Best police procedural books according to redditors
We found 1,005 Reddit comments discussing the best police procedural books. We ranked the 157 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
7. Cleaver Square: Sometimes the dead won’t stay buried. (A DCI Morton Crime Novel Book 2)
2 mentions
I liked Snow Crash a lot, but I never thought that any of his other stuff was as good. Not to say I don't like other Stephenson, just not crazy good like Snow Crash.
Daemon was awesome, IMHO. You have my upvote for mentioning it.
I haven't seen anyone mention Halting State by Charles Stross. Once I got over the Scottishness of the writer's voice, I thoroughly enjoyed that one.
Some other stuff that's $1.99 right now:
Halting State by Charles Stross.
Gillian Flynn is one of my favorites, and I group her with Denise Mina, Tana French, Sara Gran, and Elizabeth Hand. These are the books that I recommend to start each writer:
I HIGHLY recommend all of these -- they're all biting and well written and thrilling in different ways.
Es ist eine krimiserie. (detective series) Das E-book ist kostengünstig. (ive given up on conjuating kostengünstig today, my brain has forgotten how...) - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Learning-German-through-Storytelling-intermediate-ebook/dp/B007QT2EVQ
I bought the entire series in those editions straight from Amazon. I can give you the ISBN's, so you know you have the correct ones:
DH: 978-0-553-81311-1
MoI: 978-0-553-81312-8
HoC: 978-0-553-81313-5
MT: 978-0-553-81314-2
BH: 978-0-553-81315-9
RG: 978-0-553-81316-6
TtH: 978-0-553-82446-9
DoD: 978-0-553-81317-3
tCG: 978-0-553-81318-0
These are the ones I have, all the same style of covers. Do mind you, TtH, DoD and tCG have bigger dimensions. The rest are mass markets, but I couldn't find any others at the time sadly.
I love Tana French! She writes a good, complex mystery that really sucks you in. She started with In the Woods. This is also the start of her Dublin Murder Squad books - all of them great.
Gillian Flynn, who wrote Gone Girl, also has another book out - Dark Places.
Also some of my favorites are Nicholas Evans (Horse Whisperer, among others). I've read most of Jodi Picoult's books (Leaving Time is pretty recent, and one of my favorites).
I find many of my books by keying in favorites on Amazon, and seeing what other people also buy. If you are a Prime member, you also get 2 free advanced books every month, and with a Kindle, you have the lending library as well. My Kindle library is out of control - I've been using Kindle Unlimited to keep that more manageable & it's easy for me.
The Hunger Games / Divergent / Ender's Game / Maze Runner series are great also, are fun reads, and give you a bit more time with the characters as part of a series.
I used to love all those new age books! Why not head down to the used bookstore and pick up half a dozen books that look fun out of that section? There's always something entertaining there. If she's a true believer, avoid anything that suggests people can survive by eating nothing but air.
Or, if she's not a true believer but just interested in the subject, have you considered getting her some non-fiction books that delve into the psychology behind ghost sightings and such? Like Investigating the Paranormal (less skeptical) or Demon-Haunted World (much more skeptical)?
Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches was a fascinating read and IIRC largely historical. She might also enjoy branching out into a book like The Predictioneer's Game, which is about game theory and how to use it effectively in modern life.
If she likes mysteries at all, I suggest Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time. It's about a police officer who is laid up in hospital and decides to use the time to solve a famous historical mystery. You could also consider biographies of strong and active women who inspire -- Princess Diana, maybe, or Martha Stewart?
(Edited to add links)
So the biggest issues you will encounter is that the tree doesn't teach a lot of the genitive case, which you see more commonly in written German than in spoken German. Here's a good reference to get you over the hump: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~german/Grammatik/Nouns/genitive.html
Some German grammarians will tell you that the Genitive is going away, which is why it's not spoken much, but in an older book like The Metamorphosis, you will see it.
Secondly, in German, especially older German, you will see a lot of written Simple Past tense (das Präteritum) which is again not that common anymore, as most Germans speak the Present Perfect instead (das Perfekt). Dartmouth to the rescue again with an article on each linked above.
Finally, as I noted above, the Metamorphosis is an older book, so some of the language might appear dated, though looking through the book at Project Gutenberg I'm seeing that I understand a fair bit. My recommendation would be to start the tree, and then look at a few of the good books that are available for German learners. I really like the books from André Klein, such as "Mord am Morgen" which are crimis (crime stories) and they're written in such a way that you can understand them with a beginner's level of German, they include slang, and definitions for odd or unusual words you might not have seen before. There's a whole series of them, and they're available as ebooks for cheap. Here's a link to the first book: http://www.amazon.com/Learning-German-through-Storytelling-intermediate-ebook/dp/B007QT2EVQ
I definitely think you should give it a go because Duo will give you a huge leg up in learning German over all, and reading it, so you can't lose, and eventually you'll get to the point where you can read the book and many more great works of German literature in their original language.
