Authors you want to shout about

For those who like detective fiction combined with Scotland, the Lewis Trilogy by Peter May is good. Also loving the Lynne Truss “Constable Twitten” series, very funny!

Nannarose - I agree re Val McDermid, I've enjoyed the same ones more too.

Not heard of Marcia Muller, I shall look into it, thank you.

Thank you all for recommendations. Also, as a lover of detective stories, I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't warm to the Train / Gone books, or to Sophie Hannah (I couldn't finish her adaptation of The White Horse which completely altered the sense of it)

I love all sorts of detective stories, and lockdown has put me on a big re-read. I love the Sharon McCone series by Marcia Muller - a private detective who seems real, who ages and changes. A word of warning should you want to try them:
MM allows very little on Kindle, I borrowed them from the library years ago, and have now bought second-hand copies (abebooks).
Also, having kept the series alive and fresh for 30+ years, the last few have been disappointing. So please begin with the early ones - you can see them all on fantasticfiction.com. I am not sure why she is not as well known as Sara Paretsky or Sue Grafton, but I think she wasn't publicised so much in the UK (should have said, they are set in San Francisco)

I'm also a big Val McDermid fan, but in a perverse way don't like her most famous Jordan / Hill series. I recommend the older Lindsay Gordon & Kate Brannigan series, and the newer Karen Pirie ones.

I've just downloaded a sample of The Hoarder to my kindle. Thanks for all the recommendations.

I love anything by Elif Shafak. I found her work when I came across " The Forty Rules of Love ".

I do agree that books are very personal and have often been disappointed by recommendations. Having said that i have just ordered "Himself " ..( see earlier postings )

Anne Cleeves and Elly Griffiths are consistently good crime writers. I enjoyed The Long Call, particularly the change of setting to North Devon along with new detective. I shall probably be reading the new Ruth Galloway pretty soon my husband is reading it right now.

I love the Alexander McCall Smith “No 1 Ladies Detective Agency” books, as our middle daughter taught in Botswana for 2 years and we went out to stay with her. Lovely reading the books / feels like being there

Love Anne Cleeves and Elly Griffiths books

“The girl with the louding voice” by Abi Dare was recommended by a friend with similar reading tastes to me, but I haven’t read it yet.

Fiona Valpy. I love her style.. particularly the Beekeepers Promise and The Dressmakets gift.

Also anything by Victoria Hislop I can't put down eg The Island, Cartes Postales, The Thread. I'm obsessed with Greece and her islands and her descriptive writing takes me back there.

NellG

Terribull Please tell me the Quincunx is on Kindle? Not sure the wrists could take it!

I'm not a Kindle owner Nell, but it damn well should be! I think even 18 year old me who lugged Lord of The Rings up to London on my daily commute might baulk at trying to slip The Quincunx into my handbag now, weaker wrists and all that

Kim19 Sometimes the gentler stuff hits exactly the right spot doesn't it?

Terribull Please tell me the Quincunx is on Kindle? Not sure the wrists could take it!

Another vote for Alexander McCall Smith but my preferred series of his would be the Isabel Dalhousie one. Thought provoking but gentle stuff. Just my cup of tea.

TerriBull
Most of your other selections I agree with, but didn’t like The Goldfinch,

Another favourite is Margaret Drabble, and I loved Margaret Forsters early books

Well there you go Sarah, books, they're just so subjective You can't please all the people all the time, only some of the people some of the time. How true!

TerriBull

I can’t believe what you’re saying.

A Prayer for Owen Meany would be in my top ten ever favourite books.

"I do find recommendations from others far more useful than chart ratings" The very reason I lurked on MN, for their book threads more than anything else. Often little heard of books created such a buzz, that often gave me the impetus to read them. Books I otherwise wouldn't have stumbled across. Here are some that I fell in love with, so much so, I felt utterly bereft when I finished them.

Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
The Quincunx - (it's not rude it's Latin ) possibly one of the longest books I've ever read, over 1,200 pages. A brilliant, if not convoluted Dickens pastiche set in the early 19th century, essentially about an inheritance. Author Charles Palliser, I don't think he's written anything else, "author exhaustion" I imagine!
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
The Crimson Petal and The White - Michel Faber
The Goldfinch - Donna Tart, although I'd read her already her two other books so she wasn't unknown to me.
The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne.

Not all recommendations over on MN were to my liking hated these.

A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
Lincoln In The Bardo - George Saunders.

Other authors I love, pretty much anything by Kate Morton, a lot of the late Ruth Rendell's stuff, particularly her Barbara Vine books and I absolutely adored The Blind Assassin and Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan's Atonement.

Nell
Thanks for that, but I came to them late, and I’m reading them in order, so I’m still a few behind

Sarah1954 I'm sure I saw somewhere that Patricia Cornwell is doing another Scarpetta book soon.

kittylester Jojo Moyes I've read a few, I'll look up the others.

This is brilliant, thank you I'd hit a massive reading slump and have been struggling to know where to look for new authors and books that I might like, so all these new names are great.

Please do keep them coming.

Sodapop
I agree with you about Sophie Hannah, I’ve tried a couple, and won’t be trying anymore, I thought they were very mediocre.

I also like books that continue through a series, you get to know the characters, and it’s like meeting up with old friends. I’m thinking Patricia Cornwell, Peter Robinson, Susan Hill, Anne Cleeves and endless others.

So many books, and never enough time.
I

And Stephanie Butland and Beth OLeary. I also enjoy Elizabeth Buchan.

I love anything at all by Jojo Moyes.

Sarah48 I have to agree about Sophie Hannah, her early books were good but the later ones - oh dear.
So many books are hyped up in the media and turn out to be drivel as NellG said about Gone Girl and its ilk.
I like books which come in series and have a thread running through them, Elly Griffiths,Susan Hill, Harry Bingham. One of my all time favourites is Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. I like time slip books so enjoy Barbara Erskine as well.

I used to love Maeve Binchey books and have struggled to find anyone who’s books match, but I have read quite a few of Rosean Meaney books and really like her style