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There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and the tired man who wants a book to read.
Gilbert K. Chesterton
http://www.brainyquote.com/...
I suspect that I am more likely to pick up a mystery when I am tired. There are some authors who are my favorites and I watch for new books by them.
I like great characters and a good plot and a clever ending, but I also enjoy the settings that take me all over the world.
I thought I would mention a few of my favorite authors and my readers would mention more and then I found the lists below and suddenly it was overwhelming…but look at the fun! My well-read posters have mentioned many of these authors, but I just didn’t realize the scope of the whole thing. Please check out some of these lists for your favorite places in the world.
Whew! So I decided before the long lists take over, I would mention my favorite mysteries:
The Likeness by Tana French set in Dublin and outside it
What is the Worst that Could Happen? by Donald Westlake set in Las Vegas
Break Up by Dana Stabenow set in Alaska
African Quest by Lyn Hamilton set in Tunisia
Blacklist by Sarah Paretsky set in Chicago
Vineyard Blues by Philip Craig set on Martha's Vineyard
LA Requiem by Robert Crais set in LA
Fever Season by Barbara Hambly set in 1830's New Orleans
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson set on an island in the NW
Coyote Waits by Tony Hillerman set in the Four Corners
Wings of Fire by Charles Todd set in England after WW I
This list is interesting! A few from the list:
Mysteries set in Africa and the Middle East.
http://www.reginalibrary.ca/...
Agatha Christie (a young girl travels to South Africa to investigate after witnessing the death of a stranger)
- The Man in the Brown Suit (1924)
Len Deighton (when the policeman escorting accused murderer Jimmy Ross to face trial in World War II Cairo dies of a heart attack enroute, Ross assumes his identity and must prove his own innocence by unmasking the spy who is feeding allied information to Erwin Rommel)
- City of Gold (1989)
Isadore Durant (American Cynthia Cavallo and African student Balebe Thanatu team up to investigate the murder of a famous archaeologist in East Africa)
- Death Among the Fossils (1999)
Dorothy Gilman (part-time CIA agent Mrs. Pollifax)
- Mrs. Pollifax & the Whirling Dervish (1991) (Morocco)
- Mrs. Pollifax and the Lion Killer (1996) (fictional African country of Ubangiba)
- Mrs. Pollifax, Innocent Tourist (1997) (Iraq and Jordan)
- Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled (2000) (Syria)
Batya Gur (Chief Superintendant Michael Ohayon of the Jerusalem police)
- Murder Duet (1999)
- Bethlehem Road Murder (2004)
- Murder in Jerusalem (2006)
Lyn Hamilton (Toronto antiques dealer Lara McClintoch investigates murder in Tunisia)
- The African Quest (2001)
Elspeth Huxley (CID Superintendant Vachell, East Africa)
- African Poison Murders (1939)
- Murder on Safari (1938)
- Murder at Government House (1988)
Henning Mankell (Swedish inspector Kurt Wallander)
- The White Lioness (1998) (South Africa)
- The Fifth Woman (2000) (Algeria)
Karin McQuillan (American expatriate Jazz Jasper, now operating a safari company in Kenya, is drawn into a murder investigation when her friend’s lover is killed)
- Elephant's Graveyard (1993)
Deon Meyer (former police officer Zet Van Heerden, now private detective in South Africa)
- Dead at Daybreak (2000)
- Heart of the Hunter (2004)
- Dead Before Dying (2006)
Elizabeth Peters (archaeologist Amelia Peabody; Egypt)
- Crocodile on the Sandbank (1975)
(RPL has all eighteen titles in series)
- Tomb of the Golden Bird (2006)
Wilbur Smith (Dr. Daniel Armstrong searches for the killer of his friend, game warden Johnny Nzou, who appears to have been murdered by ivory poachers in Zimbabwe)
- Elephant Song (1991)
Alexander McCall Smith (Precious Ramotswe, who owns a detective agency in Botswana)
- The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (1998)
(RPL has all titles in between)
- Blue Shoes and Happiness (2006)
This list is wonderful!!!!
Crime fiction: Around the world in 80 sleuths
By Jonathan Gibbs
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
http://www.independent.co.uk/...
I am giving you the first eleven just to give you a feel for this wonderful list of 80.
1. Greenland
The murder takes place in Copenhagen, but it is to the unforgiving Greenland coast that Smilla Jaspersen follows the trail. Peter Hoeg's book, with its slow pacing and heightened atmospherics, was surely the one that whetted the international appetite for Scandinavian crime.
Smilla's Sense of Snow (Harvill)
2. Reykjavik
If there is a pretender to Henning Mankell's crown, it could well be Arnaldur Indridason. His Inspector Erlendur novels have the bleak setting, social realism and gentle pacing we associate with Scandinavian noir.
Read 'Tainted Blood' (Vintage)
3. Shetland Islands
Ann Cleeves had 18 books under her belt when she won a Gold Dagger for Raven Black, the first in her Shetland Quartet. It's an inspired location, with its bleak landscape and close-knit community for detective Jimmy Perez to unpick.
Read 'Raven Black' (Pan)
4. Glasgow
If you find Ian Rankin's books a little Miss Marple, try Denise Mina, who has written two crime series set in Glasgow. The Garnethill Trilogy, featuring ex-psychiatric patient Maureen O'Donnell, is as grimly realistic as it is taut.
