Or do they start off rocky and greatly improve later in the series? Jefferson Parker book, California Girl. On the back cover is a quote from the Rocky Mountain News Might want to check him out. How about the Karin Slaughter Grant County series? Not so much a worry about finding an entertaining read as finding an author who writes such quality material. I started with Patricia Cornwall and am working through all of her books.
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Next was Michael Connelly love, love, love his work. Just finished "Angel's Flight" this morning. I can understand how California readers enjoy the LA locales. I lived in Ft. Myers, FL many years ago and have really enjoyed Randy Wayne White's mysteries because so many of the locations are familiar. So many books, so little time. May 10, , 1: MacDonald's Travis McGee books? Connelly readers that are interested in looking at British writers would probably enjoy John Harvey's series with detective Charlie Resnick starting with Lonely Hearts.
I know they are classic and many readers of Connelly recommend them as similar. Travis McGee is on my list. I used to wonder what my father-in-law, a voracious mystery reader, found appealing about these books. Now I get it. If you like Patricia Cornwell, try Kathy Reichs. I love her books, too. Jo Nesbo 's Harry Hole series is excellent. Set in Oslo, Norway, they are outstanding thrillers. This Harry, like Bosch, is a bit of a renegade in the Oslo Police force. So now you'll have 2 Harrys to keep tabs on! The problem here is not when the next book is going to be published, but when the next English translation is going to arrive.
They've been translated in a different sequence than they were written.
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Author James Lee Burke was recommended to me by several friends. Haven't read anything yet, but have one of his books I will get to in the near future. Anybody else know anything about him, please post. I"ve only read one Michael Connelly book and it was a stand-alone novel, but I liked it a lot.
I am amazed at how much people love the Harry Boschseries though and I can't wait to start it. I feel like I"m in for something incredibly special. I think he must be the favourite writer of mystery readers on this site. Has anyone read his new anthology of police stories? Connelly wrote once that he had picked up "Neon Rain" in a book store for its flashy cover and liked it so much that later found and read other books by the same author. So I think that we won't be disappointed as well ; Me, I've read all Connelly's books except for Crimebeat and short stories and all Mallory series by O'Connell.
Think it's time to get asquainted with Dave Robicheaux. James Lee Burke is well worth reading - they transcend the genre. James Lee Burke is one my favorites also. There are two emerging authors I'm happy to recommend: Sean Chercover and Marcus Sakey. Both set their books in Chicago. You can't go wrong with any of their books.
The Blade Itself and Good People. If you love Michael Connelly as much as so many of us do, then I agree with many others that you will also love James Lee Burke. His prose is rich, southern, gritty, and poetic. Dave Robiichauex is as flawed and as angry as Harry Bosch, but that never gets in the way of his seeking and finding justice. My recommendations would be from Lawrence Block the Matt Scudder and Keller series which are both excellent.
Can also heartily second the recommendation of Dennis Lehane. Sep 22, , 6: I am late to this party. I have not been reading much fiction lately because I was a hard core Grisham fan for years, and I could never replace him. Jurassic Park excepted Tom Clancy requires a notebook to keep track of characters and story lines - too much work. So I gave up on fiction for years, except for when Grisham turned out another airport read. Then I discovered Stuart Woods. I know, I know I can already hear the pooh poos of his entry to this discussion I discovered Connelly when I ran out of Woods novels Harry is passing the baton to his daughter I can hardly wait for his December addition.
Give Stuart Woods a try - if you can get past his raunchy encounters with every woman he meets, he really does spin a page turning yarn I expect some grief for my Woods endorsement I found Robert Crais I've been with Pike and Cole through thick and thin I finally got around to reading the first Harry Bosch novel and I really didn't like it. I've heard such praise for the book that I was really surprised at how it completely turned me off.
Maybe I just needed a break from crime fiction. I found the coincidences in the novel to be idiotic. For example the way Harry knows the victim in the beginning of the book from "nam was so silly that I just couldn't put up with much more of the story. And then there is his love story with the FBI agent he works with. Now every silly cozy novel about innkeepers who bake apple pies and solve crimes have an affair with a cop and it's such a tedious and silly route to take.
Really, would a professional cop fall in love with an agent he works with? It was just too dumb for me. In the beginning I thought the prose style was above many other crime writers I've read but I just got more and more disapointed with the book as it went along and towards the end when the crimes start to unravel I couldn't care less who did what and why.
I have no desire to continue reading the books that come after this. I just don't get what I missed because so many people have said Connelly is the number one crime writer today and I didn't see that at all. Also Every Dead Thing. I remember picking up The Poet years ago and putting it down after 50 pages and thinking - what is all the fuss.
Then I picked it up a again when in the right mood and I now rate it one of my favourites. I think first books are tough to get right. I am currently reading Ian Rankin and his first book had the same issues - it all happens in the family in the first book and its all coincidence, but the books really improve and tighten up as I am working my way through the series. Stick with Michael Connelly and you will not be disappointed 9as long as you like Harry, jazz and a closed case. All are series although I've never been a purist enough to read them in order.
Some of these authors also write stand-alones. I'm sure there are genre authors that I've forgotten. But if you like any of these writers, you probably will like some of the others. Ian Rankin, Britain's answer to Michael Connelly. The same publisher - Orion. James Sallis has written some really great crime stuff.
The Turner trilogy is great. You can pick up all three books in a collected edition at a good price as well. He also wrote Drive, which was adapted into the Ryan Gosling movie from a year or two ago. You'll get more of Los Angeles, at an earlier time, and a different sort of police force.
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So far I haven't found anyone equivalent to Connelly. John Grisham comes close at times, but not exactly the same. I really like Lee Child and my favorite John Lescroart. Lescroart's Dismas Hardy is one of my favorite reoccurring book characters. Jan 30, , 4: Please read one or two more Bosch books. What I appreciate is how well Connelly has developed the character of this man while writing excellent plots. Even his name is integrated into his character development as well as being used as part of a story line.
I'm not a big fan of British thrillers. I find them too cumbersome if that makes sense to anyone. It's like writing 5 pages for what could have been covered in a paragraph. Also, my lack of understanding of the British system. Lescroat's Dismas Hardy books I enjoy and the Stone series is okay for me. I have to confess as an avid mystery reader I have never read a Raymond Chandler book. I know he's legendary but how does he compare with others. Oh and hello to everyone. I just stumbled upon this site and am so excited.
I live in Nova Scotia, a very eastern province in Canada. Hello 2ndof5, fellow Nova Scotian. I,too, enjoy Connelly's Bosch series. I read his Lincoln Lawyer series as well, but prefer Bosch. HI 2ndof5, I would give Ian Ranking a go. His character development is as good as Michael Connelly. I'm currently loving the audio version of John Sandford's "Prey" series, with Richard Ferrone as the reader.
Lucas Davenport, the police investigator, is an unusually sane and sober protagonist for a book about serial murder, etc. The only problem is there are so many Prey books that I have a difficult time keeping track of which ones I've read.
Thrillers in Disguise | CrimeReads
I have been working my way through K. They are among the most interesting crime novels I have ever read. But in the interests of throwing some other names into the mix: Amazon have just made a pilot show of Bosch! Currently available free to watch. I enjoyed it with some reservations.
- Apodos de los Reyes de España (Spanish Edition);
- Daniel Klein interview.
- A Borrowing of Bones.
But be warned if you haven't read City of Bones, the pilot doesn't finish! Hi to all - I'm a Michael Connelly-aholic too. I started reading his books last year and have just come to the end. He has been called by the Bangkok Post "Michael Connelly with white rice.
And as an added bonus - he "takes you there" - you feel like you have visited Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, etc. He has recently gone to publishing via eBooks only and since I don't have an eReader - I have not been able to read his latest novel. I have to do something about that. He's here - https: What follows is a story of friendship and courage, first-love and heartache, when Robbie and his friends go where they shouldn't go, and find much more than they bargained for.
Travel back to the '60s: As evil coils under the autumn sky, Robbie travels through the shifting prisms of his world, struggling to avert a looming cataclysm with the aid of his soul mate and an unlikely community of allies that includes the King of Rock 'n' Roll. His account of the summer of '64 when past and present, fate and destiny converge is the stuff of our worst nightmares and our fondest hopes. Paperback , pages. Published May 11th by Alchemy Press first published May 5th To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Aug 30, Connie rated it liked it Shelves: The author of this book gave it to my husband at work. It is very heavily nostaglic. If you spend a lot of time thinking about things were in the late 50's and early 60's when you were a kid, this is a book for you.
Thrillers in Disguise
If it wasn't for the very dark subject matter child abduction and murder , it would be a good teen novel -- but modern teens would not relate to the nostalgia. Sometimes it makes me feel a bit stateless, as my taste leads me to meander through the boundary lands between literary and genre fiction.
I set out to stake a place for my debut novel, The Captives , somewhere along that border. But I also found endless inspiration from authors who are never tagged as genre writers—and yet produce taut and nimble work that employs the best tricks of the thriller trade. Here are ten key novels that taught me key lessons — literary works written by stealthy masters of suspense.
The best thrillers start at full tilt. I want to be drawn in on the first page and addicted by the end of the first chapter. For writers wondering how to lure readers quickly into the narrative stream, Nguyen offers a stupendous model. Every crime writer should study this novel for its use of withheld information. In the opening paragraph, Morrison introduces her central mystery with a pair of bone-chilling details: A dead baby bobbing in the water on the first page? What inspires me most, though, is the way she constructs the fascinating milieu, weaving the results of her clearly meticulous research into the plot without ever slowing it down.