I generally find it difficult to get well into books by American authors with their often different style of writing as well as American slang, though I'd be first to admit there are some good ones.
Much the same with regard to most female writers, and as I said I can't stomach all that psycho crap that seems so popular these days, so it narrows down the field quite a lot.
Maybe I'm just too fussy or else expect all writers to have a similar perspective to myself.

Try John Harvey, he writes detective novels set in and around Brighton and OH says that his stories come over as real.

Rosemary

I've only just finished a couple of good ones also set in Brighton, written by Peter James, not the same guy is it ?

Quite like the Rebus series too.

I see what you mean. Wife has a number of Peter James on the kindle iirc.

Sorry got two writers mixed up. Peter James is the one who writes about Brighton, excellent writer. John Harvey writes about a similar basic down to earth detective and his are set around Nottingham area.

Kate Atkinson is another good one but she writes a mixture so you would have to check on which of her books are detective novels. "When will there be good news" has a detective called Brody in it and I believe that there are a few more with him in it.

Rosemary

My favourite detective author is Jeffery Deaver, both the books featuring Lincoln Rhyme and the more recent Kathryn Dance ones. His plots and the research that goes into his books are absolutely fantastic. He has been commissioned to write a new James Bond novel so it will be interesting to see how that turns out. I also like Jonathan Kellerman and his wife Faye Kellerman's detective novels, but of course all of these are US based.

For UK based ones, I agree about the John Harvey and Peter Robinson ones. I also like Stuart Macbride's books set in Scotland featuring Logan Macrae, although they can be very violent. Val McDiarmid's novels are always good too (the ones the Wire in the Blood TV series featuring Robson Green are based on).

Jonathon Kellerman I really like, his wife is good but for me a little heavy with the Jewish perspective. A problem I have with many detective novels is the way reality is stretched to fit in with the story, it is the reason I like Peter James and John Harvey. Their detectives and stories mirror reality more and it is always refreshing when they "don´t get their man," it makes future stories more problematical.
As an aside the most enjoyable three books I have read since the twentieth time of reading LOTR have been the Larsson trilogy, it is unusual to find such depth in a story and a good diversity of characters and I still believe that Elspeth is one of the great anti-heroines of all time.

Graham

I too was struggling reading the Larsson books - but we bought 2 of the films recently and weve watched the 1st one which we really enjoyed - gonna see the rest of the films n then try n read them again

I've just managed to get the Peter James/Peter Robinson thing straight in my head - Peter James is the one who writes about DI Roy Grace based, as you say, in Brighton, and Peter Robinson writes the DI Alan Banks books, based in Derbyshire! Sometimes I think I read too much so that they get a bit scrambled together.

I found all three of the Larsson trilogy to be excellent, each one even better than the previous in the series.
I believe two of them did take a little getting into, but were very well worth it in the end.
Maybe not quite so enjoyable to read after watching the films first, but probably like most novels better than the films, if you see what I mean.

I felt quite bereft when I finished them knowing that there would not be any more in the future and found it hard to settle down to reading other authors.

Rosemary

I often find that after realing enjoying a book.

True, some are so good they are hard acts to follow and you get to expect more of the same standard all the time.
However there always comes a time when you have to accept a small step down at least.

I've noticed the 'coming down' in Grisham, King and our own La Plante, whose latest I finished on Sunday – her last two chapters were atrocious for such an adept writer.

I think you can write yourself dry, and if you write what you know, there's only so much you know.

Or maybe they just get fed up sitting in front of a typewriter for eight hours every day.

I used to love La Plante her earlier work was exceptional did any one read the book she wrote about the twin girls..........fantastic.