Let's hear about more British and Irish Crime Fiction in 2015!

I actually haven't read any in this category yet, but there are plenty sitting in my TBR stack! Hoping to see more posts this year from other members, so that we can all share in the suggestions for books to try.

Here I am, on my lonesome again in this group.... Today I read No Graves as Yet by Anne Perry. I'm not usually a big fan of her books, but I liked this one and will probably read the rest of this WWI series.

I have read most of the Victorian Anne Perry which I enjoy mostly but I read I think two of the WW1 series and really disliked them.Incidentally I always thought Anne Perry was from New Zealand.

You are right, tendring; Anne Perry was originally from New Zealand, but she's lived in the UK for many years, so I thought I could slip her into this category. Just like I put Peter Robinson's novels under Canadian writers, though he was born and bred in Yorkshire.....

My most-enjoyed books tend to be by British writers. Two good ones this month were Thin Air by Ann Cleeves and Entry Island by Peter May.

I am about 30 pages into This is How by M.J. Hyland. Hyland is British and Irish by parentage and residence. This is How is a murder mystery. I read Hyland's other book How the Light Gets In and I can't say I enjoyed it that much but it was definitely memorable.

I'm not reading anything in this category just now, but a few years ago I read and enjoyed a handful of Ken Bruen's books featuring ex-garda Jack Taylor; and now PBS (in the US) is running some reasonably well-done dramatizations of them.

At 260 pages into This is How, I would not classify it as a murder mystery at least not a typical one. It's a very slow moving book. But it has an unreliable narrator which helps to keep things interesting.

I'm normally very suspicious of American author/British setting crime stories, but I keep hearing good things about The beekeeper's apprentice, so I thought I'd give it a go. Quite jolly, so far, and the period voice is reasonably convincing most of the time. There is a small number of painfully obvious out-of-period expressions like "train station", and some things in the Oxford sections don't quite ring true (a particularly obvious one is "Spring holiday" where the Oxford expression would be "Easter vac." - she's obviously been told that the British don't say "vacation" and hasn't realised that this is the one common exception!). King (or perhaps her narrator) also has a weakness for tautologies - "theoretical mathematics", "central protagonist", etc. But on the whole it works.

I presume that the young Dorothy L Sayers is going to pop up at some point in the story, since Our Heroine went up to Somerville the year after DLS left...

>9 thorold: One of my favourite series :) I would have missed both those "errors" (in my defence I am a Kiwi) - what is the more appropriate term - "railway station" I suppose?

The point about "train station" is that nobody used it anywhere (not even in America) until about 25 years ago. You can see it very nicely in the Google n-gram for "train station" vs "railway station". RS is the big winner until about 1990, then TS shoots up and crosses over in 1997. But that's a slightly artificial comparison: the real everyday term for the place where you get on a train (in Holmes's time and for many decades since) was simply "station" on its own.

I had never heard of Google n-gram - fascinating link, thank you - will play with it some more :)

>11 thorold: Cool! Thanks for sharing the link to Google n-gram.

I would recommend This Is How to people who can tolerate endings that are not all nice and neat and people who like unreliable narrators. It is a memorable book.

I read The Devil's Feather by Minette Walters a few years back. I thought it was very good. Eventually, I'll get to more of her works. I've recently going through the series by Lesley Cookman, "cozy" mysteries set in Kent. Not great, but kind of fun.

I think Ruth Rendell is still on top of her game; I just finished The Girl Next Door and really liked it. Probably better appreciated by those readers over the age of 50 or so.

Just finished The Risk of Darkness by Susan Hill. Rated 3.5/5 - quite good, well written, but I do find the series mildly depressing.

>15 ted74ca: I'm glad to hear the latest Rendell is good. I'm a hardcore fan -- I think I've read everything she's written -- but in recent years she seems to have slipped just a little bit and I actually disliked two of her most recent books. The latest Wexford No Man's Nightingale read more like a draft than a finished novel. The latest Barbara Vine The Child's Child -- I liked the inset story set in the past, but the modern frame story was pretty half-baked.

