# Recommend me some decent crime novels? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 19, 2009, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759 "2009-09-19T23:29:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/41 "2009-09-23T05:51:13Z")
I am amazed that no one has mentioned T. Jefferson Parker, a writer who gets better and better. I may be a bit prejudiced as his stories are set here in the Los Angeles area. I am currfently reading \*\*L A Outlaws \*\*and so far it equals or surpasses any of his previous works. ---
**Author:** ![alexandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@alexandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alexandra)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/42 "2009-09-24T09:24:26Z")
I’m halfway through Cornwell’s “The Last Remains”. Do the FBI really use psychics?! ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/43 "2009-09-24T09:36:39Z")
I greatly enjoyed the \*\*Shardlake \*\*series of books by **C.J. Sansom**. They are set in Tudor England, against the backdrop of the reformation. The main character is a lawyer. In order, the books are **Dissolution** , **Dark Fire** , \*\*Sovereign \*\*and **Revelation**. ---
**Author:** ![audit1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@audit1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audit1)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/44 "2009-09-24T10:16:16Z")
May I recommend any of the 87th Precinct novels by ED MCBAIN ---
**Author:** ![alexandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@alexandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alexandra)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/45 "2009-09-24T12:24:26Z")
> [@alexandra](#): > > I’m halfway through Cornwell’s “The Last Remains”. > > Do the FBI really use psychics?! :smack: That’d be “All That Remains” ---
**Author:** ![lynne-42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lynne-42/32/3138_2.png) [@lynne-42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lynne-42)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/46 "2009-09-24T13:52:11Z")
> [@kbear](#): > > The Inspector Lynley series by Elizabeth George is good and you can’t go wrong really with Ruth Rendell or PD James. You managed my three favourites in one line! Love Minette Walters ( mentioned earlier) as well. Really good story lines, well written, without endless violence and gore. ---
**Author:** ![Lethal\_Babydoll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3be4f8/32.png) [@Lethal\_Babydoll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lethal_Babydoll)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/47 "2009-09-24T14:15:40Z")
Check out\*\* Paul Lindsay\*\*, whose regrettably small output is mostly about the FBI. I read crime novels quite often and Lindsay is my favorite. The novels are: Witness to the Truth (1992) Code Name–Gentkill (1995) Freedom to Kill (1997) Traps (2002) The Big Scam (2005) and a non-FBI novel, The Fuhrer’s Reserve (2000) ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/48 "2009-09-24T15:06:19Z")
> [@Charley](#): > > so start with _Quite Ugly One Morning_. I second this recommendation. I have the audiobook version of this one and I really enjoyed it. I’m also a fan of Jonathan Kellerman’s novels. I don’t think it matters which one in the series you start with, they usually don’t mention previous cases. I also have to give mention to James Ellroy. If you like hard-boiled noir crime stories with dark violent characters, multi-layered stories & concise staccato dialogue, give him a try. I recommend his “LA Quartet” series: **LA Confidential** , **The Big Nowhere** , \*\*White Jazz \*\*& **The Black Dahlia**. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/49 "2009-09-24T15:27:52Z")
One of my favorite from the other side of the crime equation is _Hit Man_ by Lawrence Block - an oddly sympathetic series of stories about an ordinary average guy who happens to be a killer for hire. Very compelling storytelling. > **[Hit Man : Block, Lawrence: Amazon.ca: Books](https://www.amazon.ca/Hit-Man-Lawrence-Block/dp/038072541X)** > > Hit Man : Block, Lawrence: Amazon.ca: Books ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2009, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/50 "2009-09-26T19:03:22Z")
Another vote for Ed McBains 87th precinct stories which are American police procedural and most definitely Colin Dexters Inspector Morse series set in Oxford(The real one not Oxford Texas or whatever) . Both series IME make gripping reading. ---
