I typically borrow e-books on my Kindle from my local library system (using Overdrive.) I am currently out of available titles from my list of “go to” authors. I’m looking for suggestions of new people to try. I tend to like a series with the same character(s) but one-offs are fine too. Here is a list of some of the authors I enjoy. I have looked at the “If you like so-and-so, you might like…” websites with limits success and I figure Dopers are a better resource… Thanks!
Baldacci, David
Berry, Steve
Britton, Andrew
Burke, James Lee
Child, Lee
Coben, Harlan
Connelly, Michael
Crais, Robert
Deaver, Jeffrey
Evanovich, Janet
Flynn, Vince
Griffin, W.E.B.
Hall, James W.
Hamill, Pete
Land, Jon
Lehane, Dennis
Leonard, Elmore
Lutz, John
Martini, Steve
McMurtry, Larry
Parker, Robert
Pelicanos, George
Preston/Child
Rollins, James
Sandford, John
Silva, Daniel
Stone, David
Thor, Brad
Perhaps you should share what genres you’re interested in?
Readers may not be familiar with this list of names, and be unwilling to Google each to see what genre they represent. Or if they’re all one genre, or several different genres!
Those are all Crime fiction / Thriller writers, elbows.
SY, have you read Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins series, starting with Devil in a Blue Dress? Or Chester Himes’ books from the '50’s and '60’s starting with Cotten Comes to Harlem? Good stuff.
Read any Dashiell Hammet or Raymond Chandler? Read the folks who defined the genre?
How about historical crime fiction? The Alienist by Caleb Carr is a serial killer thriller set in 1896 Manhattan. Or The Name of the Rose, set in a medieval monastery.
Thanks, WordMan. I have read some of Mosley’s stuff awhile ago. I can catch up on those. Never read Himes. I’ve read everything by Chandler, and oddly, nothing by Hammett, although at the moment I’m more interested in more modern stuff (I just started reading some James Ellroy and could not get into the period.) I did love The Alienist, and the sequel when they came out.
I have not read that one yet. Would you recommend it? I have read some of the post-Parker Spenser/Stone novels and while they were readable I definitely noticed the difference.
That’s a good point, thanks. As Wordman noted, these are mostly in the crime fiction genre although there is some spy stuff and even some western in there. I definitely like books with some historical context to them. The Steve Berry/Jon Land style of mixing action and history/mythology.
It was a slight step down from Flynn’s writings, but still readable. There wasn’t very much interaction between Rapp & other CIA people. I really enjoyed the Stan Hurley character, and now that he’s gone there’s a hole there. Rapp’s interactions w/ Kennedy also seemed a bit rushed as well. Mills also seemed to use hardly any humor, whereas Flynn seemed to sprinkle it here & there (Nash was a good source of humor, but I don’t recall any humorous interactions with him).
I think Mills did a pretty good job w/ recreating Rapp, but he needs some improvement in writing the other characters.
I suggest Clinton McKinzie, starting with The Edge of Justice. I feel good about this suggestion.
You might try CJ Box, starting with Open Season. I’m a little more tentative here.
ETA: Based on liking the context and mythology, have you tried Tony Hillerman?
When I started reading down your list, the first author I thought of was Robert B. Parker. Then I saw you had him listed, so next I thought of John D. MacDonald, since Parker’s Spenser somehow reminds me of Travis McGee in ways. He’s not a new author, though…
Maybe also Carl Hiaasen? I haven’t read a lot of his, but what I have read I’ve found entertaining, and he seems like he wouldn’t be out of place on your list.
Lawrence Block’s books about Matt Scudder might fit into your buckets, here; though these novels are perhaps a bit more “literary” (for want of a better term) than some of the authors you’ve mentioned, and maybe a little more character-driven as well. The books are often quite dark. Scudder is a sort-of private investigator, an ex-policeman in Manhattan; I think the books are extremely good and might well be something you’d appreciate.
ETA: Though the books are roughly chronological and things change in Scudder’s life from one novel to the next, don’t start at the very beginning if you find the books intriguing; it took Block 5-6 books to find his stride.
If you like books with historical context Southern Yankee, Pat Barker is well worth a go. The Regeneration trilogy (Regeneration, The Eye in the Door, The Ghost Road) are based in part on the work of poets in the trenches and the notes of an army doctor during WWI. Brilliant, brilliant writing that takes you into an horrendous world that would be unimaginable but for the fact that people lived it.
Philip K. Dick for your history and mythology mix - The Man in the High Castle where the Axis powers actually win WWII. Seems it’s been made into a series (I haven’t seen it - maybe ‘yet’, maybe not) but the book’s great.
For crime, has anyone mentioned James Ellroy? The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere.