I’ve been on a binge this year of reading some fairly good and some terribly bad thrillers and mystery books. I just finished reading “And Then There Were None” by Agatha Christie, which I greatly enjoyed, particularly after reading the Silent Patient, which I thought was awful.
Any favorites of the genre you’d recommend? Any terrible ones you’d steer away from?
I have really enjoyed Japanese honkaku mysteries. They’re based on the classic British mysteries of the 1930s. Not many are translated but I liked The Honjin Murders and The Tattoo Murder Case. Search honkaku and read them for the Japanese take on the country house murder.
The book that got me back into reading for pleasure after many years of not doing so was a comic called Whiteout by writer Greg Rucka and artist Steve Lieber. It’s a murder mystery set on an Antarctic research station.
I would also suggest pretty much anything written by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips published by Image. Some of the best noir (in any format) you will ever read is by them. I particularly enjoyed
- The Fade Out - a Holywood scriptwriter in the 1950 wakes up in a bathtub after a party he can’t remember in a house he doesn’t know, and discovers the starlet of the film he’s currently working on dead on the sofa. It’s fair to say the ending is a little weak but getting there is quite a ride
- Fatale - a Cthulhu/noir about a femme fatale and her trials and tribulations over a century or so
- Incognito - a superhero/noir about a supper villain in witness protection who tries to g et back into the world of supers, this time as a hero. But of course no-one trusts him on either side
I was also disappointed in the Silent Patient!
I like the Jimmy Perez series by Ann Cleeves set in the Shetland Islands. The descriptions of the scenery alone are worthwhile.
I’m not sure they really fit into the category of murder mystery that you’re looking for, but I recently read both The Seven Deaths if Evelyn Harcastle and The Devil and the Dark Water and absolutely loved both of them.
@Hstansss For light mystery, The Thursday Murder Club books are a good read. A group of retirees in a senior living center have a hobby of trying to solve cold cases. The characters are funny and quirky.
Exactly what I was going to recommend. There are three so far, the first (The Thursday Murder Club) is the best but the other two (The Man Who Died Twice and The Bullet That Missed) are also both a lot of fun. They’re light easy reads, but with enough seriousness and depth to keep you interested, and the character are just wonderful! They’re by Richard Osman, famous for being on the telly and very tall prior to this!