Who are your FAVORITE SLEUTHS?

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Luffy

I'll mention Ellery Queen. Two of his books (from the 10 I've read) are better than almost any mystery books that I've read in my entire life. They are The Greek Coffin Mystery and The Egyptian Cross Mystery.

I think Stephanie Plum's humor is limited to native or fluent English speakers. The funniest sleuths for me are tied between John Corey(author, Nelson Demille) and Jaine Austen (author, Laura Levine). One example of humor from the John Corey series is in Plum Island...one suspect, a wine maker, is waxing lyrical about Bacchus, then Corey chimes in "also a hell of a composer." "That's Bach." Very funny.

Have you read his "The Roman Hat Mystery" Luffy? It's the 1st of the Ellery Queen novels. I picked up a copy in (orange) hard cover many yrs ago at a garage sale and enjoyed it.

[Apache]

Nero Wolf. No one does it like The Fat Man.
Apache

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by crich70

Have you read his "The Roman Hat Mystery" Luffy? It's the 1st of the Ellery Queen novels. I picked up a copy in (orange) hard cover many yrs ago at a garage sale and enjoyed it.

I have indeed read it. Roman Hat, I thought deserved the 4 stars I gave it. The one I really dislike is The American Gun Mystery.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Luffy

...I think Stephanie Plum's humor is limited to native or fluent English speakers....

Right now I have Janet Evanovich's One for the Money in audiobook format on my iPod. I bought it for my wife and I to listen to in segments when we travel back and forth to my daughter's house. Some of the lines Evanovich writes has me laughing out loud, but my wife has yet to show a reaction to anything in the book. The only other Stephanie Plum novel I had read before that one was Plum Spooky, which started out with a monkey being left on her doorstep. I think I'm gradually being drawn into the series, but my wife and I need to travel together more so I can finish this one.

[Luffy]

One for the Money is the one that I read, and I didn't read book 2. Didn't laugh. For now there are other books - and series - higher up on my priorities list.

[PeterT]

Currently reading (and loving) the Agatha Raisin books, and also really enjoy the Bryant and May series (just borrowed the newest one from the library).

[Mims]

Those who like M.C. Beaton's Constable MacBeth, might also like Rhys Bowen's Constable Evan Evans books set in Wales.

Claudia

[cromag]

WRT Stephanie Plum, I will admit to having read several of them. I liked them, especially the earlier ones in the series. Aside from having the advantage of being a native (American-) English speaker, I have the advantage(?) of being a short drive from many of the neighborhoods in her storyline.

I did a quick scan of the last few pages in this thread and didn't find my personal favorite: Judge Dee, of Robert van Gulik's stories. I'd describe them as "light" mysteries, and the setting of Tang Dynasty China is a large part of the appeal (to me, at least). Many are available in ebook form, and I think they're couponable at Kobo.

Note: Since van Gulik's death several other authors have written "Judge Dee" stories. Some appear to be very poorly reviewed, so I'd stick to the original -- at least when you're getting started.


EDIT: Aha! Sparrow mentioned Judge Dee, but that was way at the beginning of the thread!

[crich70]

Another 'sleuth' that I enjoyed when I was young was Encyclopedia Brown. The mysteries were usually short and simple in construction but fun to try solving before Encyclopedia did.

[Lynx-lynx]

Dated: 21 Aug 2010

Originally Posted by tomereader

Here are the authors and sleuths to the last post:
Three posts, I could not find anything for the names submitted

========================

Who are your FAVORITE SLEUTHS?

