If you like these, also look into the considerable canon of Lawrence Block.

I'm definitely a huge fan of Agatha Christie!! I made my way through her books throughout most of my teen years 😄

As a Belgian, I'm very proud to find Simenon on your list. 🇧🇪

Thank you for the recommendations. i have read Christie and McBain. Also, I just noticed you have a spinning watch rack behind you. Lol I love it!

Love all 5! Appreciate your spotlighting vintage mystery authors. I also enjoy the length of their books. Most of them are around 200 pages. A perfect afternoon or evening's entertainment!

I'm so glad you mentioned Simenon. I've been reading him for almost twenty years, but it's really been in the last few that I've become obsessed with him. I think I've read 30+ and I have another 30 of his, as I'm trying to get as many as I can because unfortunately a lot of his books are very hard to find in English (and more unfortunately there were many which have never been translated). But of course his Maigret books are all available and in print and I love them, but wow! his serious books are truly excellent. My favorites are the one you were holding up which also goes by the titles The Snow Is Dirty or also Dirty Snow. Then there's The Man Who Watched Trains Go By (probably my #1 favorite), Strangers in the House, The Man from London, The People Opposite (which would be my favorite if the ending were a little more satisfying), The Widow... Of course, I've got many more to read. I read easily over a dozen of Elmore Leonard's books, but then one day I picked one up to read and I couldn't get past the first few pages, and the same for the next one, and that was it, he no longer had any appeal for me. I did enjoy them at the time as fun reads with lots of interesting and scheming characters, but I never found any that really stayed with me.

Often I look up after enjoying your videos & a couple of hours have pleasantly passed. None of my neighbors will admit to ever having read ANYTHING! This is like having a friend come over for a visit. 🙂🎃

It was good to see some beloved authors mentioned in the video, as well as in the comments. Definitely, Donald E. Westlake and Ruth Rendell are worth reading. I hard a little hard time getting into de Insp. Maigret novels. In other classical detective novels you see the detective sharing some thoughts with his/her sidekick, but not Maigret. When asked, he would say "I don't think anything." That was kind of annoying until I realised that he was first soaking up on the facts. After that realisation, I learned to LOVE Maigret!

Great overview as usual! I've enjoyed all of these authors on occasion, especially Simenon's non-Maigret stand alones. My TBR list concerning these numbers at least 50 by this stage. Somewhat daunting, but also something to look forward to.

Thank you for introducing me to some new authors, your recommendations are usually spot on for me. You’re probably already familiar with him, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Lawrence Block to you! His Hitman series with philatelist hitman John Paul Keller (and his….manager? Scheduler? Dot) are just phenomenal. If you’re not familiar, my dude…. I think you’d enjoy them very much. Block has a bunch of other very good series as well

Great list. I have a huge Elmore Leonard collection somewhere in my attic. I’ve always loved his work.

Loved this video idea, will definitely be looking for some Ed McBain when book shopping!

Thanks for the reviews. I have read some of all the authors you list. More examples are Robert Parker, Robert Crais, C J Box, Ian Rankin, Michael Z Lewin and one I have recently discovered is Keigo Higashino translated from the Japanese.

Thank you, thank you! I want to dive into some new (to me) mystery novels!

Great video Olly! We have relocated to hopefully our final destination and purchased a huge pile of thrillers from the previous owner. This includes 50+ Ed McBain novels. I will start reading them based on your recommendations in a previous video.. Cheers.

Thanks Olly, very helpful!

Interesting video. 😀 I’ve never been disappointed in a James Ellroy novel.

interesting fact of the day!! a well known story about Simeone . . .Alfred Hitchcock telephoned him as he was interested in adapting one of his books or something. his secretary said that he was busy writing a book. Hitchcock, said he'd hold.

Really great video! Thank you!

Brilliant! You've answered my Simenon Q's re: reading in order or random Please do a James Herbert and a Shaùn Hutson collection review. Thanks

I need to give Simenon a go one of these days. One of my colleagues bit the bullet and bought all the Maigret novels in one go online - kept him busy during lockdown!

Ross MacDonald is another can't miss, quality detective fiction writer. Archer is the name of his detective.

At one time I had almost all of the 87th pct novels in hardback. I still have them, about to purge and you’re welcome to them. Same with Elmore Leonard, (curious you skipped the Raylan Givens series). I did like having a physical copy, but the dust and space have won out. Have not heard of the Inspector books as far as I know, will check them out. Couldn’t get into McDonald or Christie, Al through read a few of both. Good list.

Do your own self a favor and fall under the influence of my hero, Donald E. Westlake! As a retired cop and writer, myself, I'm amazed by Westlake's mastery of unbelievably complex. convoluted plots and realistic dialogue . He's prolific and had many movies produced from his incredible books. I'm working my way through his unbelievably prolific catalog. Trust me, pick up anything he wrote, you'll be smiling as you read.

