As a starting point, Russian detectives, a list of which is presented in the article, take the 90s of the last century, when detective products from abroad flooded the shelves of bookstores in an inexhaustible stream. This prompted Russian writers to take up a pen (or a ballpoint pen, as an option) and start writing stories that captivate average readers with plot twists.

Boris Akunin

The list of the best Russian detectives begins with the books of Grigory Chkhartishvili (that is, Boris Akunin). In Russia, one can hardly find a person who is more or less interested in modern literature who has not heard of The Adventures of Erast Fandorin. The named cycle consists of a number of books united by the main character. Erast, as well as the nineteenth century accompanying the action of detectives, is a model of true nobility. Fandorin appears in the first novel of the Azazel cycle, where he exposes the activities of a powerful group. And the more than modest position of a clerk is not a hindrance. Then other novels will follow, and some of them have taken on a second life on TV screens (“Turkish Gambit”, “State Counselor”). The final book is Black City, which takes place in 1914 before the war.

With the Fandorin cycle, Akunin seems to want to clarify for himself and his readers what a Russian detective story is. The list of all kinds of modifications of this genre (some of them were specially invented by the author) is amazing. Akunin gives examples of political, espionage, adventurous detectives, these include the works listed above. And then there are such specific offshoots of the genre as ethnographic (“Diamond Chariot”), theatrical (“The whole world is a theater”) and even ... an idiotic detective story. Another postmodern game, nothing more.

The cycle dedicated to Fandorin is not Akunin's only work in the detective genre. He also owns a trilogy about the nun Pelageya, who, living in the fictional Zavolzhsky province, solves crimes. To do this, she needs to show all her qualities to the maximum, including the ability to become a brilliant socialite when she needs to attend events that do not quite correspond to the type of her activity.

Darya Dontsova

But not only the works of Akunin make up the List, but Dontsova's novels continue, enjoying enviable popularity among the domestic reader. Daria began writing them after she was diagnosed in 1998 with a terrible diagnosis - breast cancer. Apparently, the disease opened up some creative resources of the writer, and she was discharged from the hospital, having managed to sculpt 5 books. In the first of them - "Cool heirs" - a heroine is introduced who has much in common with the author himself. She loves animals, women are connected with languages, and then ... and crimes, which she has the ability to attract like a magnet. In total, 46 novels have been created about Dasha Vasilyeva at the moment (some of them - "For all the hares", "My husband's wife" and others - were filmed) and several works of small genre form.

After that, Dontsova decided to replenish the list of Russian detectives with books in which other heroes participate - Evlampia Romanova ("Manicure for the Dead", "Dinner at the Cannibal" and many others), Viola Tarakanova ("Golden Cockerel Fillet", "Three Bags of Tricks" ). The only male detective created by Dontsova, Ivan Podushkin, attracts special attention. His image largely reflects the female understanding, he is gallant, noble and does not get tired of taking care of his mother, a very eccentric woman. At the moment, 19 detective stories have been created about Podushkin, some of them have been filmed.

Alexandra Marinina

The audience of the beginning of this century probably remembers Nastya Kamenskaya - an ash blonde who drinks a lot of coffee, does not like to cook, does not wear makeup at all. But he knows several languages ​​and just loves to catch criminals. This colorful character owes its creation to Alexandra Marinina, another honorary member of the Russian Detective Writers club. The list of novels in which Kamenskaya acts is quite extensive - enough for 6 seasons of the television series! Anastasia appears in the novel “Coincidence”, in order to then successfully act in other detective stories (“Playing in a foreign field”, “Death for the sake of death”, “Posthumous image” ...).

Tatyana Ustinova

Ustinova was one of the first to start writing Russian detective stories. The list of her works, however, is not limited to detective novels ("Thunderstorm over the sea" is an example of this genre in her work). The writer manages to combine bloody crimes with a melodramatic background, the heroes solving their own love conflicts. This violates one of the 20 commandments given by Stephen Van Dyne - so be it.

Andrey Konstantinov

And again an example from the movie. The viewer of the beginning of the “zero” must remember the gloomy saga “Gangster Petersburg” about the elusive Antibiotic and the brave journalist played by Domogarov. Its creator was a journalist and translator. He decides to increase the list of Russian detectives with his creations in the mid-90s, publishing the novels "Lawyer" and "Journalist", after which other detectives followed. It is also necessary to note the art project "Golden Bullet Agency", carried out by the writer.

