Please no more serial killers… I listen to my books as I am working so I go through a lot of them and I am bored of the genre. Most recently I enjoyed Peter Grainger’s DCI Smith series, Ruth Rendell, and Benjamin Black. (I appear to be in the middle of a UK binge fest)
Books like James Lee Burke’s Dave Robochieux series, Andrian McKinty’s Sean Duffy series, Caleb Carr’s The Alienist…looking for books that can transport the reader to police investigations in another country (Europe especially) or time period.
Hey. I love crime/mystery/police procedural books and I really enjoy the male/female partners dynamic. I've read the Maeve Kerrigan series by Jane Casey and all of the Dublin Murder Squad series. I'm looking for something new. Any suggestions?
From the superb acting of John Thaw and Kevin Whatley to the amazing theme tune by Barrington Pheloung and the brilliant plots based on the novels by Colin Dexter, I don't think I've seen better.
Fun fact: the theme tune has Morse code running through it that spells out Morse's hated and never used first name.
https://youtu.be/u20sVtCxf_8
If I didn’t include yours please comment what it is! What others have mentioned:
- SWAT
- Chicago PD
- Lie to Me
- Blue Bloods
- X-Files
- Cold Case
- The Mentalist
- Psych
- Blacklist
- Flashpoint
- The First 48
- Castle
- 9-1-1
- Numb3rs
- Nash Bridges
- Monk
- Fringe
- Sherlock
- Mindhunter
- Rizzoli and Isles
- Lucifer
- Silent Witness
- Brooklyn 99
- Line of Duty
- The Rookie
Thank you to everyone contributing to this list!!!
Need suggestions for PP. Any country or time period will do. Just want to read about some good, old-fashioned police work!
The beginning of this story starts with a woman who wakes up in a hospital. She's a detective/police officer. She has kinda of a concussion and lost her memories. Car accident. She had two, well, daughters? Son and daughter? Two, anyway, I'm sure of it. There's a lot of swearing. A number of books constitute the first "myth arc", another number of books from another series is related to the same franchise. The author is male. The main antagonist is the head of a cult, or something like that. The books are told from different perspectives. At the end of some book plots at least, on Amazon, there's an author's note saying the reader probably figured these book series are interconnected.
So, I'm eating my lunch, with Chicago P.D. on in the background, and they run ads for other cop shows like Law and Order, and I realize police procedural shows are still very popular. Then I remembered Marvel had the District X comic. So, what if you made a cop show with mutants?
Granted, "mutant ghetto" might not play well for some people, but I'd imagine the comic book NYPD would have some sort of department dealing with super powered and maybe specifically mutant related crime. So, work off the SVU model: the minute a crime has something to do with mutants its handed over to the "mutie cops". While most of the cops are humans, there are a few "diversity hires" of mutants. They get hated by the mutants they interact with, and are distrusted by their fellow officers.
Honestly, a lot of the world building they did for "The Gifted" works great for this concept: X-men and Brotherhood missing, presumed disbanded; the Mutant Response Division is a Federal Agency with sometimes shadowy goals (would imagine they get in the way of the cops in this show); the Hellfire Club is a secret group, so they may be around; and the Purifiers are a rising hate group getting support from people in government.
I can see a good story arc for a season: new mutant cop joins the Mutant Crimes Division. A few filler cases, but discovers Purifier infiltration of the MCD, and maybe their outreach group the "Friends of Humanity"; someone is arming them with cutting edge weapons. Meanwhile, someone is getting the mutants ready for war. All this with the backdrop of the Mutant Registration Act moving through Congress. In the end, you get someone following Apocalypse's darwinian edict, trying to start the race war.
Thoughts?
I love mysteries and police procedurals, but I’m finding that, especially with books in a series, authors write more and more violence and torture into their stories. These series almost always take a very dark turn.
A quick example that comes to mind is Patricia Cornwell. Her early works were great forensic and detective stories. Later books really challenged belief and got gorier and gorier.
I don’t mind gritty or restrained violence - I do like a fair degree of verisimilitude - but I don’t like torture porn or unrealistic serial killers who target detectives. In all real-life cases of serial killers that I know about, none have involved a personal stalking of the investigator(s). This trope now seems trite.
