Tuesday Media Recommendations: Mystery and Detective Books

Post your recommendations in the comments; other weeks, there'll be other posts for other genres and other formats.

Comments

[Stepped Reckoner]

Carnacki the Ghost-Finder. That is all.

[Sarcastr0]

Old podcast I no longer listen to did some of these; they are indeed bangers.

https://podcastle.org/2011/10/18/podcastle-179-the-gateway-of-the-monster-featuring-carnacki/ (Duration: 55:30)

https://podcastle.org/2010/10/05/podcastle-125-the-whistling-room/ (Duration: 45:57)

[Noscitur a sociis]

The Cormoran Strike books by Robert Galbraith (i.e. J.K. Rowling) are pretty good. I resisted them a while after seeing the terrible TV show adaptation, but the books are much better.

I’ll repeat my rec from the historical fiction thread, The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton, an outstanding whodunnit set on a Dutch East India Company ship.

If you’re a fan of the genre, I’d recommend Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson. It has a lot of fun playing with the tropes. I haven’t really been able to get into the sequel in the same way.

Anthony Horowitz’s mysteries are great for similar reasons, both the Hawthorne ones starting with The Word is Murder, and the other one starting with the Magpie Murders.

[Stupid Government Tricks]

I read most of the Cormoran Strike books, but they suffered from the same problem as the Harry Potter books (which I read all of): each book got longer and more complicated, darker and less fun, and the 6th Cormoran Strike book went so far into the weeds that I stopped reading halfway through and never tried any more.

[Syd Henderson]

I really liked the fifth one (Troubled Blood) because they were investigating a cold case from forty years before and it took over a year to solve it. That justifies the increased length. The latest includes a lengthy undercover investigation so I'm okay with that too. Maybe I've got a long attention span.

[Noscitur a sociis]

Iconoclast megathread:

Which classics of the genre do you hate?

For me, it’s Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler.

I find Hammett’s stuff to be basically incomprehensible, other than The Thin Man, which is great. The movies of his books are generally pretty good though.

With Chandler, I find his books to be similar incoherent, and the movies seem to be about the same.

[Sylvie1]

Any man who, like Chandler, can write in the same scene "as crazy as two waltzing mice," and "Remarks want you to make them," is fun (for me) to read.

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

Same for me! Plus his over-the-top descriptions of room interiors and LA houses are really fun. I guess you just have to like that kind of stuff to like Chandler.

[Sarcastr0]

I couldn't even follow the Maltese Falcon. I was not out of HS at the time, to be fair.

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

Supposedly, when the writers were adapting the screenplay for The Big Sleep, they contacted Chandler because they couldn't figure out one part of the story. Chandler just laughed and told them he couldn't help them, he didn't know either. He was all about style, plot no so much.

[Syd Henderson]

If I remember, it was who committed a certain murder. For me, Marlowe is Dick Powell anyway.

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

Murder My Sweet - awesome movie! Claire Trevor was always great.

[Ridgeway]

Dick Powell was fine, but it is a Skip Bayless-level insane take to say that he is better than Bogart in Maltese Falcon or the Big Sleep.

Maltese Falcon is arguably a top-10 all time movie. MMS is top 1,000.

[Frank Drackman]

I’ve seen “The Big Sleep” a hundred times, still confused, it’s like trying to keep track of the Keys in “Dial M for Murder”

Frank

[Syd Henderson]

Powell's a better Marlowe than Bogart. The Maltese Falcon is a masterpiece and possibly my favorite of all time. I tried reading the book and had to stop because it was all on the screen.

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

Maltese Falcon is a classic. My biggest problem with it was the casting of Mary Astor, who was too old and not at all right for that part, and a terrible actress anyway. But I'll watch anything with Peter Lorre and/or Sidney Greenstreet.

[Intelligent Mr Toad]

The remake with Robert Mitchum was much clearer. It showed what really happened to Sean "Rusty" Regan.

[Frank Drackman]

Been meaning to see that one since it was sold out at the Barksdale AFB theater whenever it came out in the 70’s, think I rubbed a few out to whoever the actress was with the Tig Ol Bitties(Pamela Sue Martin? Aka Nancy Drew)

Frank

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

I'll have to look for that, I don't think I ever saw it. Love Mitchum.

[Brett Bellmore]

I don't know if you'd call them "classics", but I was introduced to the vampire mystery genre through a recommendation to read the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton.

