I mostly read non-fiction true crime/survival/history (my favourites include Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, Longitude by Dava Sobel, The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre, In Harms Way by Doug Stanton etc.). Most of my favourite books are ones I cannot out down, and I’ve found quite a few non-fictions that scratch that itch.
Unfortunately I struggle finding crime/thriller (or general fiction) fiction books that I feel the same way about. The thing I struggle with the most is the writing style – I find that they’re either way too macho, almost lazily written with sentences like ‘and then he saw it’ or ‘and then it happened’ (i.e. James Patterson books). Or they’re too far the other way (I think it’s called Purple Prose), containing sentences that (in my opinion) are unnecessarily wordy and descriptive. E.g. In the Woods by Tana French – ‘This is none of Ireland’s subtle seasons mixed for a connoisseur’s palate, watercolor nuances within a pinch-sized range of cloud and soft rain; this is summer full-throated and extravagant in a hot pure silkscreen blue’. I’m hoping to find a few authors/series that sit somewhere in the middle.
For reference, I really enjoyed the following fiction books:
* The Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman
* The Martian & Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
* The Appeal by Janice Halley
* The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer
* The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson (although I really didn’t enjoy the 2nd book in the series)
* The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (controversial, but I really enjoyed the fast pace, and although the storyline was far fetched, it was fun and historical)
Books I didn’t enjoy/couldn’t finish:
* Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
* Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh
* The Girl Who Played with Fire by Steig Larsson
* The Cuckoos Calling by Robert Galbraith (although I did read this a long time ago)
* Slow Horses by Mick Herron (I really wanted to enjoy this, but couldn’t get into it)
* In The Woods by Tana French (again, just not my writing style at all)
I hope I’m not being too picky and somebody can suggest a really well written, fast paced crime/thriller (or general) fiction book or series that I might enjoy!
by JoeCMorgan