Books like A Touch of Frost — picked by fans

Colin Dexter immediately pulls me into what reads as a real world.

The writing is so beautiful, I’m not aware of anything but the story. The chapters are delightfully short and tight, so much so that the pages absolutely flow past.

I prefer reading books that, even though they are clearly fiction, read as true crime stories. When I read a Colin Dexter Morse mystery, I am unaware of pages, chapters, sentences, punctuation. I am allowed to be totally immersed in the story. The casts of perfectly drawn characters in each story always intrigue me.

Morse is flawed, a quality he shares with the camera. He doesn’t mind being wrong, a rare quality in a human. 

I have found that Dick Francis stories (33 standalone and a series character for an additional 4 books and a second series with 2 books) have stood the test of time in that I read them all as they were published, and recently I am working my way through them again on Audible and I have found them to be even better the second time around.

I feel they are equally exciting, character-led, thrilling, and each title still kept me guessing right up to the end. I am in total in awe of Dick Francis' writing and storytelling. 

Each title deals with horses and horse racing as either the main theme or, in some of the titles, as the back story. I have selected Decider mainly because I found that he effortlessly incorporates the horse world with the “Succession syndrome” – that is to say, family life and entitled family… show more.

This time the detective whose shoes I am allowed to tread in are those of Cliff Janeway, a Denver Homicide detective, investigating the murder of a local rare books scout.

I grew to know what it feels like to be a detective. To someone like myself - who prefers to pick up my rare first editions, not on the internet but by rummaging around for hours in bookstores - this and the other titles in John Donning's atmospheric Janeway titles are pure mana from heaven.

The author ran the Old Algonquin Bookstore in Denver for a decade. Mr. Donning's writing voice is so authentic, I have to keep reminding myself that Janeway is the detective and not the author.

The thing I love about Michael Connelly is his very subtle way of keeping up the pace of the investigation without you even being aware he is doing so.

There are few things I like more than reading an author you’ve never known before, loving their work, and then discovering the author in question has several other titles available. I call the resultant state: heaven!

Michael Connelly is one such author. He doesn’t know how to write a bad book or even an average one, for that matter.

In my opinion the Harry Bosch series of books are even better than the Bosch TV show, and that’s saying something. Narrows is the perfect starting point, but really, it could be any of the two dozen and counting titles.

I like how C. Gockel leads me to expect one type of story but then gives me another. I thought that Snow So White was going to be a retelling of a fairy tale. While the book does allude to the fairy tale, “Snow White” is just a nickname for Jack Frost, which in turn is a nickname for an identity the character himself can’t quite remember.

I’m also a big fan of the world-building. The story is set in a time when old technology has collapsed, replaced by a resurgence of magic. Other planes of existence now intersect with ours so that unwary travelers can meet anything from animal spirits to old gods.

The characters are equally diverse and include my personal favorite, a vampire who retains her humanity, likes to play with dogs, and reminisces about her long-dead family. It’s hard to make a vampire heartwarming, but Gockel… show more.

To begin with, I was immediately drawn to this novel because (bless the author) it is located in my own hometown. For those in New York or Paris, this may not be a big deal; but if you live in a relatively small Canadian city, that’s quite exciting. The main character, Joanne Kilbourn, was also named for me. And yes, I have thanked Gail Bowen for this gift. 

All right, that’s not actually true, but one can dream. Joanne is a strong but gentle cozy detective with intense motherly instincts and an extremely sharp mind. I adore her.

Amateur sleuths tend to be drawn from the professional or upper classes—Miss Marple, Lord Peter Wimsey, even my own Hon Cressida Fawcett—so it’s refreshing to solve cases with Lena Szarka, a Hungarian cleaner who has a clear moral compass and a way of finding out exactly what’s lurking in the dirty laundry—both literal and metaphorical. Headstrong, big of heart, and desperate to solve the death of her friend, Lena can spot a smudgy fingerprint at fifty paces. This book is the first in a limited series and well worth settling down with—just put a coaster under your mug and pick up your own biscuit crumbs, else Lena might have a word…

I guess I’s not a coincidence that this series of fiction books are written by the same writers as the previous one, since both of them have the same high quality in their content and are grammatically so well focused. 

The protagonist is Lola Lago, a detective who will solve a case per book.

The books range from level A1 to level B1 and come with an audiobook. The length of the stores is perfect (45-60 pages) and the format light enough to feel that you can do it. Every one of them is well focused on its level, and you can find, at the end, lovely explanation notes and light and fun comprehension exercises.

A stand-alone installment of the Miss Marple series, I chose The Moving Finger for this list because it involves letters and neighborhood gossip.

Set in the seemingly placid village of Lymstock, the story unfolds when a series of vicious poison-pen letters shatter the village’s quiet charm. The situation escalates when one recipient commits suicide, a death that requires justice.

Miss Marple enters the plot as the vicar’s houseguest and ultimately outsmarts the mystery. Her strength comes from the way others dismiss her as a harmless little old lady. To most she is unimportant and insubstantial, if they notice her at all. These assumptions free her to do detective work unnoticed.

If you like Miss Marple, there are 12 full-length books and 20 short stories that feature her shrewd adventures—enjoy!

I've read a few of Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels and I have to say this was probably my favorite. I found Reacher’s humor a little drier in this one, and there was a lot less of Child's sometimes painfully slow narrative.

I liked the characters and the plot moved well, with a couple of cool twists to keep you guessing right until the end. For me, it was a fun read!