UKC

I've finished reading all the books that I currently have on my kindle and am looking for a new author to read. To give you an idea of the sort of books that I like, I've enjoyed books by James Patterson, David Baldacci, Dan Brown, Jeffrey Archer and Stieg Larsson and I grew up reading books like the Secret Seven, Famous Five and Hardy Boys, so my taste hasn't really changed that much over the years.

The only other books that I tend to buy are climbing books and I enjoyed reading all of the Joe Simpson books and books like 'Learning to Breath' and 'On thin Ice' were great.

What I'm looking for though, is an author with a decent back catalogue, so that If I enjoy their writing style I can go and read loads more of their books.

In reply to Phil Payne:

Ian Rankin and the 'Rebus' books: -

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/r/ian-rankin/

In reply to Phil Payne:

George Macdonald Fraser - Most of his stuff is good but particularly the Flashman series.

C.J. Sansom - The Shardlake Series

In reply to MJ:

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I've seen the Rebus TV series and wasn't a fan, so it kind of put me off reading the books. Maybe I'll try reading one to see if they're better than the TV series.

In reply to Phil Payne: u might like scott mariani.

In reply to Phil Payne:

Patricia Cornwell?

In reply to Phil Payne:

The books are infinitely better than the TV programmes. Saying that, they are pretty much character driven and if you don't the 'darkness' that sometimes surrounds Rebus, then you will probably struggle with the books.

If you are more plot driven, try the 'Lincoln Rhyme' books by Jeffery Deaver: -

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/d/jeffery-deaver/

In reply to Phil Payne:

Iain Banks? Might cure you of Archer syndrome

In reply to Phil Payne:

Thanks for all of the replies. I've decided to download one book from each of the authors suggested so far. Just about to start on C.J. Sansom with Winter in Madrid. Will report back on what I think a bit later when I've done the first 10% or so.

In reply to Phil Payne: Sansom is brilliant - Winter in Madrid is great, but very different to his Shardlake series.

Mark Bellingham, Peter Robinson, Martin Cruz Smith are others I would recommend.

In reply to Phil Payne:

I can recommend the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher (http://www.jim-butcher.com/books/dresden). You get free samples chapters for the first few books off the website, so you can have a quick read and see if they sound like your sort of thing. 14 books and a short story compendium in the series so far, and he's talking about another 10 more to come.

In reply to Phil Payne: If you like Patricia Cornwell, also try Tess Gerritsen, Kathy Reichs, Tami Hoag and Karin Slaughter. If you like thrillers about the Peak District, Stephen Booth and sometimes Elizabeth George, good reads even if you are not PD based, both seem to feature climbing areas. Ruth Rendell writes what she calls her 'darker' books as Barbara Vine.

In reply to Phil Payne:

John Grisham's books

Good stories about small lawyers taking on and thrashing big law firms, laced wiuth curruption, intimidation, blackmail, murder etc. They are good reads.

In reply to Phil Payne:

Haruki Murakami

In reply to Phil Payne:
Might I humbly suggest:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Only-Genuine-Jones-ebook/dp/B009R2BBN2/

I don't have a huge back catalogue yet, but I'm working on it

In reply to Phil Payne: Robert Ryan

In reply to Phil Payne:
I could recommend loads of crime fiction authors but you have many suggestions already. On a different vein I can wholly recommend Conn Iggulden. Amongst other things he has written 2 brilliant series. One is a about the rise of the Roman Empire, the 5th book appears to be due on kindle soon so a good time to read the first 4 quick. The other series is about ghengis khan and the Mongol empire. I absolutely loved all the books and will no doubt re-read the lot soon when I clear the bedside table of new stuff.
If you pick these up you will realise how understated my review is.

Andy.

In reply to Phil Payne: If you liked Stieg Larsson, then perhapsJo Nesbo and Henning Mankell for more Nordic noir?

In reply to Sayon: oh, and if you get into his style, James Ellroy is good and a decent back catalogue. Iirc, the books are fairly sequential though so start with one of the earlier ones.

I think I have enough suggestions to keep me going for a while. I'm 15% into Winter in Madrid by Sansom and it's seems like it will be a good read. I've also started The Cross by Scott Mariani, but only a couple of percent into it, so too soon to say.

