Crime, Thrillers, Horror and Mystery Recommendations

LoniJo · Post by **LoniJo** » 01 Sep 2012, 20:30

I just read "Flowertown" by S.G. Redling. I hadn't heard of this author before but I really enjoyed the book. There weren't many gaps in the action, I even found myself wondering if the main character wasn't crazy as well as being a stoner! Anyway, it's a very good read, suspenseful and definitely worth reading!!

peterchast · Post by **peterchast** » 02 Sep 2012, 01:28

I have never been big on crime or mystery novels, but last month a good friend gave me Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep. After the first few sentences I was hooked and I loved it all the way through! The mystery isn't very mysterious (which may have been why I liked it so much), but the plot is quite complex. His prose and dialogue is quintessential pulp fiction, but it never seemed overtly cheesy. Check it out!

johnmatthews920 · Post by **johnmatthews920** » 04 Sep 2012, 04:58

I really liked this. Thank you.

Carrie R · Post by **Carrie R** » 03 Oct 2012, 09:30

The Harry Hole series by Jo Nesbo is a great read for fans of Nordic thrillers. I've read The Snowman and The Leopard, which I believe are the 3rd and 4th in the series. Now I see that the earlier books have been translated into English, so I plan to read those as well. Dark and intense.

Fran · Post by **Fran** » 03 Oct 2012, 09:35

Carrie R wrote:The Harry Hole series by Jo Nesbo is a great read for fans of Nordic thrillers. I've read The Snowman and The Leopard, which I believe are the 3rd and 4th in the series. Now I see that the earlier books have been translated into English, so I plan to read those as well. Dark and intense.

Haven't read it (yet!) but I've friends who highly recommend The Snowman

Carrie R · Post by **Carrie R** » 03 Oct 2012, 09:52

Fran wrote:
Haven't read it (yet!) but I've friends who highly recommend The Snowman

Yes, it's really good. They're now making a movie of The Snowman. I think Martin Scorsese is the director.

zombiemomma175 · Post by **zombiemomma175** » 08 Oct 2012, 11:52

Recently finished Blue Plague:The Fall. The first part of the book was good, got blogged down a little bit in one chapter, I think it was about Chapter 10, after I got to there, I couldn't put it down.
It about a super virus that spreads like wildfire and changes the world as we know it. The main characters in the book are memorable. I felt like I was part of the book, can't wait for the second one.

vsc_vet_tech · Post by **vsc_vet_tech** » 16 Oct 2012, 01:07

A great author of some good crime/mystery books is Cody McFadyen.

He has written 4 books (Shadow Man, The Face of Death, The Darker Side, and Abandoned) all centering around a strong female protagonist named Smokey Barrett. Smokey works for the FBI hunting serial killers. She has had a lot to work through in her personal life that has made this line of work hard for her. But she always seems up to a new case, even if it is a little too close to home.

I hope you will all read and enjoy these books

-- 16 Oct 2012, 02:41 --

I can also recommend a non-fiction crime book entitled "I:the Creation of a Serial Killer"...this book takes the reader inside the mind a serial killer who became known as the "Happy Face Killer". It explores what made him into what he became. There are interviews with his family, as well as a first hand account of all the murders that he commited in his life.

Warning this book is not for the faint as heart! There are some pretty graphic descriptions.

proudmom25 · Post by **proudmom25** » 18 Nov 2012, 17:18

Butter Cream Queen wrote:
ideaman wrote:I just read Lee Child's Persuader. It was okay, kind of dark, but at the end I wondered why I had read it. Didn't leave a good feeling. It was a good read though. Are any of his other books better?
The Reacher books are better as a series. Each book can stand alone but as a whole they all become much better.

What are the names of the books in order? This sounds like something i would enjoy reading:)

dnashby · Post by **dnashby** » 27 Nov 2012, 09:35

I just read a great thriller/suspense novel called Newman’s Rubicon. The main character, Hank, is an Everyman. He is easy to relate to because we could all be Hank. Bad marriage, war veteran, hard drinker, self-loathing. The underdog; the father, the reluctant hero. Richly descriptive espionage adventure that appeals to all - not of the fantastic or frenetic Bond-like genre; more of the Walter Mitty meets George Smiley meets an army officer. Mel Gibson comes to mind as Hank Newman, a retired Marine Corps officer who, weary of the daily domestic struggles of life stateside versus the tropical paradise of a land he learned to love while on active duty, happens upon spontaneous espionage and adventure due to his credentials as a dissolute expat.
Rather than suspending disbelief, the author lowers Hank to the reader's level, rendering the protagonist easy to understand and forgive his character flaws. The author describes the exotic sensuality of Thailand for the novice reader much like a modern Ian Fleming - the bars, hotels and dives are described in seductive, exotic detail, drawing the reader in to the hectic and fast-paced vibe of downtown Bangkok and the far reaches of the islands of the Gulf of Thailand.
Easy to read but firm and resolute, the writing is first-class and knowledgeable from a military point of view - the flashbacks Hank describes are clearly authentic and carry the narrative along seamlessly.
I can't wait to read and follow the future adventures of Hank Newman - compelling, modern, and gritty

