I’d recommend the Dublin Murders series by Tana French (such well written characters, great prose) and the Eddie Flynn series by Steve Cavanagh (imagine big budget crime thriller films with lots of actions and twists and turns!)
👁️👁️👮🏻👮🏻♀️🕵🏼🕵🏼 I recently finished the Shardlake series by C.J. Sansom and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was working very long hours on my feet so I devoured them via audiobook. I’m very late to your channel and I’m glad we still have access to your videos. Thank you for all you shared with the book tube community. ❤
I haven't yet read any novel-lenght crime/thriller series, but do love Sherlock Holmes ofcourse.. I have a collection of his stories, I haven't yet read all of them, but do plan on it some day. Love your t-shirt by the way.. ❤ as a teen I used to be an enormous The Killers fan.. I haven't listened to them in a while, but maybe I should again. I am a bit nostalgic right now, as I just went to a music festival in the town I used to go to high school in..
Sherlock Holmes is great! That’s a series I have completed as long as we don’t count any books by subsequent authors who have taken him on. Originals only! I love The Killers! Don’t often wear the t-shirt but I got it when I went to see them when they toured Wonderful Wonderful. 💛
Hi Alice, I’m currently reading two crime series. The Shardlake series and am on book 3 now, Sovereign. And Ann Swinfen’s series of mysteries all called The (something’s) Tale. All are about a bookseller in 14 th Century Oxford who is pulled into various mysteries/crimes to solve. Really enjoyed your video!
That sounds like a really interesting series that I will have to look up. Thanks for your kind comment, I hope you enjoy the rest of your series books! 😊📚
Both authors I want to try. I have read the second Louise Penny book in her series and I wasn’t too sure, but I think it was just one particular element I didn’t like so hopefully that won’t be in the other books. Thanks for the recommendation. 😊📚
Have you read Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series? I've only read book 14 "N Is For Noose". Not my favorite book by any stretch, but it is halfway through the series, so maybe I should start at the beginning with "A Is For Alabi".
I read E is for Evidence from that series. I don’t know if I will try any of the others as I wasn’t sure I liked it very much, but as you say sometimes a series works better from the start. I usually start at the beginning. 😊📚
THere is a bit more Ruth Galloway to come...there is a short story collection coming out later this year that includes at least a few Ruth Galloway stories. I just ordered the first book in the Shardlake series, so I'll be starting that one soon!
Àlice , there was an interview several years ago with Lee and Andrew , where Andrew said he was planning on bringing the character of Reacher into the " tech " age. His brother said we will have to talk about that . Be interesting to see if the new book reflects this ! I just finished the borrowed world series ☹️ and I'm looking forward to the next Anita Blake Vampire Hunter book ( #30 i believe ) loved the Dick Francis books.
Haha Reacher in the tech age! I can’t imagine it. I’ve not heard of The Borrowed World, will have to look that one up. Really enjoyed the Anita Blake books I’ve read, I think I’m up to book 7. 😊📚
I'm not a huge fan of series but earlier this year I've read La Reine Margot by Dumas and got trully excited for read the rest of the trilogy. And I do have a few series I'd like to try: The Three Musketeers one (also by Dumas) and The Barsetshire series and The Palliser series, both by Anthony Trollope (I'm sort of a XIX Century kind of gal 😅)
Excellent! Nothing wrong with a XIX Century read! I would really like to read The Barsetshire series, I’ve read The Warden and hoping to read Barchester Towers once I’ve got some of my larger classics off my TBR. I loved The Count of Monte Cristo and mostly liked The Three Musketeers. 😊📚
My 5 series I want to finish are: the Shardlake series by C. J. Sansom, both of the detective series by Keigo Higashino (Kaga & Galileo), The Poe & Bradshaw series by M. W. Craven and all of the Agatha Christies. I tried the Ruth Galloway books but hated her so much I couldn't pick up the second book, which I own along with the third. That will teach me to buy a series before I try it.