Definitely not looking for cozy mysteries at all, but I want something that doesn’t include violence for its own sake.
Authors that I have liked: PD James (all-time favorite) Ian Rankin JD Kirk Shari Lapena Donna Leon
Authors I cannot read again: Karin Slaughter Patricia Cornwell Steig Larsson Adler-Olsen
Many of my favorites take place in the UK or on the Continent, but I’m definitely open to other settings. Stories set in SE Asia, like Bangkok 8, are particularly appealing. I’d also like to try anything set in any African country, preferably written by an African writer.
I hope I don’t sound too picky, but any recommendations are appreciated!
solved solved solved A French police procedural about October 17, 1961, when police slaughtered 100+ Algerian protesters and threw their bod in the Seine. Written in French. I learned about it in a class ten years ago, and located it online. Wanted to read it but forgot at the time.
Hey guys.. I am looking for recommendations of police procedural novels. I read a lot of Christie and I am looking for new detective novels. I prefer:
- twisty and dark novels
- morally gray protagonists
- I don't mind supernatural elements
- not James Patterson (I like his books but I want something darker)
For example, I loved True detective S1 and Broadchurch. Looking for novels similar to these.
I have heard of Will Trent series by Karin Slaughter and Jonna Linna by Lars Kepler. If you've read these, please tell me the best place to start!
Thanks!
Written by the same bloke, Paul Abbot, and similar in tone. I binged three episodes last night and thoroughly enjoyed them. Some great characters, plenty of intrigue and great production.
I am looking for police procedurals similar to W.E.B Griffins Badge of Honor series.
Hi! I’m looking for a police procedural with maybe an overreaching arc which keeps going on. But I want a nice cast and nice interactions between them. Similar shows I’ve watched and loved are below. Thank you!
The mentalist Castle White collar Rizzoli and isles (loved their friendship) Psych Bones Elementary Sherlock Chuck Scorpion Lie to me
Edit: Thanks so much for all these great suggestions everyone!
Can anyone think of published adventures that would lend themselves well to a police procedural-style investigation?
I remember that there was one involving Y’Golonac and a snuff film found in a seedy porno store, but I can’t recall any others that fit the bill.
Anything that wouldn’t require too much work to come up with something like season 1 of True Detective? [edit to seem less dumb]
In my opinion cop shows have become incredibly formulaic and the outcome is more often than not, entirely predictable.
I've been watching "Line of Duty" and "Bosch" and as much as these two have tried to add their own "artistic touch" to their respective series, they end up being more or less about the same thing (cops catching bad guys).
Where do you see police procedurals going?
I liked that "I am not a serial killer" was largely a mortician procedural. What are some other books that dive deep into a profession?
I really dislike the whole "buddy cop" tropes and I don't want to feel like I'm reading an episode of Law and Order.
I loved the 7.5 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, and I'm reading The Devil and the Dark Water now. I really like spooky/something in the shadows, just out of sight vibes. Bonus points for something really unique! Thank you in advance!
Police procedurals/dramas are a huge proportion of TV shows, and have been for decades - from episodic shows like the countless Law and Order varieties to genre hybrids like Brooklyn 99.
How did this start? What factors contributed to this type of show being so common? How have audience demand and network programming decisions interacted?
I'm mostly familiar with Anglosphere televison, but would love to hear about the history of cop shows in non-English television as well.
I really love detective stories and police procedurals. Now I am getting super tired of the cliche that the cases being investigated have something to do with the investigators past or life. Then they go ahead and investigate crimes that they are personally involved with.
I would really love to read a story where the investigation is done properly with few if any egregious rule breaking by the police. Any suggestions?
I have enjoyed and enjoyed watching these following shows:
Line of Duty Criminal (UK) Broadchurch Sherlock Young Wallander Maigret White House Farm Marcela Collateral
Do you guys have recommendation for shows with similar genre?
Looking for Police procedurals set in other countries or time periods
Books like James Lee Burke’s Dave Robochieux series, Andrian McKinty’s Sean Duffy series, Caleb Carr’s The Alienist…looking for books that can transport the reader to police investigations in another country (Europe especially) or time period.
