Who can tell me ...........

Relieved to see so many struggle to remember what books they've already read, thought it was just me! "Real" books are easier to remember, maybe the visual impact of the cover etc helps, but books on my kindle....like others have said sometimes only Amazon remembers I've read them!

Me too, grannypiper. Especially as I live in the area. Stephen Booth gave a very interesting talk at our WI. One of the things he told us was how many tourists went to look for the phone box where Ben Cooper made a call in the first book.

aprilgrace i am reading Stephen Booth at the moment, i love the folklore, history and geography of the Peak district that he weaves into each book.

I absolutely loved the books by Tarquin Hall that were recommended in a previous thread. They're about an Indian detective and his huge network of 'associates'. Very funny and a bit different. I wasn't surprised to find Alexander McCall Smith endorsing them on the cover. There are three in the series so far I think. I wish there were more.

Stephen Booth has written some good ones, set in the Peak District. Mostly a fairly slow pace also, which I like.

Thanks for these recommendations, some of which are not familiar to me.

I am a great fan of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series. The slow pace is so "comforting" somehow!

Ellie Griffiths who writes the Ruth Galloway mysteries is good. My English teacher, many years ago, recommended the authors Mary Stewart (Nine Coaches Waiting, Madam Will You Talk) and Josephine Tey (Brat Farrer, The Franchise Affair). I've loved them ever since and re-read them for a treat sometimes; I recently found the Nicola Upson books which are fiction but have Josephine Tey as the central character - they're very good.

The author Steve Robinson writes a mystery series about a genealogist called Jefferson Tayte and I find the combination of the family history hunt mixed in with situations Mr Tayte ends up in quite engrossing!

Sorry it has taken all day for me to reply, i have been Christmas shopping. Oswald and mclean are ringing bells.Thank you all ,cant believe it was less than 15 mins before the answer was posted. How good are Gransnetters. to you all, thanks again x

Kathy Reichs realistic books about the work of forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, gritty and sometimes heartbreaking. Reichs herself is a real life forensic anthropologist.

Donna Leon (Inspector Brunetti series).
Stephen Booth, Anne Cleeves (Shetland series), Camillieri (Inspector Montelbano series) Please excuse the spelling throughout :-)

I enjoyed The Brief by Simon Michael, a barrister's life unravels putting him on the wrong side of the law. I want to read more of his work.
Also Death in Profile by Guy Fraser-Sampson which is a must for fans of 30's detective fiction by Marjorie Allingham.
Love the series set in Ancient Rome with charismatic private eye Marcus Didius Falco by Lindsey Davis.
The Brother Cadfael series about a herbalist monk at Shrewsbury Abbey by Ellis Peters are pageturners for me. His placid contemplative life collides with violent events in the world outside in every book.

I'm reading a series of crime novels by Louis Penny, set in Canada and featuring Chief Inspector Gamache. It's best to start with no1. I'm now on no10.

I have recently read georgina Kent's series about a Florentine detective. Reallly enjoyed them

Thank you for the names of all these authors new to me. I too love Alexander McCall Smith, especially his Scotland Road series. I was very happy when Irene (Bertie's mother) was banished to a harem. What a pity she came back. I can never remember the titles of books I've read either. At the moment I'm reading Victoria Hislop's "Cartes Postales" which is delightful. I requested it from the library and was 45th on the list, then it arrived as a gift. Thank you so much GN.

Just been reading Linwood Barclay - I've had to make a list as I pass my books onto others to read. Started on a Martina Cole. I buy a lot from Book People so I need to keep track. Rarely keep books now due to lack of room

I can't tell you how relieved I am to read the above; I feared I was the only one to forget what I had read! For those looking for good detective stories, I can heartily recommend Henning Mankell's Inspector Wallendar series - excellent!

I have shelves full of books I have not read yet. I cannot go in to a bookshop without coming out with two or three. I do not like people buying books for me as more often than not I do not get round to reading them, not my taste, or not my subject. I like a mixture of fiction and non-fiction so have both.

One non-fiction book I did enjoy was all about the female members of 'The Impressionists'. Another was a book about a woman who was married to an Asian doctor in this country. He took her back to his country of birth with her child and straight away the trouble started. She was separated from her child and made to cover up etc etc. Her mother in law used her as an unpaid housekeeper. It was called 'Not without my daughter' and describes how they eventually escaped back to the West. Oranges and Sunshine is a book about how 180 thousand children were sent off to distant parts of the Empire in 1970. The Great Hunger is about the Irish potato famine in 1840.

For fiction I like detective stories. Lee Child/Jack Reacher; Lee Deighton; Ruth Rendell; David Baldacci; Dan Brown.

Currently reading 'F Section SOE' by Marcel Ruby which is very interesting. It is about WW2 of course, the secret agents who were sent over to France during the war.

Have any of you read any by James Marrison? I read a review of his latest in the paper. Sounds promising, I am going to reserve the two from the library this week.

If anyone enjoys the No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books they may be interested to know that a film has just come out about the marriage of Seretse Khama and Ruth Williams, I think it's called A United Kingdom.

Seretse Khama is mentioned quite often in those books.

I get 98% of my books from my local library and they have a very useful alert that comes up on their screen which tells them - and me- if I have borrowed that book before and when.

The Jackson Brodie books are by Kate Atkinson. There are some good ones by Alex Gray but they are set in Glasgow.

Matthew Frank is very good too. He has two out about Detective Joe Stark based in Greenwich. Cannot wait for the third one! Also Mark Billingham is excellent, re-read his Frank Thorne series recently.

Anya yes, it's a good thing that Amazon does that!

I read a lot but if someone asks me 'what are you reading at the moment' I can never remember the title or the author without going to have a look at the book.

Although - yes! I have just read one by Mary Higgins Clark, the first one I've read by her and it was very good. But don't ask me the title .

My friend is the model for the Cad in M C Beaton's Death of a Cad - didn't quite know how to comment when he told me!