The first few were a bit interesting, and I liked the world building, but the series rapidly went in a direction I really found rather tasteless.

[Ridgeway]

The problem with Chandler in particular is that the hard-boiled style (which he pretty much invented) has been parodied so often and for so long that it is impossible to read the originals "fresh".

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

The trick with Chandler is to get your hands on his short stories, which are absolutely fantastic. Written mostly in the 1930s for Black Mask magazine, they are far more focused and coherent than his novels, but still with his great style, dialogue, and one-liners. Everyman has an addition of his complete short fiction.

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

*edition

[Intelligent Mr Toad]

TRENT'S LAST CASE by EC Bently (1913)
DEATH HAS DEEP ROOTS by Michael Gilbert
THE SINGING SANDS by Josephine Tey

[Drewski]

Been a while since I read a mystery but I recall MacDonald's Fletch series as fun reads, although the later ones got up their own ass a bit.

Her Story is a fascinating video game mystery, absolutely worth checking out. In it you review a series of interrogation videos and try to sort out exactly what happened.

[Sylvie1]

A.A. Milne's "The Red House."
Dorothy Sayers' books, especially the Harriet Vane quartet, "The Nine Tailors," and "Murder Must Advertise."
The John Putnam Thatcher books of the pseudonymous Emma Lathen.

[Brett Bellmore]

This is not a genre that I read a lot, (Unless you count Doc Savage, which I suspect you wouldn't.) but I have read a few good mysteries by Dick Francis.

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

Yes, second that. Dick Francis was great. I have no interest at all in horse racing, but loved those novels.

[Brett Bellmore]

Same here. That's the mark of a good writer, that they can be writing about something you have no interest in, but you still enjoy reading it.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

"The Cormoran Strike books by Robert Galbraith (i.e. J.K. Rowling) are pretty good. I resisted them a while after seeing the terrible TV show adaptation, but the books are much better."

I think the tv show adaptations were decent. I read the first few. I liked Robin. The books, however, are rather indulgent length-wise & that is partially why I stopped reading.

Length and the decision to move past the basic mystery format also led to the decline (in my view) in the Sue Grafton mystery series. She also died before she wrote "Z."

One horrible adaptation was the film version of Sarah Paretsky's mystery series. Kathleen Turner was an awful choice for the character.

[BrotherMovesOn]

"She also died before she wrote “Z.”"
Like Heinlein's Martian poet?

[BrotherMovesOn]

My mistake, as I now understand Z was never actually written.

[Noscitur a sociis]

I think the tv show adaptations were decent.

The first one starts by showing you who the murderer is! Not that a story can’t work that way, but you pretty much have to build around it, and this story isn’t built that way. I kept going because I’d read the book so I already knew who the murderer was, but it still seemed like an incomprehensible choice. Then there was a scene where they beat someone up or something to get a clue that they used brains for in the book, and I called it quits.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

There is also CJ Roberts' effort:

" North Philly, May 4, 2001. Officer Sean Devlin, Narcotics Strike Force, was working the morning shift. Undercover surveillance. The neighborhood? Tough as a three-dollar steak. Devlin knew. Five years on the beat, nine months with the Strike Force. He'd made fifteen, twenty drug busts in the neighborhood.

Devlin spotted him: a lone man on the corner. Another approached. Quick exchange of words. Cash handed over; small objects handed back. Each man then quickly on his own way. Devlin knew the guy wasn't buying bus tokens. He radioed a description and Officer Stein picked up the buyer. Sure enough: three bags of crack in the guy's pocket. Head downtown and book him. Just another day at the office."

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-supreme-court/07-1486.html

[The Margrave of Azilia]

Chesterton's Father Brown books.

[wolfefan]

These are great. I've been re-reading 101 Years Entertainment, an anthology of short detective fiction from Poe up into the 1940s, edited by Ellery Queen. Father Brown is their favorite, but the book has some excellent detectives that are not remembered at all today.

[Bill McClain]

"Cat of Many Tails" by Ellery Queen. Serial killer, no pattern, hot summer, city starting to boil...

The "Carl Houseman Series" by Donald Harstad. Rural Iowa police procedurals. (Much as I like them I'd skip the one done years later: "November Rain (2015)" where our deputy goes to London).