Robert B. Parker: Jesse Stone, Sunny Randall, and Spenser
Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch
Travis McGee by John D. MacDonald
Stephanie Plum by Janet Evanovich
Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta
Jeffery Deavers' 'Lincoln Rhyme,'
John Sandford's 'Lucas Davenport,'
Ian Rankin's 'Inspector Rebus.'
Faye Kellerman's wonderful pair, 'Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus.'
Philip Marlowe, The Continental Op by Raymond Chandler
Sam Spade by Dashiell Hammett
Montalbano, the main character of Andrea Camilleri
Nestor Burma by Léo Malet
Nick Charles (from "the thin man" by Dashiell Hammett),
Inspector Maigret by Georges Simenon
Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple
Lord Peter Wimsey by Dorothy L. Sayers
Dr. Gideon Fell by John Dickson Carr
Philo Vance by S. S. Van Dine (the pen name of Willard Huntington Wright)
Dr. Thorndyke by R. Austin Freeman
M. Wens by S.A. Steeman,
Donald Lam by A. A. Fair (Erle Stanley Gardner)
Erle Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason
Fred Vargas' Inspector Adamsberg
Inspector Morse by Colin Dexter
Thursday Next by Jasper Fforde
Toby Peters (by Stuart Kaminsky)
Inspector Thomas Lynley by Elizabeth George
Napoleon "Boney” Bonaparte by Arthur Upfield,
Ian Rankin‘s Inspector Rebus
Lincoln Perry and Joe Pritchard by Michael Koryta
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes
Sara Paretsky’s VI Warshawski
Dennis Lehane’s Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro
Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot
Dorothy Gilman's Mrs. Pollifax
Tommy & Tuppence by Agatha Christie
J. D. Robb's Eve Dallas
Kinky Friedman by Kinky Friedman
Anne Perry's 'Inspector Monk'
Michael Bond's 'Monsieur Pamplemousse' and his faithful bloodhound, Pommes Frites.
Cleo Coyle's Clare Cossi
Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone
Tee Morris’s Billibub Baddings
Jacques Futrelle’s Prof. Dr. Dr. Dr. S. F. X. Van Dusen a.k.a "The Thinking Machine".
Arsene Lupin series by Maurice LeBlanc
E. W. Hornung's Raffles series,
G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown
Ernest Bramah’s Max Carrados, the blind detective.
Anna Katharine Green’s Ebenezer Gryce, Violet Strange
Mary Roberts Rinehart’s Miss Cornelia Van Gorder, Letitia (Tish) Carberry, Hilda Adams
Wilkie Collins The Woman in White (Sensation Novels, precursor to detective and/or speculative fiction)
Jack Reacher from Lee Child
Joe Pike and Elvis Cole from Robert Crais
Tom Ripley from Patricia Highsmith
Jimmy Kudo/Conan Edogawa by Gosho Aoyama
Lt. Columbo various authors
Will Thomas’s Cyrus Barker and his assistant Thomas Llewelyn
Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander
Jim Butcher's 'The Dresden Files'
Nancy Drew Corolyn Keene (various authors)
Dirk Gently (Douglas Adams)
Robert Hans van Gulik - Judge Dee
H. R. F. Keating - Inspector Ghote
Nils-Olof Franzén's Agaton Sax
Amelia Peabody by Elizabeth Peters
Sir Henry Merrivale by Carter Dickson (John Dickson Carr)
Inspector Banks novels by Peter Robinson
Martin Amis' Night Train
THE CURIOUS CASEBOOK OF INSPECTOR HANSHICHI: Detective Stories of Old Edo, by Kido Okamoto, translated by Ian MacDonald
Brother Cadfael (by Ellis Peters)
Marcus Didius Falco (Lindsey Davis' Roman investigator)
Stephanie Barron's vision of Jane Austen as an amateur detective.
Inspector Lestrade stories by M. J. Trow
Donna Andrews' Meg Langslow (a blacksmith in Virginia),
Beverly Connor's Diane Fallon (Forensic Anthropologist & Director of Natural History Museum in Georgia) Lindsay Chamberlain (Forensic Archeologist in Georgia),
D.R. Meredith's Megan Clark (Librarian & forensic anthropologist in Texas)
Laura Childs' Theo Browning (Tea shop owner in Charlston, SC).
Decius Caecilius Metellus by John Maddox Roberts
Inspector Alleyn mysteries (Ngaio Marsh)
Ellis Peters' Inspector Felse (as an alternative to her Brother Cadfael)
Dalziel and Pascoe by Reginald Hill
DCI Barnaby's Midsomer books by Caroline Graham.
Inspector Wexford by Ruth Rendell
Elijah Bailey and R. Daneel Olivaw from IsaacAsimov's Caves of Steel
Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden
Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe
Ellery Queen (limiting this to the books in which Ellery is the sleuth)
Dick Francis Steeplechase mysteries
Ed Clive, only appeared once in the Leigh Brackett Novel 'No Good From A Corpse"
Lillian Jackson Braun's The Cat Who... series,
Rita Mae Brown's Mrs. Murphy books, Sister Jane
Holly Winter and her Alaskan Malamutes from Susan Conant's Dog Lover Mysteries
C.F. Wong and Joyce Mc Quinney from Nury Vittachi
Kommissar Kluftinger from Volker Klüpfel and Michael Kobr
Eliot Pattison's Inspector Shan
Harry Kemelman's books staring Rabbi David Small
Brian Freeman's Jonathan Stride series
Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake (erotic magic-oriented detective series of a sort)
J. A. Konrath's Jack Daniels series (see his blog for great commentary on ebooks/drm/etc)
Gregory McDonald's Fletch series.
Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child's Pendergast series.
The Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters.
Ridley Pearson's Boldt/Matthews series.
The No.1 Ladies series by Alexander McCall Smith
Hardy Boys Franklin W. Dixon (various authors)
Tom Swift/Tom Swift Jr. books by Victor Appleton
Pepe Carvalho by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán
Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg by Fred Vargas
Karen Rose’s Daniel Vartanian
Sara Woods's Antony Maitland
Lord Darcy by Randall Garrett
Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles series by Tess Gerritsen
Aurelio Zen (by Michael Dibden)
Arkady Renko (Michael Cruz Smith)
Martha Grimes' Richard Jury/Melrose Plant
Anne Perry's Thomas Pitt
Lawrence Sanders' Francis X. Delaney
Sonchai Jitpleecheep of the Royal Thai Police in a series of novels by John Burdett
Aurora Teagarden series by Charlaine Harris
Stone Barrington Stuart Woods
Leslie Glass' Detective April Woo
Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks
John Connolly's Charlie Parker
Andrew Vachss' Burke
Gervase Fen mysteries by Edmund Crispin
Lovejoy stories by Jonathan Gash
Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder.
Joe Picket from the CJ BOx Mystery Novels.
Eduardo Mendoza's schizophrenic detective - we never learn his name
Manuel Vasquez Montalban's Pepe Carvalho
Aloysius X. L. Pendergast (novels by Lincoln Child & Douglas Preston)
Easy Rawlins. Walter Mosley
James Patterson's Alex Cross
Dan Brown's Robert Langdon
Anna Pigeon by Nevada Barr
Flavia de Luce by Alan Bradley
Jeremiah Healey's ex MP John Cuddy
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1974) by Nicholas Meyer
A Study in Terror (1966) by Ellery Queen and Paul W. Fairman
Trixie Belden by Julie Campbell/Kathryn Kenny
Harry Hole the inspector from Jo Nesbo
Commissario Guido Brunetti from Donna Leon
Marshal Guarnaccia from the series by Magdalen Nabb
Icelandic Noir: Detective Erlendur from Arnaldur Indriðason's series.
American: Steve Carella from Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels.
Abe Lieberman from Stuart Kaminsky's Lieberman series
A.C. Baantjer "DeKok and the...”
Leo Waterman by G.M. Ford
D.D. Warren, a detective in Lisa Gardner'
Chance Purdue has to be the funniest PI on the planet (author: Ross H. Spencer).
Bernie Rhodenbarr (Lawrence Block's Burglar Who... series)
Anthony Boucher locked room mysteries.
Reginald Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe
Donna Andrews’ Turing Hopper series
Catherine Coulter's FBI thrillers
Liz Evans Grace Smith series

