how many of the names below do YOU recognize?
Name Dropping
I’ve realized that in most of my reviews, I compare the work to others that I have read– which is pretty standard, really. However, it isn’t quite fair just to name drop and then leave you hanging, is it? So, if you’re interested, here’s an on-going list of the authors who I’ve already read & who are mentioned in my other posts but not yet reviewed. I’ve tried to list the author’s official website, if available.
I’ll separate into categories, so you can pick by your interests.
Victorian:
Charles Dickens http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/index.html
Comedy:
P. G. Wodehouse http://www.drones.com/wodehouse/
Dave Barry http://www.davebarry.com/
Science-Fiction/ Comedy:
Douglas Adams http://www.douglasadams.com/
Cozy Mysteries:
Agatha Christie
http://www.agathachristie.com/
Lillian Jackson Braun http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/lilian-jackson-braun/
Diane Mott Davidson http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/25347/Diane_Mott_Davidson/index.aspx
Michael Clynes http://www.paulcdoherty.com/pages/bib/clynes.html
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle http://www.sherlockholmesonline.org/
Hard Mystery:
P. D. James http://www.randomhouse.com/features/pdjames/
Edna Buchanan http://www.ednabuchanan.com/
Patricia Cornwall http://www.patriciacornwell.com/
Caper/ Adventure:
Lawrence Block http://www.lawrenceblock.com/index_framesetfl.htm
Donald E. Westlake http://www.donaldwestlake.com/index1.html
Modernism:
James Joyce http://www.jamesjoyce.ie/
T.S. Eliot http://www.coldbacon.com/poems/eliot.html
Post-Modernism:
Dave Eggers http://www.mcsweeneys.net/authorpages/eggers/eggers.html
More to come… Happy reading!
Words All Day Thru 
Don’t you like Dan Brown? He is very good in Thriller genre…
I don’t particularly care for Dan Brown. I tried reading “The DaVinci Code” because it was so popular, and I got bored around chapter two because of his writing style. Mostly, though, it’s just not a genre I enjoy. If I do feel the need for one, I’ll usually pick up a Laurie R. King (Kate Martinelli series) or Jeffery Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme’s novels.
When I was a teenager, I loved Patricia Cornwell’s thriller/ mysteries, though I don’t care for her later books.
Maybe you should try reading “Angels & Demons” by Dan Brown which I bet will catch your attention. Atleast watch the movie. please you’ll love him…
If you like action/adventure/mystert, but dislike Dan Brown, you might try Steve Berry’s books, particularly his later ones featuring a hero named Cotton Malone. the books are very similar in theme to Dan Brown’s in that they each have a major historical/Indiana Jones sort of component, i.e. in one the Holy Grail is discovered, in another the Library of Alexandria, etc. However, the writing is much more fluid and developed, as opposed to the the staccato jerkiness and 2-dimensional character development of Brown. I’m just sayin’.
Hi, Mary!
Thanks for reading! I do enjoy the escapism of action/adventure, particularly with historical components– one reason I quite like Elizabeth Peters. Thanks for the recc’y. I’m headed to the library this afternoon & I’ll add Steve Berry to my list.
I’m a big Agatha Christie fan, but not Conan Doyle. He cheats. Christie give you all the hints so you can play along and try to solve the mystery. Holmes disappears and comes back at the last minute, solves the mystery, and then tells what he found out while he was gone.
Anyway, what is the difference between a “cozy mystery” and a “hard mystery”?
I agree that Doyle cheats. Much prefer Christie for fair play.
I think of hard mysteries as being of the hard-boiled sub-genre– Chandler and the like– in a big, dark, cynical city full of gangsters, cops, and shoot-outs. Cozy ones are more like Christie, set in a village or seaside somewhere with an amateur detective and quirky characters.