**Author:** ![desib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e95f7d/32.png) [@desib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/desib)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/51 "2012-09-17T16:14:14Z")
So many! Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole series is incredibly well plotted and believable. Michael Connolly’s Harry Bosch series is very good for the first 10 or do instalments. If you can cope with the density of fact over poetry James Ellroy is still in a league of his own. [wontgetcaught.com](http://wontgetcaught.com) is a serialisation on the net Im enjoying but you cant beat Sherlock Holmes after all these years. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/52 "2012-09-17T17:21:28Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > I recommend the Marcus Didius Falco series by Lindsey Davis. Falco is the granddaddy of all P. I.'s, operating in ancient Rome. 😃 I’ll second [that](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Didius_Falco#Books_in_the_Falco_Series)! I’ll also strongly recommend the Meg Langslow [series](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Andrews_(author)#The_Meg_Langslow_series), by Donna Andrews - good stories, and I like Andrews’s sense of humour. ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/53 "2012-09-17T19:04:03Z")
But I didn’t see Ross McDonald’s Lew Archer books noted yet. If you knew, and loved, the TV series _Harry O_ with David Janssen, you’d like these. Robert Crais, Jeff Parker, and the Dave Robicheaux novels would round out my top of the list. Every few years I re-read John D. Mac Donald’s Travis McGee books. ---
**Author:** ![wheresmymind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/91b2a8/32.png) [@wheresmymind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wheresmymind)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/54 "2012-09-17T20:22:37Z")
When I first read the OP I thought it said “The Walking Dead,” and thought to myself “Well, that’s not really a police procedural like L&O, but it IS about zombies, so maybe it’s appropriate after all.” ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/55 "2012-09-17T21:05:49Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > Alafair Burke - her newest novel _Angel’s Tip_ just came out to positive reviews. She’s also a professor of Criminal Procedure at my law school. 🙂 It’s a zombie thread, but thought I’d mention Burke’s father, James Lee Burke, who wrote some very good novels (with the exception of the most recent) with a character named Dave Robicheaux. They mostly take place in Louisiana. Robicheaux’s daughter in the books is named Alafair, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/56 "2012-09-17T22:48:15Z")
+1 for Ed McBain (My favorite is _The Heckler_.) And if you’re after something funny, try Tim Dorsey’s novels about Serge Storms. My favorite’s _Atomic Lobster_. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2012, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/57 "2012-09-18T03:37:31Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > \ > I agree, Raymond Chandler is the place to start. He invented the genre (although Dashiel Hammet helped, but I think Hammett is inferior in almost every way.) Somewhere I saw a claim that Hammett invented the genre, and Chandler perfected it. No matter; read them both. When you’re done there, read Lawrence Block’s Matt Scudder series. Start with _The Sins of the Fathers_, and read them in order. ---
**Author:** ![Ivegotzooms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@Ivegotzooms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ivegotzooms)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2012, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/58 "2012-09-18T04:12:19Z")
I still think about this book after having read it nearly 6 years ago. I could not remember how to spell the authors’ names but did remember the title, so I cut this blurb from Wikipedia: And the Sea Will Tell (ISBN 0-393-02919-0) is a true crime book by Vincent Bugliosi and Bruce B. Henderson. The nonfiction book, a New York Times #1 hardcover bestseller and still in print as a trade paperback, recounts a double murder on Palmyra Atoll. . . I didn’t post more since it might be a spoiler to list more of what Wikipedia lays out in the first paragraph. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2012, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/59 "2012-09-18T04:36:08Z")
Many great suggestions. Of the series I have read I would suggest reading Ed McBain, James Lee Burke and Michael Connelly in order if you can. Although they are all terrific standalone books each series covers many years of career and personal trajectories for the characters. ---
**Author:** ![lifeleavesscars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ea666f/32.png) [@lifeleavesscars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lifeleavesscars)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759/60 "2014-07-28T21:54:12Z")
> [@alexandra](#): > > I’ll admit to being taken in by a simplistic crime storyline on tv - Law and Order, Waking the Dead, etc. Yet the resolution is so often unsatisfying because of the nature of most TV - DNA helps everything along and it’s all resolved by the end credits. > > I’ve read some crime novels but nothing particularly good. I’m not terribly familiar with the book genre but know I’d be happy spending a few hours with a decent potboiler that I may not remember for the rest of my life. > > So if I want something easy-to-read, yet satisfying and absorbing, who should I go with? Ed McGinnis has a few. I read THE BLUE ROUTE which I liked and now I’m on his new one NIGHT TRAIN EXPRESS which is really good. Just look him up on Amazon [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-decent-crime-novels/510759.md?page=4)