For the offbeat and complex, Christopher Fowler’s Bryant and May mysteries, set in London, with two old geezers in charge of the investigations, are terrific. Slow-paced, not thrillers. Here’s a link to his page of books on his site.
https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/christopher-fowler/1005086/
Really. Bryant and May for the offbeat, slow-paced, and detailed, Harry Dolan’s Bad Things Happened for elegant, spare prose, twists, and you can’t put it down until it ends.
I don’t think the Wikipedia page is accurate. I’m someone who’s read most of Peace, but has a bias towards reading things likes declared trilogies as a set, so I’ve been waiting for that third novel for some time. But this recent Guardian interview makes it clear that his new Patient X, to whose publication it’s tied, is not part of the trilogy.
Given that the UK reviews of Patient X - which, for that matter, doesn’t seem like a thriller - have been pretty lukewarm, I may skip it.
Thanks for the Guardian link Bonzer. I think there were a lot of us hanging around waiting for Peace to pull his finger out.
I bought Patient X a few days ago, and it was clear then it wasn’t part of the trilogy. Only a few dozen pages in but finding it the usual dense and obtuse Peace read. Enjoying it so far.
Along with some more experimental works, Kate Atkinson has written several novels featuring private eye Jackson Brodie. They’re barely mysteries at all, just really good literature (in my opinion anyway). Case Histories and When Will There be Good News? are a couple whose titles I can recall.
Lock In by John Scalzi is a lot of fun.
Guards! Guards! and other novels about the Discworld City Watch are also great, especially Night Watch.
I actually popped in to recommend this one. I’m not a big reader of mysteries but I had this one from Audible and it’s a good story. The audiobook isn’t great though - the reader is Pete Riegert (I think), and the characters blurred together and I often lost track of scene changes and character changes.
I just spent most of a wedding reception trading audiobook recommendations with another guest. We ended up zeroing in on the best narrators. Because nothing’s worse than trying to figure out who’s who.
One reader (the late great Frank Muller, I think) used to wallpaper the sound booth with hints and backstories on each character, so when King Charlie the First popped back into the story, he could instantly drop into his highness’s “Whitehall-by-way-of-Presbyterian-Scots” accent.
I’ve been known to search for audiobooks by readers’ names. The problem being that someone like Scott Brick is great (especially at “innocent protagonist caught up in intrigue”, like Brad Meltzer’s Zero Game), but has also read some drivel (well, okay, let’s be kind and call it “non-complex, non-smart fiction”, like Clive Cussler).
The work of Leonardo Sciascia (SHAH-shah) offers very good examples of smart detective fiction.
In particular The Wine-Dark Sea (translation of Il Mare Colore del Vino), Equal Danger (translation of Il Contesto), and To Each His Own (translation of A Ciascuno il Suo).
On that note: Barbara Rosenblat is excellent. I got into her Amelia Peabody series (mysteries set in Egypt from about 1880 to 1920) specifically because I spotted an audiobook that she had read while browsing at the library. She tends to do “chick-lit mysteries” but I think anyone would enjoy the Peabody series.
The narrator for the Outlander books is good as well (though they’re not mysteries). Neil Gaiman usually does his own narration (and he’s adequate), but Anansi Boys was done by Lenny Henry and Lenny really nailed it.
There’s a series called The Rivers of London, by Ben Aaronovitch (first book was released as Midnight Riot in the US, as Rivers of London in the UK) that is a quirky mystery series with an ongoing overarching mystery that they’re just unravelling in the last one I’ve read so far.
The premise: Peter Grant is a newly-minted police constable… who happens to have a bit of magical talent. This is spotted by the one member of the magical department in the Metropolitan Police Department, so he gets recruited and the two of them get all the weird cases. His mentor went to a private school for budding wizards (most of whom died in WW2), and gets peeved with Peter refers to the place as Hogwarts. Audible has a free short story in the series; the rest, I’ve ingested in dead tree (er, dead pixel) form.
I also recommend the 87th Precinct novels by Ed McBain, especially those featuring The Deaf Man. The first of those was called The Heckler.
How about Samurai Boogie, a book about an aging PI in Tokyo? Here’s the synopsis:
I like this one better than the first Mori book, Buddha Kiss.
The author is a British financial analyst who has lived in Japan for a couple of decades. I think Tasker’s filters processing Japanese culture helps me to understand things better and he certainly paints a gloriously riotous portrait with his prose.
The plots are complicated and convoluted; his books often have a financial aspect to them that ties in to the violence and skullduggery, although not always in obvious or clearly deliberate ways. And the characters are fantastic: despite only appearing in these 2 books, Kazuo Mori is one of my all-time favorite PIs. I doubt anyone could forget Angel, either.
Tony Hillerman’s series is great. It explores contemporary life on Indian reservations, bringing in teh relationships between Tribal Police and the FBI, traditional culture and customs, and interesting mysteries. It’s good series, best read in order, so you can see the characters develop over time.
Wow. When I read the OP I immediately thought of James Ellroy. I am currently in complete awe of you. That book is amazing.
Thanks much – I’m making quite the GOT To Read/Listen To This! list. And thanks to whoever recommended Barbra Rosenblat… looks like she reads all the Nevada Barr “Anna Pigeon” (National Park Ranger) books, as well as the Kathy Reichs “Bones” books!
Complex? Smart? Try The Athenian Murders by Jose Carlos Samoza.
From the Amazon description:
"
In ancient Athens, one of the pupils of Plato’s Academy is found dead. His idealistic teacher Diagoras is convinced the pupil’s death is not as accidental as it appears, and asks the famous Heracles Pontor to investigate…"
Ira Levin’s first book A Kiss Before Dying.
It does not get any better than that one.
I’m about a third of the way through Gnomon, I still have no clear idea of what I’m reading, and it’s one of the most compelling books I’ve read in a long time. Bring a thesaarus, though.
Since this thread has been bumped:
Is it…Mievilleian? I’ve read three of his novels if I’m remembering correctly and I think he’s a very good genre writer. But he’s also a misery-lover IME and all three endings have left me vaguely angry at Mieville. Doesn’t have to be a happy journey, but I’ve kinda grown to despise miserable endings. Even ambiguity is preferable.
I’ll second Ben Aaronovitch. Though it’s genre would be considered urban fantasy it also focuses heavily on police procedure. Kimstu, have you read Lies Sleeping yet?
I’d suggest Donna Leon’s, Inspector Brunetti series. Thoughtful, introspective, and a wonderful look into Venetian culture.
Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct mysteries are excellent.