Since you like Michael Chabon, you should read The Yiddish Policemen’s Union if you haven’t already.
I just want to point out that the average review for each of these on Amazon is under 3.5 stars, which is pretty low for items of massive popularity, and each has the uptick in one-star reviews which is characteristic of readers who bought on hype and were disappointed.
I agree with Dashiell Hammett, Rex Stout, or Dorothy Sayers. Almost anything they wrote is (a) well-written, (b) well-plotted, and © engrossing. Specifically to start, though, I’d suggest The Maltese Falcon as Hammett’s best, and The Doorbell Rang as a VERY gripping Nero Wolfe. For Sayers, anything, but Strong Poison is a good detective story to get into, The Nine Tailors is absolutely unique in detective fiction, and Gaudy Night is one of the deepest (most profound, with depth of meaning).
I might add Margery Allingham’s Tiger in the Smoke as an unusual but gripping story, well-written.
Lawrence Block’s When the Sacred Ginmill Closes meets your criteria.
I personally find Agatha Christie fun, and certainly some are well-plotted and gripping, but I don’t find the writing compelling. Murder on the Orient Express or The Murder of Roger Acroyd or The ABC Murders. Her plotting got more confusing after about 1965.
One modern British writer you might want to try: Robert Bernard.
And I agree that Sherlock Holmes and The Hound of the Baskervilles is hard to beat.
I quite liked Five Little Pigs, and Curtain is a weird masterpiece.
Seconded—I found this to be a really entertaining example of contemporary popular fiction.
All the Scudder books are worth reading, and there are only one or two that are not worth re-reading. His burglar books are also worth reading if you can stand humor in your mysteries.
Donald Westlake and Richard Stark.
P. D. James.
Dick Francis is light reading, but very enjoyable light reading.
Thanks for the replies, everyone. I am researching and considering every suggestions.
So far I’m definitely going to read When the Sacred Ginmill Closes and The Lincoln Lawyer.
mmm
I am a huge Boris Starling fan.
My absolute favorite of his is a book called Messiah, where there is a London serial killer who kills people with the names of the 12 disciples, in the way they were killed in real life (It’s not a religious book at all in case that turns you off).
There are some great twists and turns in it and the ending is SUPURB!
I just finished 'When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro. Like his other works, it moves like molasses, but when I got to the end, I was left contemplating rhe whole story and the outcome for the protagonist.
Anything by Qui Xiaolong gives insight into Shanghai as it changes to a market economy, the cost of the 'Cultural Revolution, and some excellent Chinese poems,
Every so often someone asks this question and I always have to suggest Rennie Airth and his novels about Inspector John Madden.
River of Darkness is the first of three books and probably the best.
Most of my favorites have been mentioned–I will second Dorothy Sayers and van Gulik–but I will add Sarah Caudwell. Her first novel is Thus Was Adonis Murdered. They are tons of fun.
Changeling is a ghost story starring George C. Scott but it features some top notch detective work. Scott plays a character trying to figure out why the temporary home he has moved into is haunted and follows a lot of clues to figure it out. Pretty good movie but it’s a product of the 1970s and the pacing isn’t the same as more recent movies.
I’m not a big reader of mysteries, but I’ve enjoyed a couple of series for both the sleuthing and the setting: Medieval England. Both have great characters, and use a semi-cloistered smart person as their detective.
The first is the excellent Brother Cadfael books by Ellis Peters.
The second is the Sister Frevisse books by Margaret Fraser.
I like him very much, but there is one thing that puts him a little on the minus side. His books are set in many different environments, not necessarily horse racing as such, and whenever he has written about something I know anything about I can sense that his knowledge on the subject is very shallow. He has studied it enough to be able to throw some terms around, but, then again, I guess it’s OK if the reader knows next to nothing about it.
I can also recommend Ian Rankin.
Scandanavian excellence:
Series of novels by Maj Sjovall & Per Walhoo (sorry, don’t know how to add the proper diacriticals)
Series by Henning Mankell (Wallender now on PBS!)
Peter Hoeg - “Smilla’s Sense of Snow”
Van deWettering - Gripstra & DeGier Series (kinda quirky)
Donald Westlake had a prodigious but uneven output. Writing as Richard Stark, he produced by far his best work. As I’m sure Frank knows, Stark’s original Parker series, written from the late fifties to early seventies, aren’t really mysteries – they’re crime novels, featuring a highly amoral thief named Parker. Parker isn’t cute. Parker isn’t a thief with a heart of gold. He doesn’t cook or read poetry. Parker steals money, and if you get in his way, he kills you. End of story. It’s the tightest, leanest series of crime novels ever produced, each one clocking in at about 160 pages, except for the final one, Butcher’s Moon, which went over 300. Westlake/Stark took up the Parker cudgel again in the late 90s and produced about 7 more novels, but they weren’t as good as the original ones. For one thing, in the new series, Parker works with frills! C’mon! That’s not the Parker I knew and loved.
Anyway, Westlake passed away a couple years ago, so his output has ended. I also liked some of the novels he wrote under his own name, including The Axe, a chilling tale of how one desperate man gets his dream job.
I’m also a big P. D. James fan, and John Le Carré.
Don’t know if anyone has mentioned Robert Goddard. He’s often overlooked in these threads. I particularly liked *Borrowed Time *and In Pale Battalions, though neither one is usually held up as a shining example of his work. Some of his other novels get a tad cutsie for me – such as Sea Change.
The grand-daddy of mystery books, is, however, The Chronicle of Battle Abbey. It’s an actual historical document composed over the course of 300 years by monks in Battle Abbey scheming to avoid paying taxes to any lord. They get away with it for a few centuries, but ultimately, the king’s court rules against them in a climactic finish that’ll have you gripping the edge of your straw chair and raising your tankard of ale to your lips in a stupor.
Anyway, Méchant Monsieur Moutarde, I loved The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, so take my suggestions at your own risk.
I love Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe books. However, I’ve read some of his stories that don’t feature Archie and Nero, and I found them to be distinctly mediocre.
You have to read Bimbos of the Death Sun by Sharon MacCrumb, if you can find it, especially if you are an SF fan. It’s dated, but it’s still good.
I loved the Dream Park series by Larry Niven, but you’ll find them in the SF section, as Niven is primarily an SF writer who uses mysteries and puzzles in his stories. I’m re-reading Flatlander, which is a series of short stories about a detective in the future.
A great book if you’re into SF conventions. I’ve been told McCrumb recommends it to those who have never been to one.
She also wrote a pretty good sequel: Zombies of the Gene Pool, but it’s harder to find
I second these. They’re set between the world wars and are very well-written.
I’d like to also add anything by Ruth Rendell. Under that name, she writes the Chief Inspector Wexford series – they would technically be classed as police procedurals, but they’re certainly not just that.
Under the name Barbara Vine, she writes less-traditional mysteries, more along the lines of psychological thrillers. She’s spooky good at writing through the eyes of a murderer. Live Flesh is a favorite of mine, as is Anna’s Book.
Yes, the other series aren’t anywhere near as good (the one book staring Inspector Cramer is OK). Nor are the “continued after death” books by Goldsborough, altho the first one is not bad.
Good book, but a bit of a one-hit-wonder.
There’s also the Asey Mayo (aka Codfish Sherlock) mysteries, which are nice as period/location pieces. (around WWII and Cape Cod).