Ooh I’d like to try the Higashino and the Craven books. I’ve finished all of Christie’s mysteries, they are my all time favs! I can completely understand that with Ruth Galloway, I find the main character irritating on and off and she is at her worst in book one. It was Nelson as a character who got my through it along with a character who I don’t want to spoil but isn’t in the series until the end of book 2, possibly even book 3. I enjoyed following the frankly soap-opera ish at times relationships so was glad I read it in order. Not my favourite series but I did enjoy it despite Ruth sometimes grating on me. 😂📚
Great video! I’m currently working myself through the “Cat Who series “ and Agatha Christie books…. Nearly finished the cat ones….. 29 in total….. Agatha books are going to take me years! lol! X
Ooh I’ve not heard of the cat ones but they sound like fun! It took me so long to read all of Christie’s mysteries at a rate of a few every year. Definitely a long term project. 😊📚
Love all 5 of your choices!! I'm in the midst of about 40 mystery series and don't want any of them to end - lol. It's so sad that there will forever be only 7 Shardlake ones 😢. I recently went through the list of all of the Francis novels and discovered 8 that I don’t think I've read. I did not start a reading database until the late 80s, so I may have read some of the 8 prior to that, but I'm excited to maybe find a few that I've not read! I will limit my recommendations to only a few 😊: • Kenzie and Genarro by Dennis Lehane. He also has several outstanding stand-alones • Harry Bosch by Michael Connelly • Eve Dallas by JD Robb • Kate Shugak by Dana Stabenow • Tony Hill and Carol Jordan by Val Mcdermid. This series is pretty graphic, a bit like Slaughter. I would suggest starting any of the series with book #1, to get a feel for the characters. Then, if you want, you can read them out of order except for the Stabenow ones. They are best read in order. The Robb ones take about 3 books to learn the recurring characters. Glad to see that you are continuing to stick in a crime book occasionally 🤩. Enjoy your reads!!
Very sad news about CJ Sansom. 😢 I’m glad you’ve found some potential new to you Dick Francis. Thanks for the list of recommendations. I know with you reading so many series that these will be good ones to try. I haven’t yet tried any of those authors astonishingly- not even their stand alones! Maybe one very early McDermid actually but that’s it. I do like to read series in order. I think they tend to develop the characters and their relationships and you can watch it unfold better in order. Thanks BJ, I will always be a crime fiction lover at heart. Can’t wait to read more mysteries, thrillers and crime novels over the summer now the prize season is coming to an end- I’ve read some great literary books but alas this year the WP hasn’t really been to my taste at all, I think me and these judges will have to agree to disagree. 😂😊📚
I've read the first book in one of Elly Griffith's series -- not realizing, at the time, that it would turn into a series: Stranger Diaries. You've read the Ruth Galloway series, though, right? I've wanted to pick that up so many times..... It's worth it? I've read all of Christie's Marple series, her bios, her plays, her poetry, her Westmacott books, her short stories, and all of her stand-alones. I've read all but two of the Poirot series: Aknahton (because it seemed too "weird" when I picked it up as a teen) and Curtain (because I think it will make me ugly cry.) 🤷🏻♀️ I bet you would like the Thomas Lynley series by Elizabeth George. Her characters are written like real, good/bad, conflicted adults, who sometimes make terrible decisions, and then face the consequences. It starts with A Great Deliverance, but you could start with A Suitable Vengeance -- that one was written 4th, but is really a prequel. George is such an amazing author! I've read 16 of the 21 books -- got some catching up to do! I've read most of Ruth Rendell (including the Wexford series) and all of her Barbara Vine books. *perfection* Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series is fantastic. The last one is Collin Dexter's Morse series, which are amazing! Can you tell I'm in love with UK mystery authors??? 💚💚💚 PS: George is an American author writing her series set in Britain with British characters. Ugh, I know, right? Everything I've read about that issue states that she knows the British backforwards and forwards, and absolutely nails the British culture. 🤷🏻♀️ Your mileage may vary, but she's worth picking up for the characters alone. Any other series you can recommend in British female authors?
