ETA: I have read and downloaded many of your recommendations and have had lots of fun reading them! You are such a welcoming enthusiastic bunch. Thanks a lot!
Still looking for more suggestions in case someone wants to add to the ever growing list. So far this year I have read twenty seven books.
Looking for some good mystery novels/short story compilation, etc. Preferably no sci fi or futuristic stuff, no Stephen King.
TIA.
FWIW just finished reading "We have to talk about Kevin" by Lionel Shriver. It was OK.
Really, it's hard to go wrong with Umberto Eco. Though I have to admit, I've tried MULTIPLE times to crack Foucalt's Pendulum and that's a super dense read.
Basically the same plot as Dan Brown's DaVinci Code, but for intellectuals. :)
Horror, last year I read Between two fires, cant remember the author. Felt like I was reading dark souls, but with more of a religious horror vibe. It was okay. Gave me ideas for my dnd campaigns.
I’d like to recommend Laird Barron who mostly writes horror stories and novels. I’ve read his short story collection “The Beautiful Thing That Awaits us All” and there are some really good ones in there (along with some mediocre of course). And his novel The Croning is my favorite horror novel in recent memory. I felt like it could be adapted well into a movie, too.
Another great (very scary imo) novel is Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons. Might be my top horror novel.
Also, I’d like to second someone else’s suggestion for Between Two Fires.
@Thewhizard I just read Carrion Comfort's prologue (Literally, is all I have read) and I am hooked! It looks like I am going to enjoy the hell out of this book.
I assume fantasy is also out based on the no sci-fi and no Stephen King request. That eliminates the majority of what I read.
How do you feel about true crime? In Cold Blood is a classic and a very engaging read. I'll Be Gone in the Dark is quite good and the killer had not been identified when the book was written. The Poisoner's Handbook gets into the origins of forensic science. The Blood of Emmett Till successfully presents Emmett Till is a human being while still framing his murder as the significant cultural event that it became. This last one is a bit controversial but If I Did It is very well written and very strange to read. The ghost writer's commentary adds to the book in very meaningful ways.
If fantasy is back in then Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series is very good. For a while Laurel Hamilton was my favorite modern author. I can recommend the first 9 books of the Anita Blake series. Unfortunately the further you get into the series the more mystery gets replaced with erotica. I didn't read the last couple of books she released in that series.
I've been hooked on the Cleopatra Fox series. Despite not being overly complex, it delivers likable characters and keeps the story moving without getting bogged down.