[Ridgeway]

Here is my off-the-top-of-my head list:

Great but well known:

Connelly -- Bosch Series; Lincoln Lawyer (Haller) series -- both are tremendous
Lehane -- Kenzie/Gennaro series. Excellent but very violent/dark.
Childs -- Jack Reacher series
Doyle -- Sherlocks still stand up

Series that start well but run out of steam:

Lawrence Sanders -- Delaney series. Too many sandwiches by the end
Patricia Cornwell -- Early Scarpetta were very original and very good. Quality dives after 4 or 5 books.

Great and less well known:

Hillerman -- Leaphorn/Chee series. Fascinating portrayal of Navajo culture intertwined with standard police procedural, and not preachy at all.
Pelecanos -- Derek Strange series. Best portrayal of an African-American detective I have read. Author also wrote for the Wire.
Price -- Clockers. One of the best bookd I ever read, but it is not really part of the genre. Another Wire writer.

[Rev. O.T. Medal]

I agree that Arthur Conan Doyle's tales of Sherlock Holmes hold up well. For anyone who likes audio books, I recommend the Stephen Fry edition -- in a single collection he reads all four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Watson. It is a joy.

[grb]

By the end, Doyle had suffered serious burn-out on Holmes. This was long after he tried (unsuccessfully) to kill his creation off. Many of the last stories are both arid in writing & bizarre in subject matter.

I've got a bunch of David Timson's audiobooks from Naxos. I recently went from one of the last story collections to Hound of the Baskervilles and was re-impressed with just how good the latter is.

[Noscitur a sociis]

I’m interested that you’re first two picks don’t go in the runs out of steam bin—Moonlight Mile was pretty bad, in my opinion, and everything Michael Connelly’s done in the last few years has been close to unreadable. (In my opinion, of course.)

Still strongly endorse starting both and going as far as you can, though.

[Ridgeway]

I probably should have clarified. The pure Boschs (and pure Hallers) are the best. The more recent ones where he adds Renee Ballard and mixes and matches the other two aren’t nearly as good, but I wouldn’t say they are bad.

Similarly, I think Lee Child may have turned his writing over to his son, and the last few have been sub-par.

However, both of those guys have a huge number that are very good or better.

ETA: I dont remember Moonlight Mile very well, so it must not have made much of an impression on me one way or the other. If you haven't read Small Mercies, I highly recommend it. It suffers a bit from Lehane's self-consciously writing a "very important piece", but his ability to fairly present characters with less-than-ideal views on racial equality is unmatched.

[Noscitur a sociis]

I’m being a little unfair and grading them against the standard of their best work. In both cases, I think the authors suffer from a similar problem: they’ve boht grown to like their main characters too much to throw any serious obstacles in their path, and they’re successful enough not to get edited aggressively, so the stories mainly just end up being forgettable.

[Ridgeway]

Fair enough. Another valid criticism of Connelly is that he has been injecting current events (COVID, MeToo) rather ham-fistedly into his recent books.

Like you said, they are still light years ahead of guys who have been completely mailing it in for years (James Patterson, I am looking at you!)

[Jerry B.]

For a combination of fantasy and crime solving, try the Lord Darcy books by Randall Garrett. "Too many Magicians" is a novel and "Murder and Magic" and "Lord Darcy Investigates" are compilations of shorts. There's also a compilation of all three, published by Baen just called "Lord Darcy".

In Darcy's world, the Plantagenet dynasty never fell, and sorcery was studied as a science. Wizards and magic exist. Physics, however, is not well understood.

[Brett Bellmore]

The Lord Darcy novels ARE pretty good. In that spirit, let me nominate Bujold's Vorsigian novel, "Memory", which is something of a detective mystery.

[Syd Henderson]

"The Mountains of Mourning" is too.

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

Tony Hillerman's Leaphorn/Chee books are very very good, as Ridgeway mentioned above.

Martin Cruz Smith's novels are all great, but if you like series read his Arkady Renko books in order, starting with Gorky Park.

John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee novels are classics. They all have a color in the title.

The Wallander novels by Henning Mankell are quite good, and have been made into at least two TV shows.

[grb]

The Renko books from Polar Star to Wolfes Eat Dogs are particularly nice, the last one set in the Zone of Chernobyl. I found Independence Square (Smith's last Renko book) a bit diappointing though the one before - The Serbian Dilemmia - wasn't bad.

