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DMB · 01-25-2011, 06:58 AM

I second all the recommendations of Michael Connelly. I only discovered him fairly recently and am slowly reading my way through.

Dick Francis is interesting. I enjoy his books but truth be told he seems to write the same book again and again. Although his heroes are nominally different, I find it quite hard to tell one from another. They always give a first-person narrative, they are always decent people who end up being forgiving to twerps and they always seem to suffer a lot of physical torture at the hands of totally despicable villains. Really good escapist stuff!

I enjoy the classic crime queens of the period before and immediately after WW2, but Agatha Christie the least. IMO Dorothy Sayers is by far the best. For anyone who likes her, there is a nice little collection of DVDs of the stories featuring Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane: Strong Poison, Have his Carcase and Gaudy Night, which were beautifully made in the 1980s starring Edward Petherbridge and Harriet Walter.

I think Kathy Reichs writes very well but I was very disappointed with the TV adaptations. Stick to the books!

I would thoroughly recommend Mark Billingham. If you can stomach Val McDermid's books then you won't mind his being a bit gruesome. But he is a wonderful writer. I assume that his other job as a stand-up comic has made him very observant. I like his books as much as anything for their sharp observation of contemporary society. There was a recent attempt to dramatise some of his books for TV. I saw a bit and was disappointed.

Another writer I discovered recently is John Connor. Some of his books have a rather unusual female detective, Karen Sharpe. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find one of his books in eformat, and that is ePub. I hope they'll turn up for the Kindle soon.

01-25-2011, 06:58 AM	#184
DMB Old Git Posts: 958 Karma: 1840790 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Switzerland (mostly) Device: Two kindle PWs wifi, kindle fire, iPad3 wifi	I second all the recommendations of Michael Connelly. I only discovered him fairly recently and am slowly reading my way through. Dick Francis is interesting. I enjoy his books but truth be told he seems to write the same book again and again. Although his heroes are nominally different, I find it quite hard to tell one from another. They always give a first-person narrative, they are always decent people who end up being forgiving to twerps and they always seem to suffer a lot of physical torture at the hands of totally despicable villains. Really good escapist stuff! I enjoy the classic crime queens of the period before and immediately after WW2, but Agatha Christie the least. IMO Dorothy Sayers is by far the best. For anyone who likes her, there is a nice little collection of DVDs of the stories featuring Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane: Strong Poison, Have his Carcase and Gaudy Night, which were beautifully made in the 1980s starring Edward Petherbridge and Harriet Walter. I think Kathy Reichs writes very well but I was very disappointed with the TV adaptations. Stick to the books! I would thoroughly recommend Mark Billingham. If you can stomach Val McDermid's books then you won't mind his being a bit gruesome. But he is a wonderful writer. I assume that his other job as a stand-up comic has made him very observant. I like his books as much as anything for their sharp observation of contemporary society. There was a recent attempt to dramatise some of his books for TV. I saw a bit and was disappointed. Another writer I discovered recently is John Connor. Some of his books have a rather unusual female detective, Karen Sharpe. Unfortunately, I have only been able to find one of his books in eformat, and that is ePub. I hope they'll turn up for the Kindle soon.