Everybody has at least one author who got them hooked on mysteries. Who was it for you?

For me it was technically Carolyn Keene, but we'll skip on over to my early teen years.  V.C. Andrews and Stephen King were the first authors I read and loved and their books led to Patricia Cornwell.  So I guess Cornwell would be the one who got me hooked. 

Victoria Holt, for gothic, mystery, romance

Stephen King for wierd mystery

Pat Cornwell for really good mysteries

Sue Grafton really good with humor

I read Nancy Drew to but that was so long ago....sigh....

Robert B. Parker for regular mysteries

and

Janet Evanovich for cozy mysteries

In high school/ early 20s ... Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes, Nero Wolf plus Victoria Holt and Phyllis A. Whitney a bit more in the romance/mystery as I got a bit older. Then I discovered Barbara Michaels and John D. MacDonald.

Several books by both Barbara Michaels and John D. MacDonald are still on my personal bookshelves. One of my more recent finds has been the series by Laurie R. King, with Sherlock Holmes and a young woman who eventually becomes his wife, very evocative of the original Sherlock Holmes books I enjoyed many years ago.

This list is long....

Diane Mott Davidson

Mary Daheim

Laurie R. KIng

Janet Evanovich

Sharon Kahn

JoAnne Fluke

Cleo Coyle

Sue Grafton

P.J.Tracy

John D. MacDonald

Mindy Storms Clark

Nero Blanc

Lou Jane Temple

Roberta Upthegraff

JoAnne Pence

Lilian Jackson Brown

Dorothy Gilman

Toni P. Kilner

Claudia Bishop

Aunt Dimity series (I can't remember the author)

Jean

The first novel I ever read was The Mask by Dean Koontz.  I LOVED IT!!!  I have collected every book by him since reading that one.  I've grown up since then and don't really like his stuff as much but I still do enjoy some of it. 

I think I first picked up an Ed McBain book.  I've always been an avid reader. Went through all the books in our library, that they would allow me to take out, by the sixth grade.  Had a wonderful neighbor who would give me a brown bag full of Harlequins, with a few other types thrown in, on a monthly basis.

That's an excellent series Michelle!  I really enjoy it and can't wait to read her next one to see what's going on with April and Mike.

I'm caught up with them, Michelle.  The last one I read was A Clean Kill.  I have Over His Dead Body - one of two books she wrote that doesn't have April Woo in it, but it's in my TBR pile.

Good luck tracking them down - once I read my first one and wanted to go back and read the others I had a hard time finding them.

I think that this series is considered more fantasy/horror, but I just orderd LKH's Stroke of Midnight from hastings.  the paper back will be released on March 31st, & I couldn't wait another minute longer since the hb edition has been out for a while & its hard enough catching her books here.  The reason i am posting this is because the Princess Meriedth series is based on a "who done it" as well as the Anita series. Both series I enjoy,  & I can hardly wait for the new one to come out! 

Thanks for the suggestions, Lynn. I will keep them in mind, for sure! 

My husband reads both LKH series and absolutely loves both of them. He's only read the first of the Merry Gentry series but wants the others.  They are extremely hard to get your hands on without just going out and buying them..... a very popular author for sure.

I also have found myself snatchingup the "Prey"series by John Sanford.  Again, its the way he keeps the plot line of the crime, and the plot line of the charector's life mingled without each one taking away from the other.  Unforunatly I am completely out of line with all the books, so i have no idea of what I have read & haven't read & what order they go in. 

Pearson, Ridley,  Margolin, Phillip,  O'Shaughnessy, Perri,   Kellerman, Jonathan and his wife Faye,  Connelly, Michael  are just a few of the ones I don't trade.

ruthie 

I've been reading mysteries since I was a kid. Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, even read John D. MacDonald as a youngster--but don't tell my mom! She thought old Travis McGee was too racy for me. LOL I also loved the John Le Carre spy novels when I was in my early teens. I enjoyed some Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys and Boxcar Children type books when I was younger, but once I started getting hold of 'real' mysteries I left them behind pretty quickly. I'd have to say that probably Agatha Christie is the one who 'really' got me hooked on mysteries.

Cheryl