The Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Group discussion

Your moderators have decided to do something very different this time around so please read carefully before posting. Nominations are open through December 8th.

For the December/January group read, your job is to nominate an author you'd like to read -- not a book, but an author. Once the top two have been selected via the poll, you can read any book you want by the winners and post about it on the group read threads. You must select authors we have not read in the last year, and to make your job easier, I am including the list of authors previously read in this post. This is a bit more of a challenge, so it will be interesting to see who you come up with! Have fun.

One more thing: Self promotions will NOT be considered. I repeat: do not nominate your own books.

Here's the list of authors we have read in the last year so you can avoid nominating them:

Jussi Adler-Olsen
Rennie Airth
David Baldacci
Agatha Christie
Paul Cleave
Daphne DuMaurier
Umberto Eco
Robert Galbraith
Steve Hamilton
Paula Hawkins
Terry Hayes
Patricia Highsmith
Caroline Kepnes
Laurie King
Stephen King
Camilla Lackberg
Dennis Lehane
Kathy Reichs
Daniel Silva
Karin Slaughter
Tom Rob Smith
Josephine Tey
Martin Walker

John Connolly

I'd like to nominate Jonathan Kellerman.

I like Judy's suggestion of John Connolly. He is a great writer. I would like to nominate Michael Connelly.

Craig Johnson

Martin wrote: "Misdirection Brilliant reviews on Goodreads. And one on the website www.martinlink.co.uk from Dave Gaylor (Roy Grace)"

With apologies, Martin, I did note in my initial post for this thread that
"Self promotions will NOT be considered. I repeat: do not nominate your own books."

It's just our policy here.

I second the nomination for Craig Johnson

John Grisham

Really enjoy Craig Johnson as well. I would like to nominate James Lee Burke.

Tess Gerritsen

I'll nominate Michael Robotham.

Maha wrote: "Edger Allan Pope"

Pope or Poe? I just looked up Edgar Allan Pope -- and there's nothing there.

Maha wrote: "Sorry lol poe, Edger Allan Poe"

:)

You never know, it could have been someone's pseudonym!

Michael Connelly

Ruth Rendell has a new one, Dark Corners. All of hers are good reads.

M.J. Carter

Maha wrote: "No he's a sure thing, I studied him in history of literature. He writes short stories and poem like "the raven". Using that name, Poe :))"

Right. I was referring to Edgar Allan Pope. There's a Japanese writer who uses (this is not a nomination, by the way) the name Edogawa Ranpo.

I nominate John Lescroart.

Robert Crais

Maha wrote: "Really ?! :o ! Never knew that."

Yep: you can read about him here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edogawa...

Ann Cleeves, author of the Shetland series & the Vera series & Tana French, author of the Dublin Murder Squad series :-)

I grit my teeth when I see stuff like this. The name started out with two misspellings. Now you've gotten it down to one. The name is Edgar Allan Poe, not Edger Allan Poe. He's one of America's greatest writers. The Baltimore Ravens are named after his poem The Raven. An edger, by the way, is a garden tool, not a name.

Russell wrote: "I grit my teeth when I see stuff like this. The name started out with three misspellings - one in each of his names. Now you've gotten it down to two. The name is Edgar Allen Poe, not Edger Allan P..."

No offense, but I'm sitting here looking at my collection of Poe stories written by Edgar Allan (with an A) Poe. And we might be a bit more tolerant in case English is not a first language.

Joe R. Lansdale. Lansdale is an accomplished writer, the author of the popular Hap & Leonard series as well as several really good standalone novels such as The Bottoms, Sunset and Sawdust and A Fine Dark Line.

I'm also very glad to see John Connolly, Michael Connelly and Craig Johnson nominated.

Laurie King

Andrew E. Kaufman

I nominate Tana French

I nominate Jordan Dane.

I adore Craig Johnson's work and would be delighted to co-moderate. And has it honestly been a year since I moderated Michael Connelly's Burning Room? Are you sure? I'm going to toss out Sandra Parshall. it's been a hard physically challenging year for her. She would surely be available for a discussion side chat, I suspect.

Pierre LeMaitre

Ian Rankin

Ian Rankin

I would like to nominate Michael Connelly

Tess Gerritsen

Stephen King

I would like to nominate Susan Hill (I just discovered her Superintendent Simon Serrailler mysteries, which are great, as are many of her stand alone books) and Sharon (SJ) Bolton, whose DC Lacey Flint series is also terrific, as are her stand alones.

Patricia Highsmith

Patricia Highsmith & Stephen King both on the read in recent past list provided by the moderators, thus not eligible. & the whole Edgar Allan Poe discussion reminds me of the scene in Sophie's Choice where she goes to the New York Public library and asks for a book by "Emile Dickens" and is treated contemptuously by the librarian. She was dealing with her third foreign language at that point, as I recall, and I thought it was wonderful that she was seeking out Emily Dickinson's poetry, even if she got it a little wrong. We should encourage & help our fellow readers, I remember trying to read novels in Spanish in college, dealing with the subjunctive in 18th century literature in English can be challenge enough, let alone in another language, it gave me migraines. Bravo to anyone who reads, and double bravo for reading in another language.

Hi! I would like to suggest Nevada Barr. However, I really love many of the other authors suggested. Kay

So far we have a wealth of authors I like to read, it will be great no matter who wins out. ;-)

Georgia wrote: "Laurie King"

So sorry, Georgia. Laurie King is on the list of authors I posted. Feel free to nominate someone else, though.

I have never read anything by Michael Connolly but he was recommended to me by a Goodreads friend and I happen to own two of his books I got at Goodwill. The Burning Room The Drop So I nominate Mr. Michael Connolly!

Just a reminder, my friends: this is still just nominating time -- the voting is yet to come.

Many names mentioned here are same old, same old. Slightly different hero, facing a two-degree change in whodunit. If you want something truly different, read one of Alan Bradley's murder mysteries featuring 11-year-old sleuth and poison aficionado, Flavia de Luce. Elegant writing, nice unwinding of plot, and superb characters combine for a bull's-eye on the intelligent mystery meter. We're not supposed to recommend a specific book but it is a series so the first one might be worth checking out.

Thomas Harris

Nancy wrote: "Russell wrote: "I grit my teeth when I see stuff like this. The name started out with three misspellings - one in each of his names. Now you've gotten it down to two. The name is Edgar Allen Poe, n..."

All the more reason for people to click on "add book/author"

I nominate Arnaldur Indridason, an Icelandic series.
Gail

I like the J.P Beaumont series by J.A. Jance

Angela wrote: "I have never read anything by Michael Connolly but he was recommended to me by a Goodreads friend and I happen to own two of his books I got at Goodwill.

The Burning Room and The Burning Room were actually written by Michael Connelly who is a far better author than Michael Connolly.

John Sandford