Any Mystery or "Legal" Fiction Readers Out There?

I LOVE mysteries and "legal" fiction.  I admit it.  Everything from Margaret Maron, Lisa Scottoline, Stuart Woods, and Nevada Barr to Robert Crais, Virginia Lanier, JA Jance, and Kate Wilhelm (also good SF/Fantasy). 

Does anyone else like the literary sleuths and lawyers? If so, who are your favorite authors and characters? 

if its a book, i read it lol.

i LOVE mysteries, legal/crime dramas, thrillers, etc.  i just read a great book called Circumstantial Evidence by Pete Early.  I dont normally read nonfiction but this was a fabulous book.

Recommend some stuff to me, I think I need to go have a date with the library LOL.

This is my kind of post!  I read all the time and I am a huge mystery reader!

I just finished Janet Evanovich's new book, 12 Sharp.  It was very good. (I started it yesterday afternoon and finished it this morning).

I like Lisa Scottoline, Mary Higgins Clark and her daughter Carol Higgins Clark.  Lisa Gardner is fantastic- very scary- she gives me goosebumps.  Robert B. Parker is also a great easy read. 

I am always looking for new authors since I read so much I run out of books to read pretty quick. 

If anyone likes the same types of authors/writing styles as me, please suggest some other authors.

Thanks!

Gina

Evanovich is fun!  Stephanie Plum is so "real" . . .  LOL

What about Patricia Cornwell?  ( l liked her early stuff better than late works), Jeffery Deaver, or Sandra Brown? 

I am honestly looking for some new authors . . . I read about 5 books (or more) a week during the summer (don't like TV and read really fast!), and I can't find good writers quickly enough!  Any and all suggestions are welcome.  I like most stuff, just nothing too "fluffy" or too "romance-y".  :-)

I like mysteries and detective stories better than thrillers.

I like Sue Grafton and Patricia Cornwell.  My favorite has always been Lord Peter Wimsey, Dorothy Sayers' detective.  P.D. James is usually good too.  I love all the Tony Hillerman books - I've read them all as they come out.  Did anybody like Dick Frances?  I know I did.

Sometimes I want pure fluff so I read the "Cat Who..." books by Lillian Jackson Braun, although her last book was terrible.

Some other favorite authors - Donald Westlake and Carl Hiassen.

I love most of the ones mentioned, but would also add Elizabeth George and Minette Walters to the list.

clairelaine, nobody will ever, EVER, be as good as Lord Peter.

Ngaio Marsh is somewhere between fluff and excellent, it's all well-written, like if Agatha Christe could write well and had better characters (I did use to have a crush on Poirot in my very young impressionable days, though, i mean, he was so SMART- but either of the Messrs. Holmes could take him in single combat, so he fell by the wayside).

woops- forgot to post a fave and make a suggestion.

If your hard-boiled fiction isn't hardboiled enough, read you some Adnrew Vachss www.vachss.com is the website, the books are phenomenal, a very simple, declarative writing style, and some of his shorter works are up on the site for free so you can see if you like him before you buy.  WARNING. they are VERY graphic and most deal with child abuse in some way. the protagonist of most of the novels was abused as a small child, and while he does have a soft spot for helping abused kids, he's no saint, either.

Oooh!  Exciting!  Authors I haven't read yet.  Thanks for the replies!

Hillerman, James, and George are in my top 20, too. . .

Believe it or not, I've read all of the books by all of the ones listed except Vachss and Marsh, but I'll look for them tonight when I go to the library. 

Happy Reading!  Please keep sending suggestions if you have any.

 :-)

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