Ooh those are some excellent recommendations that I have never got to. Will have to give them a try. I’ve especially wanted to get to Tana French for ages but been unsure on Elizabeth George because she writes such huge books. My top recommendation for a crime series by a UK author is Nicci French’s Frieda Klein series. It has 8 books, the first seven all named after days of the week: Blue Monday is the first. They need to be read in order but they follow a psychotherapist who lives in London on her own and several other recurring characters as she helps the police with an investigation in the first book and things develop from there. Nicci French are a husband and wife writing team and these 8 books are their best in my eyes (all their others are standalones). I also read The Stranger Diaries and want to get to the others in that little series. Yes it was the Ruth Galloway series I read. I found Ruth a bit annoying especially in book 1 but it’s well worth persevering for the other great characters especially DCI Nelson. I also liked Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie series, that’s very British. It is very dark in places and I haven’t read all of them but the ones I’ve read have been good. Case Histories was the first one. Lastly, have you tried Sophie Hannah’s Culver Valley/ Charlie Zailer and Simon Waterhouse series. Perhaps has lost its way of late and definitely got a bit ‘soap opera’ at times in the relationships, but although I didn’t love the first book Little Face, I really liked some of the others like The Other Half Lives. 😊📚
@AliceandtheGiantBookshelf yay, thanks -- I'll check those out! I'm a big fan of Atkinson, but I haven't read any of the Brodie series. I think I sort of forgot she was British, lol. I totally get what you mean about George's giant books. I would never have started them, but my step-mother got them for me, and I could see she really wanted me to read them. I can tell you that you do really fly through them. It's uncanny how she keeps you reading "just one more chapter!" Well, I can say this has been an excellent episode of Let's Talk British Authors! 🤣😂💚
Ooh this is so tempting. I actually watched your unhaul as I was uploading this and was like what, why doesn’t Jen like Rebus?! 😂😂 But if you’re not into police procedural I can see he’s not for you. That would be super kind of you if you’re sure you don’t mind. Happy to pay for the postage. 😊📚
This problem is sooo relatable. I have 18 series on the go at the moment and there are several I want to start 🫣. Crime series do seem to be ridiculously long. I started Poirot and I’d like to start Bosch and Leephorn and Chee but like Poirot they are like 40 book series 😬.
Crime series are definitely ridiculously long! Poirot especially (but I loved reading all of those). I’d like to start Bosch as well, but need to make progress on these ones first! Thanks Al. 😊📚
I’d recommend the Dublin Murders series by Tana French (such well written characters, great prose) and the Eddie Flynn series by Steve Cavanagh (imagine big budget crime thriller films with lots of actions and twists and turns!)
Excellent, thanks for the recommendations. I’ve wanted to get to the Tana French series for so long! 😊📚
👁️👁️👮🏻👮🏻♀️🕵🏼🕵🏼 I recently finished the Shardlake series by C.J. Sansom and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was working very long hours on my feet so I devoured them via audiobook. I’m very late to your channel and I’m glad we still have access to your videos. Thank you for all you shared with the book tube community. ❤
I haven't yet read any novel-lenght crime/thriller series, but do love Sherlock Holmes ofcourse.. I have a collection of his stories, I haven't yet read all of them, but do plan on it some day. Love your t-shirt by the way.. ❤ as a teen I used to be an enormous The Killers fan.. I haven't listened to them in a while, but maybe I should again. I am a bit nostalgic right now, as I just went to a music festival in the town I used to go to high school in..
Sherlock Holmes is great! That’s a series I have completed as long as we don’t count any books by subsequent authors who have taken him on. Originals only!
I love The Killers! Don’t often wear the t-shirt but I got it when I went to see them when they toured Wonderful Wonderful. 💛
Hi Alice, I’m currently reading two crime series. The Shardlake series and am on book 3 now, Sovereign. And Ann Swinfen’s series of mysteries all called The (something’s) Tale. All are about a bookseller in 14 th Century Oxford who is pulled into various mysteries/crimes to solve. Really enjoyed your video!
That sounds like a really interesting series that I will have to look up. Thanks for your kind comment, I hope you enjoy the rest of your series books! 😊📚
I really like Jack Reacher and would recommend Catherine Coulter's FBI series and her Brit in the FBI series.
Ooh thank you, I will look out for those ones. 😊📚
I can highly recommend Louise Penny and Michael Connelly, both fantastic crime writers.
Both authors I want to try. I have read the second Louise Penny book in her series and I wasn’t too sure, but I think it was just one particular element I didn’t like so hopefully that won’t be in the other books. Thanks for the recommendation. 😊📚
Have you read Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series? I've only read book 14 "N Is For Noose". Not my favorite book by any stretch, but it is halfway through the series, so maybe I should start at the beginning with "A Is For Alabi".
I read E is for Evidence from that series. I don’t know if I will try any of the others as I wasn’t sure I liked it very much, but as you say sometimes a series works better from the start. I usually start at the beginning. 😊📚
THere is a bit more Ruth Galloway to come...there is a short story collection coming out later this year that includes at least a few Ruth Galloway stories.
I just ordered the first book in the Shardlake series, so I'll be starting that one soon!
Yay for some Ruth Galloway short stories! Hope you enjoy Shardlake. 😊📚
Àlice , there was an interview several years ago with Lee and Andrew , where Andrew said he was planning on bringing the character of Reacher into the " tech " age. His brother said we will have to talk about that . Be interesting to see if the new book reflects this ! I just finished the borrowed world series ☹️ and I'm looking forward to the next Anita Blake Vampire Hunter book ( #30 i believe ) loved the Dick Francis books.
