10 books like Killing Floor

I like all of Connelly’s books, but the series that features the lawyer, Mickey Haller, is probably my favorite. Although I find the character somewhat unrealistic practicing law out of his vehicle, it is totally entertaining. The courtroom scenes have enough realism to make them worthwhile, and I want to see what the characters will do next. I could tell from the first book that there would be many stories, and there have been. His supporting cast is likeable as well as Mickey. It’s been many years since I was a defense lawyer, but I appreciate his style.

The first of Sue Grafton’s groundbreaking alphabet series, this humorous, engaging series is told by private investigator, Kinsey Milhone. In book one, we find the tough, smart Kinsey setting up her detective agency office while taking the case of Nikki Fife, out on parole for killing her husband. Nikki hires Kinsey to discover who really killed him.   

I love Kinsey Milhone, every book reveals her smarts as well as her humor and humanity. Sue Grafton is mystery writer whose books I grabbed up as soon as they were published. I have read every one of her alphabet series. I would tell a friend that A Is For Alibi is funny and has a terrific, main character. I grew up on Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, and others, but Grafton’s work presented me with a whole new kind of mystery. My mysteries are written in this tradition and readers often compare them… show more.

With this book began my true passion for mystery/thriller novels. I willingly tumbled through all the books Coben has written in this series with Myron Bolitar and his lofty sidekick, Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III). Coben’s clever writing style and sports references captured my interest… and my reading heart for all the years that followed this. I simply couldn’t get enough of it. Still can’t! Coben is a master of words. 

Introducing Elvis Cole, L.A. Private Eye, who, along with his business partner Joe Pike, features in 18 books. Cole is a literate, wisecracking Vietnam vet who is determined to never grow up. Pike is a former Marine, quiet, ruthless, and deadly.

When Ellen Lang enters Elvis Cole's Disney-Deco office, she's lost her husband and her young son. The case seems simple enough, but Elvis isn't thrilled. Neither is his enigmatic partner and firepower, Joe Pike. Their search down the seamy side of Hollywood's studio lots and sculptured lawns soon leads them deep into a nasty netherworld of drugs, sex, and murder.

I read this book in the 7th grade. I immediately took it to school and read favorite passages aloud to any of my friends that would listen. I just thought the use of language was so clever, as was the way Adams introduces characters and situations in surrealistic fashion. There is a lot of the humor that went way over my middle school-aged head, but what landed was hilarious. I would eventually come to crave books that had more plot and grounded stories; but I have always loved Adams’ writing style. 

In The Black Echo, the first book in his Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch series, Connelly introduces his epic detective. Bosch is a Vietnam vet who served as a tunnel rat, crawling through a massive series of tunnels to ferret out and kill Vietnamese soldiers. His traumatic war experience proves useful as he investigates a dead body found in a drainpipe. The case leads to the water conduits underneath LA, the body of fellow tunnel rat, and ultimately an unsolved bank robbery. He battles the FBI, constant trouble with Internal Affairs, and he must overcome Vietnamese gangsters and his war trauma to solve this one. The characterization is superb, the plot unique, and the twists and turns fascinating. This book sets the stage for an excellent Bosch book series in which Connelly expertly weaves characters from his Lincoln Lawyer and the Renee Ballard series in and out to make for one… show more.

Though I am an animal lover, and when I first heard about this book, I couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. I had expected something light and fluffy. OMG! The animal characters and the darkness of the tale (Tail?) drew me in like a cold winter's breath. When I wrote my first book my memory of Watership Down, helped me ease my characters down some pretty dark alleys.

You never forget your first. This was the first grown-up haunting book I ever read, and it was complete adoration at first sight. King’s work has had a huge influence on me as a writer. (Yes, when I get stuck, I do quite literally think, okay, what would Uncle Stevie do?) This novel has all the great King elements—realistic people trying to survive an insanely unreal situation; engrossing, detailed backstory that makes that situation feel like it’s always been there, waiting, watching, inevitable; snappy dialogue and unexpected jolts of humor. The Overlook Hotel is a perfect clockwork trap of unholy psychic evil that takes haunting to a whole new level. And of course, Danny is just cute as the dickens. No matter how many times I read this book, I fret for him all the way through. 

Most don’t think “comedy” when they think of Chandler, but I include his debut here to honor the sly wit behind the hard-boiled PI voice Chandler famously invented. Before him, nobody wrote sentences like, “Neither of the two people in the room paid any attention to the way I came in, although only one of them was dead,” but after him, every crime writer wanted a sprinkle of that. Of course, Chandler’s the all-time, undisputed champion of the simile, so adroit, so confident, that it’s okay if sometimes it feels like he’s playing beyond our grasp. “She was as sore as an alderman with the mumps”—what could that even mean? Beats me, but it’s enough to trust that Chandler knows, and somehow I’m smiling.  

Besides being a page-turning terrorism thriller, what gives the novel even more life is the protagonist, John Corey. He’s a bit of a wise-ass, and his sarcastic humor, despite dire situations, appeals to me. You just know he’ll get the bad guy(s) and do it with devil-may-care determination. His pugnacious attitude often gets him in trouble, but he’s a character easy to like and root for.