Top 10 best books by Lee Child

Dynamic, well-written and interesting - this is how you can characterize Lee Child's books. So if you are looking for a great thriller, I encourage you to buy one of titles written by this author.

Lee Child, whose real name is Jim Grant, is a British thriller writer. He made his debut in 1997 with the novel Killing Floor, which won the Anthony Award for Best First Novel. A great character - Jack Reacher, a former Major in the United States Army Military Police Corpsfor, has made his first appearance in this book.

Jack Reacher is 6'5" tall (1.96 m) with a 50-inch chest, and weighing between 220 and 250 pounds (100–115 kg). He has ice-blue eyes, dirty blond hair and very little body fat. If you watched the movie One Shot from 2012, based on Child's excellent novel, it is clear to you that Tom Cruise does not fit that description at all, right? ;-)

But this was a little off topic. Back to Child's work - his first novel was a bestseller, so naturally Child began to write another one with enthusiasm :). Each of his books has an interesting story, situations, and above all, an incredible action and amazing twists in the plot. In particular, I encourage you to read the first two Child's bestsellers from my list of his best thrillers. They are awesome!

Child has written more then dozen novels with Jack Reacher in the lead role. Not all hold the same high level, that is why I recommend you to read the titles from my ranking of Lee Child's best books.

This is my list of top ten great novels by Lee Child:

1. The Hard Way (see description)
2. Gone Tomorrow (see description)
3. Without Fail (see description)
4. One Shot (see description)
5. Persuader (see description)
6. The Enemy (see description)
7. Killing Floor (see description)
8. Never Go Back (this is the latest Lee Child's novel - see description)
9. The Affair (see description)
10. Worth Dying For (see description)
 
What is your favorite novel written by Lee Child?

Top 10 best books by Michael Connelly

Novels written by Michael Connelly are an excellent page-turners, well-written crime stories with interesting plots, great dialogues and memorable characters. That is why I recommend them to anyone who asks me "what to read?". If you are also looking for a new book or do not know this author  yet, see my list of Michael Connelly's best novels.

In many interviews he says that Raymond Chandler inspired him to become an crime and detective author. Michael Connelly studied journalism and creative writing on the University of Florida. After graduation, he began working as a crime reporter and wrote mostly about crime beat. He was also worked as a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times.

Everything has changes when he published the first book with LAPD Detective Hieronymus Bosch in 1992 titled The Black Echo. It won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel by the Mystery Writers of America. Since than this author has written 17 more books with Hieronymus Bosch in the lead role.

But Harry Bosch series is not the only one, which he creates. Michael Connelly bibliography includes also standalone novels and others series (ex. with Mickey Haller or Jack McEvoy). All his fiction books are very popular in the world - they have been translated into over 30 languages and have won many awards! I think that Hollywood also helped this writer. When Lincoln Lawyer movie had a premiere, many of movie-fans started to take interest in this author's detective novels. 

I like Michael Connelly's best selling books, because they always have expressing characters, interesting plots and good dialogues. I never get bored reaching for crime novels by Connelly. I particularly like the Bosch series, but this is not a ranking of the best books with this detective. Below is a general list of books which in my opinion are the best novels written by Michael Connelly.

See my ranking of top ten crime fiction books by Michael Connelly:
1. The Poet (see description)
2. The Black Echo (see description)
3. The Last Coyote (see description)
4. The Lincoln Lawyer (see description)
5. The Concrete Blonde (see description)
6. The Drop (see description)
7. The Black Box (the latest book by Michael Connelly - see description)
8. Angels Flight (see description)
9. Lost Light (see description)
10. Trunk Music (see description)

I choose the books which in my opinion are the best crime novels by Michael Connelly, but I encourage you to read  a series of Harry in chronological order. You can find the list of Bosch novels set in order for example on Wikipedia. If you are looking for full Michael Connelly's bibliography - see his website.

BTW - this year a new book by Michael Connelly will be out - called The Gods of Guilt. Publishing date is set on December 2! See more details >

What's your favorite Michael Connelly's novel? :)

Dennis Lehane - top 10 best books

It is always a pleasure to read novels written by american writer Dennis Lehane. I like his style of writing, the ability to create a interesting and memorable stories. That's why I think that any fan of mystery and crime novels should know Lehane's books.

If you've never read his novels, maybe you may heard about or even watched their adaptations? The two most popular film adaptation's are: Shutter Island directed by Martin Scorsese with Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role (more about the book and the film in the text) and Mystic River directed by Clint Eastwood, with actors such as Sean Penn, Tim Robbins and Kevin Bacon.

Bestsellers by Dennis Lehane
This American author began writing after a literary success of his Kenzie and Gennaro series of novels. Lehane presented the pair of detectives in his debut novel A Drink Before the War in 1994. Since then, those two private investigators have appeared in five more of his books.