Natalia Solntseva

Mystical plot twists also includes a Russian detective story. The list of works by authors who tried to combine the process of solving a crime with unrealistic events in their books is crowned by Natalya Solntseva. According to the author, she wrote her first novel ("Golden Threads") in 2000, and before that she had written practically nothing. Her works are not ordinary Russian detective stories. The list of the main actors of her creations is made up of artifacts that have a supernatural influence on the fate of their owners. What such an impact could be - this is exactly what Natalya wants to explain in her novels (“What is the dream of blood”, “Mantle with golden bees”, “Etruscan mirror” and others).

If you consider modern detective stories to be frivolous literature, then you are greatly mistaken. A real detective is literature in its purest form, a mixture of top-level writing professionalism, multiplied by fantasy, but conditioned by very harsh rules of the game, since the detective is a genre, oh what a demanding one!

Few today follow the pure schemes of Agatha Christie or Raymond Chandler. The detective is increasingly becoming a field of experimentation, where the search for the killer has always been not in the first place.

Here is a selection of fresh novels that are impossible to ignore if you want to know what a top-notch modern detective looks like.

Y. Nesbe. "Police"

Norwegian writer Jo Nesbe does the really impossible on paper. He not only "did not blow away" until the tenth book in the series about detective Harry Hole, but all the time he was on the rise. And now he has published almost his best novel!

Nesbe is an exemplary Scandinavian writer whose style is renowned for its deadly brutality. Its essence is a criticism of human nature and society as such, where you are either a criminal or a victim, and if you are a victim, this does not mean that you are innocent, because everyone is guilty.

The main character is such that you don’t know whether to spit in his face or make friends forever. That is, such a popular now (with the advent of House and Dexter on the screens) kindness with an inhuman face. Nesbe, by the way, formed this genre - together with Mankell and Vale.

Detective Hole is an alcoholic whose achievements in this field are proportional to the level of professional intuition. He almost died in the previous book, which is why he decided to quit the service, the bottle, start teaching and even get married. But at the sites of long-standing unsolved crimes, one by one, the corpses of murdered police officers begin to be found. It becomes more and more clear that the killer does not take revenge, but punishes those who themselves did not punish the evil. And the best detective lectures and is not going to return.

And this is where the most interesting begins: Hole realizes that they can’t cope without him. But he also understands that along with the work, his demons will return to him ...

"Police" is a reference example of a detective story that turns into a story about a detective.

Without a doubt, this is the best detective story of the past year - today only a few can keep such tension on voluminous 600 pages with so many characters and constantly deceive even the most experienced readers. And Nesbe is definitely one of them.

Joel Dicker. "The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair"

The author of the detective story is only 27 years old. He is one of the major literary sensations of 2012: his book has received all sorts of prestigious awards, has been translated into more than 30 languages ​​and currently has millions of copies. To ignore such texts is a crime!

A very successful young, but already in a state of deep creative crisis, the writer Markus Goldman goes to his teacher and good friend, the living classic of American literature Harry Quebert in search of inspiration. But here's the problem - in the Quebert garden they find the remains of a fifteen-year-old girl who disappeared 33 years ago, and next to her in her purse is the manuscript of Harry's most famous novel, who, in turn, confesses that he had true love with the deceased. And now Marcus, who sincerely wants to help his friend and understands the full potential of a book about such an investigation, combs the American province in the hope of getting to the bottom of the truth.
What kind of postmodernist tricks are there in Pravda! In fact, this is a novel about novels and writers, a textbook on writing skills (each chapter begins with advice from the elder to the younger), the laws of which do not work in the novel itself. From a set of locations and characters that appeal to the broadest cultural background, the head is spinning!

If you want, start digging into Pravda and seek out the basics, or if you want, savor the thrilling detective story to the point of trembling, because the rules of the game are perfectly followed here: having set hundreds of traps, Dicker hides the real killer so deep in the plot that the probability of premature guessing is extremely small.

The critics are right when they consider Dicker's novel uneven, twisted and far from coherent everywhere. But he is so impudent and ambitious in a good way that, without exaggeration, he becomes the main must reed of the season.

