# 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:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**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 22, 2017, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/21 "2017-04-22T20:42:17Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > 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. May I touch your cape? ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2017, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/22 "2017-04-22T23:24:20Z")
For a lighter read, try the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovich. Murder, mystery, and magic. Think Dixon of Dock Green (or Morse) meets Harry Potter. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2017, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/23 "2017-04-22T23:50:09Z")
If you “love Stephen King”, you should at least like F. Paul Wilson very much. > **[F. Paul Wilson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._Paul_Wilson)** > > Francis Paul Wilson (born May 17, 1946, in Jersey City, New Jersey) is an American medical doctor and author of horror, adventure, medical thrillers, science fiction, and other genres of literary fiction. His books include the Repairman Jack novels—including Ground Zero, The Tomb, and Fatal Error—the Adversary cycle—including The Keep—and a young adult series featuring the teenage Jack. Wilson has won the Prometheus Award, the Bram Stoker Award, the Inkpot Award from the San Diego ComiCon, and ... Unlike a lot of authors, Wilson is a real genre-hopper. But his best work is probably the “Repairman Jack” series. Start with “The Tomb”. (The series is complete so you don’t have to worry about missing the end.) If you like, keep going. If not, well, he’s also done SF, Cook-like medical thrillers (Wilson is a practicing physician.) And a few others that don’t neatly fit particular categories. ---
**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 24, 2017, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/24 "2017-04-24T15:35:49Z")
Another author just occurred to me: Graham Masterton. Much like Stephen King, his books start really strong but frequently fall apart toward the end. I was only able to find a couple of his books back when I was searching for Kindle versions, so I don’t have a very broad command of his work. Still, I’d recommend **Ritual** , which is about as stomach-turning as it gets, until it reaches the rather ridiculous ending. **Plague** also started strong, looking like it would be as epic as **The Stand** , but then it seems like Masterton only had a couple of days to wrap it up or something, because the last third or so seems really rushed. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/25 "2017-04-24T15:41:38Z")
Lars Kepler: The Norwegiean Serial-Killer Type James Rollins: Less douche-y Dan Brown Boris Starling: Specifically **Messiah** , fantastic murder mystery novel ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/26 "2017-04-24T15:58:30Z")
If you can find a copy, check out “The List of Seven” by Mark Frost (the co-creator of “Twin Peaks” with David Lynch). It’s been a few years since I read it but I believe it checks off all the boxes specified by the OP. It’s a Victorian era mystery/thriller with a good chunk of horror mixed in. The protagonist is a pre-Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle working alongside a character who would obviously become his model for Holmes later on. ---
**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 24, 2017, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/27 "2017-04-24T16:45:51Z")
Tim Powers is awfully good in the realm of fantasy/suspense. He’s most famous for his first novel, **The Anubis Gates,** a time-travel literary story which I admire but which bugged me in several ways (the protagonists keep jumping into the Thames River in the 1820s like it’s a chlorinated swimming pool rather than an urban flow of literal shit and piss). His second book, **Last Call** , a contemporary novel of Tarot magic, chaos science, competitive poker, and T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land,” is flawless. Give it a go. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/28 "2017-04-24T17:17:23Z")
Trevanian The Eiger Sanction. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/29 "2017-04-25T08:06:06Z")
_ **My Horrific Horror Fic Picks:** _ **David J. Schow, Jack Ketchum** , and \*\*Richard Christian Matheson \*\* are all good for some excellent, icy short stories. **John Farris** has written several above-average horror novels, of which _All Heads Turn When The Hunt Goes By_ is by far the best and scariest. **John Shirley** is mostly famed as an SF writer, but he’s written some out-there horror, too; mainly in his short stories and the two short novels that make up _Demons_ _The Amulet_, _Cold Moon Over Babylon_, and _Katie_ are classic 1980s pulp-horror by **Michael McDowell**. The first two are set in the present-day Deep South, while _Katie_ is historical horror set in 1890s New York City. They’re all fun, bloody reads with creepy atmosphere, bone-crunching violence, and a sly malevolent humor. \*Falling Angel \*by \*\*William Hjortsberg \*\*, is even better than the movie based on it, _Angel Heart_. It slowly builds up to a clammy, queasy dread that’s hard to shake even after you’re through with it. And, of course, there’s anything by **Joe R. Lansdale**. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616/30 "2017-04-25T08:15:18Z")
**Elizabeth Engstrom** ’s _When Darkness Loves Us_ is two separate short novels, the title piece and _Beauty Is_. They’re a different kind of horror, both brutal and emotionally moving at the same time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-fiction-novels-mostly-horror-thriller-mystery-and-suspense-recommendations/784616.md?page=1)