rhizomatrix · Post by **rhizomatrix** » 09 Dec 2012, 21:38

A Walk On The Darkside by Corinna UnderwoodCorinna Underwood (author of Haunted History of Atlanta and North Georgia and Murder and Mystery in Atlanta) has drawn together the genres of paranormal and mystery in this captivating collection of short stories. Novelist and writer for Darkside magazine, Pearl Blackthorn investigates happenings strange and supernatural throughout England and sometimes further afield. A self-proclaimed skeptic, Pearl aims to debunk paranormal occurrences and get to the real cause. Sometimes there’s a thread of doubt left hanging that she may not be willing to pull unless her whole understanding of reality becomes unraveled. The reader will delight in the twisted plots and likeable characters. For those who didn’t get enough this time, Underwood has a Pearl Blackthorn novel underway. Highly recommended.

Lornat · Post by **Lornat** » 29 Jan 2013, 13:49

I recommend CSI. I love the thrill in this book.

prasadkunala · Post by **prasadkunala** » 30 Jan 2013, 01:39

RuqeeD wrote:
1. Die for Me (2007)
2. Scream for Me (2008)
3. Kill for Me (2009)

DATo · Post by **DATo** » 30 Jan 2013, 04:25

OK, this is going to be a recommendation of a book with a very morbid subject, I even hesitate to make it, but bear with me. I heard this book recommended by a radio disk jockey on the drive home from work about 15 years ago. I found that the book was at my local library and started to read it there. Despite the morbid subject matter I simply could not put it down ... it was utterly fascinating.

May God Have Mercy on Your Soul: The Story of the Rope and the Thunderbolt
by Edward Baumann

This book is the true account of every execution performed in Cook County (Chicago's county) since 1840 beginning with hanging and graduating to electrocution. The book devotes several pages to each condemned prisoner and most stories contain the pictures of the prisoners and in some cases other pictures relating to the crimes. It tells the story of the crime, the capture of the prisoner (and other related information), the wait on Death Row and ultimately the execution and in some cases the aftermath of the story. Each story reads quickly and easily and the thing that impressed me the most was not the actual execution but much of the trivia associated with each story.

This book is unputdownable but this book is also definitely not for the squeamish ... the descriptions are very graphic ....... you have been warned. The author was an eye witness to every execution at Cook County for 37 years.

clintessential · Post by **clintessential** » 04 Feb 2013, 16:54

The book I'm reviewing is actually a play written by Robert Shaw(JAWS). The Man in the Glass Booth
is Colonel Dorf, a Nazi who has been living in New York as Arthur Goldman, a weathy Jewish financier.
He has been kidnapped by Israeli intelligence agents and brought to Israel to stand trial for war crimes
he committed while Kommandant of a concentration camp. The book does not qualify as "unputdownable."
So I don't recommend it. However, I do recommend the Arthur Hillman movie starring Maxmillian Schell as Dorf.
Schell's performance is spectacular. It is so mesmerizing I felt as if I was one of the assembled masses in The Nuremberg
Stadium answering Der Fuehrer's preemptive "Sieg" with an unequivocal "HEIL!!" "Deutschland uber Alles, meine Fuehrer!!"
Schell created a character so powerful that it supplants the serious moral endeavor that the Israelis have undertaken.
Not everyone who watches the movie is going to have the same response I did. I have
described my response because it bears witness to DATo's fascination with the executions
in Cook County. He is entertained by the wealth of minutiae surrounding each case. The
stimulus and response in that case are different from mine, but the effect is familiar. It's
like the arsonist who enjoys watching his fire burning. Taken in extremis, without any moral
limits, these are very dangerous thoughts to entertain.
Several months ago I recommended a book by Joseph Wambaugh called "The Firewatcher."
It is about a serial arsonist who was an arson inspector for the City of Glendale, in San Bernadino County, California. When he is finally apprehended, they find a manuscript for
a book he has written. It is a detailed account of each fire he set AND the devices he left
behind that would only be known by a professional arsonist(someone who earns a living at it)
or an arson investigator. In over 20 fires he set, the connection was never made.