Books.

[Digit]

Anyone a Brother Cadfael fan?

Roy.

 

[9fingers]

SWMBO is. Why do you ask Roy?

Bob

 

[Smudger]

Yes - or at least until I had read them all. And the TV series.
I'm just reading a Susanna Gregory Chaloner story at the moment - have you tried any of those?
She also wrote a series set in 14th Century Cambridge - have you seen them? They're good, but not the breadth of Ellis Peters.

Don't get me started on the Roman crime stories! I love 'em!

 

[Digit]

Why do you ask Roy?

To be frank, simply to find out who reads what and what else I might read. I'm also a great fan of the Clan of the Cave Bear series, and everything that Bernard Cornwell has written.

Roy.

 

[Noel]

Anybody familiar with Arkady Renko?

 

[Digit]

Not me. Expand.

Roy.

 

[Smudger]

I like Bernard Cornwall, but I don't like Sharpe. Does that make sense?

 

[9fingers]

Why do you ask Roy?

To be frank, simply to find out who reads what and what else I might read. I'm also a great fan of the Clan of the Cave Bear series, and everything that Bernard Cornwell has written.

Roy.

Sorry can't help there Roy, SWMBO watches them on the box.

Bob

 

[Noel]

Not me. Expand.

Roy.

Martin Cruz Smith, Renko is a prosecutor's detective in Moscow. Superb books and a great insight into Russian society.
Gorky Park was the first in the series.

 

[Digit]

Often not the best idea though Bob, TV destroys your own personal vision that a writer creates within you.
Though a book of its time, Day of the Triffids is an example of how a film will sometimes wander from what the writer created IMO.

Roy.

 

[Digit]

Didn't Smith write about a Vatican detective some years ago?

Roy.

 

[Smudger]

I liked Gorky Park - both book and film.

If you want suggestions:

Susanna Gregory - Matthew Bartholomew series (14th Century Cambridge), Thomas Chaloner series (1660s London).
Bernard Knight - Crowner John series (set in 12th Century Exeter)

Earlier -
Lindsay Davies - Falco series (AD70 Rome) (the best)
Rosemary Rowe - Libertus Mysteries (4th Century Roman Britain)
Steven Saylor - Gordianus the Finder - Roman - very historical
David Wishart - Marcus Corvinus series - Roman - humorous (good)

I've read just about all of them (still on the lookout for a couple of Chaloner stories) and would recommend them all, with perhaps the exception of Rosemary Rowe, which is probably an acquired taste that I haven't.

 

[Noel]

Smudger, did you read the subsequent books? Polar Star, Red Square, Havanna Bay etc?

 

[Smudger]

Not really. I mostly read historical fiction.

 

[big soft moose]

I like Bernard Cornwall, but I don't like Sharpe. Does that make sense?

yep though i like sharpe, the athurian, and the saxon ones (and gallows theif, azincourt, and stonehenge) - but i dont get on with the nanthiel starbuck ones or the grail quest.

anyone read the simon scarrow "eagle" series ?

 

[Noel]

Speaking of Sharp(e) used to love the Tom Sharp books. Superb.

 

[Digit]

I'm feeling deprived, or is that depraved, I haven't heard of any of these writers.

Roy.

 

[big soft moose]

those who like gorky park ought to read child 44 by tom rob smith