Keith Atkinson. "Crime from the Past"

Once upon a time in England, near Cambridge, a three-year-old girl disappeared from her father's garden at night; right at the workplace, the daughter of a famous lawyer was killed, it is not clear why and for what; in one family many years ago there was a scandal that ended with the use of an ax. Different times, different families, different stories. Behind such a strange and voluminous beginning (names, details, all kinds of oddities), you don’t immediately notice when Jackson Brody appears - an ex-police inspector, now a private detective, a loser who is going through a divorce, sleeping with clients, but trying to remain honest and principled in the world filled with chaos and darkness.

It is to him that the relatives of the people who appeared in these long-standing crimes turn. So he begins a hopeless investigation. Over time, Jackson realizes that everything is connected in some incomprehensible way.

In 2010, “Crimes of the Past” was translated for the first time, and now they are reprinting it - we took advantage of this to add the novel to our list, since many people sincerely consider this detective project of the writer the best project of the decade (Stephen King, for example) and there are enough reasons for such a statement. It is on the example of this text that one can fully understand how the detective genre itself mutates in the twenty-first century.

A lot of sarcasm and irony, enough farce, eccentricity, specific humor that goes hand in hand with horror - the genre affiliation of "Crimes of the Past" may raise questions. From the classic detective here is really a bit. "Romance with a crime", "black satire on English society", "intellectual prose": there can be many definitions.

And the fact that the story is really somewhat overloaded with events (3 crimes, attempts on Brody himself, his own secrets) does not spoil the novel in any way - the mechanism works perfectly, the style is verified to the word. British literature, in a word.

Nikolay Svechin. "Warsaw Secrets"

Svechin was rightly compared with Akunin. But always over the top. Everything would have continued like this if not for the most influential Russian critic Lev Danilkin, who once decided to re-read Svechin's novels, make an interview with him, and from himself - a star, if not of the first, then definitely of a serious magnitude.

"Hunting for the Tsar", "Shot on Bolshaya Morskaya", "Bullet from the Caucasus". Indeed, where the late Akunin has buffoonery and stylization for the sake of stylization, Svechin has a first-class historical novel with a strong detective lining. The Novgorod writer's heroes are not supermen like Fandorin, but ordinary people, provincials, whose origin is an important plot-forming moment.

The author of "Secrets" sees the very element of history as a priority. Svechinsky's hero Lykov is a collegiate assessor, a nobleman in the first generation, of average mental abilities, does not know foreign languages ​​at all, which often brings him down catastrophically. But he sees evil, is not afraid and acts, and this is already a strong foundation. In Warsaw Secrets, Lykov, together with his constant boss, intends to find out the real reasons for the brutal murders of Russian officers in the Polish capital.

Jesse Kellerman. "Heat"

That infrequent case when the words from the cover exactly correspond to the essence of the book - "sun-drenched noir." It would seem that oxymoron, which should be denoted either by some stylistic chimera, or something that was not even close to the classic noir. But no - "Heat" is one of those debuts with which one can enter the history of American literature.

Los Angeles, about our time, earthquake. Thirty-five-year-old secretary Gloria goes to the office to check if the collection of figurines that her boss Carl, who, in turn, she adores, has survived. From the confused messages on the answering machine, she understands that something has happened to him, and what is impossible to understand.

But most importantly, he is somewhere in Mexico, where she goes. And there - the surreal world of a provincial town, where the only noticeable places are a funeral home and a cemetery, and people are real ghosts who run from the heat. But one should not rush to conclusions: Kellerman's novel is as much a thriller and road movie ala Castaneda as it is a full-blooded detective story. The boss is unknown where and why. He's probably not who he claims to be. And he didn't die the way she thought. The policeman who is doing this is behaving rather strangely. The son of the boss, with whom the heroine begins an affair, is not his son at all ...

And at the end there is a plot somersault, which will testify to the full power of the past, capable of returning. Yes, not a very classic detective story, or rather, not a classic one at all. Multi-genre mix, but it has the main detective components. And most importantly, it is impossible to tear yourself away from this action-packed thing until you read it to the end.

Kellerman is a 35-year-old American writer, the son of famous writers Fay and Jonathan Kellerman, not yet a cult, but already close to this status, the author, probably the best of his generation, since each of his five novels became a loud sensation.

