Steig Larsson fans
- Thread starter nancy324
- Start date
I KNOW. I just finished "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" and "The Girl Who Played With Fire," and I'm seriously in mourning for Larsson. Really strong and interesting female characters are so hard to come by, not to mention really good mystery novels. I love her intelligence and independence - my dad described Larsson's books as "Punk-rock Agatha Christie by way of Pippi Longstocking, with computers," and I thought that was pretty apt.
I've been on a Nordic Noir binge - not as good as Larsson, but I've been reading Henning Mankell, Pernille Rygg, and Karin Fossum (while waiting for the US release of "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest").
The closest thing I can think of is Val McDermid's "Wire in the Blood" series of novels - "The Mermaids Singing" and all the subsequent Carol Jordan/Tony Hill books. They're a wee bit darker and more grisly, but she also writes unapologetically strong women (and interesting men, too), with loads of suspense and non-boring procedural cop work.
I've been on a Nordic Noir binge - not as good as Larsson, but I've been reading Henning Mankell, Pernille Rygg, and Karin Fossum (while waiting for the US release of "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest").
The closest thing I can think of is Val McDermid's "Wire in the Blood" series of novels - "The Mermaids Singing" and all the subsequent Carol Jordan/Tony Hill books. They're a wee bit darker and more grisly, but she also writes unapologetically strong women (and interesting men, too), with loads of suspense and non-boring procedural cop work.
maddiesmum
Cathlete
OK Nancy:
I totally get the mourning thing. I grieve with you. This post is in response to your recent pm. I have been thinking on that assignment you gave me ever since I received it! Here goes.
The Wire in the Blood stuff is definitely dark. I watched some of it made into TV show in UK and had to stop watching. It creeped me out big time. But, I have not read the books, so maybe that is one to take a look at.
You need another strong protagonist. I have recommended the following books on here many times but I don't think anyone takes me up on it. Perhaps they are put off by negative associations with one of the characters, historically. Forget everything you thought about Sherlock Holmes. The books I am about to recommend to you feature him and his incredibly brilliant, academically gifted, more than an intellectual match and partner in crime, Mary Russell. But, Mary is the star of the show.
You need to go take a look at everything written by Laurie R. King, both her superior crime writing series about a female cop in San Fran and her Mary Russell series.
The Mary Russell books are ones that I read once per year and my thrill and enjoyment of them never waivers. Do you need more recommendation than that?!!!
Start with the beginning: The Beekeeper's Apprentice.
Mary, aged 13, first meets Mr.Holmes when walking, nose in book, across the Sussex downs, green lilting and rolling hills in the southeast of England, where I come from. he is observing his bees and she nearly trips over him. Thus begins their relationship. He appoints himself, in the absence of her parents who died in a mysterious car accident south of San Francisco, where Mary is from, to be investigated in a later novel (Locked Rooms) as tutor in all things to the young mind which devours all knowledge thrown at it. As she grows up, she insists Holmes allow her to help him in his investigations, and so the partnership begins.
These are superior novels. Laurie R. King is a writer's writer. The woman has done her research I tell you. Not only will you be entertained by the growing relationship between the feminist Russell and the cantankerous but not misogynistic Holmes, but you will travel with them t solve mysteries of personal, historical and political importance. Sherlock's brother, Mycroft Holmes, works for the British government during the time period in which these novels are set (turn of the century up to second world war) and when Russell and Holmes are being targetted, they hand pick a political assignment to undertake abroad under the auspices of Mycroft's position in Gvt.
Crime cannot always be solved by just asking a few questions about the present or the recent past. Sometimes, and in all the best crime fiction, you have to go back much further back in time. One of my favourites of all the Russell novels and by far the saddest is "Justice Hall" in which we learn about how men were treated during the first world war, both the common foot soldier and those from the aristocracy who would normally enter immediately at the level of officer thanks to the accident of their privileged birth. What might happen to the son of an Earl who instead wants to sign up and be treated as just one of the common soldiers, doing bis patriotic duty? Well, that might just give someone the opportunity for murder.....
