Haven’t read a new (to me) one for years. Great series, wonderful writing.
The ehh… Drink name series by J.A. Konrath.
It’s about a tough as nails police detective and her somewhat bumbling but competent partner.
Not in any particular order, they are all good.
- Whiskey Sour
- Shaken
- Chaser
- Old Fashion
etc…
The Wallander series by Henning Mankell.
About a dozen novels, plus a few short stories. The main character is a police detective in Sweden who investigates horrible murders. I think what I like about these books is that they work on three levels. There is the crime itself and the team that works to solve it. Then there is the personal story of Wallander and his troubled relationships. Finally, there are the broader issues of what has gone wrong in modern life.
I am restlessly waiting for The Navigator’s Children, which should finally wrap up his whole Osten Ard tales in 9 books. I enjoyed the Bobby Dollar stuff too.
I enjoy Bujold’s Virkosigan and Pen and Des stuff quite a lot too.
I could list a dozen or more other series too. But I’d have to wrack my brain and check my library (paper & electronic) to remember them all.
LOTR of course
The Vorkosigan Saga by L.M. Bujold
The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
I really need to read more than a couple of Discworlds. I know I shouldn’t start at book one and just plow through, but my brain probably wouldn’t let me do it any other way.
I’m on the fourth Game of Thrones book at the moment, susprised it took me so long, but fantasy really intimidates me. I still haven’t even tried LotR or Dune, but the latter will happen soon, I think. Going to rewatch all three film/TV adaptations before the new movie comes out as well. Harry Potter, obviously (with a tinge of sadness at Rowling’s later TERFiness). I even have three editions of the first book, as I have the Welsh and Scots translations.
Not terribly proud of it, but I did read and collect every single Remo Williams - The Detroyer novel. And the first hundred or so Mack Bolan - The Executioner. For the latter, there was a used bookstore that had pretty much all of them for a buck or two apiece and they were a decent diversion on the bus to and from my summer job a decade or two before smart phones.
Ed McBain wrote umpteen police procedurals about the 87th Precinct. Each one getting longer and more violent as time went by. (There would have been no NYPD Blue without the 87th Precinct.)
Robert Crais writes LA private investigator novels centered around Elvis Cole and his strange partner Joe Pike.
Ruth Rendell wrote many novels featuring British Inspector Wexford (also a PBS tv series)
James Lee Burke wrote countless novels featuring Dave Robicheaux, a Louisiana - you guessed it - detective battling really bad guys.
There are more, but I’ve read every one of these books by every author.
The Jason Bourne novels written by Robert Ludlum.
We do when we can. Since they relocated to Starz, we have to wait until they’re available on either library DVD or postfacto on Netflix. So we’re at least a season behind.
Netflix has a strange deal with Outlander. They are WAY behind. Usually, you get the previous season around the time the new season is coming. With Outlander, they are 1.5 seasons behind now.
Those are good!
Discworld
The Destroyer (Who is this dog meat that challenges me?)
Sten
Bob & Nikki (Bob’s Saucer Repair)
The Chronicles of Luna City
Lots more.
Think I mentioned them on the other thread, too, but in the interest of consistency…
The Honor Harrington/Honorverse series by David Weber, some real good Hard SF Space Opera featuring a female lead. Sort of left hanging for now, don’t know if he’ll ever continue it or not (rumor was his daughter was going to take it over, but…).
The Ring of Fire/1632 series by Eric Flint, tragically cut short by the Author’s death; the spinoffs by other writers/collaborators were from good to fair, but the initial trilogy (1632, 1633, and 1634: The Baltic War) are worth reading.
Another Rex Stout fan here, and…
Have read all of Goldsborough’s stuff, he sets things up well and I like his characters, but he seems to meader around the storyline and then suddenly Wolfe solves it, no real leading into it. IMHO as always.
For a couple of real oldies that still sit on my shelf, Lensman series by E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith and Doc Savage by Keith Robeson (among others).
I think I’ll finish it when all the seasons are on Netflix. After Starz removed a series (Dangerous Liasons) after airing all but the last 1-2 episodes, will never subscribe to them again.
Discworld
QX, Slippery Jim! QX!!
Meh. The first one was fairly good, but the rest- meh.
I enjoy those also.
My wife and I enjoy those too.
I read many of the early books and they were enjoyable but not memorable. Like the Casca series.
There were some solid stretches of that series. Towards the mid-nineties, they turned into incomprehensible sci-fi. The series was cancelled then relaunched under a new imprint (not a reboot), but that only lasted four books.
Looking back, I didn’t realize at the time just how right-wing reactionary the stories were (even if Remo Williams did shove bits of the Washington Monument up Richard Nixon’s ass to convince him to resign). While I could sympathize with the basic premise of “a secret agency handling the criminals that slip through the justice system, plus the occasional android or rival North Korean superassassin,” the premise did frequently have a tinge of fascism to it. And novels like “Muggers Blood” would definitely find an appreciative audience among today’s alt-right.
Patrick O’Brian, Aubrey/Maturin series. Marilynne Robinson, Gilead series (these are not light reading). Sigrid Undset, Kristen Lavransdatter (ditto). LOTR. Narnia Chronicles, back when.
He spent a lot of time bringing in stuff Stout wrote, like “the gold book mark a client gave Wolfe so long ago”, perhaps to prove that he actually had read the Stout books.