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WeaselFire

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Looking for a reading list of series Mystery authors and the best starting books for those authors. Here's what/who I've gotten into (not all may be specifically mysteries...):

Archer Mayor - Joe Gunther series
Janet Evanovich - Stephanie Plum series
Robert B Parker - Jesse Stone series, Spenser series
Sara Paretsky - VI Warshawski series
Darynda Jones - Charley Davidson series
Randy Wayne White - Doc Ford series
Raymond Chandler - Philip Marlowe series (Really, only seven...?)
Dashiell Hammett - Sam Spade series
Micky Spillane - Mike Hammer series
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (and others) - Sherlock Holmes
Sue Grafton - Kinsey Milhone series
Lawrence Block - Matthew Scudder series and Bernie Rhodenbarr series
Faye Kellerman - Peter Decker series
Mary Higgens Clark (Not really a series and mostly suspense...)
Agatha Christie (Not in years though)


I've obviously missed a number of major seriues authors in my reading. Haven't read John D. MacDonald yet, never got to Jonathan Kellerman or David Baldacci either. Nor Harlan Coban, Michael Connely or Stuart Woods. Read one Tony Hillerman. I've read single works by many other authors as well. Don't know if Ellery Queen really fits since I've only read the short stories. My wife likes Dorothy Sayers and a number of cozy writers that I have the books on the shelf and have not yet read either. Edgar Allen Poe I've read everything, not sure it's really mystery as much as thriller/suspense. I've read Hammond Innes, John LeCarre and Ian Fleming. I've seen movies made from other author's books and not read the books (Hey, I just read the Harry Potter series in the last two weeks!). Dean Koontz and Dan Brown I can't read past the first few chapters.

So, who else should I be letting influence my work...? :)

Jeff
 

Bergerac

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I've glad you put Archer Mayor on your list! He's quite enjoyable and, in my opinion, hasn't gotten the attention he deserves.

A bunch of writers you've listed would be on my DON'T BOTHER list, except that my Don't Bother list would really be a DON'T BOTHER READING THESE UNTIL YOU READ THESE FIRST list since just about all the ones you've mentioned are popular ones.

As I read the harder-boiled stuff, foreign literary, and period MTS, I would say, in terms of current popular stuff (with the exception of MacDonald):

USA/UK
John Sandford (if not Lucas Davenport, then Virgil Flowers)
Ross MacDonald (Lew Archer. If there's any way you can read them in order to the very end it will break your heart.)
Robert Crais (Both Elvis Cole and Joe Pike)
Lee Child
Jonathon Kellerman (Alex Delaware series)
James Lee Burke (anything this brilliant man writes)
Walter Mosley
Dennis Lehane

and, as for the ladies:
Tess Gerritson (particularly THE SURGEON and THE SINNER)
Mo Hayder
Carole O'Connell
Kathy Reichs (for the blisteringly good science)
Chelsea Cain
Karin Slaughter
Val McDermid
Tana French
Susan Hill
Lisa Gardner

IN TRANSLATION
Henning Mankell (Kurt Wallender series at least: Sweden)
Karin Fossum (Inspector Sejer series: Norway)
Arnaldur Indridasson (Inspector Erlender: Iceland)
Garry Disher (Inspector Hal Challis: Australia)
Qiu Xialong (Inspector Chen: China)

To start!
 

Calla Lily

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CS Harris' Sebastian St. Cyr series.
Georgette Heyer's 7 mysteries
Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver series; also her few stand-alones. Nothing Venture is my favorite.
 

Sticks

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Only series, and only major?

Ruth Rendell- Detective Wexford series, also countless stand alone crime/suspense novels (some under the pseudonym Barbara Vine)

Elizabeth George- Detective Lynley series

Other author's names I'd toss in: Andrew Taylor, Iain Pears, and Cara Black.
 

Bergerac

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How could I have forgotten Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver! Wonderful books.

And Ruth Rendell... Inspector Wexford is one of the best!

As for Elizabeth George? Her earlier books, in my opinion, are better than the latter. However, Barbara Havers is one of the most interesting characters in the entire genre.
 

Barbara R.

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Dorothy Sayers should be on there, IMO. She was a wonderful writer (despite a touch of the antisemitism endemic to her age and class) and her characters grow as the series progresses.

If you're willing to read the first in an impending series (Book 2 on the way), may I immodestly suggest A DANGEROUS FICTION? The ppbk is just out in Penguin, and as it's a series set deep in the heart of NYC big publishing, AWers in particular might find it a fun read.
 

Ian Nathaniel Cohen

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"Richard Castle" - the Nikki Heat series. I have no idea who actually writes them, but whoever it is is darn good. You don't have to have seen Castle to read and enjoy them, but you'll appreciate some of the in-jokes more.
 

pdichellis

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Definitely Connelly, Crais, Sandford.

Don Winslow, for his Boone Daniels two-book private eye series, and for Savages and Kings of Cool, a two-book series with great experimental writing style: one-word chapters, prose, poetry, and screenplay bits. (Winslow also has some excellent stand-alones, esp. California Fire and Life, and The Power of the Dog.

John Lescroart for his Dismas Hardy defense attorney mysteries.

Brad Parks for his wise-cracking Carter Ross investigative reporter series, a Shamus Award nominee and winner of Left Coast Crime's Best Humorous Mystery Novel. The humor is sardonic and edgy.
 

WeaselFire

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If you're willing to read the first in an impending series (Book 2 on the way), may I immodestly suggest A DANGEROUS FICTION?
Okay, you win. It's on my Amazon wish list for my next round of purchases. I'll be sure and review it as well. :)

Thanks,

Jeff