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Thomas Francis Tryon
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 March 2013
Location: United States
Posts: 107
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| Posted: 23 August 2013 at 8:48pm | IP Logged | 1
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I greatly enjoyRobert B. Parker's Spenser series, a detective series of 25+ books with all the usual detective stuff, a very comfortable read. However, my reccommendation comes from the series' take on race relations. That's all I'm going to say. Once again, the 'spoiler' concept helps a lazy typist.
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Christopher O'Bryant
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 30 November 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 27
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| Posted: 23 August 2013 at 9:18pm | IP Logged | 2
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I'd recommend the Prey series by John Sandford (1st in the series is Rules of Prey) about Twin Cities police detective Lucas Davenport. I can't remember off the top of my head but I believe there's about twenty or so novels for the Prey series alone. There's also a spin off series with a protege of Lucas' named Virgil Flowers, 6 or 7 books to that series now.
Lawrence Block writes about former cop and current unlicensed PI Matthew Scudder who's got 17 novels and several short stories and is a hallmark of crime fiction.
I also agree with those above regarding Dennis Lehane's early work.
Greg Rucka's Atticus Kodiak starts off a bit slow for a serial character (imo) but really picks up steam with "Smoker" and then goes guns a blazing with "Critical Space."
Good stuff.
Best, Chris
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Aaron Smith
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 06 September 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 10461
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| Posted: 23 August 2013 at 10:13pm | IP Logged | 3
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I'd recommend the Prey series by John Sandford (1st in the series is Rules of Prey) about Twin Cities police detective Lucas Davenport. I can't remember off the top of my head but I believe there's about twenty or so novels for the Prey series alone. There's also a spin off series with a protege of Lucas' named Virgil Flowers, 6 or 7 books to that series now.
***
I'll second that. I've been reading the Prey novels for years now.
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Ronald Joseph
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 18 April 2011
Location: United States
Posts: 1784
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| Posted: 24 August 2013 at 2:02pm | IP Logged | 4
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Just got back from the library with my copy of Storm Front. Many thanks, yet again, for all the recommendations! All I have to do is reference this thread next time I'm in a book quandry.
While I was at the library, I noticed something in the New Arrivals section titled The Night Gwen Stacy Died, by Sarah Bruni.
The synopsis: "An offbeat love story about the adventures and mutual rescue of a young woman out of place in her hometown and a mysterious stranger who calls himself Peter Parker (and begins to cast her in the role of Spider-Man’s first sweetheart), The Night Gwen Stacy Died is about first loss, first love, and finding our real identities."
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Thom Price
Byrne Robotics Member
L’Homme Diabolique
Joined: 29 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7593
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| Posted: 24 August 2013 at 4:01pm | IP Logged | 5
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Some great suggestions here; quite a few of these have been added to my Amazon wishlist for future purchases. I'll be starting with the Nathaniel Cade series, I think.
For a recommendation, I would add the books of Daniel Easterman. Not a series per se, as they're each separate stories, but they all have common motifs and plots. Typically a cop or agent who gets wrapped up in action and intrigue with a dab of the supernatural. My favorites are "Name of the Beast" (a Muslim terrorist who may or may not be the Anti-Christ) and "Night of the 7th Darkness" (voodoo and zombies).
Edited by Thom Price on 24 August 2013 at 4:02pm
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Luke Styer
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 20 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 1515
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| Posted: 25 August 2013 at 11:13am | IP Logged | 6
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If you dig thrillers, you might enjoy Barry Eisler's John Rain series. The first book was originally titled Rain Fall, but Eisler recently bought the rights to the series back from his original publisher and retitled it A Clean Kill in Tokyo.
If you're up for some fairly light alternate history goofiness, check out 1632 by Eric Flint. It's about a town in West Virginia in the year 2000 that is transposed in time and space with a chunk of uninhabited land in Germany in the year 1631, and how the townspeople adapt to their new situation. It's a lot of fun and has the advantage that the author has made the ebook available for free in numerous formats.
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Andrew Hess
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 9845
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| Posted: 25 August 2013 at 3:04pm | IP Logged | 7
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Yet another recommendation for Richard (Donald Westlake) Stark's "Parker" series.
Dan Simmons' Joe Kurtz books are a sort of homage to the Stark books.
Phillip Kerr's "Berlin Noir" trilogy, set in Germany thru WW II, is gripping. I've tried other of his books, tho, and they don't quite work as well for me.
For something completely different, I am a huge fan of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next novels, a detective procedural/humourous/sci-fi series. They play out as if Douglas Adams knew how to plot novels. They go off in different directions (time-travel, alternate reality, etc), but all of them are funny and have strong mystery elements.
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Daniel Beziz
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 30 August 2012
Location: France
Posts: 333
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| Posted: 26 August 2013 at 10:00am | IP Logged | 8
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This is the series that is keeping me on edge at the moment :
Jo Nesbo : Harry Hole series (10 books)
If you are looking for something not quite completely different but almost, check out this amazing norvegian crime writer. In the first book of the series "The Bat", Oslo detective Harry Hole is sent to Australia to assist the local police with the investigation on the murder of a norvegian waitress...
I have just finished the 3rd book of the series and it gets better and better... I can't wait to start the 4th !
As others have already pointed out, these are must read as well :
Lawrence Block : Matt Scudder series
With this series, not only are you following a great cop turned private eye character, but you are also seeing New York change around the character(s). It is a great read, and nearly all 17 books are excellent. I would suggest to start with "8 millions ways to die".
The McKenzie/Gennaro series by Dennis Lehane (6 books)
And as good as the movie "Gone, Baby, Gone" was, it is nothing compared to the book. But you should read the series chronologically.
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Ed Love
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 05 October 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 2712
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| Posted: 27 August 2013 at 7:03am | IP Logged | 9
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You mentioned having read Koontz in the past, I've really enjoyed his "Odd Thomas" book series
Anne Perry's early "Detective Monk" books were interesting as they concerned a Victorian detective who has lost his memory. A common thread through the first several stories is him slowly discovering what kind of man he was and not really liking what he found. He's aided by Hester, an uncommon woman who served with Florence Nightingale and finds herself chafing and on a crusade at how nursing and women are treated back home.
Imogen Robertson's "Instruments of Darkness" is the first of several books of a newish series. Mystery/thriller novels set more or less in England during the days of the American Revolution. She does a great job with the secondary characters and pitting them against implacable and creepy foes. I've only read the first two and couldn't put them down. To the point now that I've started Grad School, I know I'm going to have to hold off on reading the next two because it would mean I wouldn't get any school work done while I had those to read.
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Paul Kimball
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 21 September 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 2202
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| Posted: 27 August 2013 at 11:32am | IP Logged | 10
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The Nero Wolfe series is fun. Classic Mystery.
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Ronald Joseph
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 18 April 2011
Location: United States
Posts: 1784
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| Posted: 27 August 2013 at 12:12pm | IP Logged | 11
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You mentioned having read Koontz in the past, I've really enjoyed his "Odd Thomas" book series
I enjoyed Odd Thomas a lot. But from the second book on, they seemed to steadily decline one after another. I haven't read the last one (or two - I'm not sure how many there are now).
I can't believe I forgot to mention James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels in my original post. Those are great!
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Kevin Brown
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 31 May 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 8955
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| Posted: 27 August 2013 at 1:27pm | IP Logged | 12
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One other series of novels you may like: Harlen Coben's "Myron Bolitar" series. Coben has some stand alone novels as well that are very good.
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