Nothing found on:
Rock Lobster
Elliot Finch
john wiiliam and sara.

Wow, this member did a great job collating all the books/authors mentioned for the first 8 pages of this thread.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by cromag

...I did a quick scan of the last few pages in this thread and didn't find my personal favorite: Judge Dee, of Robert van Gulik's stories. I'd describe them as "light" mysteries....

Ha! His interrogation methods could hardly be described as "light".

[rkomar]

Thanks to the collating, I see that Janwillem van de Wetering's pair of detectives Grijpstra and de Gier haven't been mentioned. Nor the same author's "Inspector Saito's Small Satori". I think they are good enough to be added to the list.

Oh, and also Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Armand Gamache.

I bet they were mentioned somewhere in this thread, and just missed being put on the list.

[GA Russell]

Originally Posted by crich70

Another 'sleuth' that I enjoyed when I was young was Encyclopedia Brown. The mysteries were usually short and simple in construction but fun to try solving before Encyclopedia did.

Encyclopedia Brown is on sale today! A box of four books is $2.00 + $3.99 shipping.

http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-B...+brown+box+set

[crich70]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

Encyclopedia Brown is on sale today! A box of four books is $2.00 + $3.99 shipping.

http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-B...+brown+box+set

He's also made the jump to ebook it seems.
Amazon US

[Lin2412]

I can only name Sherlock Homes and he's one of my favorite and most loved literary figures of all time. I haven't heard of the other sleuths mentioned here at all. The only sleuth I've grown up reading is Nancy Drew and I don't even think most people would consider her at all.