In the second to last of the novels, Locked Rooms, another favourite, Mary is forced to head back to San Fran to deal with the consequences of the accidental" death of her parents and brother. Mary has suffered nightmares for many years because she has long believed that she alone was responsible for their deaths. The family was out driving along the coast road hugging the cliffs, think Monterey, and Mary shouted to get her father's attention. He lost focus and the car veered off the cliff, plunging to impale itself on the rocks below and causing the death pf all but Mary. But, might there have been another explanation for the "accident"? And what might her father's standing in the community and neighbourhood, not to mention the events in the aftermath of the great earthquake of San Francisco in 1900 have to do with her father's death? The Locked Rooms of the title refers to delving back not only through history, but also the closed off chapters of Mary's memory to uncover motives for murder.
The only novel in the series I do not much care for is ironically called The Moor. I like it least because in this novel King situates a mystery and investigation that seems to directly mimic a Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes mystery and to my mind, what makes the Mary Russell series so fabulous is how Laurie R. King takes a well known fictional character and makes him far more interesting, less conventional and more modern than Conan Doyle's creation. Not to mention: there is Mary!!
So, Nancy, get yourself off to amazon.com and order The Beekeeper's Apprentice today. Stay with the series, let the Mary Russell character grow on you and pick up some knowledge on world history while you are at it!!
Have I ever steered you wrong?!?!?!?!
My second recommendation for you today is all the novels by Kate Atkinson. Bloody fabulous writer. Unique. I have just re-read all of her novels from "Behind the Scenes at the Museum" to her latest Jackson Brodie novel "When will there be good news?" Atkinson pulls no punches. She blasts through the walls of people's houses and hearts and holds a microscope up to family life, human aspirations and our sense of self and both mocks us, highlights the total banality and utter cruelty of reality and humanity and how we treat eachother, at the same time as she shows the fragility of reality and what we ever hope to achieve with it, and the inescapable humour that abounds in human relations. She doesn't let her characters get away with anything. She's like a very , ultra-modern and ascerbic Jane Austen: she chronicles social realism but with enormous humour and fondness for the struggling humans she finds therein. Love her work. If your local library has her Jackson Brodie novels on book on CD, get them like a shot. Atkinson has been so very lucky in her narrators and they will completely bring modern British realities to life for you. Start with "Case Histories." A very different sort of crime writing.
Clare
I totally get the mourning thing. I grieve with you. This post is in response to your recent pm. I have been thinking on that assignment you gave me ever since I received it! Here goes.
The Wire in the Blood stuff is definitely dark. I watched some of it made into TV show in UK and had to stop watching. It creeped me out big time. But, I have not read the books, so maybe that is one to take a look at.
You need another strong protagonist. I have recommended the following books on here many times but I don't think anyone takes me up on it. Perhaps they are put off by negative associations with one of the characters, historically. Forget everything you thought about Sherlock Holmes. The books I am about to recommend to you feature him and his incredibly brilliant, academically gifted, more than an intellectual match and partner in crime, Mary Russell. But, Mary is the star of the show.
You need to go take a look at everything written by Laurie R. King, both her superior crime writing series about a female cop in San Fran and her Mary Russell series.
The Mary Russell books are ones that I read once per year and my thrill and enjoyment of them never waivers. Do you need more recommendation than that?!!!
Start with the beginning: The Beekeeper's Apprentice.
Mary, aged 13, first meets Mr.Holmes when walking, nose in book, across the Sussex downs, green lilting and rolling hills in the southeast of England, where I come from. he is observing his bees and she nearly trips over him. Thus begins their relationship. He appoints himself, in the absence of her parents who died in a mysterious car accident south of San Francisco, where Mary is from, to be investigated in a later novel (Locked Rooms) as tutor in all things to the young mind which devours all knowledge thrown at it. As she grows up, she insists Holmes allow her to help him in his investigations, and so the partnership begins.
These are superior novels. Laurie R. King is a writer's writer. The woman has done her research I tell you. Not only will you be entertained by the growing relationship between the feminist Russell and the cantankerous but not misogynistic Holmes, but you will travel with them t solve mysteries of personal, historical and political importance. Sherlock's brother, Mycroft Holmes, works for the British government during the time period in which these novels are set (turn of the century up to second world war) and when Russell and Holmes are being targetted, they hand pick a political assignment to undertake abroad under the auspices of Mycroft's position in Gvt.
