The Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Group discussion

My mother, who was an avid mystery reader herself, started me on the genre when I was very young. I read mysteries almost exclusively until getting into science fiction & fantasy in high school. I stopped reading mysteries for years until my wife gave me a copy of Crais's The Monkey's Raincoat. That rekindled my love of mystery and I've been making up for lost time ever since. I like hard-boiled and noir best. Naturally, I'm a huge fan of Robert Crais and Dennis Lehane.

Welcome Sam. I'm a life-long mystery reader too and a fan of Dennis Lehane's Kenzie and Gennaro series.

Glad you found us.

I am also a life-long mystery reader but differ in that I am a huge fan of the golden age writers from the 1920-30s......Christie, Marsh, Allingham, Stout, Queen, etc. But I also like some of the newer writers: Ian Rankin, Reginald Hill, Christopher Fowler, and Boris Akunin. Being,in the main, a reader of history I always keep a mystery nearby as a second book. Love the characters, the plots and the "how", "why" and "who dunnit".

I started reading mysteries when my parents gave me a lovely set of illustrated classics for my 10th birthday. This included a set of Sherlock Holmes' stories and Poe. I was hooked. I graduated to Ellery Queen anthologies, Agatha Christie, Edgar Wallace, Nero Wolfe- all easily available as second-hand copies or at the local library at Hyderabad, where we lived, then. When we moved to Madras, my mother got me the Virgil Tibbs [more for herself, actually] series and historicals from British Council. I read the entire collected works of Conan Doyle. I was introduced to Margery Allingham,Ellis Peters and Josephine Tey only in the 90's. By then I had discoverd, Reginald Hill, P.D. James,Ruth Rendell, Laurie R. King,Ginni Hartzmark, the 'A is for Alibi', series, feminist mysteries such as Kate Fansler series,Sara Paretsky, Liza Cody, the Kate Brannigan series,Laura Lippman, the Sharon McCone series and the one set in Baltimore. I also enjoyed Dorothy Sayers, and Ngaio Marsh, the Richard Jury series and the cat mysteries.Historical mysteries such as the Amelia Peabody series fascinated me, as did the two series set in Italy. I am a mystery addict though I read a lot of genres and literary stuff, and non-fiction.That's why, I began to write historical mysteries.

Hi Sam. Welcome to the group. Yet another life-long fan. I found mysteries in high school thanks to my best friend's mother (my mother was too much of a book snob to love mysteries!), and I haven't stopped since.

My father was a great reader and he introduced me to Jack Higgens and Wilbur Smith more adventure stories but unbelievabely worth the read .I just tried something new every so often and eventually ended up reading stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Richard Laymon, from there it was Agatha Christie and Dennis Wheatly, I now read anything except factual books. I love Karen Slaughter and Tess geriston ,my list is endless I LOVE BOOKS

I started with Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys and then Agatha..as a teen King,Koontz and my love for it just keeps growing. Currently love Gerriston, Graham and many others

Hi Sam. I'm a big Robert Crais fan and love the Joe Pike/Elvis Cole books. If you like those guys I recommend Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series.

I grew up on Poirot, Miss Marple, Morse, and Cadfael. I read everything I could find in charity shops and the local libraries. As an adult I still enjoy trying to second-guess the solutions. I moved on to Holmes, and then Thorndyke, and now I'm having a bit of a Nordic phase :)

Hi Rachel, Yes there certainly have been a wonderful burst of books from the Nordic countries. When you are finished with the Nordic phase you can always move on to an Italian phase - Michael Dibdin, Donna Leon, Andrea Camilleri,Grace Brophy, Gianrico Carofiglio,Conor Fitzgerald and Magdalen Nabb to name a few.