Fay
Set in 1950s Dublin, Christine Falls is the first of a series featuring the hard drinking, rather depressive pathologist, Quirke. Curious about the details of a suspicious death, he obsessively traces the victim’s circumstances that turn out to involve his own family.
So besides a compelling whodunnit, we discover Quirke’s backstory along with family complications, reaching across the pond to Catholic Boston where some of the action takes place. By Booker Prize winner John Banville under his pseudonym, the writing is exceptional for the mystery genre.
First book in a series of ten written by the husband and wife duo, journalists turned crime writers.
Written in the 1960-70s, these books feature detective Martin Beck and his team at Stockholm Homicide as they unravel suspicious murders and disappearances. The series is known, and beloved, for excellent plotting and fully realized characters among the cops on the team. Roseanna follows the investigation of a naked body dredged up from a Swedish Lake, an auspicious beginning.
The first in the Slough House series, British writer, Herron, writes about assorted washed up MI5 spies trying to redeem their careers. In one way or another these often dysfunctional operatives have sabotaged their standing within the organization and have been relegated to Slough House pencil pushing work. Desperate to regain their standing, they follow leads to suspicious murders and other activities, often amusingly, dodging the political machinations and Cold War secrets of the organization. A fun and diverting read.