Who do you like? Who do you recommend? I’m talking just about the genre of thrillers and suspense. Horror and mystery are good too. Bonus points if an author has a book series that has a regular recurring character that appears in most books.
Some of my absolute favorites…well, I’ll get the usual ones out of the way first: I love Stephen King, obviously. And Dean Koontz just might be my favorite author of all time. Read most of what both of them have written, a lot of them twice, although I have not read a few of the more recent (I’m defining “recent” here to mean "anything written in the last five or six years) ones.
Other authors I REALLY enjoy are Michael Connelly…he’s very good; his Harry Bosch series. I’ve been reading them even way before the Hulu series “Bosch” came out. I also LOVE both Jeffery Deaver (every book by him is great. I don’t think he has ever written a bad book–especially his Lincoln Rhyme/Amelia Sachs series) and Harlan Coben (Myron Bolitar is great)…and I almost want Dan Brown to have my babies. I don’t care what people think of his stuff, I find it to be genius. Loved The Da Vinci Code. Loved Angels and Demons. Loved everything I’ve ever written by him. I also tend to like Sandra Brown books and, surprisingly, Mary Higgins Clark. Oh, and the best book series featuring a female protagonist? Stephanie Plum, by Janet Evanovich.
Then there are certain authors I’ve only read one or two books by, even though they have written many more, and thoroughly enjoyed them…and I just don’t know why I’ve never read anything else by them yet. I guess because I’m still trying to catch up on recent (again, “recent” being in the last five-eight years) stuff from all of the authors mentioned above…
…but some include Richard Laymon, Bentley Little, Iris Johansson, Tami Hoag, J.A. Jance, Sue Grafton, Greg Iles, and Ridley Pearson. I’ve only read one to maybe THREE books by these authors…but really enjoyed them. I want to someday return to Jance’s series about Johanna Brady and JP Beaumont, Grafton’s alphabet seires, and Pearson’s series that features many different recurring characters.
And then there’s a third category. A category of authors I started out liking, but eventually grew tired or bored with. The main two authors in this group are Jonathan Kellerman and James Patterson. I cannot stand either of them any more, so don’t bother suggesting anything by them. Another I usually think of for this group is John Saul, who I slowly came to realize is just a really shitty writer, IMO.
The fourth group are authors I already know I don’t like, at all. Authors that I’ve tried to get into their books, but I just can’t. I don’t like them. Something about them…just not enjoyable. Authors in this group include Patricia Cornwell, Rex Stout, Michael Crichton, Robin Cook, Tom Clancy, John Grisham, Phillip K Dick, Robert Ludlum, Lee Preston/Lee Childs… I also don’t like any authors/books that were written, say, before the 1980s…so sorry Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle.
I also know that Robert McCammon seems to be well liked and popular on these boards, but I’ve read one by him and didn’t like it. Same with Douglas Clegg. I’m willing to give these two authors another try, however, if I ever find other books by them…or if anyone has any recommendations.
I also tried the first book in Lilian Jackson Braun “The Cat Who…” series, but found it very lackluster. Do they get any better?
Oh, and I DO NOT like anything FANTASY OR SCI FI. Sorry…but if it has ANY elements of fantasy, I will not be interested. Don’t even bother with the Wheel of Time series or Game of Throne books or anything involving dragons or orcs. Ditto sci fi books. I do not like Arthur C Clarke or H.G Wells or Issac Asimov (they would automatically be a “not interested” in terms of date anyway (see: Not interested in any books written before 1980).
And finally, there’s still a whole slew of authors of these genres that I’ve heard of but still have never tried reading, yet. I’ve always been interested in reading a Kay Hooper book. Ditto John Sandford. And although Jonathan Kellerman is now on my “dislike” pile, I’ve always been intrigued to try one of Faye Kellerman’s books.
There also exists an entire, huge section/subset of mysteries that I think I’d love, made by many different people and in many different series and that usually have the name “COZY MYSTERY”. Any good “Cozy Mystery” series suggestions? I tend to find these cute, because they usually feature a mystery solver in a certain field of work (like a baker or travel agent) and that have “cutesy” titles that reflect their line of work, like “Recipe for Murder” or “Burnt Cookies”…or “Long Walk Off a Short Pier” or “Horrifying Honeymoon”.
So what are some of your favorite authors and books of these types? Anyone fly through, say, the Lincoln Rhyme books as fast as me?
And what would you suggest based on what you see I like already (and what I don’t like)?
