Any of you guys read these types of books? Just wondering if anyone knows of any recent (modern)authors writing these types books, all I've grown up on was ol Agatha Christie's Hercule novels and want to know of the more recent stuff. I walked into my chapters bookstore and everything looked like it was geared to some mid-wife audience. Only thing that looked decent was this Alex Cross guy but I'm not sure if it's what I'm looking for.
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Anything John Dickson Carr ever wrote. He outChristie'd Christie as far as mystery and plots go, he just wasn't as famous because his plots tend to be more traditional while she liked the big twists that got her a lot of media attention. He's very very good. If you have a kindle his books are available there if not...you can still find it.
Ngaio Marsh is very similar to Christie in style and you can likely enjoy those books. They are easy to find in any bookstore and relatively cheap too, so that's a plus.
Van Dine is an average mystery writer, but all his works are public domain now so you can just download them if you want them.
G.K. Chesterton is also great at the traditional murder mystery type.
Oh Murder All Kinds (2003) by DeAndrea is also really amazing and probably modern enough for you. ...Alright I'm gonna stop listing murder mysteries now or else I never will.
The reason why I'm asking if there's anything recent is because I am in the process of writing my own murder mystery novel, however I'm trying to target the current generation by having a younger detective, modern setting, and simpler comedy.
If there's nothing recent it would probably make my work stand out more and give me edge.
I've checked out Umineko and it's pretty good, though it's still very foreign and I'm not planning on having that supernatural aspect.
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SSBB:FC:Hyper-1075-0415-0578 http://z10.invisionfree.com/Project__Mayhem (visit site ^_^)
Modern detective novels aren't generally the "golden age" murder mystery type. It works like this:
1)Thrillers where the reader isn't given a fair chance to solve the mystery alongside the detective. Lots of violence and sex, little actual logic.
2)Cozy Mysteries, targeted at middle aged women. Mysteries offer logic, no violence or sex. The logic is sometimes ignored in favor of more emotional outcomes. It's as close to the Agatha Christie feel as you are going to get mainstream wise. Light-hearted fun, kind of like the Miss Marple stories.
3)Traditional Mysteries. Feature no violence(unless the violence is "dignified") or sex, very heavy on logic. Those are like the Agatha Christie ones, but they appeal to a very limited audience who is already acquainted with the genre. Think of them like JRPGS in the west. They have a very dedicated fanbase but they are somewhat cultish. An odd book hits the best selling list every once in a while though.
4)Hardboiled detection books. A mixture of Cozy and Thrillers, this has both logic and violence but more violence than logic. It's the most popular murder mystery kind of book today and often overlaps with thrillers, but not always.
Japan has a different market and loves traditional mysteries in a mainstream way(again, think JRPGS). They also have a cultish section of non-traditional mysteries or "anti-mysteries" like Umineko, "An Offering to Nothingness" and others.
There is other stuff like medical mysteries and all but I'm going to shut up now before I hit the character limit for this post >.>
Kara no Shoujo might kinda count, although it's less figure-s***-out-yourself and more like Phoenix Wright connecting the clues, I guess. It does have sections where you have to piece stuff together and choose who's the most suspicious and you have literally dozens of pieces of evidence so you actually do have to think, though, so it's worth a shot imo. No supernatural aspect, but it is pretty brutal.
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"Duel audio? You mean like rap battles?" - termina_rzident KrahenProphet and Kana are on opposite ends of the Awesome Spectrum.
I don't think it's particularly 'popular'/well known, but I'm currently reading (and enjoying) Bimbos of the Death Sun by Sharyn McCrumb.
It's about a physics professor who wrote a controversial theory up as a fiction novel, and was rather annoyed to find that his publisher gave it a sleazy cover and the eponymous title. His agent/girlfriend convinces him to attend a local sci-fi convention as a guest author, despite him having no real interest in sci-fi, and while he's there being all fish-out-of-watery, someone gets killed and he winds up investigating.
It's pretty good, the author did the research on all the geek culture, and it's quite funny. Worth a read.
Also, I recommend anyone interested in writing listens to the Writing Excuses podcast (www.writingexcuses.com). Useful, interesting, hilarious.
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"I'm Commander Shepard, and you're standing in the biggest library in Citadel Space. Look me up."