Crime cannot always be solved by just asking a few questions about the present or the recent past. Sometimes, and in all the best crime fiction, you have to go back much further back in time. One of my favourites of all the Russell novels and by far the saddest is "Justice Hall" in which we learn about how men were treated during the first world war, both the common foot soldier and those from the aristocracy who would normally enter immediately at the level of officer thanks to the accident of their privileged birth. What might happen to the son of an Earl who instead wants to sign up and be treated as just one of the common soldiers, doing bis patriotic duty? Well, that might just give someone the opportunity for murder.....
In the second to last of the novels, Locked Rooms, another favourite, Mary is forced to head back to San Fran to deal with the consequences of the accidental" death of her parents and brother. Mary has suffered nightmares for many years because she has long believed that she alone was responsible for their deaths. The family was out driving along the coast road hugging the cliffs, think Monterey, and Mary shouted to get her father's attention. He lost focus and the car veered off the cliff, plunging to impale itself on the rocks below and causing the death pf all but Mary. But, might there have been another explanation for the "accident"? And what might her father's standing in the community and neighbourhood, not to mention the events in the aftermath of the great earthquake of San Francisco in 1900 have to do with her father's death? The Locked Rooms of the title refers to delving back not only through history, but also the closed off chapters of Mary's memory to uncover motives for murder.
The only novel in the series I do not much care for is ironically called The Moor. I like it least because in this novel King situates a mystery and investigation that seems to directly mimic a Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes mystery and to my mind, what makes the Mary Russell series so fabulous is how Laurie R. King takes a well known fictional character and makes him far more interesting, less conventional and more modern than Conan Doyle's creation. Not to mention: there is Mary!!
So, Nancy, get yourself off to amazon.com and order The Beekeeper's Apprentice today. Stay with the series, let the Mary Russell character grow on you and pick up some knowledge on world history while you are at it!!
Have I ever steered you wrong?!?!?!?!
My second recommendation for you today is all the novels by Kate Atkinson. Bloody fabulous writer. Unique. I have just re-read all of her novels from "Behind the Scenes at the Museum" to her latest Jackson Brodie novel "When will there be good news?" Atkinson pulls no punches. She blasts through the walls of people's houses and hearts and holds a microscope up to family life, human aspirations and our sense of self and both mocks us, highlights the total banality and utter cruelty of reality and humanity and how we treat eachother, at the same time as she shows the fragility of reality and what we ever hope to achieve with it, and the inescapable humour that abounds in human relations. She doesn't let her characters get away with anything. She's like a very , ultra-modern and ascerbic Jane Austen: she chronicles social realism but with enormous humour and fondness for the struggling humans she finds therein. Love her work. If your local library has her Jackson Brodie novels on book on CD, get them like a shot. Atkinson has been so very lucky in her narrators and they will completely bring modern British realities to life for you. Start with "Case Histories." A very different sort of crime writing.
Clare
maddiesmum
Cathlete
Nancy:
I stopped with that post and posted it because I suddenly became afraid I might delete it by accident and that would have pissed me off because it was so long, I type so slowly and I never would have calmed down enough to write it all out again!!!!
I have another author to recommend to you: Tana French. Irish author, crime writing that reads like a wider themed novel, not at all your typical James Patterson/Linda Fairstein/Michael Connelly/Robert Crais detective fiction. Her two novels are set in contemporary Ireland and different realities create different crimes and are solved with the
local police force and Scotland yard, not a lone ranger type of PI practicing karate on his balcony (Elvis Cole from the Robert Crais novels: I love this character too, read these books also and meet Joe Pike, Elvis Cole's side kick and man of very few words.....).
"Into the Woods" was French's first novel. I liked it. I like her second "The Likeness" even more. It deals with a character who appears centrally in the first novel but "The Likeness" is all about her and her mysterious and suddenly dead doppelganger. An intense book. Don't quite know how to describe it to you other than to say that I will be snatching up the next book French puts out and am waiting with baited breath.