Alas, when googling to make sure I had these titles right, I read that Baroness Rendell of Babergh suffered a stroke a month ago, though she is reportedly recovering...

>9 thorold: Glad to see that there is another Laurie R King fan - the latest in the series is due out soon, I was able to get an ARC from Netgalley and absolutely loved it. I don't mind the historical inconsistencies that others have pointed out as long as the story is enjoyable.

I haven't seen many mentions of Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce series, but they are delightful murder mystery series about a young girl in 1950's Britain. I highly recommend them. The latest in that series came out very recently, but I would definitely begin at the beginning The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.

@ # 18. While I really enjoy the Flavia de Luce Series too, as a Canadian, I'm honour bound to point out that Alan Bradley is a born and bred Canadian, not a Brit (or Irish)! I believe he does live on the Isle of Man now, though.

Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood

A bit dated, but still great classic Ruth Rendell: One Across, Two Down.

Dead Simple by Peter James

I am currently reading Case Histories. The first one hundred pages were nothing but introducing all the characters and cold cases. Another one hundred pages in, still not much has happened and I am wondering how these cases are going to get solved in the next one hundred pages before the book ends. The pace really needs to pick up! And it doesn't help that I find the characters flat and boring.

>20 ted74ca: How did you like Wicked Girls? That one has been on my radar for awhile.

24: I'm now struggling to remember what Wicked Girls was like! I think I liked the premise of the story more than the actual writing itself. Not a bad read though.

I don't think I've ever posted here before, so hello to everyone! Not too long ago, I read Peter Lovesey's Bloodhounds. It was the first of his books that I've read, and I thought it was a lot of fun! Has anyone else read any of the Peter Diamond series? If this book is indicative, I need to read more. Also, I just read Paula Hawkins's book The Girl on the Train. I loved that one as well, and would recommend it to people who don't need likeable characters...

The Coldest Blood by Jim Kelly. Not bad, not outstanding.

I like this Jim Kelly series better-the Peter Shaw and George Valentine books. This one is the first in the series: Death Wore White. Good read.

Another Jim Kelly novel: The Skeleton Man. Pretty good.

Great read. Field of Blood by Denise Mina

Good read: The Soul of Discretion by Susan Hill

Interesting topic. I love British police procedurals and the occasional cozy mystery. Right now, I'm listening to Alan Bradley's The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag. I have several procedurals in my TBR stack, but nothing mentioned here so far.

Not sure if you count Killed at the Whim of a Hat British crime fiction since it is set in Thailand but Colin Cotterill is British. I adore his books and this one is the start of a new series.

I also recently read The Anatomy of Death which is set in London in the early 20th century and features a crime-solving female pathologist. However, Felicity Young now lives in Australia so maybe this doesn't count as British crime fiction either but it was a great read.

I just finished The Dead Hour by Denise Mina.I like this author and this series.

No one reading any British crime writers this summer? I just finished the 8th book in one of my favourite series: The Ghost Fields by Elly Griffiths. Good book; I really love the character Ruth.

It is still Winter in my part of the world, but I recently finished Death at Broadcasting House by Val Gielgud and Holt Marvell - cant get much more British than that :)

Yesterday I completed a short book The Spectrum of English Murder: The Detective Fiction of Henry Lancelot Aubrey-Fletcher and G. D. H. and Margaret Cole by Curtis Evans about British writers, so now have more titles to find and add to the TBR list.

I have started A Siege of Bitterns which is set in Norfolk near prime birding areas.

Finished The Ghost Fields (Ruth Galloway series) by Elly Griffiths and have just started Gallows View (An Inspector Banks Mystery Book 1) by Peter Robinson.

A year or so ago I enjoyed one of Nora Roberts' J.D. Robb books, so now I'm reading another, Innocent in Death.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. Liked this one.

@#39. My mom used to really like Nora Roberts, but I always thought she was American??

