas - a man and a chimp have a fight, a boy suffocates a leopard by sticking his arm down it's throat. It's all good....

[Bella Fortuna]

This is one of my favourite genres, but only for certain authors. I generally favour the hard-boiled novels of old, such as

Jim Thompson (The Grifters, The Getaway, The Killer Inside Me)

James M. Cain (The Postman Always Rings Twice, Mildred Pierce, Double Indemnity)

Cornell Woolrich (Rear Window, The Bride Wore Black, I Married a Dead Man)

David Goodis (Shoot the Piano Player)

Charles Willeford

My two favourite recent authors of crime fiction are Patricia Highsmith and Ruth Rendell.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Oh yes. James M Cain. Very good author. I've read a couple of those.

[Bella Fortuna]

I particularly enjoyed this thriller about the trade in baby gorillas - a man and a chimp have a fight, a boy suffocates a leopard by sticking his arm down it's throat. It's all good....

That sounds like something in Paco's line... "baby gorillas ripped my flesh..."

[Xamonas Chegwé]

I particularly enjoyed this thriller about the trade in baby gorillas - a man and a chimp have a fight, a boy suffocates a leopard by sticking his arm down it's throat. It's all good....

That sounds like something in Paco's line... "baby gorillas ripped my flesh..."

I read loads of Willard Price's "adventure" books as a kid. There were about a dozen in my local library. I read all of them by the age of about 11 and then moved onto adult SF.

[JimC]

I particularly enjoyed this thriller about the trade in baby gorillas - a man and a chimp have a fight, a boy suffocates a leopard by sticking his arm down it's throat. It's all good....

That sounds like something in Paco's line... "baby gorillas ripped my flesh..."

I read loads of Willard Price's "adventure" books as a kid. There were about a dozen in my local library. I read all of them by the age of about 11 and then moved onto adult SF.

Me too! Literary training wheels...

[Red Katie]

Never was a big fan of detective stories, but when I was young I enjoyed Mike Hammer stories by Mickey Spillane, and Shell Scott stories by Richard S. Prather, and Mike Shane stories by I forget who. (Brett Halliday?) Later, I enjoyed the Father Brown series, by... Chesterton, wasn't it? And the Nero Wolfe stories by Rex Stout, as well as the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald.

When I was young, i read all science fiction, and eventually changed to fantasy. Now, I read mostly YA novels. Don't know why.

[Bella Fortuna]

GK Chesterton, yes.