Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Reading recommendations, please
self ^ | 04/23/2020 | self

Posted on 04/23/2020 11:54:45 AM PDT by Pining_4_TX

Help! I need recommendations for fun reading material. I really enjoy mysteries and have been re-reading some Agatha Christie books, because so many of the newer books are PC or extremely gory. Also, I prefer my reading material to be clean. Humor books are also good, as well as real crime and crime solving methods, as long as it's not too hair-raising. Fiction or non-fiction, as long as it's entertaining.

Are there mysteries out there where the detective has at least somewhat conservative values? Are there ones set in the past that don't have feminist females entirely out of character for the times?

I read a real stinker that got a good review in the WSJ with the tired, old plot of artistic types stuck in the boonies with a bunch of knuckle-draggers who just didn't appreciate anything but farming and football. Naturally, the murderer was a high school football player. Ugh.

Books I do like, in addition to Agatha Christie, are No Stone Unturned about forensic science, and Amy's Answering Machine, which is a humorous collection of the messages left on Amy's machine by her Jewish mother. I'm not keen on spy thrillers, and please, no romance novels.

(Excerpt) Read more at freerepublic.com ...


TOPICS: Books/Literature
KEYWORDS: books; fun; mysteries
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-73 next last
To: Pining_4_TX

If you’ve never read Louise Penny’s books, you’re in for a treat. They’re about a detective, Armand Gamache, and a village in Canada named Three Pines. I can’t recommend them highly enough.

There are about 12 of them now. I envy you, you’re in for a treat.


41 posted on 04/23/2020 12:44:37 PM PDT by Auntie Mame (Fear not tomorrow. God is already there.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Pining_4_TX

Lee Child’s Reacher books.
Use the web, read them in order.


42 posted on 04/23/2020 12:45:50 PM PDT by grobdriver (BUILD KATE'S WALL!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Pining_4_TX

On my Kindle (I have many other books, too - I must get reading!)
M.C.Beaton’s Hamish McBeth series
Detective Lavender series by Karen Charlton - Kindle unlimited about a London detective in the early 1800’s
Lindsey Davis book series about Marcus Didius Falco, an ancient Roman detective/private informer
Colin Dexter Inspector Morse novels - classic TV series also viewable.
Weird novels by Ben Aaronovitch - the Rivers of London series — yes, another detective


43 posted on 04/23/2020 12:46:30 PM PDT by Moonmad27
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Real Cynic No More

“The Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly”

The last five or six Harry Bosch novels and the Amazon Prime video series are totally politically correct SJW screeds...nothing conservative about them.

Was a huge fan of his from the very first novels....those are worth the time.


44 posted on 04/23/2020 12:49:23 PM PDT by Covenantor (We are ruled...by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern. " Chesterton)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Pining_4_TX

Nightfall Nelson DeMille


45 posted on 04/23/2020 12:54:23 PM PDT by stanne
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Pining_4_TX

You want fun mysteries, anything by Charlotte McLeod will fit the bill.

Also there’s a fun series by Gretchen Archer’s, the Davis Way Cole Crime Caper Mystery series, starting with Double Whammy, soon to be nine books, are a lot of fun. Set in a Biloxi Mississippi gambling casino Davis Way is a female security expert for the casino where anything and everything happens in an often hilarious fashion. She also has a family of kooks to add to the problems, as well as an ex-husband who doesn’t help keep things sane either.

Both authors are available on Amazon or Apple Books

I just finished reading a Horror Murder Zany Comedy mystery book by Dean Koontz called TickTock, it was a lot of fun.


46 posted on 04/23/2020 1:02:11 PM PDT by Swordmaker (My pistol self-identifies as an iPad, so you must accept it in gun-free zones, you hoplophobe bigot!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Pining_4_TX
I really enjoyed the "Leaphorn and Chee" detective novels by Tony Hillerman. They revolve around a pair of Navajo tribal policemen so they are very Southwest flavored in their settings and story elements. The first one was called "The Blessing Way".

Tony Hillerman books in order

I second the suggestion of anything by Dean Koontz, especially the "Odd Thomas" series.

47 posted on 04/23/2020 1:04:09 PM PDT by fidelis (Zonie and USAF Cold Warrior)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Covenantor
The last five or six Harry Bosch novels and the Amazon Prime video series are totally politically correct SJW screeds...nothing conservative about them.

I disagree. They do have some of what you say, but they are not screeds by a long shot. Michael Connolly is the producer of them. It sounds as if you haven’t given much time to paying attention to them and focused on just a few things in them. They are fairly true to the books spirit of Bosch. Titus Welliver does a good job of playing Bosch.

I have a pretty good radar for SJW crap. I don’t see much of it. The bad guys are pretty much equal opportunity bad guys.

48 posted on 04/23/2020 1:19:16 PM PDT by Swordmaker (My pistol self-identifies as an iPad, so you must accept it in gun-free zones, you hoplophobe bigot!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: Auntie Mame
Yes! Gamache is absolutely wonderful!

