Mysteries -- Recommendations Please!

20 years ago

I haven't read a good mystery for quite some time, and would love to have some of your recommendations. Nothing too gruesome please!

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Comments (6)

twobigdogs
20 years ago
Hi blueiris! Welcome to RP. I love mysteries, too. What authors do you usually read?

I recently "discovered" through the recommendation of someone on this site, the Nevada Barr series that begins with "The Track of the Cat". The main character is a US National Park ranger and the stories take place at different parks throughout the USA.

Have you checked out the STOP! You're Killing Me! website? The link is lower in this posting. It is an awesome data base of mystery books.

Again, welcome. Tell us what you enjoy and maybe we'll have suggestions to help you discover new writers. And maybe we'll discover someone new from you.

PAM

Here is a link that might be useful: STOP! You're Killing Me!
ccrdmrbks
20 years ago
blueiris-
About 4 months ago we all contributed to a list for another mystery lover-I pulled the thread back to the top-"Mysteries-Desperate for Recommendations"- there are 60 entrees-so I hope it helps you find what you are looking for! Take a look-there are all kinds there.
I second "Stop, You're Killing Me" as well. It is a fabulous resource.
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I'm hoping for another book by Julia R. Fleming about the helicopter pilot turned Episcopal minister, with 'feelings' for her small town's chief of police. Dramatic, very human characters, *funny*, unpredictable. I liked Anne Perry's books set in England between the wars, but she began to repeat herself -- writing too much, too fast? DH and I ejoyed Silva's books featuring Gabriel Allon, but...eventually the character is running out of steam. Great plots! Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko is another great character. ("Gorky Park", etc.) Love Sandford, Robert Crais, the late Donald Westlake. (So sad there will be no more from him.) S. J. Rozan! Her Chinese-American detective Lydia Chin and her 'friend'. ("The Coldest Place") Who is the author who writes about books and book sellers? Lives Minneapolis, I think. May I mention my modern favorite book, "City of Thieves"? A 'fairy tale', a mystery, reads like Dostoevski might have written it if he'd lived through WWII. Alan Furst -- "The Polish Officer", etc. Philip Kerr's character Bernie Gunther in the "Berlin Noir Trilogy" and more. (Another character who must eventually wind down...so sad.) Oh-oh, I've really stayed from the OP's request. Sorry, Susan.
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Yes, Ginny, I've read all five of the Brittany mysteries by Bannalec published so far in English. They were recommended to me when I mentioned I had reached the end of Simenon's Maigret series and I was undergoing withdrawal pangs. I can see that Bannalec was probably inspired by the Maigret stories -- he even tells how Maigret visited Concarneau (pronounced Konk-kern by the Bretons) during one of Maigret's own cases. The settings and plots are a bit different, I think, and I enjoyed learning about Gauguin and his contemporaries in Pont-Aven (the first book), the tourism industry of the Glenan archipelago (second book), salt 'farming ' in the Fleur de Sel Murders, and oyster farming in The Missing Corpse. The fifth book, The Killing Tide, gets deeper into Celtic lore as Monsieur le Commissaire Dupin increases his knowledge of the Finistere (The End of the World which the Bretons also call 'The Beginning of Land' of the Eurasian continent). Ginny, I really enjoy Nolwenn, Dupin's indispensable assistant and his tutor in all things Breton. She will make Dupin a 'true' Breton yet. She's already convinced him to follow his doctor's orders to eat a few oysters every day. The stories do get a bit convoluted, but I've found this forgivable. I second your recommendation.
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Comments (11)
wig, I'm not a great reader of mysteries or a member of a book club/reading group but I would second cece's recommendation of Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin and the next in the series Serpent's Tale or Death Maze to give it it's US title (why do they do this?). I wonder if An Instance at the Fingerpost by Iain Pears might be rather long-winded/too detailed for a group discussion? Set in 'Restoration' Oxford, but quite a lot of threads running through it to inspire comment. Here's a new one that just won the 'Samuel Johnson Prize'. The Suspicions of Mr Whicker or The Murder of Road House by Kate Summerscale. I've read extracts of it in the newspaper. The true story of a child's murder in Victorian England and the detailed police work that went into finding the killer. Must order it from the library to find who dun it. Here is a link that might be useful: Samuel Johnson Prize Winner
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Update: I contacted a water scientist from Penn State, and he was very helpful. He hasn't seen the faucet debris, but he thinks some of the "hair" might have come from insulation, which is spilling out of the large pipe that houses the pipe that carries water from the well to the water tank. His recommendation is to have the water tested before I do anything. He gave me a list of labs in the state, and three of them are within driving distance so i can easily get water samples to them within the 30-hour window, and save myself some of the cost of postage besides. If the tests show no bacteria, I can do nothing. If the water is positive for bacteria, I could order the shock chlorination. But if I want to avoid chlorine, I could instead have a whole-house UV light filter installed. I'm going to explore that possibility tomorrow.
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ccrdmrbks
20 years ago
make that about 16 months ago!
martin_z
20 years ago
It's actually quite unnerving how fast the time goes, isn't it.....!!!
ccrdmrbks
20 years ago
true-I looked at the other post and say March 2005 and thought "4 months..."
agnespuffin
20 years ago
I second trying the Nevada Barr series. And if you haven't read any of the Tony Hillerman series about Joe Leaphorn and Jim Cree, give them a try. I think the first ones are the best.

M.C. Beaton is another one of my favorites when I want a light fun mystery. She has two series, Hamish MacBeth and Agatha Raisin.

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Mysteries -- Recommendations Please!

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twobigdogs

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