After at least eight hours of work, we perfectly understand that you are not ready to read an intense novel, one of those that requires a lot of concentration, is complex, has many characters and has an intricate narrative. Before throwing in the towel and using the hackneyed excuse of “I don’t have time” to not read, perhaps it is better to choose lighter novels, without too much pagination and that are very addictive, so that they hook you from the first page.
These are the five detective novels, suspense, mystery, noir… that we present below. Some are almost a century old, others recognized by critics as among the best in the genre, others starring inspectors with different abilities and others, true discoveries that will surprise you with their quality and the voracity with which they are read. Enjoy!
‘Hold me, darkness’ (Dennis Lehane)
It is one of the great classic crime novels of the 20th century and was republished a few months ago with a new translation by the Salamandra publishing house. Childhood traumas, street crime and stormy loves mix in ‘Hold me, darkness’, the wonderful and terrifying work by Dennis Lehane that you should read if you are passionate about the genre. Detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro are the protagonists of this fiction that begins when a well-known psychiatrist asks Kenzie to protect her son from the Irish mafia. This seems bizarre, but even more so will be the appearance of a crucified corpse that evokes the modus operandi of a serial killer from 20 years ago… Creepy.
Pages: 448
‘Our Father’ (Beatriz Roger and Luiso Soldevila)
Beatriz Roger and Luiso Soldevila are mother and son, and they enjoy writing exciting thrillers together, like their latest work, ‘Our Father’ (Planet), starring the detective created by them, Nico Ros. It is a seamless story, with stark and powerful images, that begins when Inspector Pàmies, in charge of investigating a macabre crime in a barn, disappears without a trace. To look for him, his friend Commissioner Narváez first travels to the Costa Brava, but then Ros travels, while a murderer is spreading terror and death in the region. The book will pleasantly surprise you and you will not mind its pagination, as it is vibrant.
Pages: 600
‘The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn’ (Colin Dexter)
Third installment of the adventures of Inspector Morse, after ‘Last Bus to Woodstock’ and ‘Last Seen’ – you may be familiar with the character from the ‘Endeavor’ series. ‘The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn’ (Siruela) It was written in 1978 and is as or more exciting than the rest of the saga; If you don’t know it, it’s worth discovering. Nicholas Quinn, the new addition to the Oxford Foreign Examinations Syndicate, a man who is deaf but able to read lips, has been found murdered in his duplex. Strangely, most of the staff, including Quinn, had tickets to the screening of ‘The Nymphomaniac’ at Studio 2 on Walton Street on the afternoon of the crime…
Pages: 280
‘A Cat in the Dovecote’ (Agatha Christie)
As it could not be otherwise, Poirot returns in ‘A cat in the pigeon house’ (Planet) one of Agatha Christie’s best books, but this time, a series of crimes will take him to a female boarding school in the English countryside. A prince, a pilot, valuable gems hidden in a young woman’s luggage without her knowing it, and a murderer who will come to disturb the peace of the select school come together in this fast-paced novel. The book takes a while to start, and Poirot only appears in the final pages, but it reads very well, has many interesting characters and mixes a British setting and political espionage.
Pages: 352
‘An inspector in Fuseta. Crimes in the Algarve’ (Gil Ribeiro)
If you miss summer, the beach and the wonderful landscapes with the sea in the background, this is your perfect crime novel. It is about ‘An inspector in Fuseta. Crimes in the Algarve’ (Maeva), first work starring Leander Lost, an inspector with Asperger’s. He wears warm clothes even in summer, he doesn’t know how to lie, he doesn’t understand ironies, he doesn’t empathize too much… His colleagues in Hamburg want to get rid of him so they send him to collaborate with the Faro police, where he investigates the shady dealings of a water supplier will demonstrate her true abilities: she has a photographic memory, a very logical mind and an enormous ability to remain calm in the most extreme crisis situations.
Pages: 336
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