Haha Reacher in the tech age! I can’t imagine it. I’ve not heard of The Borrowed World, will have to look that one up. Really enjoyed the Anita Blake books I’ve read, I think I’m up to book 7. 😊📚
Just downloaded number 2 Elly Griffiths ready to listen on way to work this week, remember loving number 1. Thanks for the prompt 😊
Glad to be of assistance! 😊📚
I'm not a huge fan of series but earlier this year I've read La Reine Margot by Dumas and got trully excited for read the rest of the trilogy. And I do have a few series I'd like to try: The Three Musketeers one (also by Dumas) and The Barsetshire series and The Palliser series, both by Anthony Trollope (I'm sort of a XIX Century kind of gal 😅)
Excellent! Nothing wrong with a XIX Century read! I would really like to read The Barsetshire series, I’ve read The Warden and hoping to read Barchester Towers once I’ve got some of my larger classics off my TBR. I loved The Count of Monte Cristo and mostly liked The Three Musketeers. 😊📚
My 5 series I want to finish are: the Shardlake series by C. J. Sansom, both of the detective series by Keigo Higashino (Kaga & Galileo), The Poe & Bradshaw series by M. W. Craven and all of the Agatha Christies. I tried the Ruth Galloway books but hated her so much I couldn't pick up the second book, which I own along with the third. That will teach me to buy a series before I try it.
Ooh I’d like to try the Higashino and the Craven books. I’ve finished all of Christie’s mysteries, they are my all time favs!
I can completely understand that with Ruth Galloway, I find the main character irritating on and off and she is at her worst in book one. It was Nelson as a character who got my through it along with a character who I don’t want to spoil but isn’t in the series until the end of book 2, possibly even book 3. I enjoyed following the frankly soap-opera ish at times relationships so was glad I read it in order. Not my favourite series but I did enjoy it despite Ruth sometimes grating on me. 😂📚
Great video! I’m currently working myself through the “Cat Who series “ and Agatha Christie books…. Nearly finished the cat ones….. 29 in total…..
Agatha books are going to take me years! lol! X
Ooh I’ve not heard of the cat ones but they sound like fun! It took me so long to read all of Christie’s mysteries at a rate of a few every year. Definitely a long term project. 😊📚
Love all 5 of your choices!! I'm in the midst of about 40 mystery series and don't want any of them to end - lol. It's so sad that there will forever be only 7 Shardlake ones 😢.
I recently went through the list of all of the Francis novels and discovered 8 that I don’t think I've read. I did not start a reading database until the late 80s, so I may have read some of the 8 prior to that, but I'm excited to maybe find a few that I've not read!
I will limit my recommendations to only a few 😊:
• Kenzie and Genarro by Dennis Lehane. He also has several outstanding stand-alones
• Harry Bosch by Michael Connelly
• Eve Dallas by JD Robb
• Kate Shugak by Dana Stabenow
• Tony Hill and Carol Jordan by Val Mcdermid. This series is pretty graphic, a bit like Slaughter.
I would suggest starting any of the series with book #1, to get a feel for the characters. Then, if you want, you can read them out of order except for the Stabenow ones. They are best read in order. The Robb ones take about 3 books to learn the recurring characters.
Glad to see that you are continuing to stick in a crime book occasionally 🤩. Enjoy your reads!!
Very sad news about CJ Sansom. 😢
I’m glad you’ve found some potential new to you Dick Francis.
Thanks for the list of recommendations. I know with you reading so many series that these will be good ones to try. I haven’t yet tried any of those authors astonishingly- not even their stand alones! Maybe one very early McDermid actually but that’s it.
I do like to read series in order. I think they tend to develop the characters and their relationships and you can watch it unfold better in order.
Thanks BJ, I will always be a crime fiction lover at heart. Can’t wait to read more mysteries, thrillers and crime novels over the summer now the prize season is coming to an end- I’ve read some great literary books but alas this year the WP hasn’t really been to my taste at all, I think me and these judges will have to agree to disagree. 😂😊📚
RIP CJ Sansom - I've completed the Shardlake series, 'Dark Fire' is my favourite of the novels.
Very sad news.😢 I’m glad you recommend Dark Fire, I hope to get to it soon.
