Mysteries

27 Dec 2011 20:53

I've spun off the list of recommendations into a separate page. True crime goes here too, for want of a better spot.

Diana Abu-Jaber, Origin
Boris Akunin, The Winter Queen
Karin Alvtegen, Missing
Eric Ambler
- The Dark Frontier
- Dirty Story
- Doctor Frigo
- The Intercom Conspiracy
- A Kind of Anger
- The Siege of the Villa Lipp
Barth Anderson, The Patron Saint of Plagues
Poul Anderson
- Perish by the Sword
- Murder by the Books
Lori Andrews, Sequence
Lori Armstrong, No Mercy
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories
Sandi Ault, Wild Penance
Camille Bacon-Smith, The Face of Time
Robert Barnard
- The Bad Samaritan
- The Corpse at the Haworth Tandoori
- Death of an Old Goat
Dave Barry, Big Trouble
Nancy Bartholomew, Strip Poker
Brett Battles, The Cleaner
Benjamin Black, Christine Falls
Anna Blundy, The Bad News Bible
Roberto Bolano, The Savage Detectives
Alan Bradley, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Joan Brady, Bleedout
Ken Bruen, The Killing of the Tinkers
Dorothy Cannell
- How to Murder the Man of Your Dreams
- How to Murder Your Mother-In-Law
John Case, The First Horseman [Thriller about a millenarian cult (which sounds like it's based on Aum Shinrikyo, only with more of an environmentalist ideology) and a genetically-engineered plague based on the 1918 influenza. Thanks to Mark Worden for the rec.]
Raymond Chandler
Douglas Clark [Police procedurals; ingenious, "scientific" ways to die]
Liza Vody, Gimme More
Max Allan Collins, The History of Mystery
Martha Conley, Growing Light
K. C. Constantine, Cranks and Shadows
Susan Rogers Cooper, Doctors and Lawyers and Such
Beverly Connor, One Grave Too Many
Colin Cotterill, Disco for the Departed
Robert Crais
- The Monkey's Raincoat
- L.A. Requiuem
- Sunset Express
David Cristofano, The Girl She Used to Be
Amanda Cross
- An Imperfect Spy
- The Players Come Again
- The Puzzled Heart
- The Question of Max
- A Trap for Fools
Bill DeAndrea
- Cronus
- Killed on the Ice
The Detective and the Toga
Michael Dibdin
- Vendetta
- Ratking
- Cabal
- Dark Lagoon
- Cosi Fan Tutti
Margaret Anne Doody
- Aristotle and Poetic Justice
- Poison in Athens
- Mysteries of Eleusis
James D. Doss, White Shell Woman
Susan Dunlap
- Cop Out
- Not Exactly a Brahmin
Carola Dunn, Death at Wentwater Court
Jerrilyn Farmer, Immaculate Reception
Alane Ferguson, The Christopher Killer
Robert Ferrigno
- Dead Man's Dance
- Scavenger Hunt
- The Wake-Up
Shamini Flynt
1. Bali Conspiracy Most Foul
2. The Singapore School of Villainy
Gillian Flynn
Leslie Forbes
- Bombay Ice
- Fish, Blood, and Bone
Karin Fossum, Don't Look Back
Christopher Fowler, Ten Second Staircase
Tom Franklin, Smonk
Nicholas Freeling, Cold Iron
Tana French, The Likeness
Alan Furst [Many more, too...]
