Reddit mentions: The best police procedural books

Portugal hasn't legalised drugs. They have decrimilised them. It's a similar situation to the one in the UK, but under a different name - rarely will police attempt to find someone who is in possession of drugs.

Mark Duggan on the other hand was (allegedly) a drug dealer. The police go for drug dealers because they see them as the root of the problem - they encourage people to commit crime to get their fix of drugs. Not only do they encourage them, frequently they are the enablers of that situation as well. The people, of course, martyr people like Duggan when they get to the top of the 'game' because they see a rich man who likes to put back into the community.

Read "What came before he shot her" by Elizabeth George. It's a rather unfortunately accurate portrayal of the socio-economic problems in London that crime leads to.

The problem is the system. The system is set up so that hard work doesn't generate more income. More income is generally garnered from being rich. Providing education and job centres and so on is worthless if the best that these people can hope to achieve is an average income, whilst the rich become richer. I know the rich buy more luxury goods and benefit 'the economy', but surely the time has come to increase taxes on the rich (and corporations) to subsidise local trade and industry to encourage people back into jobs that hard work will cause them to have a better standard of living.

Still Life! I absolutely love mystery stories, but it takes a certain kind. I am not a fan of regular, run of the mill murder stories. I would like a new series to get into, and this looks like a good start!

Plus, I just finished up finals myself, which means I too can start reading for fun again!! =D It's literally one of my favorite activities in the whole world to do. So I am very excited. I just need a new book to read, haha!

Thanks for the awesome contest! It's a good one!! =D

One of my favorite ways of experiencing foreign places vicariously is through reading mystery novels set in that country. There are several great series set in Scotland. Malcolm Mackay writes well about Glasgow. Denzil Meyrick writes about a fictional small town on the west coast that's based on Cambeltown. But my favorite is Ian Rankin's Inspector John Rebus books, which are set in Edinburgh.

Inspector Rebus's drinking hole is The Oxford Bar in Edinburgh. I went to Scotland with my friend and his wife, and we had to stop there for the night. Ian pops by there from time to time (not while we were there). We stayed there for several drinks with the regulars, including the Uruguayan bartender that gave my wife some great advice for her trip to Barcelona soon afterward. It has history, both real and in fiction, and it was off the beaten path but still walkable from our hotel on Hanover Street. I'd suggest everyone read a couple Ian Rankin books (Tooth and Nail is the third in the series, and where I think Rankin really starts getting his own unique tone down). The Ox is a great place to go for a drink because it has history, but doesn't advertise it. They'll tell you about time that Ian and JK Rowling came in for a dram if you ask, but they're not going to put up signs to that effect to bring in customers off the street. They wouldn't have room for them if they did - the place can only hold about 15 people if you include the side room. The only souvenirs they have are bookmarks and postcards, which they hand out for free but don't display. Rebus has been drinking there for 22 books, and their website wasn't even working last I checked. It's an authentic place that doesn't brag about itself, but is well worth a visit.

I'm a bit late to the party, but I just answered this same question on a more recent thread:

> I've been hired a couple of times for the exact scenario you've described. An author has an existing piece of artwork, and they just want some nice typography over the top, and the book cover laid out.
>
> The Things that Grow with Us by Jordan Anderson, and Burner by J.S. Lenore.
>
> I'd be more than happy to get involved. PM me for a chat and we can see if I fit your bill.
>
> Normally, if I'm starting from scratch, I send out an in-depth questionnaire to find out as much about the book as I can, what the author is expecting, and how they want to pitch it. It allows me to really tailor the cover to the person and their book, rather than just slapping some text on a picture.
>
> I've also done a lot of redesign work with other redditors, here's a selection.
>
> Feel free to get in touch, even if it's just for advice. I'm always happy to help.

I love Tana French! She writes a good, complex mystery that really sucks you in. She started with In the Woods. This is also the start of her Dublin Murder Squad books - all of them great.

Gillian Flynn, who wrote Gone Girl, also has another book out - Dark Places.

Also some of my favorites are Nicholas Evans (Horse Whisperer, among others). I've read most of Jodi Picoult's books (Leaving Time is pretty recent, and one of my favorites).