He also did a mystery set in a English coal mining town of the late-1800s - Rose - that's pretty good.

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

Stallion Gate, set around the Manhattan Project and the test site in New Mexico, is really good as well.

[Rev. O.T. Medal]

It has been a long time since I read any Travis McGee. I used to love those stories. But John D. MacDonald wrote most of them between 1964 and 1974. How does the late-60s-early-70s vibe hold up? Has anyone read (or reread) Travis McGee recently? Do the stories now feel dated?

[grb]

I was wondering the same. I've got a bunch of his paperbacks sitting high on the uppermost shelf and need to pull one down and give it a reread.

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

They are very much of their time, but very well written and fun reads. My wife, who isn't the world's most voracious reader, couldn't put them down.

[SRG2]

James Lee Burke - the Dave Robicheaux series. (A couple have been made - unsuccessfully, IMO - into films.) Set in New Orleans and the surrounding area. Burke also has a wonderful writing style.

[Ridgeway]

I really liked the film version of In the Electric Mist, but I may be the only one.

[grb]

My favorite from the old classics is Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe. Every few years I pull a bunch off the shelves for rereading. And Stout did something very clever: The two reigning conventions of detective fiction were the Brain & Hard-Boiled Private Eye.

He did one of each, his Holmes-style Nero Wolfe character being so sedentary he needed a cynical wise-cracking legman, Archie Goodman. The latter is the real center of the books, being their eyes, ears, and heart.

Stout wrote the things for over forty years, so his detectives float somewhat ageless from the Great Depression to Watergate. The books often work as a comedy of manners as well as mystery, but that’s fine.

[Stupid Government Tricks]

Mycroft Holmes, sure. Not Sherlock.

[grb]

Another favorite is Lindsey Davis, primarily for her Marcus Didius Falco series set in Flavian-era ancient Rome. Aside from adapting private-eye fiction to that time & giving a taste of life then across the Empire, the books also have one of the great couples of the genre : Falco & Helena Justina, the Senator's daughter who shacked down.

Thru twenty novels they had their ups&downs, but the relationship just deepened between two sharp & sharply-defined characters. It was fun to follow. Davis has continued with another twelve books featuring their adopted daughter, Flavia Albia, but they're a bit less good.

[fatnastyretiredguy]

Invariably I lose interest in mystery series. A lot of authors just start doing cookie cutter replicas of past work. But for me the occasional bright spot is Louis Penny's Inspector Gamache series. Others have already mention Hillerman. If you haven't already done so, suggest you check out his daughter's (Anne Hillerman) continued work on that series of characters

[LawTalkingGuy]

Dickens’s Bleak House is a forerunner of the detective novel. You don’t get to the “detective” part until like 2/3 through but there is a mystery leading up.

[grb]

Lisa Cody's Anna Lee books are great. They feature a tart-tongued Londoner blue-collar detective who works for a small inquiry firm. Unfortunately she sold the rights to British TV who made a hash of it, so Cody refused to write any more.

So she switched to a hulking female pro-wrestler bristling with antagonism to everything/everyone and possessing zero (or even negative) self-awareness. Last I heard her new character was a homeless back lady - Cody having a skill with outsiders.

[MN2828]

Caroline Graham's Inspector Barnaby series -- The Midsomer Murders TV show is based on her books, but the books are procedurals and the TV show is a cozy.

David Baldacci's Archer Series -- set in post-war California

And, of course, Agatha Christie's Poirot and Miss Marple, which are still classics.

[Mr. Hook]

I'll tentatively stump for James Ellroy, tho in the last decade or so he's become a parody of himself. If you've never encountered his style before, the newer novels might succeed, but the clipped hip prose (think Drackman but with talent) has gotten tired for me. Nevertheless, the Dudley Smith trilogy and especially the Underworld USA trilogy are exceptional in style and their oddly romantic cynicism toward America in the 50s and 60s.

[SRG2]

His earlier novels are also pretty good.

[Noscitur a sociis]

the Dudley Smith trilogy

I’d say I employed them in spite of his style, not because of it. But I did enjoy them.

(Note: If you liked the movie LA Confidential, don’t assume you’ll like the book!)

[Ridgeway]

I have a theory that mediocre books make the best movies (across multiple genres).

