# Let's talk fiction novels, mostly horror, thriller, mystery, and suspense recommendations. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 17, 2017, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616 "2017-04-17T11:20:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/1 "2017-04-17T11:20:34Z")
I like: 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 ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/2 "2017-04-17T14:10:50Z")
One of the best novels (isn’t “fiction novels” redundant?) I’ve read recently is Robert McCammon’s [Boy’s Life](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11553.Boy_s_Life?ac=1). 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). ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/3 "2017-04-17T17:58:54Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > One of the best novels (isn’t “fiction novels” redundant?) I’ve read recently is Robert McCammon’s [Boy’s Life](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11553.Boy_s_Life?ac=1). 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. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/4 "2017-04-18T00:03:20Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > One of the best novels (isn’t “fiction novels” redundant?) I’ve read recently is Robert McCammon’s [Boy’s Life](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11553.Boy_s_Life?ac=1). 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 first read it when I was 15. It’s my second favorite book of all time. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/5 "2017-04-18T00:48:56Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/6 "2017-04-18T00:52:52Z")
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. > **[Hawksmoor (novel)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawksmoor_(novel))** > > Hawksmoor is a 1985 novel by English writer Peter Ackroyd. It won Best Novel at the 1985 Whitbread Awards and the Guardian Fiction Prize. It tells the parallel stories of Nicholas Dyer, who builds seven churches in 18th-century London for which he needs human sacrifices, and Nicholas Hawksmoor, detective in the 1980s, who investigates murders committed in the same churches. Hawksmoor has been praised as Peter Ackroyd's best novel and an example of postmodernism. > In the early 18th century, arc... ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/7 "2017-04-18T00:55:44Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > 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. 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._ ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/8 "2017-04-18T13:15:04Z")
I’d recommend Thomas Perry’s Jane Whitefield series. [Search results for "jane whitefield" (showing 1-13 of 13 books)](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=jane+whitefield) ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/9 "2017-04-18T16:02:29Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/10 "2017-04-18T16:08:33Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > 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 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. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/11 "2017-04-18T16:13:07Z")
If you love Stephen King, then you may have already read The Dead Zone. If you haven’t maybe give that one a try. (No specific reason…:D) ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/12 "2017-04-18T16:44:14Z")
> [@Kropotkin](#): > > 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.** ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/13 "2017-04-18T18:10:28Z")
You cannot go wrong with Ed McBain, who created the modern detective novel. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/14 "2017-04-18T19:19:58Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > You cannot go wrong with Ed McBain, who created the modern detective novel. Let’s say “…who created the modern police procedural novel.” Evan Hunter (aka Ed McBain) had the healthiest ego I’ve ever met, but even he wouldn’t have claimed credit for the modern detective novel. Disclaimer: I was his editor for eight of his novels back in the 1990s. Also on Ross Thomas’s last five novels. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/15 "2017-04-18T23:29:24Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/16 "2017-04-18T23:51:50Z")
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” ---
**Author:** ![diggerwam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/919ad9/32.png) [@diggerwam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diggerwam)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/17 "2017-04-19T00:23:45Z")
Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff - don’t read too much about it before you start, but it’s great. Best book I’ve read in quite a while. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/18 "2017-04-19T12:03:56Z")
> [@diggerwam](#): > > Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff - don’t read too much about it before you start, but it’s great. Best book I’ve read in quite a while. I read “Bad Monkey” by Matt Ruff, can’t remember anything about it, but I have it marked as below average. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/19 "2017-04-19T13:27:04Z")
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.” ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/20 "2017-04-19T15:51:45Z")
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. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616.md?page=2)