Books like Cormoran Strike but without the transphobia
September 28, 2020 6:17 AM   Subscribe

Within the past couple years, I've read and really liked the first few Cormoran Strike books by JK Rowling (aka Robert Galbraith). With JKR's recent transphobic comments, I'm naturally unwilling to keep buying them. What else would you recommend in the same line?

If it helps, what I liked about the Cormoran Strike books are the following:

- the setting (modern-day Britain, mostly London-based). I would strongly prefer other books in the same setting (and written by someone who's lived there for a significant time - I've never been able to enjoy UK-based books by American authors). Also, by "modern" I really mean within the past decade.
- the main characters are relatively well-drawn and don't just exist as plot devices
- the crimes are dark/chilling but not gory
- the writing itself is strong and feels real to the setting

This is really my first foray into modern crime so assume I'm not familiar with the rest of the genre. I am pretty picky on writing style but it's hard to specify what I'll like, so feel free to throw suggestions at me. The only other modern crime writer I've tried is PD James, but I actively disliked her writing style - I think because it felt inauthentic. I'm also very familiar with Golden Age mysteries so i have no need for more recommendations in that line.

Thank you!
posted by littlegreen to Media & Arts (25 answers total) 40 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Ian Rankin. Ticks your boxes: Edinburgh-based; strong sense of place; modern (set in real time, 1987 to 2020).
posted by Klipspringer at 6:23 AM on September 28, 2020 [6 favorites]


Ian Rankin's Rebus novels -- set in Edinburgh, not London, but otherwise, fairly on point. The series goes on quite awhile, so the older books are less current. They were current when they were written, they're just older now.

Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks books also. Set in Yorkshire. Again, current when they were written, just older now. I was re-reading them recently, and I had to laugh when Banks learns about the Internet.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:26 AM on September 28, 2020 [2 favorites]


Likewise Val McDermid's crime novels, set mostly in various parts of Scotland (largely Fife, where VMcD grew up, and neighbouring Edinburgh) but some in England too. In fact 'Tartan Noir' might be a useful search term for you, though you'd have to sift for gore, I guess.
posted by penguin pie at 6:50 AM on September 28, 2020 [2 favorites]


Tana French's books are set in Republic of Ireland but meet your other criteria.
posted by hydropsyche at 6:57 AM on September 28, 2020 [4 favorites]


Best answer: I also enjoyed the Strike books. This is a bit of a sideways rec, but if you are ok with fantasy, the Rivers of London books are current, written by a British author, set in London mostly and have a lot of atmosphere, and are from the point of view of a young biracial police officer. I've seen some gentle criticism of how the author handled a very minor trans character early in the series, and then praise on how he responded to that with a different, more prominent trans character in a later book.
posted by PussKillian at 7:00 AM on September 28, 2020 [10 favorites]


Try Andrew Taylor, who writes historical as well as modern murder mysteries. I'd recommend the Roth Trilogy which is a series of books set in London and in a bucolic suburb between the present day and the 50s/60s- you can read them independently but there are lots of fascinating links and echoes between the novels which makes them very interesting to read together. The sense of place and time is really strong. A thing I like about the Galbraith novels is the really strong world-building and sense of a mythology that kind of pervades the story and this is also very apparent in Andrew Taylor's novels.
posted by unicorn chaser at 7:40 AM on September 28, 2020 [1 favorite]


Best answer: It's been a while since I read them, but I think Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie books mostly fit the bill. They are a little older, though -- the first came out in 2004 and the most recent in 2019. From what I remember, they are all set in different locations.
posted by amarynth at 7:41 AM on September 28, 2020 [10 favorites]


Best answer: I liked Judith Flanders (London-based editor who stumbles into murders). Jane Casey's Maeve Kerrigan books (London cop) are fun. I liked the first few of Sarah Hilary's series (London cop) but felt the last two were a bit less good.

I would definitely vote for Val McDermid, though her first of the Tony Hill/Carol Jordan books (The Mermaids Singing, 1995) is, I think, transphobic, and that particular series tends more to gore. (I don't know if she is personally transphobic or it was just 25 years ago and a mistake.) She has a few other series going on. Elly Griifiths is good too, though pet death in the first book. These are set in the UK, but not London. (This is the Ruth Galloway series, her other series is not modern day.)
posted by jeather at 7:57 AM on September 28, 2020


- the setting (modern-day Britain, mostly London-based). I would strongly prefer other books in the same setting (and written by someone who's lived there for a significant time - I've never been able to enjoy UK-based books by American authors). Also, by "modern" I really mean within the past decade.
- the main characters are relatively well-drawn and don't just exist as plot devices
- the crimes are dark/chilling but not gory
- the writing itself is strong and feels real to the setting