A special mention must be made here for Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar series. Myron is a sports agent in New York and he gets involved in crime solving in and around the lives of the sports stars, among others, he represents. The crimes are not necessarily of a sporting nature. His sidekicks, Esperanza, secretary of his agency and Win, upper crust financial whiz whose office upstairs from Myron's handles all Myron's clients' money and financial investments. Win is a black belt in practically every martial art going and characters keep making the mistake of messing with him. I especially like Myron's parents. How many PI's and heros of crime novels hang out with their parents?!?!? You will love the Myron Bolitar books because they are just bloody hilarious. What more can I say? Start with "Deal Breaker" (1995) and probably don't read the latest "Long Lost" because it is the weakest link and what was Harlan Coben thinking?!?
These recommendations should keep you going for a while Nancy. Let me know what you think of them after you have read them, OK?
Sorry! One more recommendation: Maggie O'Farrell, Scottish writer of enormous talent. Mt fave is "After You'd Gone" and boy, did I cry buckets with that one. Also try "The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox." O'Farrell is NOT a crime writer! Superb writing though.
Oh, just thought of another: Michael Robotham. Fabulous again. "Suspect," Lost" and "The Night Ferry." I'm going to leave you to read about them on amazon because, quite frankly my dear, I am all typed out!
Clare
I stopped with that post and posted it because I suddenly became afraid I might delete it by accident and that would have pissed me off because it was so long, I type so slowly and I never would have calmed down enough to write it all out again!!!!
I have another author to recommend to you: Tana French. Irish author, crime writing that reads like a wider themed novel, not at all your typical James Patterson/Linda Fairstein/Michael Connelly/Robert Crais detective fiction. Her two novels are set in contemporary Ireland and different realities create different crimes and are solved with the
local police force and Scotland yard, not a lone ranger type of PI practicing karate on his balcony (Elvis Cole from the Robert Crais novels: I love this character too, read these books also and meet Joe Pike, Elvis Cole's side kick and man of very few words.....).
"Into the Woods" was French's first novel. I liked it. I like her second "The Likeness" even more. It deals with a character who appears centrally in the first novel but "The Likeness" is all about her and her mysterious and suddenly dead doppelganger. An intense book. Don't quite know how to describe it to you other than to say that I will be snatching up the next book French puts out and am waiting with baited breath.
A special mention must be made here for Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar series. Myron is a sports agent in New York and he gets involved in crime solving in and around the lives of the sports stars, among others, he represents. The crimes are not necessarily of a sporting nature. His sidekicks, Esperanza, secretary of his agency and Win, upper crust financial whiz whose office upstairs from Myron's handles all Myron's clients' money and financial investments. Win is a black belt in practically every martial art going and characters keep making the mistake of messing with him. I especially like Myron's parents. How many PI's and heros of crime novels hang out with their parents?!?!? You will love the Myron Bolitar books because they are just bloody hilarious. What more can I say? Start with "Deal Breaker" (1995) and probably don't read the latest "Long Lost" because it is the weakest link and what was Harlan Coben thinking?!?
These recommendations should keep you going for a while Nancy. Let me know what you think of them after you have read them, OK?
Sorry! One more recommendation: Maggie O'Farrell, Scottish writer of enormous talent. Mt fave is "After You'd Gone" and boy, did I cry buckets with that one. Also try "The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox." O'Farrell is NOT a crime writer! Superb writing though.
Oh, just thought of another: Michael Robotham. Fabulous again. "Suspect," Lost" and "The Night Ferry." I'm going to leave you to read about them on amazon because, quite frankly my dear, I am all typed out!
Clare
buffettgirl
Cathlete
Nancy, I just finished Tattoo, at your suggestion, and thanks! At least I have two more to go before I have to mourn.
nancy324
Cathlete
You are very welcome, Robin, but I can't take all the credit. The book was recommended to me by several people on this forum, including those who posted in this thread.
Clare, you haven't said a word about whether you picked up Hornet's Nest in the UK. I'm assuming you did, and you've read it already. Do tell! Thank you so much for the recommendations. Fortunately, when I order from Amazon, the book is on my Kindle 60 seconds later, so I don't have to order until I'm finished with Played With Fire, which I'm reading as slowly as possible.