LA Confidential
Jaws
Godfather
Maltese Falcon
Out of the Past
Double Indemnity (and everything else James M Cain wrote)

[Brett Bellmore]

One could argue that in really well written books, the quality of the writing can make the book a success despite the plot itself being poor. While for a badly written book to be any sort of success at all, it needs a real winner of a plot.

The scriptwriters take the plot, and just riff on it, so the writing quality isn't terribly important to the quality of the movie.

On this theory you want a badly written book that somehow succeeds anyway, and a really good script writer.

[Noscitur a sociis]

I think LA Confidential is a pretty good book (and a pretty good movie), they just have almost nothing in common.

The movie is a tight, stylish neo-noir. The book is a messy, sprawling, gritty epic. Most of the stuff in the movie is in the book, somewhere, but not in remotely the same way. The twist in the movie in the premise of the book, and the plot of the movie is largely a side story: a lot of it is about a serial killer and (a thinly disguised) Walt Disney. If the characters had different names, I don’t think many people would even realize it was an adaptation.

All of which is fine—I was just a little surprised.

[Mr. Hook]

Coincidentally, I just finished reading John Godey's The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. It's nothing special, really—a serviceable but forgettable novel—but I can appreciate how someone would see the potential for a fantastic movie in its narrative. Donn Pearce's Cool Hand Luke is another so-so novel that was adapted and transformed into an exceptional film.

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

I like Cain's writing a lot, but didn't mention him here because it isn't really detective or mystery, more straight crime fiction like Elmore Leonard. Incidentally, strongly recommend Elmore Leonard. Much better than mediocre, and some of his books and stories have made pretty great movies, like Get Shorty.

[grb]

Noscitur a sociis : "(Note: If you liked the movie LA Confidential, don’t assume you’ll like the book!)"

I did & didn't.

I had the book pegged for a major part of a vacation reading list and it didn't take at all.

[HankViam]

Three outstanding classic murder mysteries that remain in my library despite the ruthless deaccessioning I’ve been doing as a favor for my children.

"The Moving Toyshop," Edmund Crispin, 1946
"Hamlet, Revenge!" Michael Innes, 1937
"The 12.30 from Croydon," Freeman Wills Crofts, 1934

[Frank Drackman]

Grew up on Alfred Hithcock’s “The 3 Investigators” (initially the German translation “Die Drei Fragezeichen”) 3 teens in SoCal with a Junkyard Clubhouse, investigated Mal-feasance(HT M Gunderson) sort of like Scooby Doo without Scooby and the chicks, man I still want one of those Junkyard Clubhouses!

Frank

[grb]

I loved the Three Investigators as a kid.

[Intelligent Mr Toad]

I still have a copy of THE MYSTERY OF THE STUTTERING PARROT.

[Frank Drackman]

Not really a “Detective Story” but that section of “The Dead Zone” (No, I don’t like his politics or Wagner’s, Madonna’s, Taylor Swift’s, Hemmingway’s, Dixie Chicks, but boy can he write a page turner!(ht L King)
About the rapist/murderer Deputy Sheriff is creepy as fuck(no, I didn’t spoil it, and even if I did it came out 45 yrs ago)
And it’s really just a throw away plot line so SK could meet his word count quota

Frank

[Kibitzer]

The Peter Diamond series, by Peter Lovesey.

A police procedural, set in Bath, England. Now up to 22 books, of which I have read 21. In such a long series, there are some ups and downs, but #1, "The Last Detective", is a good representative of the series. #2 is one of the weakest, unfortunately, but #3, "The Summons", is excellent. More recently, #17, "Beau Death", is very original.

[TwelveInchPianist]

"It was a crisp and spicy morning in early October. The lilacs and laburnums, lit with the glory-fires of autumn, hung burning and flashing in the upper air, a fairy bridge provided by kind nature for the wingless wild things that have their home in the tree-tops and would visit together; the larch and the pomegranate flung their purple and yellow flames in brilliant broad splashes along the slanting sweep of woodland, the sensuous fragrance of innumerable deciduous flowers rose upon the swooning atmosphere, far in the empty sky a solitary oesophagus slept upon motionless wing; everywhere brooded stillness, serenity, and the peace of God."

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

Nice! Mark Twain, for those wondering.

[Noscitur a sociis]

I’d always wished that P.G. Wodehouse had tried writing mysteries. He was clearly a fan of the genre, and given his clear talent for intricate plotting I felt he could have come up with some of excellent stories.