Read 'Garnethill' (Bantam)
5. Edinburgh
The success of Rankin's Inspector Rebus novels can't be put down to the plots, topical though they often are. It's the double act – love story, even – of his misanthropic policeman and Edinburgh itself that make them so popular.
Read 'Knots and Crosses' (Orion)
6. Northern Ireland
Cosy crime is the term for the Agatha Christie strain of the genre, but it can be twisted to strange ends. Ian Samson's Mobile Library series features the hapless librarian Israel Armstrong as he solves mysteries and collects fines in Antrim.
Read 'The Case of the Missing Books' (4th Estate)
7. Rural Ireland
Miss Maple is not your average sleuth. For a start, she's a sheep. This doesn't stop her investigating when her flock finds its shepherd with a spade through his heart. A gentle, literate whodunit from the German writer Leonie Swann.
'Three Bags Full' (Black Swan)
8. Dublin
Benjamin Black's Quirke novels evoke 1950s Dublin, but for the shady side of the Celtic tiger today, try Declan Hughes. His Ed Loy, a private eye who learnt his trade in LA, brings West Coast thrills to the Irish scene.
Read 'The Wrong Kind of Blood' (John Murray)
9. Yorkshire
Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone is revered as much for its sophisticated plot as for its status as the first British detective story. But the setting – a remote country house – is a big part of its appeal.
'The Moonstone' (Penguin Popular Classics)
10. South Wales
This comic Welsh noir series, the Aberystwyth novels, features Robert Lewis's young, alcoholic PI Robin Llewellyn.
Read 'The Last Llanelli Train' (Serpent's Tail)
11. Oxford
Inspector Morse is really the last of a type: the glum intellectual copper, happier solving murders over a pint than in a forensics lab. Colin Dexter's novels revel in their donnish Oxford setting.
Read 'Last Bus to Woodstock' (Pan)
Crime Around the World list
http://www.sldirectory.com/...
A great list here:
Mysteries by Location
http://www.sldirectory.com/...
This site is maintained by Linda Bertland, Philadelphia, PA
Just a few from the list…It is truly worth a look at the whole list! The list includes the USA with separate lists for the states.
Mysteries Around the World - Lists of mysteries from all over the world compiled by the Tulsa City Library.
http://www.tulsalibrary.org/...
Brazil
Garcia-Roza, Luiz Alfredo - Inspector Espinosa Mysteries: The Silence of Rain (2002); December Heat (2003); Southwesterly Wind (2004); A Window in Copacabana (2005); Pursuit (2006)
Malcolm, John - A Back Room in Somers Town
Ripley, J. R. - The Body from Ipanema
Soares, Jo - A Samba for Sherlock
Ecuador
Wishnia, K. J. A. - Filomena Buscarsela Mysteries: Blood Lake
Peru
Hamilton, Lyn - Lara McClintock Archaeological Mysteries: The Moche Warrior
Vargas Llosa, Mario - Who Killed Palomino Molero?
Mysteries in Asia
http://www.tulsalibrary.org/...
I just chose one country, but the other countries are:
| Afghanistan | China | Cypress | India | Israel | Japan | Laos | Myanmar |
| New Guinea | North Korea | Pakistan | Palestine | Philippines | Russia |
| South Korea | Sri Lanka | Thailand | Tibet | Turkey |
China
Bradby, Tom- The Master of Rain
Gulik, Robert Van (Medieval China) - Judge Dee Series: The Chinese Maze Murders (1952); The Chinese Bell Murders (1958); The Chinese Gold Murders (1959); The Chinese Lake Murders (1960); The Haunted Monastery (1961); The Chinese Nail Murders (1961); The Lacquer Screen (1962); The Emperor's Pearl (1963); The Red Pavilion (1964); The Monkey and the Tiger (2 novelettes: The Morning of the Monkey and The Night of the Tiger 1965); Murder in Canton (1966); The Phantom of the Temple (1966); Necklace and Calabash (1967)
Liang, Diane Wei - The Eye of Jade (2008)
Marshall, William - Yellowthread Street Station Series (Chief Inspector Harry Feiffer): Yellowthread Street (1975); The Hatchet Man (1976); Gelignite (1976); Thin Air (1977); Skulduggery (1979); Sci-Fi (1981); Perfect End (1981); War Machine (1982); The Far Away Man (1984); Road Show (1985); Head First (1986); Frogmouth (1987); Out of Nowhere (1988); Inches (1994); Nightmare Syndrome (1997)
May, Peter - Margaret Campbell and Li Yan mysteries: The Firemaker (2005); The Fourth Sacrifice (2007); The Killing Room (2008)
Qiu Xiaolong - Inspector Chen Mysteries: Death of a Red Heroine (2000); A Loyal Character Dancer (2002); When Red Is Black (2004); A Case of Two Cities (2006); Red Mandarin Dress (2008)
Rotenberg, David - The Shanghai Murders; The Lake Ching Murders
Rozan, S. J.- Lydia Chin & Bill Smith Mysteries: Reflecting the Sky
Wang, Shuo- Playing for Thrills
West, Christopher - Inspector Wang Anzhuang Mysteries: Death of a Blue Lantern (1994); Death on Black Dragon River (1995); Death of a Red Mandarin (1999); The Third Messiah (2000)
Your turn!
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