There’s a nice little second hand bookshop nearby, il have to have a look for one of these 🙂

I'll try to remember these whenever I get to a second-hand bookstore, no idea when that will be though. :)

I love the Miss Marple series, which is definitely cozy, but my favorite Agatha Christie novel is the odd duck Endless Night, which seems so different from her other books. I have to explore the Poirot series further. Honestly, I just always found Miss Marple a more likeable sleuth so I read those first. I haven't read the other authors although I've heard of them.

Excellent video!

My favorite is Peter Robinson’s Inspector Bank’s series. He doesn’t get much attention on Booktube, but he is very good.

Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lindsey series and John Sandford’s Virgil Flowers series are two of my favorites. Worth a read.

I’ve been meaning to get to Simenon and Maigret for ages! At some point I will. I have read an 87th Precinct book and I have that recently purchased one to read. The one that looked super trashy (but I’m sure is not)! Defo agree that you are guaranteed a good time with Christie! I’ve been advised that the Travis McGee books are trashy? Was hoping to get one for Garbaugust. I also need to get to Elmore Leonard. Great video.

Thank you so much for this! It seems that KZfaq is awash with 'the cozy mystery' discussions. Agatha Christie was never banally dumbed-down drivel. While I have already read all of John D. McDonald, Elmore Leonard, and Agatha Christie I was very happily reminded of George Simenon, INTRODUCED to Ed McBain! Again, thank you.

I've read a small-ish number of Simenon books (none in the Maigret series though I have a copy of the first in the series) - but I'm curious about the edition that you're highlighting: 'The Snow Was Black'. Goodreads is telling me that that is the same 1948 book available here in the US as 'Dirty Snow'. If so, I've read that one and found it to be among the best of what I know of Simenon's work so far.

👍I love Agatha Christie. They Came to Bagdad and Third Girl are my absolute favorites.

I’m curious about the 87th Precinct series. It’s fun that you can read in any order - going to keep my eyes peeled for some!

Great list. Can you do another one about the best female mystery writers?

Great to see John D. MacDonald and Elmore Leonard here! Both are quite fun to read, and I find so few readers who are aware of them unless they read crime fiction. Simenon and Christie are two mainstays in my reading; I aim for 1-2 from each every year. Do you have a favorite novel by Leonard? Cheers, Jack

Thanks for your suggestions I will definitely pick some up if I see them. Definitely my kind of thing. I wondered though,if you've read or heard of FANTOMAS by Marcel Allain & Pierre Souvestre? It's originally french but it's difficult to find any translated paperback. There's about fifty of them.I've read the first two and they're quite different from your usual crime novels.They are difficult to find in English but if you do happen to come across them let us know what you think.love your channel.

The chapter for Ed McBain is entitled Ed McMahon.

Leonard is king. Got me into crime novels.

Leonard is a favorite of mine, especially because I’m from the Detroit area where many of his books take place. McBain is great as well. I’d recommend Loren Estleman for another Michigan author with a lot of good, noirish crime novels.

I think that list is hard to beat. Just under I’d go James Lee Burke, Carl Hiaasen, Rober Crais…even Dennis Wheatley (who has never let me down). I’m a big JD McDonald fan too.

EdMcBain, John D. MacDonald, and Elmore Leonard were all among my late mother's favourites, and I think some of the books are still in my house!

Richard Stark deserves a shout too, especially if you like Elmore Leonard. The Parker books are quite brilliant and again don’t HAVE to be read in order but you do get the bigger picture if you do.

Greetings from Australia. Discovered ur channel a week ago and im hooked! Thouroghly fascinating stuff and a great host ur ! Many thanks and look forward to more of ur content. Best wishes mate

Ed McBain and Elmore Leonard for sure 'buy on sight'! Haven't read the others... eyes peeled!

Lawrence Block, When the Sacred Gin Mill Closes is a classic. Mark Grenside, Fall Out - The Bastion is coming out and is a sequel. And... I'll slip in writers from my neck of the woods you wodd have little exposure to: Sam Wiebe: Ocean Drive, The Wakeland Series (Invisible Dead, Cut You Down, Hell and Gone, Sunset and Jericho) - he's a a big MacDonald fan. JT Siemens: To Those Who Killed Me, and it's sequel Call of the Void. AJ Devlin: a crime-comedy series featuring Cobra Clutch, Rolling Thunder, Five Moves of Doom Amber Cowie: Last One Alive (very Christie-esque), The Off Season. SM Freedman: The Day She Died, Blood Atonement.

An excellent line up.

I read all of Leonard and MacDonald and enjoyed them, so I'll try McBain. I recommend James Lee Burke.