I found out recently that he did write one mystery story—and it’s absolutely terrible.

https://www.madameulalie.org/pearsonsuk/Education_of_Detective_Oakes.html

[The Margrave of Azilia]

Of course it's terrible, if they called on Detective Oakes instead of Jeeves to solve the case.

[Intelligent Mr Toad]

There's a short story by PG Wodehouse called "The Smile that Wins", about a detective.

[Noscitur a sociis]

The main character is a detective, but I don’t think you can really call it a detective story (which isn’t criticism, it’s still one of the better Mulliner ones). Although it does feature this:

Arrived at Wesping Hall, accordingly, he did not delay. Shortly after the sounding of the dressing-gong he made his way to Lord Brangbolton’s room and found him in his bath.

“Might I have a word with you. Lord Brangbolton?” he said.

“You can do more than that,” replied the other, with marked amiability. “You can help me find the soap.”

“Have you lost the soap?”

"Yes. Had it a minute ago, and now it’s gone.”

“Strange,” said Adrian.

“Very strange,” agreed Lord Brangbolton. “Makes a fellow think a bit, that sort of thing happening. My own soap, too. Brought it with me.”

Adrian considered.

“Tell me exactly what occurred,” he said. “In your own words. And tell me everything, please, for one never knows when the smallest detail may not be important.”

His companion marshalled his thoughts.

“My name,” he began, “is Reginald Alexander Montacute James Bramfylde Tregennis Shipton-Bellinger, fifth Earl of Brangbolton. On the sixteenth of the present month—to-day, in fact—I journeyed to the house of my friend Sir Sutton Hartley-Wesping, Bart.— here, in short—with the purpose of spending the week-end there. Knowing that Sir Sutton likes to have his guests sweet and fresh about the place, I decided to take a bath before dinner. I unpacked my soap and in a short space of time had lathered myself thoroughly from the neck upwards. And then, just as I was about to get at my right leg, what should I find but that the soap had disappeared. Nasty shock it gave me, I can tell you.”

Adrian had listened to this narrative with the closest attention. Certainly the problem appeared to present several points of interest.

“It looks like an inside job,” he said thoughtfully. “It could scarcely be the work of a gang. You would have noticed a gang. Just give me the facts briefly once again, if you please.”

“Well, I was here, in the bath, as it might be, and the soap was here—between my hands, as it were. Next moment it was gone.”

“Are you sure you have omitted nothing?”

Lord Brangbolton reflected.

“Well, I was singing, of course.”

A tense look came into Adrian’s face.

“Singing what?”

“‘Sonny boy.’”

Adrian’s face cleared.

“As I suspected,” he said, with satisfaction. “Precisely as I had supposed. I wonder if you are aware, Lord Brangbolton, that in the singing of that particular song the muscles unconsciously contract as you come to the final ‘boy’? Thus—‘I still have you, sonny BOY.’ You observe? It would be impossible for anyone, rendering the number with the proper gusto, not to force his hands together at this point, assuming that they were in anything like close juxtaposition. And if there were any slippery object between them, such as a piece of soap, it would inevitably shoot sharply upwards and fall”—he scanned the room keenly—“outside the bath on the mat. As, indeed,” he concluded, picking up the missing object and restoring it to its proprietor, “it did.”

[Grover84]

Georges Simeon's Maigret series and "Dirty Snow"
William Brodrick "A Whispered Name": incident in World War I and decades-later investigation
Edith Caroline Rivett writing as ECR Lorac and Carol Carnac, part of the excellent British Library Crime Classics series

[Bob from Ohio]

My wife loves the The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels by Alexander McCall Smith set in Botswana.

[Syd Henderson]

Those were made into an incredibly fun miniseries.

[Caphon]

“Fifth Business” by Richardson Davies

[Noscitur a sociis]

One of my favorite books (and a far better presentation of Jungianism than anything Jung ever wrote!), but in what way do you feel it’s a mystery or detective novel?

Also, the author’s first name is Robertson.

[Caphon]

Ha, thank you for the correction, just going off memory. Certainly not
a detective novel, but I think it is a novel is thoroughly suffused with mystery.

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

Robertson Davies was a great writer. Fifth Business was the first book in the Deptford Trilogy, followed by The Manticore and World of Wonders.

[jimc5499]

I'll go with anything by John Sanford, especially his early stuff.

