The Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Group discussion

My Book Group usually reads popular or literary fiction, but want to try something in the Crime genre. Can you recommend a title they would enjoy, and that would hopefully encourage them to read more books in the same genre? So far I've considered suggesting In Cold Blood (Truman Capote), A Place of Execution (Val McDermid) or Midwinter of the Spirit (Phil Rickman).

I'm not certain if you are intentionally wanting to be on the police procedural side of things versus mystery, or if you're open to the entire category of crime/mystery/detective books, so I hope one or more of these are in the realm of the gateway drug you were seeking. :)

if they are open to a classic short story collection, perhaps Rashōmon and Seventeen Other Stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. Nobody doesn't like Akutagawa, as they say.

If historical crime/mystery novels appeal, maybe the first in Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series: March Violets.

Many, many readers adore Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith. I am in the minority that couldn't go there, because kids. But for every 1 of me, there are 50 that press it into every friends' nands at the first opportunity.

If they like newest litfic, I adored The Plotters, published in January, by Un-su Kim. Several dead bodies, no mystery, no police, no investigations, but crime and violence galore, and an alternative universe South Korea.

For a 2018 release set in Appalachia, Country Dark by Chris Offutt is fantastic. It's crime, but not a mystery and not a detective novel.

For another classic, from the French author, Frédéric Dard, Bird in a Cage is a treat, reprinted by Pushkin. It's a mid-century, smart, murder mystery that takes place in Paris, and compels you to read it in one sitting.

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Faith wrote: "Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz"

Agreed, a wonderful book club read.

Thanks Carol and Faith - some varied and interesting suggestions, some of which I need to check out myself. "Gateway drug" perfectly sums up my cunning plan!

Go for the more literary crime novels like Mystic River by Dennis Lehane, I recently rewatched the movie and loved that too or something by Tana French, maybe her latest one The Witch Elm. Both are character based narratives so hopefully you would enjoy them.

Thanks Aditya. That would also give me an excuse to buy something that is already on my Want To Read list. I've read a couple of Lehanes and have Live By Night sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read.

I certainly second a few of these - Val McDermid, Tom Rob Smith and Dennis Lehane in particular. I think the secret is to find authors that are simply wonderful writers - who are writing great fiction that just happens to fall within the 'crime' genre.



I'd also add Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie books, starting with Case Histories.


Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin is a wonderful book set in Mississippi.


The Name of the Rose & Foucault's Pendulum are both wonderful, clever, intriguing, gripping and literary mystery novels by the great Umberto Eco.


And, of course, everyone should read Sherlock Holmes - so A Study in Scarlet - and Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone, which hold up far better than most Victorian literature.

Thanks Paul. Yes, that's exactly what I want to do - pick something really well written that would encourage someone to read more of the Crime genre. You've listed some of my favourites as well.

Literary crime fiction, not well known but very good:

The Ploughmen by Kim Zupan

Thanks Faith. Not heard of that one.

I’m raising an eyebrow at recommending Lehane to anyone on the literary side of things, both because in his recent novels (the last decade) sometimes phones it in and his writing isn’t really his strength, but agree on Case Histories and Name of the Rose.

I'll perhaps take a rain check on Lehane then, and just read him myself ...

I agree Lehane's latest one is a mess and his gangster series had its ups and downs but Mystic River is really good IMO.