How could you leave out Michael Connelly and his Bosch series? Simply the best police procedural ever. Can’t go wrong with these.

thanks for for that, have you checked out Colin Cotterill"s Dr Siri series great reads got me through a covid winter!

Hi there! Just came across this video of yours and really appreciate the effort you have put into it. I have only read some books of Agatha Christie from the list of authors you mentioned. So I am really excited to read the work of a new author (for me). Can you please suggest a good starting point for Georges Simenon? Unfortunately here in India, Amazon is the only source for me to get the books. So I am listing some of the books that are available on Amazon India. (Thinking of buying 2 books) 1. Night at the crossroads 2. The Madman of Bergerac 3. Cecile is dead 4. Signed, Picpus 5. Maigret and the man on the bench 6. Maigret and the dead girl 7. Maigret sets a trap 8. Maigret and the reluctant witnesses 9. Maigret's secret 10. Maigret and the good people of Montparnasse 11. Maigret and the Tramp

Great video. I have read Simenon and Christie and am currently reading McBain. I worked in the Publicity Dept. at Little, Brown and Co. and had occasion to speak with Elmore Leonard -- a great writer but not a nice person -- quite rude over the phone. What about Ian Rankin and Malcolm MacKay? I like their books, as well. Have you read them? Best regards, Gerard Denza Author of the EDWARD MENDEZ, P. I. series.

Love the video. I would point out that Christie’s mysteries are not called cozy for having no violence in them. A cozy mystery is one that mostly takes place in a single, contained location - a manor, a train, a boat, a beach house - with a small set of characters. In a Holmes novel, all of London might be the guilty party. For Poirot, it’s one of a handful, all known to the reader.

I’ve never read any of them. Good to know. Nice vid, Olly.

I like hearing about authors who write crime, I like police procedural books, Ed Mcbain sounds interesting, I have heard of him, but I don't think I read anything from him. The only one you mentioned I read was Agatha Christie. I read a few of hers. haven' t heard of the others, but willing to give them a try if I see them.

Love these authors. Have you read any Ruth Rendell (aka Barbara Vine) or P.D. James? Both women are phenomenal at police procedurals

As an airport employee, and if someone is looking for books other than King and Patterson. My recommended reading are pulps, manga, and paperbacks. Some cheap thrills and keep the phone off as much as possible.

I've read all the Travis McGee and most of Elmore Leonard. Love his Raylan Givens books.

Here are some more. Swede Henning Mankell in the series of his hero Kurt Wallender, Elizabeth George with her heroes Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers. Then there is the entire sector of ethno-mystery stories. Arthur Upfield in Australia with his Detective Inspector Napoleon "Bony" Bonaparte of the Queensland Police Force, a mixed-race Indigenous Australian. Tony Hillerman and his detectives Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. James Doss with Ute detective/rancher Charlie Moon.

I’ve been a huge Agatha Christie fan for years. If you like audiobooks, I’ve listened to a few unabridged audio versions of Agatha Christie’s novels here on KZfaq for free. George’s Simenon is an author I’ve not encountered before, so will look into his books.

I’d never heard of Elmore Leonard before watching this. I’m going to head to my local book shop tomorrow and see if they have any of his novels. Any particular favourites of yours?

John Connolly - The Charlie Parker series is the best I’ve read but must be read in sequence

The only book by Simenon that I’ve read is _Three Bedrooms in Manhattan._ It was not a crime novel, and I did not care for the main character. So far, the only Agatha Christie book that I have read is _The Murder of Roger Ackroyd,_ which was really good. I have two more Poirot mysteries that are on my TBR list.

Simenon is my new favorite author. I have only read his standalone novels so far. And Highsmith is another favorite of mine.

i love Elmore Leonard. His crime novels are character driven instead of plot driven. I also like Lawrence Block. His Burglar series is quite funny.

Yes, the vast majority of Elmore Leonard's books were stand alone, but there were some exceptions Stick was a follow up to Swag Rum Punch was a follow up to The Switch Be Cool is a sequel to Get Shorty Pronto and Riding the Rap go together. They could actually be one novel split over two books There are also a bunch of recurring characters that pop up in a few books, Raylan Givens being the most prominent.

Please make a Top 5 video for John D. MacDonald 😊

You named all the right ones! Maybe No. 6 on my list would be Jim Thompson.

Ngaio Marsh ... wrote I don't know offhand how many crime novels and was pretty much contemporary with Christie. Marsh is from New Zealand and her real love was stage and theater, but her books are very enjoyable. Rather less cozy than Christie, overall. I would also note that Georgette Heyer, known primarily for her vast and formative Regency Romance catalog (incredibly well researched and very well written, btw) has a subset of early 20th century murder mysteries as well. She has a few recurring detectives who kind of age through most of the stories, but they aren't the main characters. She's wicked funny in her mystery novels (also often in her romances) but apparently her real love as far as writing was the small handful she wrote set in more medieval times - which, to my shame, I have not yet read.