Kellerman is one of the greatest discoveries of recent times. A writer who creates the texture of his novels so professionally and in a magical way that at some point you simply begin to enjoy the very air of literature, literature as a pure possibility. A very rare gift!

The choice was not easy. When selecting the best detective authors, we had to hold a tough competition, during which very worthy people were left behind: Gilbert Keith Chesterton with his stories about Father Brown, Graham Grinn and even some Japanese who draws detective cartoons (in the sense, anime).

Since the number of voters exceeded a hundred, and the incomprehensible nervousness of those who disagreed with the results led to the broken windows of my house and three arsons (and this is only in the last month), it's time to reconsider my attitude towards the masters of the detective genre. The last ones will be the first, won't they, Mr. Chase? At the same time, the rating has been expanded to 15 positions - so meet newcomers 🙂

So, the best authors of detective stories!

• The poll at the bottom of the article now has 21 writers. When voting, you can choose from 1 to 7 options. Perhaps, by joint efforts, we will be able to make this rating more objective.

• Year of birth: 1964;
• Popular novels:"The Da Vinci Code", "Angels and Demons";
• What is interesting: the book Angels and Demons states that Raphael was originally buried in Urbino and not in Rome. Although this is just the writer's fantasy, due to the popularity of the novel, a sign had to be installed in the Pantheon (where Raphael is buried) explaining that the ashes of the artist were always here, and Brown could go to hell.

Dan Brown writes not much, but successfully: everyone has heard about the sensational novel The Da Vinci Code. In total, the writer published 6 novels, 3 of which were filmed (“Inferno” is coming out this year). His books are characterized by conspiracy theories, freemasons, the Illuminati and other mysteries. At the same time, Dan Brown is not always historically accurate and may cite facts that do not correspond to reality.

The funny thing is that some of his fans forget that they are reading a work of fiction and, faced with a discrepancy between the next creation of the writer and secular sources, they rush to see in this some kind of conspiracy from the “authorities are hiding” series.

14th place. Stieg Larsson

• Years of life: 1954 — 2004;
• Popular novels: trilogy "Millennium";
• Popular character: Mikael Blomkvist;
• What is interesting: the photo above shows a letter from 1972, in which "experts" from the Stockholm College of Journalism explain to Larsson that he is not good enough and will not make a journalist out of him.

During his life, Stig was able to prove that the "experts" should not be trusted - he not only became an excellent journalist, but also a pretty good writer. True, apart from the mentioned trilogy, due to an early death from a heart attack, Larsson did not have time to write anything else. Alas, this tragedy can hardly be called accidental - the writer's acquaintances say that he smoked about 60 cigarettes a day. But the Ministry of Health warned ...

The Millennium trilogy was published after Larsson's death. In 2009, a Swedish adaptation of all 3 novels was released, and in 2011, the more famous Hollywood version of one of them appeared: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

13th place. Raymond Chandler

12th place. Dashiell Hammett

The heroes of the new genre relied not only and not so much on a sharp mind, but also on a revolver - detective novels became more action-packed, and the murders of counts and barons with the help of poisoned strawberries and cream sunk into oblivion.

11th place. William Wilkie Collins

Since he did not write so many good detective stories (after all, he lived not only with detective stories, but also with short stories, short stories and opium), he takes only 12th place in our rating.

10th place. John Grisham

• Year of birth: 1955;
• Popular novels:"The Firm", "The Case of the Pelicans", "The Client".

John Grisham was an ordinary lawyer who was trying to make ends meet in the 80s. Things were not going too well - there were few customers. One day, while at the courthouse, John heard about the case of the father of a 12-year-old girl who killed his daughter's rapists. Out of curiosity, the lawyer remained at the court session, which inspired him to write the first book, A Time to Kill. The book came out in a small print run, but it was a start nonetheless.

Since the lawyer had enough time, he took up the second book - "The Firm". Unexpectedly for everyone, it became a bestseller - in 1991, 1.5 million copies of it were printed.

Grisham ended his career as a lawyer and focused on writing detective stories. Currently working on a series of teenage detectives, where Theodore Boone acts as the main character. The circulation of all Grisham's books is about 300 million copies, which is a very solid indicator.

9th place. Ian Fleming

• Years of life: 1906 — 1964;
• Popular character: James Bond.

