Favorite Mystery Writers of Library Thing Users - So Far

The Library Thing website continues to amaze and amuse me to the point where I find myself spending at least a few minutes on the site every day of the week. It’s the kind of website that becomes more valuable as a user gains more and more familiarity with all the ways to mine it for useful information.

For instance, I noticed a Group thread just before Christmas that was started by a simple question: “Certainly while some authors should have stopped writing after the sixth book, others have been able to continue to write, book after book, and still write top-notch mysteries. What long-running series would you recommend?”

I’ve read mysteries on a regular basis ever since, as a teenager, I discovered Conan Doyle and Rex Stout and fell in love with the concept of “series fiction.” Over the years, of course, I managed to read all of those Sherlock Holmes and Nero Wolfe books and moved on to more modern series that continue to grow. And I’m always on the lookout for new writers who maintain the tradition started by writers like Doyle and Stout, so I found this to be an interesting question. From the numerous responses to the question, I have learned of a few mystery writers that were still unknown to me, have had my opinion of a few others confirmed, and found myself disagreeing with the way that others were rated by the respondents. This is what I found and the list I've put together based on the responses:

1. Michael Connelly - was most-mentioned and his Harry Bosch series was consistently praised (I’ve been meaning to read Connelly for several years and never seem to get around to him.)


Connelly was followed by a group of writers, old and new, who received unanimously high marks from everyone who mentioned them:

2. Reginald Hill – Andy Dalziel series

3. Robert Crais – Elvis Cole and Pike series

4. John D. MacDonald – Travis McGee series (one of those series that I read at least 20 years ago and I wonder if they would measure up on a re-reading to the good memories I have of them)

5. James Lee Burke – Dave Robicheaux series (a series that I’ve kept up with almost from the beginning and one that is wonderful if read in the order in which the books were written because Dave’s character develops as we watch the story of his life unfold)



Members of this second group were also highly rated but not mentioned as often as those in group one:

6. Ian Rankin – John Rebus series (A series that I’ve just started to dip into recently)

7. Elizabeth Peters – historical mysteries using Ameila Peabody or Jacqueline Kirby

8. Dennis Lehane – Kenzie and Genarro series (Lehane seems to have abandoned the series but I think it’s still his best work)

9. Lawrence Block – Matt Scudder series (haven’t read these in a while for some reason)

10. Walter Mosley – Easy Rawlins series (a really good series set in 1950s-1960s Los Angeles and I find this still to be Mosley’s best work)

11. C.J. Box – Joe Pickett series

12. Raymond Chandler (maybe the best of them all, in my opinion)

13. Tony Hillerman – Navajo series (have read a few of these but not really a fan)

14. Anne Perry – William Monk or Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series (Have read some of the Pitt books but am a little bit put off by Perry’s personal history, I think)

15. Ed McBain – 87th Precinct series (great series but prefer the longer books that come later in the series)

Next came a group that all had their fans but were not as often mentioned:

16. Margaret Yorke (have found that her characters and plots to be a little spookier and more realistic than indicated by the dust jackets of her books)

17. P.D. James (have read some of her work but not really a fan)

18. Peter Robinson

19. Jane Hadden – Gregor Demarkien series

20. Archer Mayer – Joe Gunther series

22. J.A. Jance – J.P. Beaumont series

23. Donna Leon – Guido Brunetti series set in modern Milan

24. John Lescroart – Dismas Hardy or Hardy & Glitzky series

25. Emma Lathan – Wall Street series

26. Robert B. Parker – Spenser series (found this series to be excellent and exciting for quite a few years but Parker seems to be producing Spenser books by formula for last few years)

27. Stephen Hunter – Earl Swagger series

28. Rex Stout – Nero Wolfe series (one of those classics that deserve to be read even today)

29. Marcia Muller – Sharon McCone series (interesting series but have read very little of it)

30. Peter Tremayne – Sister Fidelma series set in ancient Ireland

31. Sue Grafton – Kinsey Milhone series (much like the comment about Parker, above, Grafton seems to have peaked several books back)

32. Agatha Christie – Miss Marple series

33. Conan Doyle – Sherlock Holmes series (classic series not to be missed)

34. Ruth Rendell – Inspector Wexford series (one of my favorite crime and suspense novelists, including the books she writes as Barbara Vine)

35. John Mortimer – Rumpole series (crimes and comedy, a great combination)

36. Sharon Newman – Catherine LeVendeur series

37. Minette Walters

38. Jill Churchill – Jane Jeffries series


And then there were those who were mentioned several times but who ended up with more negative comments, or “votes,” than they did positive ones:

39. J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts) – mentioned were the “In Death” series and Eve Dallas series

40. Martha Grimes – Richard Jury series (a little surprised by some of the negative comments but agree that her books are not what they used to be)

41. Lee Child – Jack Reacher series

42. Janet Evanovich – Stephanie Plum series (defenders were lukewarm and detractors dislike her writing very much but she is constantly on Best Seller lists and I saw where Stephen King has made somewhat negative remarks about her as part of a cover blurb for a new British mystery writer)

While this list is far from complete, I think it’s a good example of the type of information that can be picked up from just one of the hundreds of questions that are posted at Library Thing every week. I always keep a few mysteries and crime novels around as a change-of-pace so something like this will help me the next time that I’m looking for someone new to read. If you haven’t found LibraryThing.com yet, now’s the time.