Good Thriller Authors

[tim290280]

I've enjoyed Matt Hilton's novels. Actually it turns out that most of my favourite authors and books are thrillers. There is a list at the Thriller Writers' page of the 100 must reads.

[Picatsso]

He is a bit more tame, but I love Dick Francis' books....

[TomBale]

Lee Child and John Sandford have both produced a great body of work - really top quality thrillers. I'd add Martin Cruz Smith as another long-time favourite. More recently, Sean Black and Matt Hilton are worth checking out.

[crimescribe]

I like J. Carson Black, Saffina Desforges and Stephen Leather. I've read all three in the past couple of months and enjoyed them all.

[EvPowers]

Summers as a youth were filled with Alistair MacLean books. Now I read a lot of John Sandford and Johnathan Kellerman.

[ascepticalmedium]

Have any of you checked out Jake Barton' yet? I love his writing and would be interested to know what any others who have read his stuff on here think

[docnoir]

Got to give Douglas Lindsay a shout. Just discovered him, but he's been doing this for a while. A Scottish writer. If you don't mind a bit of "crazy" in your thriller (as in ridiculous), give his THE LONG MIDNIGHT OF BARNEY THOMPSON a shot, then you'll be addicted and ready for the whole series.

[joanhallhovey]

I'm finding Dean Koontz' False Memory riveting.  Just got to 21% so far.  I also enjoy Ruth Rendell and Patricia Highsmith, wonderful writers of suspense.  My son is a big fan of Michael Connelly, John Sanford and Lee Child, among others.  We both like Stephen King a whole lot.  I read 11/22/63 and loved it.  So many wonderful writers out there, a lovely banquet for voracious readers.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
JOAN

[Mark Young]

I'd just have to second (or third, fourth ...) the novels of Lee Childs. That Jack Reacher guy ... don't mess with him unless your looking for trouble.

[alansimonbooks]

I usually read thrillers during business travel; don't really enjoy them too much since too many follow the same formula. However, several people mentioned Daniel Silva and I enjoy the novels of his that I've read. Also several of Nelson DeMille's novels fall into that genre and I usually enjoy those.

Also, I have downloaded several independent ones written by Lior Samson, the pen name for an author and computer technology professional named Larry Constantine who co-authored one of the computer systems textbooks I used - ahem - "many" years ago in college and who is somewhat of a methodology guru for old-timers in the computer field like me. (Sort of a natural affinity for multi-faceted authors who can straddle non-fiction and fiction.) I checked out the "Look Inside" feature on amazon.com and like what I've read, but haven't gotten a chance to read them yet. But I would preemptively add him to Silva and DeMille on my list.

[Harry Shannon]

Gregg Hurwitz (Tim Rackley novels were great)
T. Jefferson Parker
Roger Smith from South Africa, hits it out of the park, very dark and violent though
Dave Zeltserman
Vicki Hendricks (sexy noir)
Barry Eisler (not The Detachment IMHO)
Lee Child
Mo Hayder (UK crime)
John Connelly (Charlie Parker series and others)
Michael Connolly (don't miss Void Moon The Poet and other early stand-alones)
Robert Crais (Joe Pike especially)
James Lee Burke
Joe R. Lansdale (Hap and Leonard series, profane and spooky and funny)
Stephen Hunter (not the latest one, the older novels are better)
Martin Cruz Smith
Dennis Lehane
Caleb Carr
Dan Simmons
Dave Morrell

[DebBennett]

Matthew Reilly. Preposterous plots, unlikely chases and ridiculous cliffhangers (often literal). But it's edge-of-your-seat reading. Dan Brown on acid with better characters.

[djgross]

Yet another vote for Lee Child and the Reacher series.   Child's September 2011 release, The Affair, was written as a prequel and is a great place to start the series.   



Echo Burning, Child's first Reacher release, has been mentioned several times in the thread    

[victoriaallman]

I just finished another great thriller set on a sailboat in the Caribbean.

Christine Kling's, Circle of Bones is excellent.

http://www.amazon.com/Circle-of-Bones-ebook/dp/B006O4N9R2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1325651695&sr=1-1

[nmg222]

Yet another vote for Lee Child and the Reacher series.   Child's September 2011 release, The Affair, was written as a prequel and is a great place to start the series.  

Echo Burning, Child's first Reacher release, has been mentioned several times in the thread    

Echo Burning was the 5th in the series and the one that made me swear to never pick up a Lee Childs book again.  So far, I'm true to my word.

[ThrillAMinute]

I love Lee Child's entire Jack reacher series. As is often the case, his earliest books are the best, in my opinion, perhaps because they're so fresh. If you love a good old-fashioned spy thriller, hard to go wrong with John Le Carre. Frederick Forsyth and Robert Ludlum give you a little of everything. I've also become a big fan of David Baldacci and Vince Flynn.

[slandon36]

Greg Illes and James Roland

[Paul Reid]

I'm not sure if he calls himself a thriller writer, but Tom Rob Smith certainly has the art of suspense nailed down. His books are set in Stalinist Russia. The first, "Child 44", is particularly brilliant. Read the opening scenes and you'll see why. 

If you'd like to chance some very old-school stuff, try John Buchan's "The Thirty-Nine Steps".

[Scribejohn]

I would go along with Coben, Connelly (both Michael and John), Daniel Silva and Lee Child.

Grisham is worth a mention now that he's returning to some of his old form and has put aside for now trying to be a folksy down-south literary writer (Painted House, etc). I recall a leading reviewer once saying that Grisham was like me (or was it the other way round now?