English writer Ian Fleming gave the world agent 007 James Bond, who, with his inherent aristocracy, emerges victorious from any scrape. In total, Jan wrote 12 Bond novels, as well as 2 collections of short stories dedicated to this hero. Nevertheless, films based on these books have already been shot 2 times more - today 25.

And perhaps the only thing that can confuse an astute reader is the absence of detective stories in his books. Bondiana is an adventure thriller, a spy thriller, but a detective?.. However, fans of the genre claim that Fleming's novels contain a whole tangle of political intrigues, so they can be considered as representatives of some kind of political detective story.

8th place. Earl Stanley Gardner

7th place. Boris Akunin

In the harsh 90s, publishing houses unanimously disowned stories about Fandorin, but at the beginning of the 2000s, detectives in the spirit of Conan Doyle's romance went on "Hurrah!". This confirms several successful film adaptations, which, oddly enough, can also be called successful - which does not often happen with modern Russian cinema.

To date, it has become popular to traditionally say that Akunin is no longer the same. But let's not rush - time will tell.

6th place. James Hadley Chase

It's no secret that my subjective attitude towards Chase prompted me to send this writer to the back of our rating of detective authors - as for me, his novels are pretty similar. But fans of James stood up for their favorite and, willy-nilly, I had to glaze the broken windows and raise Hadley to 6th place. He deserves better though. But let's not rush - maybe one of his grandchildren is "winding up" the vote? I don't see a more logical explanation.

At one time, the Riga Film Studio created a fairly tolerable film adaptation of his novel The Whole World in Your Pocket.

Anna and Sergey Litvinov are the golden feathers of a domestic detective. That says it all. We only add that the plot is built around the heroine already known to readers - Varvara Kononova, an employee of a secret special service who studies everything strange and unknown (our answer to the X-Files). Together with her lover, psychic Danilov, the beautiful girl is resting in the Black Sea resort. Everything is quiet and peaceful, the sea, the beach, churchkhela... And suddenly the base of peaceful vacationers is stormed by special forces. Then everything is as we like: a chase, intellectual duels and fistfights, and in the finale - the solution of the most burning secrets of the recent past...

Quote from the book:

You deftly put them both down,” Zubtsov said calmly from the back seat. Danilov did not answer. And the retiree continued: - I'm impressed. Of course, I met guys like you, and the best ones, but you are good even against their background.

What have you done?! Varya grabbed her head. - Why did you have to do this? - like all women, she could not help but drank her lover - but in this situation, one cannot but agree, there was something for that. Alexei, clenching his teeth, was silent, only rushing at a speed of one hundred and fifty. She continued, “Get off the track. Now we are definitely wanted.

I know it myself,” Danilov muttered.

Bachelor Sparrows: A beautiful fairy tale did not work out

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"Universal Conspiracy"

Tatyana Ustinova's latest detective story begins with a trip to the planetarium. Marusya, a twenty-four-year-old girl, a teacher of French, goes out of boredom to look at the stars. In the company of a friend Grisha. They accidentally meet with the scientist Yuri Fedorovich, who has been following UFOs for a long time. And it seems to be a little "coo-coo". But he warns that humanity will soon die in a terrible catastrophe. A meteorite will fly in or worse. While the couple admires the constellations in a dark room, the scientist is killed. Who? How? Why? And what about the catastrophe - to wait or not to wait ... The investigation will be interesting, and Ustinova's special, textured language draws you in from the first page. Recommended for long flights and trips, because until you finish reading, you are unlikely to come off.

Quote from the book:

Grandfather believes that he is a member of a sect. In the sect of admirers of alien civilizations! Well, all sorts of knights of the Ninth Gate, worshipers of the god Chronos, worshipers of the Moon in the Seventh House! Grandfather says this is unforgivable obscurantism. Especially for an educated person. Our Yurets is educated, but rubbish.

How - rubbish?

Usually. Just a bad guy, that's all. Margoshka brought to the handle. I thought it only happened in Victorian novels! Well, when the villain harasses the beautiful Brunnhilde in order to take possession of her castle, land and the legacy of the late father. But Yurets is nothing, and in our time he coped quite well.

His wife is dead?! Marusya asked in astonishment.