- Blood of Victory
- Dark Voyage
- The Polish Officer
- Red Gold
- The World at Night
Jim Fusilli, Hard, Hard City
Luis Alfredo Garcia-Roza, Southwesterly Wind
Katy Gardner, Faker
Tim Gautreaux, The Missing
Anne George, Murder Shoots the Bull
Kathleen George, Hideout
Joe Gores
- 32 Cadillacs
- Dead Skip
Laurence Gough [The "Willows and Parker" series]
1. Serious Crimes
2. Accidental Deaths
3. Fall Down Easy
1. Memory Lane
2. Karaoke Rap
3. Shutterbug
4. Funny Money
5. Cloud of Suspects
Sarah Graves
1. Crawlspace
2. Knockdown
Annie Griffin, Date with the Perfect Dead Man
Martha Grimes, Rainbow's End
Heather Gudenkauf, The Weight of Silence
Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon
Rick Hanson, Body Parts
George Harrar, The Spinning Man
Charlaine Harris
- A Fool and His Honey
- Shakespeare's Landlord
- Shakespeare's Champion
- Shakespeare's Trollop
John Hart, The Last Child
Lauren Henderson
- Don't Even Think About It
- Exes Anonymous
- Kiss Me Kill Me
- Pretty Boy
- Hiaasen
  - Basket Case
  - Powder Burn
  - Trap Line
  - A Death in China
- Susan Holtzer, The Wedding Game: A Mystery at the University of Michigan
- Richard Hoyt, Whoo?
- Dorothy Hughes, In a Lonely Place
- Charlie Huston, The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death
- Elizabeth Ironsides
  - Death in the Garden
  - The Accomplice
- John T. Irwin, The Mystery to a Solution: Poe, Borges, and the Analytic Detective Story
- "Marshall Jevons"
  - A Deadly Indifference
  - Fatal Equilibrium
- Catherine Jinks, The Inquisitor [Review by Danny Yee]
- Denis Johnson, Nobody Move
- D. J. H. Jones, Murder in the New Age
- Clarence Budington Kelland, The Artless Heiress
- Lauren Kelly, Take Me, Take Me with You
- Stephen King, The Colorado Kid
- Natsuo Kirino, Out
- Henry Kisor, A Cache of Corpses
- Gary Krist, Chaos Theory
- Jane Langton
  - Emily Dickinson Is Dead
  - The Shortest Day
- Gaylord Larson ["writes a series about an agnostic/rationalist detective who has various jobs in fundamentalist Christian colleges and solves crimes in those places... really first rate" --- Jane Haddam on dorothy-L, of happy memory]
- Asa Larsson, Sun Storm
- Don Lee, Country of Origin
- Denis Lehane
  - A Drink Before the War
  - Darkness, Take My Hand
  - Sacred
  - Gone, Baby, Gone
  - Mystic River
- Elmore Leonard [w/ thanks to John Burke for recommendations]
  - Bandits
  - Cat Chaser
  - City Primeval
  - Freaky Deaky
  - Get Shorty
  - Glitz
  - Gold Coast
  - La Brava
  - The Moonshine War
  - Out of Sight
  - Pagan Babies
  - Pronto
  - Rum Punch
  - Split Images
  - Stick
  - Swag
  - Tishomingo Blues
- Herbert Lieberman, Brilliant Kids
- Laura Lippman
  - Every Secret Thing
  - Life Sentences
  - To the Power of Three
  - What the Dead Know
- David Liss, A Conspiracy of Paper
- Sophie Littlefield, A Bad Day for Sorry
- Peter Lovesey, The Reaper
- Stuart Macbride, Cold Granite
- Paul Maliszewski, Fakers; Hoaxers, Con Artists, Counterfeiters, and Other Great Pretenders
- Shaun Maloney, Stiff ["Set in Melbourne amid the machinations of the Australian Labor Party, this book is extremely funny, beautifully written and for those of us of the left persuasion, scarily close to the bone" --- from review in rec.arts.books.reviews by Katrina Beard]
- Henning Mankell, Before the Frost
- Margaret Maron
  1. High Country Fall
  2. Rituals of the Season
  3. Winter's Child
- Lia Matera
- Seicho Matsumoto, The Voice
- Takashi Matsuoka, Cloud of Sparrows
- Lise McClendon, The Bluejay Shaman
