The Problem w/ Modern Mystery Novels...

I agree. One modern mystery writer do enjoy is Elizabeth George. The Thomas Lynley series is IMO very good. I’m currently reading Something to Hide and finished A Traitor to Memory a few days ago.

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Modern Mystery Novels

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Yeah, I think that you can drop "Mystery" from the title. We are living in a time of cultural fads that aren't interesting.

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It’s the same reason why military history is no longer valued. No one cares about maneuvers and strategy any longer. To do so is to be old and white. How war affects people is all that really matters. The Social is in vogue.

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Hmm. Never thought of that.

I struggle reading military history though so I haven't read much of it. But I've watched Band of Brothers and The Pacific countless times though

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Just out of curiosity, what are some of your favorite authors of the mystery genre? My to-read list is growing thin these days and I need some fresh titles to find at the library. TIA

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I'm pretty predictable because I like the classics. I read modern novels, they are just normally Sci Fi and Fantasy.

Conan Doyle is a top 3 author of all time for me, alongside Twain and Tolkien. I just love Sherlock Holmes so much. I love Doyle's writing style and his characters. I re-read Sherlock all the time.

I also love Agatha Christie. I'm not just a big Poirot fan in general but almost all of her books are fun to read and have a decent mystery. Everybody should at least read The Mysterious Affair at Styles and And Then There Were None.

I think Daphne Du Maurier is an underrated classic mystery writer. The Hitchcock movies The Birds and Rebecca were based off her books. Jamaica Inn, The House on the Strand and The Scapegoat. But she wrote a ton of books so I havent read most of hers really but I do love those 5.

I love the Hannibal Lector series. The movie Red Dragon movie wasn't that great but a lot of people think the book is better than Silence of the Lambs.

I'm not sure what really is the most modern thing I have enjoyed the most. I like the Dragon Tattoo series but I honestly don't know when they were written I read Shutter Island, Gone Baby Gone, and Mystic River by Dennis Lehane and enjoyed all three. But I read those because I enjoyed the movies and figured I'd like the books as well. I definitely did.

I do know that I don't like Gillian Flynn. Gone Girl drove me nuts. I gave Sharp Objects a shot and couldn't finish it.

Some other books that are my favorites are The Alienist, The Big Sleep and The 39 Steps.

I'm not the guy to give great recommendations on any really new stuff that no one has ever heard of But those are some of my favorites and I would recommend any of the ones mentioned to anybody really. Also, if you're into fantasy books at all, I tell anybody I can to give The First Law trilogy a shot. The books aren't extremely long and have 10 in the series like so many fantasy series do, you could read the first book and know if you'll be hooked or not. But those aren't exactly under the radar books either.

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Tana French strikes the perfect balance.

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She is the epitome of the character driven mystery. In the woods was at much or more about the two detectives, their relationship and the one guy's backstory than the current case. someone mentioned Tony Hillerman. He is great and manages to have intracate mysteries and police work despite all the Navajo culture stuff. I've probably read 10+ books and they have all been great.

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But still, if you were to read them as stand alone books like Hounds of Baskerville or The Mysterious Affair at Styles, you would enjoy the characters and get to know them, but solving the crime is still the most important part

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I was a big fan of Lawrence Sanders back in the 70's and 80's. He wrote a short series of 4 or 5 books about a retired NYC police chief, Edward X Delaney.

They weren't whodunit's because you knew from the first couple of chapters who committed the murders, but he did a great job of giving the background of the killers while also going into great detail about the detective work involved in solving the crime. I thought they were great.

He also wrote a series of books about this young guy in south Florida (Archie McNally) who worked as an investigator for his father's law firm. They pretty much copied the writing style of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe novels but I found them enjoyable easy reads.

Old bump but gave a new/modern mystery a try for the first time in years.

The Fourth Monkey Killer was all over my booktok for some reason and I saw in goodreads I had some family members reading it. 4.25 stars on goodreads as well so figured i'd give it a shot.

New mystery novels blow I am just blown away how so many people can be blown away by this novel. It was clear this guy watched Dexter, Silence of the Lambs and Seven one month and then wrote this book right after. In theory, that sounds good but maybe try and pull from some other areas too. This thing was so full of cliche's preposterous plot points at some parts I found myself laughing out loud. I don't know if people are just very easily entertained or have never read great books before but I just don't get it.

I tested my theory from the OP and read a classic right before this as well. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie. The whole book is like putting together a puzzle and the last chapter is Poirot inserting that last puzzle piece for the reader to solve the crime.

The Fourth monkey Killer spent quite literally half the book on the killers back story. Half of the book is from his diary telling about his childhood. It's supposed to tell you why he is doing the things he is doing and all the while spending 200 pages developing the character all it did was tell an absolutely ridiculous backstory that only created more questions. Meanwhile you have Agatha Christie who gives us zero backstory on Poirot or the killer and both are infinitely more intriguing than any character in the completely character driven mystery.

Created the OP in 2022 after an infuriating modern mystery and here I am again in 2026 pissed off again after another one. I'll check back with this genre in 2030 and hope for a different result.

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jsut based on that it sounds like it'd be badass!

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Right? That's part of the reason i read it. I was baffled after reading this ad went to his goodreads and saw this guy has written a bunch of books. i was almost certain this was going to be his first or second book because the prose was so bad.

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I'm certain I will never read this book. Can you give some examples on some of the hilarity? Spoiler warning if needed for others.

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***Minor Spoilers***

I'll do it so just in case you give it a try it doens't ruin it. The part that drove me nuts the most is you know from the very beginning that the diary of the murderer is going to solve the case for you. But the cop/detective trying to solve the very time sensitive crime (body parts of the victims are cut off and mailed hence the Se7en reference) will not just simply sit down and read the diary in its entirety. He's going on for days doing detective work trying to solve the crime and just reading out of the diary when he has time. He asks his partner if he wants to read it and his partner is like "No way man I'm not reading nothing that sicko wrote!" For the love of God just let someone at the precinct scan it in so someone who wants to solve the crime can take 2 hours out of their day and read it to get the clues

You learn early on, like 5 chapters in, that his parents were murderers as well and that's where he learns how to kill people and learned his "code" of "do no evil" (hence the Dexter reference, one of many). Well you get absolutely zero background of why in the world his super proper upper class parents in the 80/90's are just calculated killers and are training their son as a 9 year old on how to be a killer as well.

The buddy cop humor was just cringeworthy at times. Like just non stop one liners that were out of place and only funny because they were so bad.

The main girl that was kidnapped and kept in a cellar with deafening loud music playing at all times (hence the Silence of the Lambs reference) was a 15 year old girl. For some reason in her chapters when it cut to her she was non stop just having conversations with her mother in her mind. You don't know if she's always been crazy or just being captured for the past few days has made her insane but at the end you get no resolution to that and were just like ok we are just going to ignore that part.

it was just one thing after another making me roll my eyes. I really should have started writing the stuff down so i coiuld have posted it.

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Also, if you're into fantasy books at all, I tell anybody I can to give The First Law trilogy a shot.

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I liked the audiobooks