Yes, I do need a strong female character in a terrifically written mystery, and I will read the books you've recommended, but, I just have to say, Salander is more than that to me. I'm only half way through the books, but she seems to me to be an outcast and an outlaw who stops at nothing to crusade for women's rights, and to mete out her own brand of justice. That's all I'll say without getting into spoilers, but she has a particular appeal that goes beyond the norm for me.
Afreet, I love your father's description!
Clare, you haven't said a word about whether you picked up Hornet's Nest in the UK. I'm assuming you did, and you've read it already. Do tell! Thank you so much for the recommendations. Fortunately, when I order from Amazon, the book is on my Kindle 60 seconds later, so I don't have to order until I'm finished with Played With Fire, which I'm reading as slowly as possible.
Yes, I do need a strong female character in a terrifically written mystery, and I will read the books you've recommended, but, I just have to say, Salander is more than that to me. I'm only half way through the books, but she seems to me to be an outcast and an outlaw who stops at nothing to crusade for women's rights, and to mete out her own brand of justice. That's all I'll say without getting into spoilers, but she has a particular appeal that goes beyond the norm for me.
Afreet, I love your father's description!
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Yeah, the books are creepy, but the TV show definitely amped up the creepiness to the max! I found several themes in the books very disturbing, but keep in mind that only a few episodes of the TV series are actually based on books - and the shows have only a fraction of the character development of the books.
Obviously every author isn't for everybody, and my feeling won't be hurt if nobody likes them - but I liked'em.
I read all the Holmes/Russell books, too, and I liked them. I think my favorite was "A Monstrous Regiment of Women."
But in the subsequent books I got annoyed with the main character and haven't gone back for more. I don't know, there's something kind of self-congratulatory about all the "we're phenomenally super-intelligent and everyone else is basically like a charming pet" stuff. I GET IT. YOU'RE SMART. Now can we get on with the mystery? I think my impression happened because I read several at once, and maybe I should've paced myself?
But yes, they are probably the best re-take on Holmes that has yet been written. And definitely worth reading!
wake up eager
Cathlete
Thanks for the ideas...
I also loved Girl with Dragon Tatoo and Played with Fire. Isn't there a third one out there, yet to be released, or am I mistaken??
Thanks for the recommendations on other authors... I'm printing now and will use to help buy future reads...
Have read almost all Connelly, David Baldalci (sp?), Grafton, Kellerman and Cohen. I get attached to the characters and miss them.
I know I will miss Lisbeth - those two were amazing reads.
I also loved Girl with Dragon Tatoo and Played with Fire. Isn't there a third one out there, yet to be released, or am I mistaken??
Thanks for the recommendations on other authors... I'm printing now and will use to help buy future reads...
Have read almost all Connelly, David Baldalci (sp?), Grafton, Kellerman and Cohen. I get attached to the characters and miss them.
I know I will miss Lisbeth - those two were amazing reads.
sundari
Cathlete
I am such a fan. I loved both "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" and "The Girl Who Played With fire".
And I can't wait for May 25th for the release of his third and last "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest".
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nancy324
Cathlete
You DO know you can buy it from Amazon.uk, right? It's about double the price after shipping and currency conversion and such. I'm giving it serious consideration.
Laurie R. King--Mary Russell Series
Nancy,
I just wanted to say, I know exactly what you're feeling! Stieg Larsson is an amazing writer and Lisbeth Salander is unforgettable. I've heard he finished half of the 4th book before he died, and planned for a series of 10 novels total. But those are barely sketched out. So...we'll have to see what we'll ever get.
On the other hand, I want to throw my hat in with Clare's concerning the Laurie R. King series featuring Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes. They are wonderfully written and cleverly conceived. Order today!
Oh, and anyone else who likes these books, the next one comes out April 27th! The God of the Hive....
Mattea
Nancy,
I just wanted to say, I know exactly what you're feeling! Stieg Larsson is an amazing writer and Lisbeth Salander is unforgettable. I've heard he finished half of the 4th book before he died, and planned for a series of 10 novels total. But those are barely sketched out. So...we'll have to see what we'll ever get.