I find many of my books by keying in favorites on Amazon, and seeing what other people also buy. If you are a Prime member, you also get 2 free advanced books every month, and with a Kindle, you have the lending library as well. My Kindle library is out of control - I've been using Kindle Unlimited to keep that more manageable & it's easy for me.

The Hunger Games / Divergent / Ender's Game / Maze Runner series are great also, are fun reads, and give you a bit more time with the characters as part of a series.

**CREATIVITY**

​

Adding this section because I've been ignoring it.


Read this article:


https://getpocket.com/a/read/2496701934

​

And it really got me thinking about my "type."


I've always been an artist, a musician. I've been in bands forever. I'm in a fucking band right now, playing two sold out shows in March, playing a sold out show in Europe in the spring, doing a west coast tour in the summer. People love the shit I produce.

​

This used to be the driving force in my life, and I've shunted it to the side.


Why? Well, for one, the business uses a lot of the same muscles - the creativity, the restless thoughts. It also eats up a lot of my time, the rest of which is taken up by family/kids/working out/etc.


Secondly, since I've been at MRP I've been focused on increasing my "masculine traits" - my dominance, my muscles, whatever. This was a latent part of my personality that needed work.

​

But I feel that loss. I miss thinking about aesthetic things - reading for what it makes me feel, rather than to learn the next marketing technique.


These live shows have forced me to work on it - to go to band practice, remember how it feels. We're also recording some new songs and I need to get vocals done and recorded.

​

I scheduled two nights this week to come in late and record. That'll get me back on the horse - and I want to continue working on new material so I can accomplish my goal of a short solo tour.

​

I've done a lot of work on myself, and that work will continue - it's never a bad idea to address your weaknesses. But I can't forget my strengths, either - it's time to integrate what I've learned here into my own unique personality.


**READING**

​

I got a bit tired of non fiction, so I've been reading this:


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005LVR786/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
"The Best American Noir of the Century"


Man, it's great. Highly recommended. Short stories, includes a bit of history of the genre and the authors with each chapter. Very fun, very dark - obviously.

​

Been reading "The Irresistible Offer: How to Sell Your Product or Service in 3 Seconds or Less - by Mark Joyner"

Quite good - basic, but a very nice framework for putting together offers, which is good for me right now.

​

Still working through "Human Nature" by Greene - it's very good, as always.

I did not know about the random wishlist database query tool so we could check we're on it!

I didn't know anything about gift chains and gift bombs.

I did not know that our dear captivatingbleu has such an adorable voice!

This is my item. It's the first of the series I was telling you about earlier and there's a used "very good" one that's only $2-something so you could gift more than one person!

Thanks for the contest <3

> When Josef Stalin was on his deathbed he called in two likely successors, to test which one of the two had a better knack for ruling the country. He ordered two birds to be brought in and presented one bird to each of the two candidates. He then instructed each of them to make sure that the bird did not fly away.

> The first one grabbed the bird, but was so afraid that the bird could free himself from his grip and fly away that he squeezed his hand very hard, and when he opened his palm, the bird was dead.
Seeing the disapproving look on Stalin's face and being afraid to repeat his rival's mistake, the second candidate loosened his grip so much that the bird freed himself and flew away.

> Stalin looked at both of them scornfully. "Bring me a bird!' he ordered. They did. Stalin took the bird by its legs and slowly, one by one, he plucked all the feathers from the bird's little body. Then he opened his palm. The bird was laying there naked, shivering, helpless.

> Stalin looked at him, smiled gently and said, "You see... and now he is even thankful for the human warmth coming out of my palm."

^ apparently from dis book

Gillian Flynn is one of my favorites, and I group her with Denise Mina, Tana French, Sara Gran, and Elizabeth Hand. These are the books that I recommend to start each writer:

• Elizabeth Hand - Generation Loss
  
• Denise Mina - Garnethill
  
• Tana French - In the Woods
  
• Sara Gran - Dope or Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead
  
  I HIGHLY recommend all of these -- they're all biting and well written and thrilling in different ways.

This was a summer session class, so not very rigorous (frankly, the liberal arts aren't very rigorous at any undergrad level... they just assume that you can read and think, which is, admittedly, a bit much for some students). In all honesty, it did not deserve to be anything other than a 100-level class, and I think the only reason it was 400-level is because colleges tend to throw a lot of electives into the 300- and 400-levels so that students can use them to fulfill degree requirements, not because they are actually demanding or build upon previous knowledge.