I've just finished reading a load of David Baldacci books and although I enjoyed his writing, he is prone to over use of certain words and phrases, particularly the word dully, which really annoyed me every time he used it in his books. Hopefully Sansom will prove to be a bit better in that sense.

In reply to Phil Payne:
I'm well into my first Sansom book; it's one of the "What if....." genre recently discussed on these pages, where the scenario he sets is one where we didn't "win" the war. It's OK but far from compulsive.

In reply to Tom Valentine: I have two more suggestions that I always do, One is The Magus by John Fowlds, the other is Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd.

In reply to Al Evans: By the way if you can get the early version of The Magus it is much better than the later rewrite.

In reply to Phil Payne:

John Sandford, the "Prey" series featuring Lucas Davenport. The good news is if you like them there are about 20 or so in his back catalogue.

And for literary kudos - it's the pseudonym of a Pullitzer prize winning journalist!

In reply to ice.solo:

I think 'lol' is the appropriate expression.

In reply to Jon Stewart:

why?

In reply to ice.solo:

Bit like:

"I quite like Oasis, James Blunt and Coldplay, what do you recommend that's similar?"

"Debussy".

In reply to ice.solo:


+1 for the suggestion, though not necessarily what the OP asked for.

Some more slightly tangential but unlikely to disappoint:

Douglas Adams
Hunter S Thompson
Bret Easton Ellis
Iain M Banks
Terry Pratchett

And on the climbing front try Greg Mortenson - 3 Cups of Tea

In reply to Phil Payne:

Michael Crichton - lots to choose from, and better generally than Dan Brown...

In reply to Jon Stewart:

Ok, well put.

But not a bad intro to nobel nominee stuff eh?

In reply to Phil Payne: anyone read Wool? I'm on the second book now called Shift, really good read. movie adaptation on the cards too..

In reply to Phil Payne:

Willard Price

In reply to off-duty:

Agreed, but I prefer the stories where "That f*ckin' Flowers" is the main man.

In reply to Tom Valentine:

Haven't read those - cool! Cheers.

In reply to Phil Payne:

I'm thinking that Gerald Seymour's books might meet your needs. They aren't a series but tend to follow a theme.

Start with "Harry's Game" which isn't his best but possibly his most well known.

In reply to Phil Payne:
I tired of him (and thriller styles in general) long ago, but you should give Christopher Brookmyre a go. Scottish humerous thriller type stuff. His first (you should always start with the first) was 'quite ugly one morning', I laughed like a drain at 'the sacred art of stealing'.

But don't ignore Iain Banks, and I'll wholeheartedly recommend the Murakami if you want something completely different.

And no-one should ignore the classics. There's a guy called Dickens, who has a fairly sizeable back catalogue. Or, for crime, In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote.

It's been a couple of weeks since I started this thread, so I thought I would post an update on what I've read so far and what I thought about them.

CJ Sansom: This was the first one that I started with and I chose to read Winter in Madrid. It's definitely not something that I would normally pick up, but I really enjoyed it and then went on to read Dissolution (First of the Shardlake series) and it was also good and I will probably finish the series.

Patricia Cornwell: I discovered that I already had a Patricia Cornwell book on my kindle, but for some reason had never got around to reading it, so thought I would give that a go. The only book I had was The Scarpetta Factor, which is not ideal as it's one of the latest in the series in which the character appears, but you have to work with what you've got.

I quite enjoyed it, but am not sure if it was the writing style, the fact that I was ill or just the way that it appears on the kindle but I was getting really confused towards the end, with the constant jumping from location to location and not knowing who was saying what. It also seemed like the ending was just rushed and really spoilt what was otherwise a good read.

Scott G Mariani: I downloaded The Cross and then realised too late that it was about vampires, which is not my tasse de thé at all. I got about 10% into and then gave up, but might come back to it at some point because I don't like not finishing books when I've already committed a certain amount of time to them.

Haruki Murakami: I wasn't going to bother, but then I noticed that my partner had a copy of 1Q84 (unfortunately in French)and as she sometimes has good taste in books, having introduced me to Stieg Larsson, I thought I would give him a go. I just started today and so far so good.

Thanks for all of the great recommendations, I'm sure I will be again soon to ask the great and good of UKC for some more advice on other authors.

In reply to Phil Payne: I think you might like Steve Berry and he's got a fairly extensive back catalogue.