On the other hand, I want to throw my hat in with Clare's concerning the Laurie R. King series featuring Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes. They are wonderfully written and cleverly conceived. Order today!
Oh, and anyone else who likes these books, the next one comes out April 27th! The God of the Hive....
Mattea
nancy324
Cathlete
Nancy,
On the other hand, I want to throw my hat in with Clare's concerning the Laurie R. King series featuring Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes. They are wonderfully written and cleverly conceived. Order today!
Oh, and anyone else who likes these books, the next one comes out April 27th! The God of the Hive....
Mattea
Thanks, Mattea! The more opinions the better. I guess I'll be reading about Mary Russell in the near future.
buffettgirl
Cathlete
Nancy, I loved all of the Mary Russell books too.
I got Played with Fire today! When I reserved it, the library said estimated wait was 17 days! I guess whoever had it zoomed right through it. I have to finish Lolita first though.
I don't know how you guys can read multiple books at one time. I will, rarely, read a non-fiction at the same time I'm reading fiction, but I sure couldn't juggle 2 or three fictions novels at one time and remember the characters and what they did last.
I got Played with Fire today! When I reserved it, the library said estimated wait was 17 days! I guess whoever had it zoomed right through it. I have to finish Lolita first though.
I don't know how you guys can read multiple books at one time. I will, rarely, read a non-fiction at the same time I'm reading fiction, but I sure couldn't juggle 2 or three fictions novels at one time and remember the characters and what they did last.
maddiesmum
Cathlete
Nancy:
I totally get what you are saying about Lisbeth. The novels arouse in me such a sense of moral outrage on her behalf, I want to kill somebody! But, she is more than capable of handling herself. Interesting that it takes a male author to create such an arch feminist icon.
Yes, I picked up "Hornet's Nest" when in the UK for Xmas but I am not devouring it just yet. I am trying to pace myself a little. I am well ware of my own "instant gratification," gotta have it/see it/read it/do it now personality and am always bereft when a fabulous series comes to an end, so I am in no hurry to wave goodbye to Lisbeth Salander.
Afreet: I hear what you say but I have never sensed any intellectual snobbery on the behalf of Laurie R. King's Mary Russell. Holmes, perhaps, but the point about King's books is that she humanizes him far more than Conan Doyle ever could. Mary is capable of great empathy and if she chooses to meet the world through her sizeable intellect, then that is OK with me. She's a smart woman, an Oxford Don, why should she have to dumb herself down in order to solve mysteries and intermingle in society? Of course, I realize this is a fictional character we are talking about.....
Nancy:
It has just occurred to me that another of my fave authors of all time is Deborah Crombie. There's a definite pattern here in all the books I am recommending to you. Crombie is Texan by birth but situates all her novels in London, based around 2 main characters Duncan Kincaid and Jemma Jones. He's Scotland Yard, DCI and Jones is his Sergeant. The crimes they solve are intensely personal to the victims and killers, they are not at all of the outlandish serial killer type. They are very real: an individual is threatened, a murder occurs to keep the secret, protect someone, protect the self. Again, as with the Mary Russell novels, but even more so here, you have to delve through history and go back in time in order to solve the crime in the present. This, to me, makes the mystery and the crimes so much more believable, they belong to the world I inhabit and can readily imagine. Crombie totally nails the feel of being in and around London, working for the British police force, etc. Reading these books and the Tana French novels reminds me of watching Helen Mirren in "Prime Suspect," and if you haven't seen these drmatizations, you need to do so NOW! Before they get ruined in the remaking..... Back to Crombie: In addition to the crimes they solve together, they develop a relationship between them and it is not all plain sailing and not at all of the bed hopping kind. His ex-wife is murdered in the first book, he inherits a 13 year old child he never knew he had, Jemma already has a 2 year old and has to decide whether a relationship with Kincaid is a threat to her career: how can they merge their lives and those of their children ?
Again, I realize I am recommending to you a lot of books that either are written by British authors or deal with British fictional realities/history, but then I'm a Londoner and these feel so much more real to me than anything Lyndsey Boxer gets up to in San Francisco (James Patterson's number series) or Alexandra Cooper in New York (Linda Fairstein).