All of this did not go through any gates. Yuri Fedorovich Basalaev, crazy - or not crazy, who knows! - a scientist, a connoisseur of alien civilizations, a funny man with a disheveled beard and burning eyes, is actually an evil monster ?!

Lorak pushed Baskov into the pool at Emin's party

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"Art requires sacrifice"

There are three detectives in the book at once, and everything is about love. Stas Babitsky devoted many years to journalism, conducted his own high-profile investigations, often at the risk of his life. Therefore, the heroes of his works are so realistic, recognizable. Ordinary people doing terrible things. A neighbor hangs a birdhouse in the yard. Nothing suspicious. But what if he is the maniac who kills passers-by with a sniper rifle? A young actor is rehearsing the role of Othello, but is he capable of strangling his traitorous wife? Read and find out.

Quote from the book:

Will he really allow Lyudmila to marry his businessman or deputy, but it doesn’t matter who ... All you have to do is come up and say: I love you! Does he love? Or not? Ruslan did not yet know the exact answer, approaching the girl. She silently exhaled a thin puff of smoke. He silently held out the bouquet.

That's for me? - feigned surprise, although joy sparkled in his eyes. - Thanks.

She leaned forward to kiss his cheek. And then, no, a second earlier, there was a strange sound. As if a string had broken on that huge balalaika. Lyudmila fell, and out of surprise Ruslan did not hold her back. He fell to his knees, clutching his limp body, breaking roses that suddenly turned red. And the blood continued to flood the dress. Ruslan was waiting for the next bullet to go to him. The brain even threw a spell suitable for the occasion: our father, like thou ... But he whispered something completely different:

Love you. Love you!!!

But there was no shot.

Baranovskaya: I knelt in front of Andrei and roared

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Text: Alexandra Bazhenova-Sorokina

Detective is a relatively young genre. The fruit of the love of realism and gothic, it arose in the middle of the 19th century, became terribly popular and has not lost its position since then. The rise of the Japanese mystical detective, the poignantly social psychological thriller from Scandinavia, the American existential thriller, and the continuing tradition of the British puzzle-mystery show just how diverse in both plot and style detective stories can be.

We have selected eleven detective stories published in the 2000s that are on par with book hits such as The Girl on the Train or Gone Girl and will not be lost against the backdrop of the hegemony of modern masters of the genre Dennis Lehane, Yu Nesbø, Henning Mankell and Robert Galbraith (hello , Joanne Rowling!).

The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair

Joel Dicker

The sensational debut of the twenty-seven-year-old Swiss Dicker about a young popular writer in a creative crisis, his mentor's cult novel, and how novels are created in principle, at one time received conflicting responses. The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair has been criticized for claiming to have an intellectual depth that it does not. Whether this is so - decide for yourself while reading. What is definitely there is a famously twisted plot with unexpected twists and a setting in the best traditions of noir: underage femme fatale, strange and complex men, dark humor and an ever-changing picture of events - is this not a recipe for a great detective?

sharp objects

Gillian Flynn

American Gillian Flynn became the absolute star of the psychological thriller after the adaptation of her third novel, Gone Girl, the film was directed by David Fincher, and the script was prepared by the writer herself. Sharp Objects is her debut and deserves no less attention. A mentally ill journalist living in Chicago seeking an outlet for self-harm and alcohol is forced to return to her Missouri hometown to cover the murder of one girl and the disappearance of another. Southern Gothic, well-written characters, a twisted plot - "Sharp Objects" is clear evidence that the success of the writer is not at all accidental. Like the heroine of the book, Gillian Flynn worked for many years as a journalist, which clearly influenced her ability to tell stories.

Voice of the night bird

Robert McCammon

Robert McCammon is an American horror master who at some point decided to try himself in a historical detective story. The action of "Voice of the Nightbird" takes place somewhere in Carolina in 1699. The trial of a witch who allegedly killed her own husband and had intercourse with the devil himself shakes the town of Faunt Royal, as teenage clerk Matthew Corbett matures before our eyes and turns into a detective in an attempt to establish the truth and save a woman. Adventure, romance, mysteries and conspiracies, plus the history and life of America, still subordinate to Britain, is an excellent combination for a detective, not without reason the author has already published several books about Corbett.