Why you should know Dennis Lehane? With a couple of reasons. Here are some of them: original stories, surprising twists, memorable characters and great dialogues. And the perfect writer's workshop.

This is my top ten books by Dennis Lehane
So if you are looking for interesting novels to read, here's my ranking of the best of novels written by Dennis Lehane. Below is a book list:

1. Shutter Island (see description)
2. The Given Day (see description)
3. Mystic River (see description)
4. Prayers for Rain (see description)
5. Gone, Baby, Gone (see description)
6. Darkness, Take My Hand (see description)
7. Live by Night (this is Dennis Lehane new book - see description)
8. A Drink Before the War (see description)
9. Sacred (see description)
10. Moonlight Mile (see description)

What's your favorite Dennise Lehane's novels? The best of the best book written by Lehane? :)

Joyland by Stephen King - review

Finally! There is a new book written by the king of horror. Stephen King - to the delight of his fans – still writes great novels. His latest one - Joyland - is a must read for everyone who likes crime and mystery!

Some time ago I wrote about 10 best books by Stephen King. I think that if someone did not read his earlier novels, he should start with any of the previous titles.

However, if you already read some of the books written by King you should reach for the Joyland immediately, because in tis one the writer confirms that he is a great author with extraordinary imagination and workshop skills. He perfectly creates the characters, a mood and a story.

What is Joyland about? 
"Set in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in 1973, Joyland tells the story of the summer in which college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny and confronts the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the ways both will change his life forever" (see full description on Amazon).

Interestingly, the book is available only as a paperback. Why this decision?

"I love crime, I love mysteries, and I love ghosts. That combo made Hard Case Crime the perfect venue for this book, which is one of my favorites. I also loved the paperbacks I grew up with as a kid, and for that reason, we’re going to hold off on e-publishing this one for the time being. Joyland will be coming out in paperback, and folks who want to read it will have to buy the actual book." - said Stephen King.

What is my opinion about Joyland? The book is great, I highly recommended it. So if you have a birthday soon and the family asks you what you would like to get for a present - Joyland is a good answer :). Everyone else should buy a novel for themselfs, for example on Amazon :)

Top 10 best books by Harlan Coben

Harlan Coben is - in my opinion - the master of unexpected twists and turns in the novels. This American author of thrillers often was able to surprise me with the story's ending what's why, if someone wants a great crime novel that sucks you in action from the first page, I recommend to read one of Coben's books.

Harlan Coben's work can be divided into three parts:

First one consists of a series in which the main character is Myron Bolitar - a former basketball player and sports agent in one person. He first appeared in the book Infamous in 1995.

Second - stand-alone novels.

Third - new young adult series with the nephew of Myron - Mickey. For the first time he appeared in the novel, Shelter in 2011.

I like Coben's books because of interesting characters, great dialogues and unexpected twists. It is impossible to be bored while reading his novels. I remember that I literally could not get away from reading Tell No One. Instead of going to sleep I sat most of the night, until I read the last page.

He has written more than twenty novels. I chose the books which in my opinion are the best novels by Harlan Coben. Below is a list:

1. Tell No One (see description)
2. Gone For Good (see description)
3. Deal Breaker (see description)
4. Fade Away (see description)
5. Promise Me (see description)
6. The Innocent (see description)
7. Back Spin (see description)
8. One False Move (see description)
9. Caught (see description)
10. Darkest Fear (see description)

What is your favorite novel written by Coben? :)

Top 5 best books by Henning Mankell

Henning Mankell is a very popular Swedish writer known around the world. His books have been translated into over 40 languages. On my blog I will only concentrate on his novels where Kurt Wallander is the main character although Mankell is not only a crime novels author.

Kurt Wallander is a fictional police inspector living and working in Ystad. This character has brought Mankell his fame and made ​​him one of the best-selling writers in the world. This is another example that a interesting, memorable character is already a half of success in writting a bestseller novel :).

I like to read the Mankell's books, because they always have a well-constructed plot, carefully and curiously described. Sometimes the pace of the action is pretty slow, but after reading a few thrillers in a row, where the action is practically on every page, this is a nice change.

Therefore, I recommend to read Mankell's novels were we can expect long conversations, descriptions of tedious witnesses' questioning and Kurt checking all leads, because the story always illustrates what changes are taking place in modern Swedish society as the whole world changes, what problems people are facing nowadays etc.

So if you are looking for a good crime story, with a intresting and troubled policeman in the lead role, the novels of Kurt Wallander will be perfect for you!

Since Kurt as the main character appeared in only nine novels, I decided to choose five titles that I think are absolutely worth reading.

So below is a list of books which in my opinion are the best novels written by Henning Mankell with Kurt Wallander.

1. Faceless Killers (see description)

2. One Step Behind (see description)

3. Sidetracked (see description)

4. The Pyramid - short stories about Wallanders' early years in the police (see description)

5. The Fifth Woman (see description)

Of course, when you read those books, get the rest :).