And there you have it. Book threads remain the most interesting on these forums.
What book blogs/forums do you guys visit regularly? Got any recommendations for me?
Clare
I totally get what you are saying about Lisbeth. The novels arouse in me such a sense of moral outrage on her behalf, I want to kill somebody! But, she is more than capable of handling herself. Interesting that it takes a male author to create such an arch feminist icon.
Yes, I picked up "Hornet's Nest" when in the UK for Xmas but I am not devouring it just yet. I am trying to pace myself a little. I am well ware of my own "instant gratification," gotta have it/see it/read it/do it now personality and am always bereft when a fabulous series comes to an end, so I am in no hurry to wave goodbye to Lisbeth Salander.
Afreet: I hear what you say but I have never sensed any intellectual snobbery on the behalf of Laurie R. King's Mary Russell. Holmes, perhaps, but the point about King's books is that she humanizes him far more than Conan Doyle ever could. Mary is capable of great empathy and if she chooses to meet the world through her sizeable intellect, then that is OK with me. She's a smart woman, an Oxford Don, why should she have to dumb herself down in order to solve mysteries and intermingle in society? Of course, I realize this is a fictional character we are talking about.....
Nancy:
It has just occurred to me that another of my fave authors of all time is Deborah Crombie. There's a definite pattern here in all the books I am recommending to you. Crombie is Texan by birth but situates all her novels in London, based around 2 main characters Duncan Kincaid and Jemma Jones. He's Scotland Yard, DCI and Jones is his Sergeant. The crimes they solve are intensely personal to the victims and killers, they are not at all of the outlandish serial killer type. They are very real: an individual is threatened, a murder occurs to keep the secret, protect someone, protect the self. Again, as with the Mary Russell novels, but even more so here, you have to delve through history and go back in time in order to solve the crime in the present. This, to me, makes the mystery and the crimes so much more believable, they belong to the world I inhabit and can readily imagine. Crombie totally nails the feel of being in and around London, working for the British police force, etc. Reading these books and the Tana French novels reminds me of watching Helen Mirren in "Prime Suspect," and if you haven't seen these drmatizations, you need to do so NOW! Before they get ruined in the remaking..... Back to Crombie: In addition to the crimes they solve together, they develop a relationship between them and it is not all plain sailing and not at all of the bed hopping kind. His ex-wife is murdered in the first book, he inherits a 13 year old child he never knew he had, Jemma already has a 2 year old and has to decide whether a relationship with Kincaid is a threat to her career: how can they merge their lives and those of their children ?
Again, I realize I am recommending to you a lot of books that either are written by British authors or deal with British fictional realities/history, but then I'm a Londoner and these feel so much more real to me than anything Lyndsey Boxer gets up to in San Francisco (James Patterson's number series) or Alexandra Cooper in New York (Linda Fairstein).
And there you have it. Book threads remain the most interesting on these forums.
What book blogs/forums do you guys visit regularly? Got any recommendations for me?
Clare
buffettgirl
Cathlete
What about Elizabeth George? Another of my favorite authors.
I was just thinking about her, too. I haven't really liked her last couple (What Came Before He Shot Her, Careless in Red) but I absolutely think Barbara Havers is one of the best-written female characters I've read. The first several Lynley/Havers books are among my faves of all time - Well-Schooled in Murder, Deception on His Mind, Payment in Blood...good stuff!
Tricia, I love the TV series, too - I have kind of a thing for Robson Green
. But the books are terrific - I ended up ordering a lot of them from Amazon UK or finding them at the library.
sundari
Cathlete
Thanks Nancy I had not thought Amazon UK since I've never ordered or had to go there.
Thanks to everyone for all the reading suggestions.
When I went to Barnes & Noble and to Borders to see what they suggested reading after Steig's books these are two authors they mentioned:
Tana French and Carlos Ruiz Zafon
sundari
Cathlete
Clare - thank you so much for taking so much time to describe and recommend these books. I really appreciate it. I'm not in London but do enjoy novels set abroad. I get that they are very different than the James Patterson Lindsay San Francisco setting.
As far as book forums I haven't found any. But the looks of it we've got something going on here. Would love to know of any though if you come across a good one.