(Not that this is confined to the liberal arts... I have a 300-level computer science class this coming semester that is about the ethics and social impacts of computers and technology and involves lectures and presentations. "Seriously? This depends on assembly language programming and data structures?")

We read this book. I was skeptical at first, but I ended up enjoying it. The guy lost his daughter to some slow, agonizing disease or something and was, predictably, emotionally destroyed. But he was a moral philosophy professor, so what he did was (again predictably) go a little bit nuts and analyze the fuck out of every single thing. Which is cool if it's written well, and it is. It's a very clear book, very accessible and readable, and not at all like most philosophy books where the intent is, seemingly, to intimidate and stupefy the reader.

It starts with "what is life?", for instance, analyzing different benchmarks (DNA vs. no DNA, reproduction vs. no reproduction, and so on) and discussing why they fail as reliable indicators of whether or not something is alive, and why alarm clocks are not life (or are they?), and so on. It deals with a lot of common problems within philosophy, like is someone alive if they're in suspended animation, is someone alive if they're destroyed and rebuilt out of different material, that sort of thing. It's a good source for things to sit and think about.

And it's not really all that morbid. Other than the introduction, I don't recall the guy mentioning his daughter at all, so it's not like a "bonding" or "cathartic" kind of book... it's pretty pure philosophy. It was also my introduction to some specific subsets of act utilitarianism, such as the author's clear favorite, "justicized-act utilitarianism", where one attempts to at all times act in the way that most greatly increases the level of justice in the world. I now think find this system more than a little wanting, and circular, but it's still intuitively in line with how I think I behave.

Of course, I'm pretty passionate about ethics, so it might not be as interesting to other people as it was to me.

TL;DR: We read a small and accessible but respectable introduction to the subject, which was still more than enough to bewilder 90% of the class. Recommended, especially for $4 or whatever a used copy is on Amazon.

EDIT: Hmm, maybe it'd be fun to teach this on University of Reddit...

Yayyyy this is amazing! I want to gift this because my first ever gift that I received was an ebook from this user! I would love to pay it forward :)

Good evening!!! here's a 99 cent ebook set

Book contests are awesome! Do you have a favorite book? Series? Author?

One of the biggest reasons I loved the Millennium trilogy was Larsson's use of Sweden itself as a character. Everything from the weather to Scandinavian minimalism helped make the story so much more real.

Following those, I ended up reading and loving Tana French's trilogy. The stories follow three Irish police officers (though the stories are more loosely connected than Millennium) and her use of Ireland itself is absolutely brilliant. Give the first one In the Woods a shot and see what you think.

Edit: My mistake. It looks like a fourth book was just published in July.

Resolutions were:

1. Cycle more - 2,500miles a year / 100k ft climbing. Am a little ahead on mileage so far this year 230miles between MTB and wattbike sessions (stationary trainer in the gym). Climbing a little down due to turbo time (6.4k done as opposed to 8.3kft a month target). Fitness is getting there, power level is almost back to pre-autumn levels. Lost most of xmas weight (6lb down to sit around 11stone again).
   
   
2. Read more books - 12 books targeted. Finished my first book - an xmas present called [The Science of Game of thrones] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Science-Game-Thrones-myth-busting-mind-blowing-ebook/dp/B017RKCCVA). Had finished it by mid January so moved on to a second book The Hypnotist. The game of thrones book was quite short (250pages ish) and the new one is a bit more of a challenge at 620pages. About halfway through and enjoying it!
   
   
3. Continue learning French. Streak maintained on Duolingo so on target. Have been playing with their new stories functionality and brought another dimension to learning.
   
   
   All in all, good start to the year! Shall see how it goes :)
   

I am currently reading Three Seconds by Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom. It has kept me thuroughly entertained, and I have no idea what will happen next, I love it. And I can't say for sure, but the sleeve claims that these two paved the way for Stieg Larsson. So that's pretty cool.

http://www.amazon.com/Three-Seconds-Anders-Roslund/dp/B0085S6PRQ

I liked Snow Crash a lot, but I never thought that any of his other stuff was as good. Not to say I don't like other Stephenson, just not crazy good like Snow Crash.