I also enjoy:
Inspector Montelbano Series by A. Camilleri (mentioned)
Joe Pickett Series by CJ Box (mentioned)
Brunetti Series By Donna Leon
Monk and Pitt Series by Anne Perry

These will keep you busy for a long time!

49 posted on 04/23/2020 1:19:44 PM PDT by Kiss7
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: Pining_4_TX

After watching the movie with Jimmy Stewart and Lee Remick, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book “Anatomy of a Murder.”


50 posted on 04/23/2020 1:23:08 PM PDT by upchuck (Dan Bongino: The Democrats are The Virus)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Pining_4_TX
Westering Man: The life of Joseph Walker
51 posted on 04/23/2020 1:27:52 PM PDT by The_Media_never_lie ( Stop the fearmongering! Post flu statistics along side COVID-19 statistics!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Pining_4_TX
If you like anything with a supernatural bent, read the Repairman Jack series by F. Paul Wilson. These must be read in order to follow the arch of the story line. It has a beginning and an ending. It’s about a man for whom we never learn his actual last name, a man who lives between the law and lawless, who has no social security number, no drivers license, no legal existence, no credit cards, but who repairs things that the law can’t fix. . . Usually in very creative, extremely satisfying ways. He serves justice as he sees it. . . Got an intractable problem with bad guys, a kidnapped child the police can’t solve, a loan shark that won’t go away demanding payment from a debt you didn’t incur, call Repairman Jack.

Repairman Jack Series

52 posted on 04/23/2020 1:31:26 PM PDT by Swordmaker (My pistol self-identifies as an iPad, so you must accept it in gun-free zones, you hoplophobe bigot!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Pining_4_TX
"I really enjoy mysteries...."

OK then, how about Nathaniel Hawthorn - the father of the modern mystery novel.
Or Edgar Allen Poe.

53 posted on 04/23/2020 1:33:43 PM PDT by Psalm 73
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Pining_4_TX

Fools Die by Mario Puzo. Old book and I enjoyed the read.


54 posted on 04/23/2020 1:44:01 PM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (Operation Chaos is in play. Repeat, Operation Chaos is in play)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: stylecouncilor

ping


55 posted on 04/23/2020 1:54:40 PM PDT by windcliff
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Pining_4_TX
The detective mysteries by Raymond Chandler (Philip Marlowe), Rex Stout (Nero Wolfe), Ross MacDonald (Lew Archer), and Loren Estleman (Amos Walker) are all good reads without much in the way of politics.

Chandler's work had a decisive role in developing the modern detective story, with a direct line from Chandler's hardboiled Phil Marlowe of the 1930s and 40s to TV's genial, cynical Jim Rockford of the 70s and 80s. Ross MacDonald's Lew Archer is a more polished version of the hardboiled type, set in the 1960s and 70s. Paul Newman did a good job of playing Archer in two movies.

The cynicism of the hard-boiled type usually offers little room for politics. Robert B. Parker's Spenser series though stirs in a dose of liberalism, which puts him off my favorites list. So also with John D. MacDonald and his Travis McGee series, which tends to have plot points based on issues of the 70s and 80s. The books now seem dated.

Loren Estleman's Amos Walker series is set in modern Detroit with an effect close to Chandler's hard-boiled style. Estleman's writing is well-regarded.

Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series is an acquired taste, but the writing and plotting are clear and direct. Set in New York in the 1930s to the 1960s, the series avoids politics, with the obese and housebound Wolfe relying on his street detective, Archie Goodwin, to dig out facts that Wolfe processes toward a solution that is revealed in interviews and a confrontation with the main suspects.

Director's Cut by Roger L. Simon is worth reading in that it makes conservative points and is by an author who went from liberal to conservative. Simon's earlier mystery books in the Moses Wine series are good but have Leftism applied like decorations on a cake.

56 posted on 04/23/2020 1:57:38 PM PDT by Rockingham
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cva41

Ditto Taylor Caldwell, though maybe not “anything.” :) And I wouldn’t call them mysteries. My favorite was Testimony of Two Men.
Another book I enjoyed, not exactly a mystery, was The Scarlet Pimpernel.
Count of Monte Cristo was great.


57 posted on 04/23/2020 2:22:14 PM PDT by Buttons12 (Bad flu got you down? Take Anecdotal for fast relief!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Pining_4_TX

You can try Ngaio Marsh. She wrote the Inspector Alleyn series, some of which were made into a film series.


58 posted on 04/23/2020 3:13:35 PM PDT by Amberdawn
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Pining_4_TX

I can’t believe no one mentioned Perry Mason (Earl Stanley Gardner), seem they would fit your description of what you are looking for.


59 posted on 04/23/2020 3:23:26 PM PDT by itsahoot (Welcome to the New USA where Islam is a religion of peace and Christianity is a mental disorder.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Judy

Did Chesterton write any Father Brown novels? I only know the short stories.


60 posted on 04/23/2020 4:26:20 PM PDT by HartleyMBaldwin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-73 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson