I'm setting up an e-reader for someone as a Christmas present. It's really up in the air whether this person will use it or not, though it'd be good if she did, so we're trying to have it as ready-to-go as possible. So we're going to pre-load it with some e-books of the kind she likes. I know about gift cards and such, but we still want a few on there to begin with because otherwise she may never bother even using the gift card. The problem is, I have no idea which books to get her!
She's a voracious reader and recently has stuck mostly to mysteries, thrillers and crime books, mainly of the mass market variety and often of the somewhat procedural variety I think.
She'll also read the occasional Stephen King or Dan Brown and love them, and sometimes a book such as The Lovely Bones or Memoirs of a Geisha; she also voraciously read the Harry Potter series, but for the vast majority of her reading now, it's the mass market procedural crime thriller types that she sticks to. She's particularly interested in Psychological Thrillers in theory, but I'm not sure how well that fits her favourite authors since I haven't read them. I also don't think she likes things too too gory or strange, but I don't really know. I think she definitely likes murders and crime and killers, and she's probably not a fan of "cozies" or ones with much comedy....I think she likes more serious ones.
I surreptitiously went through one of her bookshelves and currently reading stack the other day and jotted down the authors I saw the most. They include:
James Patterson
John Sandford
Jonathan Kellerman
Faye Kellerman
Jeffrey Deaver
Lisa Gardner
Lisa Unger
Janet Evanovich
Patricia Cornwall
Harlan Coben
J.A. Jance
Lee Child
Erica Spindler
Sandra Brown
So that should give you an idea of her likes. Of those, I'd say I saw Patterson, Kellerman, Deaver and Sandford the most, but I was only quickly looking at one bookcase where I think she's put many of her more recent reads. I think she read a lot of Grisham in the past as well, but apparently not recently as I didn't see any on the shelves I looked at.
I'm already definitely getting her the Girl With a Dragon Tattoo trilogy since she saw the first film and loved it and I know she hasn't read them. I'm also thinking of getting her the Hunger Games trilogy depending on what else I come up with. She may not like it, but she liked the first film and loved the Harry Potter books so I figure it's worth a try as I know it's something she hasn't read yet.
But I need more "in her zone" books. The problem is that she reads so much, and so much of the same, that I wouldn't chance getting her any e-books by the authors I listed. She'd probably already have read it. So what I'm looking for is recommendations of other authors similar to those authors that you'd recommend, and especially their best book or the book to start with since I'd probably only get her one book per author not knowing if she'll like it or not. Or if you know of any other really great mystery/thriller/crime books you think she may like but may not have read yet. And she's read a LOT in this genre, so the less likely she is to have read it the better.
