Book recommendations?

[Karen Dionne]

I'm looking for dark, character-driven police procedurals to read - mysteries along the lines of Tana French's IN THE WOODS or Stef Penney's THE INVISIBLE ONES - stories that focus less on the crime, and more on the investigation, preferably with a detective as the main character. Any suggestions? Thanks!

[Jude Hardin]

Michael Connelly is always good. If you're ever in the mood for a PI thriller, my debut Pocket-47 is only $1.99 for Kindle now. http://tiny.cc/7af5t

[D. L. R.]

The Tony Hill series by Val McDermid are fairly interesting: the first one is, the Mermaids singing. Her stand alone novels, A Place of Execution, and The Grave Tattoo, are really good as well.  

[Karen Dionne]

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll definitely check them out. And Jude - I've heard great things about Pocket-47.

I'm doing prep work for a work-for-hire novel deal I can't announce yet that has a really short turnaround time, so I can only read a couple of novels at most before I'll have to start writing -

I'm looking for less of a thriller (which I read all the time and LOVE), and more of a convoluted kind of slow-burn, intense mystery, if that makes sense - something that depends less on plot, and really goes deeply into character . . .

[Grant McKenzie]

A lot of the British mysteries are written in this style: Ian Rankin, Frost, etc., but also check out Sandra Ruttan's series.

[Eric Christopherson]

Sounds a bit like Raymond Chandler.

What about Lehane's Mystic River?

[D. L. R.]

A Place of Execution was made into a BBC Masterpiece Theater which is a good example of a slow-burn, character driven, intense edge-of-seat mystery that I can think of. It may be at your local library or, I sure net-flix would have it. :)

[Karen Dionne]

Thanks, Grant and Eric - how interesting that this description fits a lot of the British writers (and that the two I originally mentioned are also non-U.S. authors), because the project I'm working on is originally from Denmark. (Wish I could say more, but my agent has asked me not to until the contracts are signed - it's just way early days, and the whole project might not come about if I don't deliver a satisfactory manuscript).

As it happens, I have Peter James' DEAD LIKE YOU on my bookshelf - Peter's a fellow ITW board member, so when I saw his book in the bookstore in the U.S., I picked it up, but I haven't yet cracked it open (it's 550 pages!). I have Lehane's MYSTIC RIVER too, though the only book I've read by him is THE GIVEN DAY, which I enjoyed.

This is REALLY helpful - I'm so glad I asked the question!

[I. J. Parker]

Most of the Scandinavian mysteries are that way.  So are Charles Todd's.

Val McDermid writes forensic thrillers, at least for those titles that were mentioned.  MERMAIDS SINGING is a shocker, but probably the only true thriller (serial killer) that I found to be well written and plotted.

[Grant McKenzie]

Very few American writers use the police procedural method (apart from the 87th Precinct series written by Ed McBain) - but one series you should look into that fits that style with an American twist are the X-Files books written by Kevin J. Anderson. He spends as much time with the two main characters as the mystery. Also, the Bones series by Kathy Reichs - especially her debut, Déjà Dead. And another Brit, Scottish writer Stuart McBride does a nice job with his Aberdeen-set series.

And for something that might not immediately come to mind, but are actually written in a very similar fashion are the Star Trek books written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. In these books, the interaction of the characters is often more important than the sweeping plot.

[Karen Dionne]

Grant - I.J. - D. L. R. - all terrific suggestions, thanks!

[Dana King]

Try Mark Billingham's IN THE DARK. Not part of his Tom Thorne series, though Thorne makes a cameo. Wonderful book that focuses on the investigation and how it affects the victims.

[Christopher Valen]

Karen,

Check out my police procedural series featuring Colombian-born Homicide Detective John Santana. The latest book in the series, Bad Weeds Never Die, was recently selected as 2011 Best Mystery/Thriller of the Year by Rebecca's Reads.