John Saul
Sue Grafton
Ridley Pearson
Iris Johansen
Greg Iles
Tami Hoag
Jonathan Kellerman
Bentley Little
I REALLY like:
Richard Laymon
J.A. Jance
Sandra Brown
I LOVE:
Stephen King
Dean Koontz
Jeffery Deaver
Michael Connelly
Harlan Coben
Dan Brown
I like off and on:
James Patterson
I DO NOT like:
Patricia Cornwell
Rex Stout
David Baldacci
John Grisham
Tom Clancy
Robert Ludlum
Phillip K Dick
Agatha Christie
John Sandford
Robin Cook
Michael Crichton
That’s pretty much the extent of my reading so far, though. I’m still making my way through many of these authors books and playing catch up.
Based on those I have listed here, though, are there any author recommendations you’d make?
What are some of your favorite fictional writers of horror/thriller/mystery/suspense?
What books of that nature are you reading now?
I’m reading three at the moment:
Relentless by Dean Koonz The Black Echo by Michael Connelly (this is a reread, I plan to reread all of the Harry Bosch series again up to the last one I read, which was Echo Park, and then continue on with all of the ones that have come out since then)
and Hold Tight, by Harlan Coben
One of the best novels (isn’t “fiction novels” redundant?) I’ve read recently is Robert McCammon’s Boy’s Life. It’s my first by that author, but it won’t be my last. That particular book has elements of horror, thriller, mystery, and suspense, but it doesn’t fall squarely into any of those categories. It reminded me of sort of a cross between The Body by Stephen King, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (who is specifically named as an influence in the book).
I read a number of his books when I was in high school. I remember liking them, but that was 20+ years ago. I’ve thought about picking some of the newer ones up, but I can’t remember what I’ve read.
I liked F Paul Wilson, it’s not great writing, but it’s entertaining. I also liked Clive Barker books.
Have you read any Elmore Leonard? He was the most respected crime writer around until his death a couple of years ago. No one wrote dialogue like Leonard - Quentin Tarantino owes his dialogue to Leonard.
Start with an early one like 52 Pickup, or one of his late-era bestsellers like Get Shorty.
Peter Ackroyd’s Hawksmoor (1985) falls into all four of those categories. Plus it won a shit-town of awards and is often cited on various “best-of” lists. Plus you learn a lot of really cool London history.
If you like Elmore Leonard, you’ll LOVE crime author Ross Thomas, who never reached Leonard’s popularity level for some reason, but is one of those poor bastards known as a “writer’s writer.”
Recommended: The Money Harvest and Chinaman’s Chance.
I was advised to read Richard Laymon once, read The Cellar, and I’m not inclined to read anything else of his. The first, oh, three-fourths or so were great. The final fourth was an absolute dogshit explanation for everything.
I do, however, like Jack Ketchum a lot. I’d recommend the line of Off Season - Offspring - The Woman, for a start. The Girl Next Door, which is based on the Sylvia Likens case, is intense and, because it’s based on a real case, so damn heart-breaking.
I second this emotion, though would happily haggle for months over which of Thomas’s novels are the best. I’ve long despaired Thomas’s departure and have never found another writer who can do what he did.
Some of the early ones are very good – The Fools in Town are On Our Side and The Porkchoppers, which has one of my favorite opening chapters (hiring the hit man through a series of letters passed through various contacts in various cities).
I think Thomas really hit his stride around 1975, with The Money Harvest. After that, you really can’t go wrong with any of his novels. He did win the Edgar Award in 1985, for Briarpatch.
I personally love the Artie Wu/Quincey Durant books: **Chinaman’s Chance, Out on the Rim,**and Voodoo, Ltd.
I mentioned this in one of the Whatcha Readin’ threads, and I still recommend them: The Slough House novels by Mick Herron. Combination of spy and mystery genre, but also character-driven to some extent, it is about a group of agents who have been assigned to Slough House in disgrace, with supposedly nothing but makework to do, so that they will leave voluntarily instead of being fired for whatever they did wrong. Things happen to them anyway. There’s only four or five of these, but I think he is still writing them, so future goodies to look forward to.
I also recommend the Quirke novels by Benjamin Black. Set in Dublin in the 50’s. Quirke is a surly alcoholic pathologist who gets involved in solving murders kind of in spite of himself, while also trying to untangle his relationships from the mess he has made of them. The arc of his character’s development over the course of several novels is very well done. These are very well written over all anyway, perhaps because Benjamin Black is really John Banville, who I recommend if you are ever interested in non-genre novels.
Of the 300 novels I’ve read in the past ten years, these might be the ten best, but if I made the list on another day, some of them might have been something else. Maybe I’ll do another list in a few days.: (Alpha by author)
Thomas Cobb “Shavetail”
Elizabeth Gilbert, “The Signature of All Things”
Shirley Hazzard “The Transit of Venus”
Seth Kantner “Ordinary Wolves”
Stieg Larsson “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” et.seq.
Cormac McCarthy “Blood Meridian”
Michael Ondaatje, “In the Skin of a Lion”
Bernhard Schlink “The Reader”.
B. Traven “The Death Ship”
Abraham Verghese, “Cutting for Stone”
John Burdett’s Sonchai Jitpleecheep, Thai Buddhist detective, novels are great. Bangkok Haunts begins: “Few crimes make us fear for the evolution of our species. I am watching one right now.”
If you like offbeat detective mysteries from distant lands, try James Church’s “A Corpse in the Koryo”. Takes place in North Korea (with no biased political overtones), and the author’s actual identity is unknown, but he is believed to be a figure from the diplomatic corps with an intimate knowledge of North Korea.