- Cody Mcfadyen, Shadow Man
- Michael McGarrity, Tularosa
- Philipp Meyer, American Rust
- Miyuki Miyabe, All She Was Worth
- Bob Morris, Bahamarama
- John Mortimer
  - Rumpole on Trial
  - The Penge Bungalow Murders
- Walter Mosley, Devil in a Blue Dress
- Sabina Murray, A Carnivore's Inquiry
- Magdalen Nabb, Some Bitter Fruit
- Jo Nesbo, Nemesis
- Malla Nunn, A Beautiful Place to Die
- Leslie O'Kane, The Cold Hard Fax
- Karen E. Olson, The Missing Ink
- Jill Paton Walsh
  - A Piece of Justice
  - Debts of Dishonour
  - The Bad Quarto
- Barbara Paul, Your Eyelids are Growing Heavy
- Rebecca Pawel, The Law of Return
- George P. Pelecanos
- Arturo Pérez-Reverte, The Queen of the South
- Marissa Piesman
  - Close Quarters
  - Survival Instincts
  - Unorthodox Practices
- Andrea Portes, Hick
- Lev Raphael, The Edith Wharton Murder
- Matt Rees, The Collaborator of Bethlehem
- Ruth Rendell
  - A Demon in My View
  - Gallowglass [as "Barbara Vine"]
  - The Speaker of Mandarin
  - To Fear a Painted Devil
- Robert Rice, The Nature of Midnight
- Phil Rickman, To Dream of the Dead
- Candace Robb, The Lady Chapel
- Rebecca Rothenberg, The Shy Tulip Murders
- Marcus Sakey, The Blade Itself
- Kris Saknussemm, Private Midnight
- Barbara Sarenella
  - No Human Involved
  - No Offense Intended
- David Schmid, Natural Born Celebrities: Serial Killers in American Culture
- Sara K. Schneider, Art of Darkness: Ingenious Performances by Undercover Operators, Con Men, and Others
- Lisa Scottoline
  - Everywhere that Mary Went
  - Legal Tender
  - Mistaken Identity
  - Running from the Law
- Mabel Seeley
  - The Beckoning Door
  - The Chuckling Fingers
  - The Whispering Cup
- Catherine Shaw, The Three Body Problem [That three body problem, no less]
- Charlie Sheldon, Fat Chance
- Jenny Siler, Easy Money
- Clea Simon, Probable Claws
- David "Mr. Laura Lippman" Simon, Homicide
- John Sladek, Invisible Green
- April Smith, North of Montana
- Mark Haskell Smith, Moist
- Teresa Solana, A Not So Perfect Crime
- Kelli Stanley, City of Dragons
- James B. Stewart, Blind Eye [#2 Amazon seller with the Massachusetts Medical Society, as of 22 Feb. 2000.]
- Dorothy Sucher, Dead Men Don't Marry
- Duane Swierczynski, Severance Package
- Akimitsu Takagi
  - Honeymoon to Nowhere
  - The Informer
- James Thompson, Snow Angels
- Stefan Timmermans, Postmortem: How Medical Examiners Explain Suspicious Deaths [Blurb]
- Marilyn Todd
  - I, Claudia
  - Virgin Territory
  - Man Eater
- Kathy Hogan Trocheck
- Lisa Unger, Beautiful Lies
- Mark Urban, The Linguist
- T. C. Van Adler, St. Agatha's Breast [Review by Danny Yee]
- Fred Vargas [Thanks to Jan Johnson for the recommendation]
  - Have Mercy on Us All
  - Three Evangelists
  - Wash This Blood Clean from My Hand
- Tanguy Viel
  - Absolute Perfection of Crime
  - Beyond Suspicion
- Michael Walters, The Adversary
- Kimberley Warner-Cohen, Sex, Blood and Rock 'n' Roll
- Timothy Watts, The Money Lovers
- Betty Webb, The Anteater of Death: A Gunn Zoo Mystery
- Patricia Wentworth
  - Out of the Past
  - Wicked Uncle
- Donald Westlake
  - Cops and Robbers
  - Don't Ask
  - Put a Lid on It
  - Humans [I know, it's not really a mystery]
- Jenny White, The Sultan's Seal
- Polly Whitney
  - Until Death
  - Until the End of Time
- Don Winslow, A Long Walk up the Waterslide
- Daniel Woodrell, Winter's Bone
- L. R. Wright
  - The Suspect
  - A Touch of Panic
- Rafael Yglesias, The Murderer Next Door
- Roger Zelazny, The Dead Man's Brother