I’ll just second Robert Crais, and Mosely, and Burke’s Dave Robicheaux novels. With Robicheaux and Mosley you get an almost anthropological sense of a particular culture and place which elevates them above so much else in the crime fiction genre.
Two I didn’t see mentioned are T. Jefferson Parker’s Charlie Hood series, and Hillerman’s Leaphorn/Chee series (someone must have mentioned it upthread, and I missed it, right?) Come to think of it, the desert in the Hood series, and the Navaho culture in the Hillerman books, and I see I have a theme going.
Not a lot of love for Mike Hammer, I see. That’s okay, I’ve never read any Spillane.
As a teenager, I did find myself reading a few of Dame Christie’s tales, and they always tended to leave me feeling dissatisfied. Something about them always struck me as formulaic, and I never found her execution to be quite up to snuff.
Then I joined the Navy. On my first WestPac, I found a slim volume in the ship’s library titled Death of a Fool. Finally! I had found a detective who could execute the formula that Miss Marple and the fat Belgian with his little grey cells consistently flubbed!
Chief Inspector Detective Roderick Alleyn is the MAN! And Ngaio Marsh was the woman that Agatha person needed to emulate.
On this side of the pond, of course, Archie Goodwin was the man Ellery Queen wished he could be.
I can only recall one Lance Parkertip story in all of Martin’s books. I can’t find an onlne listing.
Captain Klutz, on the other hand, appears in 20 stories (many of which are in two books exclusively devoted to Captain Klutz):
Cal:
It wasn’t easy to find, but there are at least three stories featuring Lance.
“Lance Parkertip, Noted Notary Public”
“Lance Parkertip, and his new canine companion, Hercules the semi wonder dog in The Case That Nobody Cared About”
“Lance Parkertip, the Case that Everyone knew the solution to”
There may be more,
While Captain Klutz does show up more than Lance, let’s face it. Captain Klutz was kind of inept. He was too dependent on his superpowers whereas Lance was more like Batman depending on his skills and intelligence along with the awesome technology of his notary stamp.
A strong second for Ngaio Marsh and Roderick Alleyn. Excellent Golden Age who-dun-its, way better written than Agatha Christie without the literary pretensions of Dorothy L Sayers and Lord Peter Wimsey. Actually I really enjoy DLS but there are only a dozen or so of them and the last few are very wordy.
Also another vote for Lindsey Davis and the Falco books in Ancient Rome. I stuck with them right the way through although there was a bad patch in the middle when I suspect she got board of her characters.
Another historical detective I always read was Ellis Peter’s Brother Cadfeal. Always good yarns.
A bit dated now but another excellent set of Cold War spy stories are Anthony Price’s David Audley books. In fact each book has a different main protagonist but they are linked by Dr David Audley, an intellectual officer in an obscure department of British counter-intelligence.
Interesting! I am the exact opposite of this, I’m drawn into the Audley/Maturin books and have read and reread them while I have struggled to plough through the, I think, three Hornblower books I have tried.
I find the character of Jack Aubrey so much more likeable than Hornblower. Jack likes to drink, wench, play music, and have a laugh. Hornblower likes to sit morose and think about things, self criticise and torment. Jack loves and appreciates his friends, Hornblower doesn’t, he treats Bush, as someone to be tolerated if not mistreated…
If you haven’t already, you might want to try the Captain Lewrie books, by Dewey Lamdin. Sounds like you would enjoy them.
I forgot if anyone’s mentioned this series of mysteries Hugh de Singleton, a surgeon in 14th century England by Melvin Starr. I like them even better than Cadfael.
Didn’t Peters’s Brother Cadfael books pretty well start the genre of medieval mystery / detective stories – footsteps in which many authors have followed? For a long time, I loved the Cadfael novels and eagerly read each new one; ultimately, though, I felt them to be becoming rather formulaic and “samey” – probably inevitable for any very long series about the same characters. It got a little wearisome how seemingly in every book without fail, there are a pair of young lovers on whose behalf Cadfael plays Cupid in some way or shape. Always boy-and-girl – although Cadfael is remarkably broad-minded and enlightened by 12th-century standards; one can’t easily see him approving of, and abetting, a same-sex relationship.
I much enjoyed all of these that I’ve read. Found particularly appealing and interesting, the interplay between Audley and his close colleague, appearing in most of the books, Colonel Jack Butler. The two make a kind of “odd couple”, being “chalk and cheese” personality-wise and in most other ways – not least, because of Butler’s being a military man while Audley is not. Plus Butler is from a working-class background, and attended a non-prestigious university: he often has a chip-on-shoulder / inferiority-complex response vis-a-vis the patrician, cultured Audley. Though the two men respect each other’s abilities in their work, their relationship is often awkward and strained.
Roland the Gunslinger from the Dark Tower series. I could never hope to be him, but I’ve always wondered if I would have had a place anywhere in the Dark Tower series.
Then again, I know I’m kidding myself. Honestly, do you have Any Idea just how much you’d have to Piss Off Stephen King to end up in ANY of his books?
(…my money is on “F-cking Plenty”)
The Smoky Barret series by Cody McFadyen.
Got turned on to main character, Barret in first book, The Shadow Man. Great dialogue, good thrills. Now I have to read the fourth book in the series.
I’m also a big fan of Robert H. van Gulik’s Judge Dee novels, and Fredric Brown’s stories of nephew-and-uncle detectives Ed and Am Hunter starting with his first novel, the Fabulous Clipjoint.
This is kind of a niche one, but I read a pony book called Fly-By-Night as a kid, and thoroughly enjoyed it as one of the rare well-written examples of its genre I’d come across. Recently I saw that there was a sequel, The Team, set a year later, which I gobbled up. A little Wikipedia perusing led me to another THREE books about the same protagonist, well, two of the three - the first in this offshoot series is introducing the love interest (squee!) and the original girl doesn’t feature at all. I’m just starting the second book, and am so excited to see what happens next…
Probably Robert B. Parker’s Spenser novels, with the qualification that everything after Small Vices was a fever dream. Except Cold Service, though that is really a Hawk novel Spenser happens to narrate.
Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus series.
Stuart Macbride’s Logan McRae books.
Val McDermid’s Tony Hill/Carol Jordan novels.
I’ll add to the love for the Dortmunder, Parker, Bosch, Harry Hole and Lucas Davenport books as well.
How did I forget the Lovejoy series, made into a very good TV series with Ian McShane as Lovejoy?
Another vote for Mr. Sharpe and his adventures. They even made a number of them into tv shows. They were good, but they would have been fantastic with a much larger budget, maybe even a movie.
Cornwell is a great writer with an immense knowledge of history.
On the children’s side, who better than Beverly Cleary’s Ramona, who moved from being Beezus’s little sister to a star?