Cheers!
A Small Death in Lisbon
Most classic books that I didn't enjoy before college I have tried to re-read a decade later and have enjoyed them. Maturity is required for some books. Except Daughter of Time; that book will always be complete and utter shit.
The List: J.A. Konrath:
https://www.amazon.com/List-Thriller-J-Konrath-ebook/dp/B00267T89E/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+list+konrath&qid=1569401625&s=digital-text&sr=1-1
There's a very interesting murder mystery called A Small Death In Lisbon that takes place (partly) during Salazar's Portugal. I remember reading it when I was a teenager, and I was actually just reading about the Carnation Revolution yesterday and decided to buy the book again and reread it.
In the Woods by Tana French maybe? The main character, Rob, becomes a homicide detective as an adult after having two of his friends murdered when they were kids (he was with them but lived and has no memory of the events). There is something with a shovel later on. It doesn't exactly fit, but it was a pretty popular book a few years back and I thought it was worth a try.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Policeman/dp/B008J9ENTS
The Last Policeman is a mystery story set six months before a giant asteroid slams into earth, ending all human life. It's got a lot of really interesting stuff about how society would react if people knew they only had six months to live. It's about a cop who's trying to solve a murder even though everyone is about to die anyway. I really enjoyed it.
The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo. Just started this actually, so I cannot go into too much detail but it is starting out as a solid detective story. Nesbo's previous Harry Hole book I read was the Cockroach and it was a fun detective thriller. The Redbreast is coming across as a more serious, tighter story though and I am excited to keep reading it.
210 pages crime/mystery/Detective mix: Ramus (free to read on kindle unlimited)
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07YP84KTR
US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YP84KTR
Ah, a fellow wanderer in the land of processes, workflows and procedures.
Have you read Stross's Halting State/Rule 34 novels? Most people focus very heavily on the second person narrative but I think someone with your background would find the technology and methods used by the police a lot more compelling, I know I did (a bit off-topic but as you've pointed out no-one's reading this thread anyway).
Think it is this book
https://www.amazon.ca/Mans-Partner-Detective-Jericho-Single-ebook/dp/B01MXPIHR2
The Divergent trilogy is on my ever-growing to-be-read list! I just finished this!. I love series.
The Jack Daniels mystery series
Tana French is excellent.
I would fully recommend any of her Dublin Murder Squad series. My personal favourites are In The Woods and Broken Harbour.
My first thought was this but the cover isn't similar. I'll keep thinking on it.
Dragon Precinct by Keith R. A. DeCandido
http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Precinct-Keith-R-DeCandido/dp/1937051285
Yayyyy this is amazing! I want to gift this because my first ever gift that I received was an ebook from this user! I would love to pay it forward :)
http://www.amazon.com/Redbreast-Harry-Hole-Novel/dp/0062068423/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317698990&sr=1-1
Here are some of my favorites that you may enjoy. Some of these are split genre books (horror/suspense, sci-fi/police procedural, etc.), but they all fit in the general thriller genre, and are all really excellent books available through the Kindle store.
https://www.amazon.com/Graverobbers-Wanted-Experience-Necessary-Thriller-ebook/dp/B0065558GU/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=graverobbers+wanted&qid=1569589129&s=gateway&sr=8-1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07PNWNHCH/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BBE4BFE/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003GYEH2E/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000QUCNZO/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:
amazon.ca
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People buy books with their phones. Your title and name should take up more than 50% of your cover. Look at Kendra Elliott's Merciful Death. https://smile.amazon.com/Merciful-Death-Mercy-Kilpatrick-Book-ebook/dp/B01EN506CO
Newbs (like I am the worst about this) want our covers to be some sort of art. In the trad world they are. But what you want is someone browsing your genre to look at your cover and title and know what you are selling inside. It has to be readable at 100px high. Easily readable. Avoid type faces that are fancy but illegible. Use lots of contrast.
All you want is for them to click it and read your blurb. Amazon has a cover creator that works okay. (I don't use it, though) You use your own pic. Or theirs.
I listened to the Last Policeman trilogy by Ben H Winters, narrator Peter Berkrot.
