recommend a modern author

I have come up for air, so to speak, from a writing project, and when I searched for a good novel to read I realized that some years ago I crossed from fiction to non. I was rather surprised to learn that I didn't know any modern writers.

Can some of our good members please point me in the right direction.

What sort of books do you like?

Goodness me, that's a bit of a broad question, and you have nothing in your catalogue to go by. I'm inclined to suggest that the right direction is in through the front door of your nearest bookshop.

I see you write "suspense". Perhaps you might enjoy Rip Tide by Stella Rimington, which I have just finished. If you are up for something a bit more offbeat, one of my recent favourites is The City and the City by China Mieville.

Thank you. I will look at those authors. I got stuck in the old classics, Lawrence Durrell, Faulkner and the like. I guess it's long past time to enter the new century.

Fred Chappell and Wendell Berry, like Faulkner, write about southern/rural life but without all the gothic darkness.

My favorites in the fiction category for the last couple of years have been Raising Jake by Charlie Carillo, Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks.

Right now I am reading a 1970s thriller, The Eagle Has Landed by Jack Higgins. Great so far!

k4k

ETA: Also enjoyed The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga.

There's a modern Spanish writer I enjoy, Arturo Perez Reverte. His novels (translated into English, of course), are very entertaining, but a lot more intelligent than a pulp novelist's like James Patterson. Although, if you want to give your mind a holiday, Patterson might be just what the doctor ordered.

I'd recommend The Club Dumas or The Flanders Panel by Reverte.

If you are one of the few people who hasn't read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo I'd highly recommend that.