Have you read any Martin Amis? or plan to. Thanks.

I’ve read a little from each author. They’re all good and I should read more.

Great author choices for a bold, (virtually) all-inclusive recommendation sweep! I think John D. MacDonald's female characters are not standing up to reader reaction as of 2022 as well as they used to, so you don't hear his name as often...but then again, even Ed McBain's or Agatha Christie's books, especially the earliest stuff, have blemishes more noticeable in the "woke" era. But enough of that! I have read pretty widely when it comes to this batch of authors, especially when it comes to Ed McBain and Georges Simenon. 5 Fave Simenon Books: The Yellow Dog The Cellars of the Majestic Maigret Travels The Madman of Bergerac The Stain on the Snow (These English titles are not always, uh, the titles.) 5 Fave Ed McBain Books Ice Lady, Lady, I Did It! Let's Hear It For The Deaf Man See Them Die Lightning (deja vu - oh, right, you're other video...) Agatha Christie: Curtain: Poirot's Last Case And Then There Were None The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Evil Under The Sun The ABC Murders (what can I say...mostly Poirot) John D. MacDonald (stopping at four books): One Monday We Killed Them All You Live Once The Drowner The Girl, The Gold Watch & Everything (a Fantasy novel, with Crime elements...and a bit of a guilty pleasure) (and what can I say...no Travis McGee novels get a supremely high rating from me, so far) Elmore Leonard: Get Shorty Killshot Touch Maximum Bob City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit Thanks for the video. It was fun to watch.

Yes John D Mac is great. I havent tried the others but will do. I can recommend Peter Temple, not as prolific but you may pick up his books cheap over there.

i've written 118 books

Have you read Jack Mullen? I just bought his two books about a San Diego Homicide Detective. I will let you know what I think.

Add Donald Westlake to the list! He writes comical mysteries and hardcore as well.

Elmore Leonard’s Mr paradise is a very interesting book.

Would you have any recommendations for something along the lines of 70s Italian crime fiction? Basically Italian giallo films but in book form.

Great video, just found your chanel. Looks like I have a lot to watch back on… Subscribed :)

ELLROY - THE DEMON DOG OF AMERICAN LITERATURE. Extremely dark, fun, funny, intriguing works. The best crime writer of the last 40 years.

Now I realize I need to read more crime fiction! Thrillers have been a off for me this past year…..I think it is because it is time for crime fiction, lol

The 87th Precinct spawned a movie, a tv series, and a magazine.

I've read every Ed McBain book I could get. What about Rex Stout?

Must mention James Lee Burke as well. Brilliant writer.

Weird note - I haven't gotten to Ed McBain yet (he's on my near term list, though), but I have read a few Evan Hunters!

Never cared for Mcbain - but I’m more than familiar with the others. McDonald is someone I grew up with - my dad is a fan. I read the last 5 McGee books as they were published. If you haven’t - check out his “The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything. A fun bit of fluff. Elmore! No one did dialogue better (well, american dialogue).

recommend American authors ...Richard Stark, or Lawrence Block.. or my favourite James Crumbley.. 👍👍👍..I so have a question however, do you know of an author similar to John Connolly 🤔

I would add James Hadley Chase to this list.

Not sure if you ever read Ruth Rendell and her pseudonym Barbara Vine. Combined 70+ crime novels

I thought I had too many books,not sure now 😳

My favourites Agatha Christie and Georges Simenon I will try the others Crime fiction is most enjoyable

100% agree

Wish I had room for a mountain of old books smell of worn acid paper permeate my room ❤️

Have you read any J. D. Robb?

Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe

F Paul Wilson, J A Konrath. Worth a look... 😉

Some of the books Agatha Christie wrote at the end of her life were not as good. "Nemesis"-a Miss Marple mystery still holds up to earlier ones, but "Postern of Fate"--A Tommy and Tuppence mystery is awful. It is disjoined and seems to be missing pages. I almost wonder if it was a work in progress that was cobbled together from ideas Christie had. I remember it being a bestseller, but after I re-read it a few years ago I got rid of it. Mostly I agree about Ed McBain. The earlier 87th Precinct books were clean as far as graphic language, but then in the 70's McBain went the other way and the f-bomb seemed to be dropped all over the place. Later books in the 80's went back to his earlier style and were more successful. Another author which I have found consistent over the years is Tony Hillerman. He created the characters Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee--first in separate mysteries and then working together. Another author who was consistent was Dick Francis.

(goodwill) has cheap books! Anyone looking for books stop by a goodwill!

Have you seen Rowan Atkinson or Gerard Depardieu as Maigret? I have never liked Elmore Leonard's movie adaptations.Agatha Christie is OK. I prefer Lawrence Block.