I have mixed feelings on this. The narration was pretty good, but there was really off affect choices often enough to detract from my overall impression. The stories themselves were pretty interesting (a detective continues to solve cases as a coping mechanism despite the world-ending meteor headed to earth) and I love how the trilogy ended. They were each only about 8 hours so that is a little disappointing. It did make me realize that I am more interested in post-apocalyptic fiction than I am in pre- becasue I am really left wanting to know what happened next.
One of the biggest reasons I loved the Millennium trilogy was Larsson's use of Sweden itself as a character. Everything from the weather to Scandinavian minimalism helped make the story so much more real.
Following those, I ended up reading and loving Tana French's trilogy. The stories follow three Irish police officers (though the stories are more loosely connected than Millennium) and her use of Ireland itself is absolutely brilliant. Give the first one In the Woods a shot and see what you think.
Edit: My mistake. It looks like a fourth book was just published in July.
A Song Called Youth by John Shirley
Halting State by Charles Stross
Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
Have fun!
Read Halting State by Charles Stross for a really believable look into how this sort of technology could be utilised in the very near future.
Amazon US link.
https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Partner-Detective-Jericho-Single-ebook/dp/B01MXPIHR2
Very good work! I suggest you start doing front, back and spine too. Here's one I did:
Caise Closed dark and sinister cover:
http://i.imgur.com/jcYNuTu.jpg
I did it in GIMP, except for the white cat imprint on the spine, that's an svg I manipulated in Inkscape then exported to .png. The font is a free one I found online called 'Mom's Typewriter'.
I would also always do a publishers imprint even if you have to make one up (the white cat on the spine). It's funny, people won't notice if it's not there but something won't 'seem' right, like it's not a 'real' book.
BTW, Caise Closed is free on kindle today and tomorrow:
http://www.amazon.com/Caise-Closed-ebook/dp/B00E2TED1C
and it is free today and tommorrow on Kindle. Justin's wife was a commercial pilot, and that is...crucial...to how the story unfolds. Can't give away more than that.
http://www.amazon.com/Caise-Closed-ebook/dp/B00E2TED1C
Sorry for the self promotion...the writer works in the industry...
The Poet?
reviews are actually kinda decent and numerous
https://www.amazon.com/Ark-Children-Dead-Earth-Book-ebook/dp/B00TCI402K
weird
The Poet - Michael Connelly
Grade 9: the assigned books in the curriculum were Fahrenheit 451 and A Midsummer Nights Dream, plus an anthology of short stories and one of poetry. My class did the short stories and the poetry, but we spent the rest of the semester learning how to write argumentative essays about the War on Terror and then learning how to give persuasive speeches.
Grade 10: The assigned books in the curriculum were The Chrysalids and/or To Kill A Mockingbird, an anthology of short stories, one of poetry and Romeo and Juliet. My teacher followed the curriculum that year.
Grade 11: The assigned books in the curriculum were Lord of The Flies, an anthology of short stories, one of poetry and Macbeth. We read the short stories, the poetry, Macbeth and then we did literature circles. My group did The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey.
Grade 12: The assigned books in the curriculum were Of Mice and Men, an anthology of short stories, one of poetry and Hamlet. We didn't quite get to Hamlet, but we also did independent novel studies. I picked Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton.
I found this an enjoyable read
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01EN506CO/ref=pe_385721_48721101_TE_DP
USA - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HGSVGSY
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00HGSVGSY
Also available on Nook, B&N, Apple etc for free too.
There's actually a book with this very concept. Halting State by Charles Stross isn't exactly a good read (I'd put it in the 'bad' column, actually), but the idea behind it is very interesting. It brings up a rather compelling scenario with the government fronting role playing games as a spy operative.
edit: also I'm 'privileged' enough to live in the town that gave him the key to the city. It's a horrible thing.
Here's a link to the non mobile version: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ALI9TSK?ie=UTF8&force-full-site=1&ref_=aw_bottom_links
That's nothing like the cover I have on mine
Also, I feel like it's a potential spoiler to say what if anything is going on, what character(s) that is on the cover, or whether it's a metaphor or not. Suffice it to say you're wrong about what will give you the feels when that time comes
If you are looking for something that is so hilariously bad it's actually delightful, Keith Decandido's "Dragon Precinct" is fantastic. It is Ed McBain's 87th Precinct police procedurals set in a fantasy world. I think there's actually two or three of them. I read Dragon Precinct immediately after my 1L finals in law school, when I was desperate for anything mindless to deflate mentally, and it was precisely the sort of enjoyable dumb I needed.
tl:dr - preposterously bad, but eminently enjoyable police procedural set in a fantasy kingdom.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1937051285?pc_redir=1404061361&robot_redir=1