Mystery Lovers! discussion

We've talked about our favourite series...but I'm looking for good stand alone mystery novels. Sometimes I just want a beginning, a middle and an end all on the one neat package.

I liked Karin Slaughter's Triptych and Helen Fitzgerald's Dead Lovely. Any ohter recommendations?

I have read and loved The Heat of the Moon and Disturbing the Dead by Sandra Parshall. Technically, Disturbing the Dead is a sequel, but the main character from Heat of the Moon is in a completely new town with completely new people so they both pretty much read as stand alone books. They are very good psychological thriller/mystery. Quick reads you won't want to put down.

Just thought of another one:

No Time For Goodbye by Linwood Barclay

He's a great writer and I really liked this one. Kept me guessing all the way until the end. He writes a mystery series as well, that is very funny with great plots.

Robert Bernard is an excellent, prolific British author of non-series mysteries. Particularly good are "Death on the High C's", "School for Murder", and "Murder in Myafair". He's wel thought of, and I find his books pretty enteraining.

I don't know if you've read Georgette Heyer's mysteries yet, but they all stand alone. There may be a character who was the main focus of one that gets a passing mention in another, but nothing that affects the plots. Each one has a different "sleuth." Classic '30s mysteries, but with characters a lot more flawed and sharply funny than, say, Agatha Christie's. (And by "flawed," I don't mean stupid...I mean more human.) I think they're all terrific.

You are right on the Sandra Parshall books. I loved both and I guess I need to check her website and see if there's anything new coming up.

Pat R.

Thanks all. It's Saturday morning here in Australia so I'm off to the local bookstore with ashopping list.

One book that has always haunted me and I don't believe it is a series is Multiple Wounds by Allan Russell.

I also liked Bascilica by William Montalbano. He's dead, so there won't be any more books from him, I'm really sorry to say.

Another book which is one of a two book series is Over the Line by Faye Sultan. Per Fantastic Fiction, "A thriller based on the case of a real-life American serial killer. This fictional reproduction follows the progress of Portia McTeague, a forensic psychologist assigned to the case of a dim but apparently harmless delivery boy who murders two elderly women in a sleepy South Carolina town." I read this years ago, but have never forgotten it.

I just finished Sleeping Beauty by Philip Margolin recently. It was pretty good. I also enjoy Harlan Coben's stand alones.

I loved Val McDermind's The Grave Tattoo and Stef Penny's The Tenderness of Wolves.