[David Nieporent]

Gardner's Perry Mason books are of course dated, but they still hold up quite well, I think.

[Frank Drackman]

Gotta check out the books, of course the best part of the TV version was Della, and usually a nubile hottie as the framed wife/cheated heiress/devious Diva, and who didn’t (no Homo) want to be Paul Drake? and did Hamilton Burger ever win (I know “ the Deadly Verdict” but Perry still wins in the end) of course we only see the cases Hamilton does on Sundays

Frank

[Noscitur a sociis]

For fans of genre mixing, you might want to check out Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan—a locked room mystery with a cyberpunk feel, set in a universe where people can extend their lives indefinitely (if they can afford it) by downloading their minds into new bodies.

The first season of the Netflix adaptation (which covers the book) is also pretty good in its own right, and is an interesting comparison. The two versions share most of the same story beats, but unfold with a very different feel.

If you like them, the second and third books are also pretty good (though they’re more heist stories than mysteries). The second season of the TV show, unfortunately, is for completionists only.

[MN2828]

Richard Morgan has several interesting series. His newest book, Thin Air, is a noir detective story set on Mars.

[Paladin_44]

Okay, definitely a mystery of sorts, but pretty damn funny nonetheless:
"Squeeze Me", by Carl Hiaiason.
On a more serious note, "The Passenger" by Cormac McCarthy.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

I believe it's spelled "Carl Hiaasen."

[Mr. Hook]

Not an author but a publisher: http://www.hardcasecrime.com

They do a mix of original fiction and reprints. The covers evoke the glory of paperback original houses from the 50s, especially Fawcett's Gold Medal Books. When Hardcase started out, it was paperback-only, but the economics of the book trade forced them to start issuing hardcovers to gain shelf space.

[Brian Kennedy]

Ross MacDonald wrote essentially the same book over and over again in the mid-Twentieth century, but it was one hell of a great book. (The Lew Archer series, not his earlier works). And he didn’t lose his fastball. His last book, with a bit of a homage (parody?) in the title and best sentence to the other mystery writing MacDonald (John) of the era, is quite good.
A more recent author who must be a niche taste, since I seldom see others talking about her, is Carol O’Connell. Her Mallory series features a bigger-than-life heroine. Most are set in New York City, but I prefer the two that are not. Stone Angel is probably my favorite, but you have to like baroque.
Another niche taste is Simon Brett’s series featuring Charles Paris, a mystery-solving alcoholic barely holding on to a marginal acting career. I’d call it a cozy (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
I second the recommendations above on Rex Stout and Robert Gailbraith’s (J.K. Rowling’s) Strike series, including the caveat on the latter that Rowling’s too-big-to-be-edited status makes the later books in the series too bloated (I enjoyed the adaptation more than another commenter, though I grant that it has a s l o w p a c e).
I feel it is almost redundant to recommend Benjamin Stevenson’s recent best seller Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone.

[Noscitur a sociis]

.

[SRG2]

I’m surprised no-one had suggested these (linking back to last week)

Isaac Asimov – Caves of Steel and Naked Sun
Harry Harrison – Make Room, Make Room (the basis for the film “Soylent Green”, which he hated)

[Brian Kennedy]

I haven't read Harrison, but I agree on Asimov (indeed, at my suggestion, my mystery book club will be reading The Naked Sun for one of our upcoming meetings).

[Larvell Blanks]

Burglars Can’t Be Choosers, etc.

[Eeyore 2]

Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time. Published about 75 years ago--a modern (well, 20th century modern) detective explores the mystery of what really happened regarding Richard III.

[Frank Drackman]

More of a fantasy but “Der Rabe Zabeth” (Zabeth the Raven) by Gunter Eich also freaked me out as a Kind, mom would read it to me and make these “wing fluttering” noises whenever Zabeth showed up. Big Black Birds(Birds dammit! Birds!) still give me the Heebie-Jeeves

Frank

[Knocka]

Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series. His Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall series are also good.

[WFiske]

1. CJ Sansom's Shardlake series about a lawyer who is a reluctant detective for Thomas Cromwell.
2. Both the Sean Duffy series (set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles) and the Michael Forsythe trilogy (in Brooklyn and Mexico) by Adrian McKinty. Brilliant.
3. Don Winslow's Danny Ryan trilogy is like McKinty's Forsythe series about gangsters rather than detectives, but eminently enjoyable.