I like the 2 Rivers series by Ann Cleeves
Thank you, I’ve not tried Ann Cleeves yet, will give it a go sometime. 😊📚
I've read the first book in one of Elly Griffith's series -- not realizing, at the time, that it would turn into a series: Stranger Diaries. You've read the Ruth Galloway series, though, right? I've wanted to pick that up so many times..... It's worth it?
I've read all of Christie's Marple series, her bios, her plays, her poetry, her Westmacott books, her short stories, and all of her stand-alones. I've read all but two of the Poirot series: Aknahton (because it seemed too "weird" when I picked it up as a teen) and Curtain (because I think it will make me ugly cry.) 🤷🏻♀️
I bet you would like the Thomas Lynley series by Elizabeth George. Her characters are written like real, good/bad, conflicted adults, who sometimes make terrible decisions, and then face the consequences. It starts with A Great Deliverance, but you could start with A Suitable Vengeance -- that one was written 4th, but is really a prequel. George is such an amazing author! I've read 16 of the 21 books -- got some catching up to do!
I've read most of Ruth Rendell (including the Wexford series) and all of her Barbara Vine books. *perfection*
Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series is fantastic.
The last one is Collin Dexter's Morse series, which are amazing!
Can you tell I'm in love with UK mystery authors??? 💚💚💚
PS: George is an American author writing her series set in Britain with British characters. Ugh, I know, right? Everything I've read about that issue states that she knows the British backforwards and forwards, and absolutely nails the British culture. 🤷🏻♀️ Your mileage may vary, but she's worth picking up for the characters alone.
Any other series you can recommend in British female authors?
Or, heck, any other UK lit authors?
Ooh those are some excellent recommendations that I have never got to. Will have to give them a try. I’ve especially wanted to get to Tana French for ages but been unsure on Elizabeth George because she writes such huge books.
My top recommendation for a crime series by a UK author is Nicci French’s Frieda Klein series. It has 8 books, the first seven all named after days of the week: Blue Monday is the first. They need to be read in order but they follow a psychotherapist who lives in London on her own and several other recurring characters as she helps the police with an investigation in the first book and things develop from there. Nicci French are a husband and wife writing team and these 8 books are their best in my eyes (all their others are standalones).
I also read The Stranger Diaries and want to get to the others in that little series. Yes it was the Ruth Galloway series I read. I found Ruth a bit annoying especially in book 1 but it’s well worth persevering for the other great characters especially DCI Nelson.
I also liked Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie series, that’s very British. It is very dark in places and I haven’t read all of them but the ones I’ve read have been good. Case Histories was the first one.
Lastly, have you tried Sophie Hannah’s Culver Valley/ Charlie Zailer and Simon Waterhouse series. Perhaps has lost its way of late and definitely got a bit ‘soap opera’ at times in the relationships, but although I didn’t love the first book Little Face, I really liked some of the others like The Other Half Lives. 😊📚
@AliceandtheGiantBookshelf yay, thanks -- I'll check those out! I'm a big fan of Atkinson, but I haven't read any of the Brodie series. I think I sort of forgot she was British, lol. I totally get what you mean about George's giant books. I would never have started them, but my step-mother got them for me, and I could see she really wanted me to read them. I can tell you that you do really fly through them. It's uncanny how she keeps you reading "just one more chapter!" Well, I can say this has been an excellent episode of Let's Talk British Authors! 🤣😂💚
Your videos are useful to people Alice and the Giant Bookshelf
I’m glad you find them useful. Thank you. 😊📚
Alice, please try Ross Macdonald. Good channel thanks.
I'm unhauling a hardcover copy of A Song For The Dark Times, I could send it to you if you'd like?
Ooh this is so tempting. I actually watched your unhaul as I was uploading this and was like what, why doesn’t Jen like Rebus?! 😂😂 But if you’re not into police procedural I can see he’s not for you. That would be super kind of you if you’re sure you don’t mind. Happy to pay for the postage. 😊📚
Finish 1, start 5 😂😂😂
Mate, I’ve been working on these for years, two of them are on 20+ books! 😂😂😂
Subscribed 🎀
Thank you. 😊📚
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Thanks Victoria. 💛
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This problem is sooo relatable. I have 18 series on the go at the moment and there are several I want to start 🫣. Crime series do seem to be ridiculously long. I started Poirot and I’d like to start Bosch and Leephorn and Chee but like Poirot they are like 40 book series 😬.
Crime series are definitely ridiculously long! Poirot especially (but I loved reading all of those). I’d like to start Bosch as well, but need to make progress on these ones first! Thanks Al. 😊📚