Please continue to enter The Rock Paper Tiger Chase/Action Writing Contest Extravaganza if you have not already! Be sure to do so in the official contest thread.
And as we continue in Rock Paper Tiger week (on sale now!), a very timely question: what is your favorite mystery/suspense/thriller novel of all time?
I was drawn to Rock Paper Tiger because it has incredible style and a very keen sense of place. And a lot of what I loved about it I also love about The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler.
What’s your favorite?
Maltese Falcon.
I just read a presidential thriller–with vampires–BLOOD OATH. I'm not into vampires (yes, I know…I'm the only one in the country no into vampires!) so I didn't think I'd like it but, surprise, I was totally into the story very quickly and could hardly put it down. Christopher Farnsworth is the author. My interview with him is on my KBCO blog.
http://www.kbco.com/pages/focus.html
Oh yes – definitely The murder of Roger Akroyd by Agatha Christie. Best example of a classic British "whodunnit".
Everything written by Christopher Pike is pretty darn good. He's one ofmy favorite authors of all time.
I'll go with SHOOTING AT MIDNIGHT by Greg Rucka.
It's so hard to give one answer to these questions! The first one that occurred to me was Silence of the Lambs, so I'll go with that.
And Patricia Cornwell's older stuff. Anything by King and Koontz, if we can edge over the horror line. Agatha Christie. Did I promise to leave just one answer?
What I love about the "You Tell Me" days is adding to my TBR list. My husband is less a fan of this feature. He keeps blathering something about the Leaning Tower in our room, our dwindling checking account and the possibility of a 12-step program, but I can't hear him clearly over the rustle of turning pages.
THE EXILE by Allan Folsom (not to be confused with EXILE by Richard North Patterson, which, come to think of it, was pretty doggone suspenseful and thrilling also).
I don't read the genre much because when I do, I neglect my kids. That said, I loved MY SISTER'S KEEPER (though I feel unliterary saying so) and THE FIRM.
As a kid, FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC and I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER. Incest and teens murdering each other. Hoo Yeah
Oh man, how to choose?
Pure mysteries: Agatha Christie (take your pick: Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Ten Little Indians, Murder on the Orient Express)
Historical mysteries: a duel between Eco's The Name of the Rose and Pears' An Instance of the Fingerpost
Philosophical mystery/suspense: G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday
Mystery Thrillers: Mystic River, by Dennis Lehane, The Big Gold Dream, by Chester Himes, and A Place of Execution was pretty good, too.
Literary Thriller: No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy.
I can't say I have just one. But the one that I've reread the most times is If Tomorrow Comes by Sydney Sheldon. It could also be due to the unfair imprisonment/get revenge plot that I love too! So, I guess I'd have to say Count of Monte Cristo too.
THE LONG GOODBYE, by Raymond Chandler. My favorite by one of the all-time greats.
Children of Men (or anything by PD James), Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Chritie, and I really enjoyed Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane.
I have a feeling that NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN will hold this title…once I actually get around to reading it. For now, though, CUJO–Stephen King's version of MARLEY AND ME–stands as the most suspenseful book I've ever read. Even more so now that I'm a parent. That entire stretch in the car is on a whole other level of brutal now.
THE HOUND OF BASKERVILLE by Dr. John Watson. The only time in my life that I felt my hair physically standing on end.
THE COLLECTOR, by John Fowles. I've heard that the FBI uses it–or once used it–at Quantico to illustrate the psychology of an emerging serial killer. It's a fairly quiet book, but chilling.
A close second is THE OTHER, by Tom Tryon, though I haven't read it in years, so I don't know if it holds up over time.
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD may be the most perfect book ever written, so I give it a category of its own.
Day of the Jackal
Other good ones:
The Dragon Tattoo trilogy
Postmortem by P Cornwell
The Laura Joh Rowland series
THE NINE TAILORS, by Dorothy Sayers. Love that book.
Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwartz. Haunting and suspenseful.
While I do love The Big Sleep, I have to go with The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett on this one.
That would have to be something by Harlan Coben. Probably Tell No One. I love that I can never predict the twist at the end of the story even though I know one's coming.
