(no subject)

[the_rck]

I don't like most mysteries. I keep trying them, though, because there are some authors and series that I like quite a lot. I can't tell ahead of time which mysteries will work for me. GoodReads hasn't proved very helpful in that way, either. Well, a lot of those recommendations are for things the library doesn't have, and my experience with GoodReads recommendations is not sufficiently happy for me to gamble by buying books in any genre based on its say-so. (GoodReads recommendations do tend to be much better than Amazon's recommendations, however.)

I tend to like atypical mysteries, the ones that are only classified as mysteries because they aren't something else. I tend not to like puzzle mysteries. Agatha Christie's novels, for example, almost never work for me. I can read and enjoy her short stories, and I liked the Tommy and Tuppence books, but all the Poirot and Miss Marple novels lose my interest rapidly. I tried a lot of Ngaio Marsh as a teenager because my mother loved her books, but I only liked two of them, and I didn't like those as mysteries-- I liked them for the theater elements.

I like Margot Arnold, Marian Babson (before she got all cat obsessed), Dorothy Sayers, Margery Allingham, Donna Andrews, Nancy Atherton, Kerry Greenwood, Emma Lathen/R.B. Dominic, Peter O'Donnell, Susan Holtzer, some Dell Shannon/Elizabeth Linington/Leslie Egan, Charlotte MacLeod, Roger van Gulik (problematic), Arthur Upfield (deeply problematic from what I understand, but I devoured his books), and Alexander McCall Smith (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series only. Also problematic). I tend to like historical mysteries or mysteries set in parts of the world I know little about. I have a weakness for stories set in research libraries or around theatrical productions.

I tend to be skeptical of mystery series set in the sort of small town where everybody knows each other (Donna Andrews' books are an exception to that). My suspension of disbelief doesn't work when there's murder after murder in a setting like that.

Recommendations welcome, but it would help if you tell me why I might like the book or author in question.

Comments

[chorus-of-chaos.livejournal.com]

The teagarden mysteries and the lily bard mysteries are nothing like true blood, very normal world type stuff. The ...Harper Connelly series (I finally remembered it!) that has grave sight does have the spooky but it's just sort of like ghost esp, no other supernatural bogies.

I have a sony e reader as well (t650) I just don't have room for hard copy books in this tiny place and already have a ton of them. Let me know how you like the books when you've read them!