Cath Staincliffe's Letters to My Daughter's Killer is a powerful work focusing mainly on the emotional repercussions of a crime on the victim's mother and child. I wasn't sure about it initially but am so glad I persevered as it soon drew me in and held my interest throughout even though we find out fairly early on who-done-it.

I have read one other of Staincliffe's novels, which was based on the TV series Scott and Bailey and look forward to reading more of this author's work.

42: I've read one of Cath Staincliffe's novels based on TV's Scott and Bailey (which I really like-my parents and their families were all from the Manchester area) so I'll try your suggestion.

#41> Oh, whoops, you're right! I forgot I was on the British Crime Novels group thread. So many groups!

Losing You by Nicci French. Not fantastic, just an OK quick read.

Finished Jane and the Madness of Lord Byron: Being A Jane Austen Mystery by Stephanie Barron and The Hours Before Dawn by Celia Fremlin over the weekend - rated both books highly. Back to the "Golden Age" with Sic Transit Gloria by Milward Kennedy. I've come to realise that most of my reading is British crime fiction... This year was going to be one of diversification, but I have failed miserably :)

I just finished Death at the Chase by Michael Innes. Sadly, it was not to my taste. Innes didn't believe in using straightforward language, preferring long-winded, tortuous sentences.

Whisky from Small Glasses by Denzil Meyrick. Good read, and very appropriate as I picked it up at a bookstore when I was on vacation in Scotland recently.

Finished The White Shepherd: A canine mystery set in Oxford by Annie Dalton in the wee small hours this morning - quite good. Have just started Everyone Lies (DI Kate Simms Book 1) by A. D. Garrett - and so far, so good.

I've never read anything by this author before, but I might try again. This was a satisfactory read--not great but not terrible either. The Frozen Shroud by Martin Edwards.

I've finished the violent but extremely well written and memorable The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville. The book takes place in the first decade of the 21st century, as the hostilities of the Troubles in Northern Ireland finally seem to be abating in the face of political compromise. But Gerry Fegan, a "soldier" for the Republican side a few years past his 12-year prison sentence, is being haunted by the ghosts of 12 people whose deaths he caused. Politically acute, and with a deft touch at characterization and dialogue, Neville has put together a compelling nightmare of a book. I couldn't put it down.

I just finished In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner which was published in 1999 so it is a little dated. But it has all the hallmarks of Elizabeth George at her best and I'm glad I finally got to read it. One of the things I enjoyed about it was the location in the moors of Derbyshire which is an area I didn't know much about. It seems like Yorkshire gets a lot more attention but Derbyshire looks fascinating.

Finished Invisible, by Christine Poulson. Started Dungeon House, by Martin Edwards - the latest in his Lake District Mysteries series.

Missing by Cath Staincliffe. A rather dull read, one in a series that I hadn't tried before and don't know if I'll bother seeking out another one.

I realise this post is a few months old, but I just started reading The House Sitter by Peter Lovesey, book 8 in his Peter-Diamond-series. Personally I love these novels and would say they are all worth reading.

Eager to Please by Julie Parsons. I know Julie Parsons was born in New Zealand, but as she's lived in Ireland most of her life and both novels I've read by her are set in Dublin, I thought I could slip it in here. A pretty good read, not very suspenseful, but I enjoyed seeing how she wove everything together.

The Coffin Trail by Martin Edwards. The first in his Lake District series. I enjoyed this one, especially the descriptions of the Lake District, which I've visited once, many years ago.

I finally got around to reading a novel by Ann Cleeves and shouldn't have waited so long. I should have known I'd like her books, because I loved both the Vera series and the Shetland series on TV. I finished the first of the Vera Stanhope series today: The Crow Trap so I'll be looking out for the second one now.

I have just added Even Dogs in the Wild by Ian Rankin to my TBR pile and moved it immediately to the top thereof. Can't wait to see what Rebus is up to this time.... And your man is meant to be retired isn't he?