I really loved the first Bourne by Ludlum. Couldn't stop reading it
Nancy Drew, The Clue in the Locket
Besides Raymond Chandler's hardboiled vintage detective novels, I'm a fan of Jack Vance's The Dying Earth series. His trenchant wit is unparalleled.
Murder on the Orient Express or The Thirteenth Tale. The Name of the Rose is on my TBR pile, and judging from the comments here I'll definitely enjoy it.
My fav thriller is Val McDermid's The Mermaid Singing. I loved how the life of the MC and the Killer paralleled and the way gender was salient in this book.
I don't know if this fits the genre, but it kept me up pretty late: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon!
The Mystery/Suspense/Thriller genre is not generally one I look in to much. I did just finish reading a wonderful sci-fi young adult thriller series called DRAGONBACK by Timothy Zahn, though.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. This got me started on such a Le Carre kick that 10 novels later I feel like I have to ration his remaining ones — I only read one every several novels. I'm terrified I've already used up all the good ones. Can anyone recommend similar authors? Based on some recommendations I've read The Company by Robert Littell (which was excellent) and Agents of Innocence by David Ignatius (not so much). I was never a fan of the spy genre before reading him either.
John Le Carre, is the best.
Literary Suspense have to go with Pamuks's MY NAME IS RED
and
Vikram Chandra's SACRED GAMES.
Agatha Christie – The Big Four
I liked most of her books but this one was very special.
Gorky Park. Great sense of place and pace. Amazingly complicated protagonist and antagonist. Timely against the world stage, but ages well also. Skillful plotting turned mystery into thriller.
THE KILLER INSIDE ME, by Jim Thompson. Skin-crawlingly nasty, but an absolutely jaw-dropping use of an unreliable narrator.
The Silence of the Lambs.
The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
Great book and it made an intense, unforgettable movie.
The Sixth Sense by M. Night Shyamalan. I usually can guess
what's going to happen early on in a story but this one had me continually searching. The climax, when the Dr. discovers he's one of the dead people his child patient can see is almost as shocking as one of my blind dates from my past!
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn.
Hands down. That book took my breath away. I can't believe what she did in that book.
Close seconds are:
The Sculptress by Minnette Walters
Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter
Tell No One by Harlan Coben
See Jane Run by Joy Fielding
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The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. I can read that book over and over – what a delightful protaganist – a sophisticated sociopath, in the closet gay with the beautiful wife and selection of fine wines living the good life in rural France. Magnifique!
"Smiley's People" by John le Carré
THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD. Great read.
Ditto for Cormac McCarthy's NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, which I'm studying right now. Though I enjoyed his THE ROAD much, much, immensely more.
REBECCA – DuMaurier
DAY OF THE JACKAL – Forsyth
LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL – LeCarre
and if screenplays count, WAIT UNTIL DARK by Frederick Knott. If you haven't seen it, rent the 1967 movie starring Audrey Hepburn as the blind protagonist… incredible suspense!
The Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth. But that may have something to do with the lead character's name.
And Then There Were None, a mystery by Agatha Christie
Clever, clever, clever!
The Virgin of Small Plains, by Nancy Pickard. And to boot, the Author is a real sweetheart. (This didn't sway my opinion–I found out what a sweetheart she was AFTER I'd read her book. It was the first time I loved a novel so much I had to write the Author, and that's when I found out how awesome she is as a person as well as an author.)
Hm…something by Dean Koontz. I'd probably have to go with Dark Rivers of the Heart as I've reread it more than any of the others. It had suspense, action, humor, a nice doggie, a hint of romance, and it was a book that reads quite differently when you read it more than once. It's not my favorite book of all time, but if we were going for suspense, it's up there. 🙂
In my frenzy to finish and get posted in time, I reposted.
My apologies.
The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
I was going for Marathon Man and saw that Mike Martin cited it in the first comment. One great thing about this book: it could only be a book (okay, the movie is pretty great, too, but he hides a twist in the book that is very clever and only works in prose).
TELL NO ONE by Harlan Coben. I could read it in one sitting, such a page turner.