Daemon was awesome, IMHO. You have my upvote for mentioning it.

I haven't seen anyone mention Halting State by Charles Stross. Once I got over the Scottishness of the writer's voice, I thoroughly enjoyed that one.

Here are some of my favorites that you may enjoy. Some of these are split genre books (horror/suspense, sci-fi/police procedural, etc.), but they all fit in the general thriller genre, and are all really excellent books available through the Kindle store.

• Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary) by Jeff Starnd
  https://www.amazon.com/Graverobbers-Wanted-Experience-Necessary-Thriller-ebook/dp/B0065558GU/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=graverobbers+wanted&qid=1569589129&s=gateway&sr=8-1
  
  
• Kop by Warren Hammond
  https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07PNWNHCH/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=
  
  
• Whiskey Sour by J.A. Konrath
  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BBE4BFE/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
  
  
• A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane
  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003GYEH2E/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
  
  
• 13 Bullets by David Wellington
  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000QUCNZO/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.com

amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

Very good work! I suggest you start doing front, back and spine too. Here's one I did:

Caise Closed dark and sinister cover:

http://i.imgur.com/jcYNuTu.jpg

I did it in GIMP, except for the white cat imprint on the spine, that's an svg I manipulated in Inkscape then exported to .png. The font is a free one I found online called 'Mom's Typewriter'.

I would also always do a publishers imprint even if you have to make one up (the white cat on the spine). It's funny, people won't notice if it's not there but something won't 'seem' right, like it's not a 'real' book.


BTW, Caise Closed is free on kindle today and tomorrow:

http://www.amazon.com/Caise-Closed-ebook/dp/B00E2TED1C

In the Woods by Tana French maybe? The main character, Rob, becomes a homicide detective as an adult after having two of his friends murdered when they were kids (he was with them but lived and has no memory of the events). There is something with a shovel later on. It doesn't exactly fit, but it was a pretty popular book a few years back and I thought it was worth a try.

A Song Called Youth by John Shirley

Halting State by Charles Stross

Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan

Have fun!

USA - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HGSVGSY
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00HGSVGSY

Also available on Nook, B&N, Apple etc for free too.

and it is free today and tommorrow on Kindle. Justin's wife was a commercial pilot, and that is...crucial...to how the story unfolds. Can't give away more than that.

http://www.amazon.com/Caise-Closed-ebook/dp/B00E2TED1C

Sorry for the self promotion...the writer works in the industry...

Ah, a fellow wanderer in the land of processes, workflows and procedures.

Have you read Stross's Halting State/Rule 34 novels? Most people focus very heavily on the second person narrative but I think someone with your background would find the technology and methods used by the police a lot more compelling, I know I did (a bit off-topic but as you've pointed out no-one's reading this thread anyway).

Some other stuff that's $1.99 right now:

• Stella Gemmell's The City
  
• Craig Shaffer's Harmony Black
  
• Patrick Tomlinson's The Ark
  
• Joe Zieja's Mechanical Failure
  
• K.J. Bishop's The Etched City

There's actually a book with this very concept. Halting State by Charles Stross isn't exactly a good read (I'd put it in the 'bad' column, actually), but the idea behind it is very interesting. It brings up a rather compelling scenario with the government fronting role playing games as a spy operative.

edit: also I'm 'privileged' enough to live in the town that gave him the key to the city. It's a horrible thing.

Tana French is excellent.

I would fully recommend any of her Dublin Murder Squad series. My personal favourites are In The Woods and Broken Harbour.

Read Halting State by Charles Stross for a really believable look into how this sort of technology could be utilised in the very near future.

The List: J.A. Konrath:

https://www.amazon.com/List-Thriller-J-Konrath-ebook/dp/B00267T89E/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+list+konrath&qid=1569401625&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

Halting State by Charles Stross.

The Jack Daniels mystery series

Here's a link to the non mobile version: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ALI9TSK?ie=UTF8&force-full-site=1&ref_=aw_bottom_links

My first thought was this but the cover isn't similar. I'll keep thinking on it.

reviews are actually kinda decent and numerous
https://www.amazon.com/Ark-Children-Dead-Earth-Book-ebook/dp/B00TCI402K

weird