Definitely Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series. Basically, Harry Potter, but as a black cop in modern London.
posted by sebastienbailard at 8:01 AM on September 28, 2020 [2 favorites]


Best answer: This might be a little out of left field (or whatever the equivalent is in cricket), but Christopher Fowler's Bryant & May books are somewhere between cozy mystery and crime thriller. The books have an exceedingly strong sense of place, often switching between the past and the present of a specific London locale. The crimes are often strange, the settings are atmospheric, the danger is palpable.
posted by wintersweet at 8:02 AM on September 28, 2020 [6 favorites]


Elizabeth George's Detective Lynley series.
posted by lyssabee at 8:23 AM on September 28, 2020


Oh, these might fit the bill too: the Sam Jones books by Lauren Henderson. My favorite of the ones I've read so far is Black Rubber Dress. Sam is a sculptor who gets involved with a hot stockbroker (how embarrassing for a bohemian artist!) and a murder when a recent sculpture of hers gets purchased by a corporate art collection. They're a little older (late 90s), but the London-feel is pretty great and I like Sam as a heroine.
posted by PussKillian at 8:24 AM on September 28, 2020


There is some gore in at least one of the Rivers of London books, but the series is great. Eoin Colfer has some adult crime novels, Plugged and Screwed.
posted by soelo at 8:53 AM on September 28, 2020 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I have enjoyed books by
C.J. Tudor - The Other People, The Chalk Man.

Belinda Bauer - Snap

Susie Steiner's Manon Bradshaw series is good, start with - Missing Presumed.

And even though you said London settings, I'm going to make a plug for Jane Harper who writes mysteries mostly set in rural Australia.
posted by brookeb at 9:25 AM on September 28, 2020 [2 favorites]


< Elizabeth George's Detective Lynley series>

These are set in the UK, but written by an American author - and it really shows. Per the question, that may rule them out.
posted by JJZByBffqU at 9:50 AM on September 28, 2020 [4 favorites]


Response by poster: Thanks all so far! To clarify, I probably misspoke when specifying London - I like the big-city vibe but it certainly doesn't have to be London specifically.

The recommendations so far look great :) Please keep them coming - I will go through and look more closely in the next ray or so.
posted by littlegreen at 9:51 AM on September 28, 2020


Best answer: Come join us in the Stale Beer Club. I have the same sadness about having to quit the Cormoran Strike books, but honestly: Mick Herron's are better written, funnier, have more realistic female characters, and scratch the same itch.
posted by The corpse in the library at 10:57 AM on September 28, 2020 [3 favorites]


Anthony Horowitz - Magpie Murders is a mystery that switches between a manuscript of a mystery set in the 1950s and the present, and I just found it has a sequel, Moonflower Murders.

He has another series, book 1 is The Word is Murder, about a policeman who's been fired from his job who approaches a successful crime writer named Anthony Horowitz about writing his memoirs.
posted by mogget at 1:11 PM on September 28, 2020 [1 favorite]


Yes to Val McDermid, and also Denise Mina.
posted by BibiRose at 1:13 PM on September 28, 2020 [1 favorite]


Nthing Atkinson's Jackson Brodie, Rankin's Inspector Rebus (one of the only characters out there actually written to age in real time, as far as I can tell), and Horowitz's, er, Horowitz.
posted by thomas j wise at 2:59 PM on September 28, 2020


Seconding the Susie Steiner, Denise Mina, Tana French, and Kate Atkinson suggestions.

In the same vein, I have also really enjoyed Nicci French's Frieda Klein mysteries and Elly Griffith's Harbinder Kaur series (I've only read the first; there's a second one coming out very soon that I intend to read).
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 3:29 PM on September 28, 2020


Best answer: Ann Cleeves - they’re more rural than big city but they’re drenched in noir and authenticity. I have read one each of the Shetland and the Vera books and liked them both. They are both also TV shows and I don’t like crime TV but fwiw I loved loved loved Shetland. I absolutely adore Elly Griffith - she’s slightly lighter than Cleeves or Rowling but for me that’s a good thing. She has I think 16 Ruth Galloway books now and I’d very much recommend starting at the beginning.
posted by mygothlaundry at 8:30 PM on September 28, 2020 [1 favorite]


Bill James: If you're okay with a bit of sarcasm in the mix: "The books are characterized by a grim humour and a bleak view of the relationship between the public, the police force and the criminal element."
posted by ovvl at 8:40 PM on September 28, 2020


If avoiding transphobia is your game, then I would avoid Val McDermid.
posted by daybeforetheday at 8:56 PM on September 28, 2020


Response by poster: Thanks, all! I've marked as best answer the ones that felt particularly on point, but all of the suggestions are very helpful.
posted by littlegreen at 1:36 PM on September 29, 2020


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