In my book club we are planning to read a crime fiction/police procedural next time and we’ve been looking for ideas. As this is my favourite genre, I had quite a few ideas! However, I seem to just stick to the same authors, so any suggestions?
Here is what I thought of, but these are all stories I’ve read (not that I mind rereading them!)
- Historical detective – ‘Dissolution’ C. J. Sansom – a cracking good read, first in the series of Shardlake novels, set at the time of Henry VIII
- Shetland detective – ‘Raven Black’ by Ann Cleeves – great story and fascinating setting, first in series of Jimmy Perez novels (ignore the pathetic TV version)
- Icelandic detective – ‘House of Evidence’ by Viktor Arnar Ingólfsson, great and intricate story which is much more than a who-dunnit, starts with a dead body found in a house locked from the inside and no weapon
- Yorkshire detective duo – there are about 24 Pasco and Dalziel books, police procedurals by Reginald Hill- I think the earlier ones are better, but there are plenty to choose from; again, ignore any of the TV series which may be good in their own right but are nothing like as good as the original… a good one to look at might be ‘The Wood Beyond’ but I also recommend ‘On Beulah Height’ and I defy anyone to guess the ending!
- Classic detective – Inspector Roderick ‘Rory’ Alleyn books by Ngaio Marsh, she wrote over 30 books between 1934 – 1982, typical slightly old-fashioned but very readable stories
- Spy detective – George Smiley, John le Carré’s spy from ‘Tinker Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ etc, becomes a detective in ‘A Murder of Quality’
Seeing that you already have an Icelandic author on your list, why not try some other Scandinavian crime writers, as they seem to have a nice feel for the genre. Anything by Karin Fossum from her Inspector Sejer series would be a good start. I also like Arnuldur Indridason, another Icelandic writer, and his series of Reykjavik Murder Mysteries. All good Kindle fodder.
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Excellent, thank you Peter! I shall follow them up – I’ve not come across those names before; I fell in love with Iceland when I visited last year, so combining crime and Iceland seems like an excellent idea!
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Surely Ian Rankin and Val McDermid should be in here somewhere?!
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You’re right – I did wonder if everybody might have read Rankin… but I dare say they’ve all read Reg Hill too! I liked McDermid’s early books, but the psychological ones didn’t really grab me… but she is a great writer, and a very interesting person!
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What about Ann Granger? She writes in a couple of genres. She has her Mitchell and Markby series, Campbell and Carter and Fran Varadywhich are a bit darker and then her historical crime novels with Inspector Ben Ross.
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I was trying to remember her… there used to be a lot of her books in Lees library when we lived there… I must go back and reread Mitchell and Markby… I didn’t like Fran Varady as much… and I don’t think I’ve come across Campbell and Carter… needs investigation!
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No, I didn’t like Fran Varady much either. Campbell and Carter are her latest duo who wouldn’t have been in Lees library when you lived there. I took one of the Inspector Ben Ross stories away with me on my kindle along with Jim’s latest book “Tango in Madeira” and a couple of others
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I’m reading Britain BC at the moment – totally into my archaeology!!
Do you remember some books written by a woman with titles based on ‘Green grow the rushes-o’? I used to enjoy them but can’t remember the title or the author!
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