Ten on (two-fer) Tuesday: the mystery edition.

My Ten Many, Many Favorite Mysteries.
What can I say? Mysteries have been my preferred reading since discovered #1, below.

1. Agatha Christie. We had many of these in paperback when I was growing up. I started reading them when I was about 12. Have read them all, many more than once.
    
2. Dorothy Sayers. Lord Peter Wimsey was awesome, but Harriet Vane ROCKED! Have read them all multiple times.
    
3. P.D. James. Another classic. Have read them all. Twice.
    
4. Arthur Conan Doyle. Ditto, but more than twice.
   
   
5. Other authors whose books I used to seek out: Dick Francis (horse racing & murder), Lilian Jackson Braun (cozies; "The Cat Who..." series; Koko and Yum Yum and Qulleran), Donald Westlake (murder/crime mixed with humor; not a series, just a book a year... forever), Elmore Leonard (best writer of dialogue EVAH), Emma Lathen (murder mysteries about banking and finance -- how could I not read them all?), Sue Grafton (A is for [etc.]; the R book was so boring I gave up on her), J.A. Jance, but not any more. I have Moved On.
    
6. Patricia Cornwell. She deserves an entry all to herself. Her first five or ten books were excellent, but eventually those morose and self-destructive characters got boring. And depressing.
   
   What I read now:
    
7. John Sandford. Lucas Davenport Prey series is my hands-down favorite of all time. Also the Virgil Flowers ("That damn Flowers.") series and the Kidd series; excellent. Then Sandford wrote an espionage novel (don't remember the name). It was so awful I couldn't believe it was the same guy writing. He needs to stick to crime. But a new Prey or Flowers or Kidd book is always cause for rejoicing.
    
8. Jeffrey Deaver. The author who can pack the most plot twists into the last fifty pages of a book.
    
9. Tana French. Go read one of her books and you will be hooked.
    
10. Kate Atkinson. Ditto.
     
11. Steig Larsson. Of course.
     
12. Barbara Vine/Ruth Rendell. Books written under the first pseudonym = excellent. Books written under the second = excellent but so unnerving I can only read one every five years or so.
     
13. P.J. Tracy. Techie mysteries set in Minneapolis.
     
14. Carl Hiaasen. Humor, satire, and murder in south Florida. There is a lot to satirize in that locale, and he does it masterfully.
     
15. Jonathan Kellerman and Fay Kellerman. I have read all the Alex Delaware books, but I like her Peter Decker/Rina Lazurus series better.
     
16. Susan Wittig Albert. Herb-themed cozies set in the Texas Hill County. 
     
17. Others where I read one book and liked it enough to seek out others by the same author: Markus Sakey, Chelsea Cain, Julia Spencer-Fleming, Dennis Lehane, Tess Gerritsen, Harlen Coben, Alex Kava, Nelson DeMille, Greg Iles, Terri Persons (set in MN).
     
18. Others I read, but this is the B-list: good enough to invest the time to read but not stunning. William Kent Kruger (all set in northern MN), Janet Evanovich  (Ranger or Morelli -- you choose), Lee Child (Jack Reacher is every man's fantasy alter ego, imnsho). 
     
19. Others I prefer to consume in audiobook format: Michael Connelly, Stephen Cannell, Jim Butcher's Dresden Files. 

I could go on (and on and on) but I won't. ::collective sigh of relief::

Comments

[Kym]

Yep. I've tried many of the authors you list! Tana French and Kate Atkinson are among my current faves. . . (I gave up on Morelli v. Ranger after book 4; I'd take Morelli any day.)

[Bridget]

I agree with most of your list (some are new to me). I think I would read a paper bag if Tana French wrote something on it ...

Thanks for stopping by to say hi!

[gayle]

We have very similar tastes. (I was hoping for some new names, dammit!)

[Carole]

I feel the same why about Patricia Cornwell - they were great but they just got so depressing.

[Carol]

Have you tried Julie Kramer, another MN author, set in the Twin Cities?

[mary lou]

Louise Penny ARmand Gamache series. Well written and fun. I read them all this past year.

[Erika]

I enjoyed the Dresden Files audiobooks even though it took a loooooong time before I got used to hearing Spike speak with a California accent.

[Carrie#K]

Isn't Tana French amazing? She never goes where I think she will.

I miss Donald Westlake. He definitely had his rolling in the aisle moments.