Judgment Day

Kurt Aust

Scandinavia regularly supplies the world with detective and thriller masters, remember at least the Norwegian Jo Nesbø and the Dane Peter Hoeg. A resident of the Norwegian Horten, Kurt Aust, approached the popular genre from a different angle: we have a historical detective story in which there is almost less of a modern northern detective story than of Umberto Eco. A cold New Year's Eve in 1699 finds several people locked in an inn due to snowfall: among them Professor Thomas Buberg and his assistant Peter - they have to unravel what happened to the dead count found in a snowdrift. The deliberate slowness of the narrative and the lack of detective superpowers in the main characters more than pay off with local (and temporary) flavor.

Crimes of the past

Keith Atkinson

Fans of the BBC series of the same name “Case Histories” know and appreciate the skill of Kate Atkinson, who invented Jackson Brody, a former policeman who switched to private detectives. The first novel in the series made Atkinson, a favorite of critics, a real icon of the modern detective, the reading of whose books is promoted with might and main, for example, by Stephen King. The story of three seemingly unrelated family tragedies, which Brody is forced to take on, is truly gloomy, and you can’t call it light reading. However, for those who are not afraid of the world of truly unpleasant people and not the fastest development of events, there is an amazing atmosphere, family secrets and a wonderful author's style.

Over the settled graves

Jess Walter

In the small town of Spokane, Washington, a serial killer hunts down prostitutes, revealingly laying their bodies on the river bank after slipping 20 bucks into each victim's fist. "Over the Settled Graves" is an investigative story that subtly combines an intriguing yet plausible investigation with the complex style of high literature. The main character Caroline Maybry suffers from depression, loneliness and wonders about the limits of her own abilities as a policewoman. Her former mentor and once failed lover, and now her partner in the case is also suffering - because of family problems and unrequited love. Their personal tragedies and problems are as important in the narrative as the detective story and the image of a gradually dying city that gives rise to nightmares.

golden scales

Parker Bilal

Makana is a refugee from Sudan, where his wife and daughter died. He lives in Cairo, barely makes ends meet and works as a private detective. The hero literally takes on any business (because of the difficult financial situation, one does not have to choose), and one day an oligarch with a dark past and no less dangerous present turns to him for a service. The first novel in the Detective Makan series is by no means the debut of the British-Sudanese author Jamal Mahjub, who recently began writing detective stories under the pseudonym Parker Bilal. The protagonist of The Golden Scales is not a detective, but the city of Cairo, which, with its improbable life of an oasis in the desert, a dream that turned into a frightening and enchanting reality, resembles Dostoevsky's Petersburg.

Crossing

Ellie Griffiths

In the novels of the British Ellie Griffiths about the forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway, the echo of another popular heroine is heard every now and then - the forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan from the TV series "Bones" and the American book series Katie Reich that formed its basis. However, the similarity does not come down to bones as evidence: if Reich wrote off the heroine from herself, then Griffiths was inspired by her archaeologist husband and the countryside of Norfolk, with the nature and myths of which the writer was introduced by her aunt. The charm of the debut novel of the British writer consists of a combination of an ominous story with ritual murders, the charm of the sad and funny Ruth and bewitching English landscapes.

Thirteen hours

Deon Meyer

The detective is not only living in northern landscapes, and this is brilliantly proved by the South African writer Deon Meyer, who tells exciting stories in Afrikaans about the life of the Cape Town Crime Unit. There, Inspector Grissell is torn every minute between preventing a potential international scandal, advising newcomers to the department, and his own problems that need to be addressed immediately. Just one day, together with Inspector Grissell, involves not only a dashing detective story, but also the life of a very special multinational world of South Africa, about which you want to learn more and more with each page.

Collini case

Ferdinand von Schirach

Ferdinand von Schirach himself could be a wonderful hero of the novel: the grandson of Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Schirach and the great-grandson of an American whose roots go back to the signers of the Declaration of Independence and directly to the first settlers of the New World. A successful forensic lawyer, von Schirach began to write stories based on cases from his practice, and quickly became famous as a writer as well. In the novel The Collini Case, the author insinuatingly and restrainedly raises the question of the difference between justice and justice in the format of a court drama in German. What if you need to defend a confessed killer and you don't know his motives? No surprises or plot twists, but real food for thought, especially important in the context of a global rethinking of one's own identity by any European citizen after World War II.