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.

I'm finding the books by Felix Francis to be quite like his dad's. He even has a new Sid Halley. Mary Stewart is high on my list of favorite reads, too, and I particularly liked the Barbara Michaels books by Ms. Mertz.

I tend to have runs on authors. I'll enjoy one of their books, and then try to get hold of lots more hoping that they'll be as good. Unfortunatly they seldom are. A good example is Iain Banks. I read "The Crow road", and enjoyed it - I then got "Whit", which is wonderful. After that, "Complicity" - which is pretty gory, but compulsive reading. I then worked through the rest of his canon in search of anything as good - but the only other one that came close for me was "Espedair Street". The rest fail, for me, for various reasons - "Song of Stone" is vile. (McCarthy's "The Road" reminded me of this), "The Business" seemed rather pointless, "Canal Dreams" belongs in a airport deparure lounge and nowhere else. His celebrated first book "The Wasp Factory" I found OK, but none of his other books have the same charm I found in the first three that I read. But I still buy them when they come out, in the hope.... I've not read any of his science fiction (Iain M Banks), perhaps that's one for the "irrational avoid despite" thread. Wodehouse never fails to disappont. I've read just about all of them (that I can find - I'm still missing a handful of rarities), and most at least twice. As Wodehouse only really wrote about three basic plots, and tirelessly repackaged them with his wonderful use of language, it doesn't really matter if you've read them before. I use them to punctuate more serious reading - or get me back into the habit of reading when I have a "dry spell".

We had German and Austrian friends who said that Hillerman’s novels, and others set in the SW, are very popular so German-speakers really like to visit. Lars, I like your recollection that OKC could seem so exotic. Of course, I also read the Little House books, and rather than visit a place, I wanted to visit that time. Still do. To soar over the virgin prairie, or journey through it, to watch life in the Big Woods, to peer in the windows of The Long Winter. Another is Pillars of the Earth. I want to time-travel as an observer of medieval Europe.