Psychological Mystery

I have been reading Karin Fossum and Ruth Rendell really great psychological mystery writers. Can anyone recommend any others that I might enjoy?

Because I really don't know, what makes a psychological mystery? My first thought (if I qualify for thought) is that most all mystery stories are psychological to some extent. What am I failing to think about?

#1: You may try Jonathan Kellerman. His books feature Alex Delaware, a psychologist who acts as a police consultant.

#3 Yes, the Kellerman books are entertaining with a psychologist detective. Also Stephen White's Alan Gregory is also a psychologist. Those books are very good, too.

How about The Three Roads by Ross Macdonald? Published in 1948, it's about a vet who's had a breakdown after returning from the war and finding his wife murdered. It's rather Freudian in the approach--of its time--and the ending is a bit of a shocker.

Plus, it's beautifully written and really smart.

Maisie Dobbs - Miss Dobbs tends to look at the whole picture, and feels that her role is mostly psychological healing. I've only read the first one, but I did like it.

I think it's something to do with the book being mainly about the motivation of people - ordinary people - who get caught up in something. No serial killers, but possibly a woman who (for example) accidentally killed her child years ago and is about to be found out (just the first thing off the top of my head). Authors I'd put into this category would be Frances Fyfield, Sophie Hannah, etc.

If you read historical at all, I would highly recommend the Lieberman Papers series by Frank Tallis (in the US the books are called A Death in Vienna, Vienna Blood, Fatal Lies, and Vienna Secrets, with more on the way I believe). The books feature Max Lieberman, a psychologist in Vienna in the early twentieth century, and his friend police inspector Oskar Reinhardt. The author is himself a clinical psychologist.

I also second #6 wookiebender's recommendation of Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series, also if you like historicals.

I agree with Sophie236 in message 7 above - I think of psychological thrillers as being about the 'why' and the 'how' - not the 'who'. I recently read a book that would fit that description - The Singer's Gun by Emily St. John Mandel.

#7 and #9 That is what I am thinking about. Fossum and Rendell get more into the "why" and "how", actually get into the mind of the people involved instead of just telling the story. Thanks!

I think most mysteries delve into the 'why' as well as who and why. I suppose it's a matter of degree, and maybe how much the 'why' figures into the solution of the who. Whaddaya think?

etrainer - you are correct. Pretty much all mysteries contain the three elements of 'why', 'how' and 'who', it is the degree or proportion of each of the three elements that would tilt the book into a subgenre. Psychological mysteries, at least for me, can be sleepers that have little or no physical action as the focus is what is going on internally with the characters, the dilemmas they face and how they mentally analyze the situation that they find themselves in. Kind of like the 'Why' and the steps involved in producing an outcome taking precedent over 'Who', but that is just my take on it.

Shutter Island comes to mind, with some gripping psychological twists.

Minette Walters writes amazing psychological mysteries.

#14 - thanks, Minette Walters was the name I was trying to recall! Ruth Rendell, writing as Barbara Vine, also has some good dark stuff.

(Touchstones are having a hissy fit today, aren't they?!)

I would suggest the books by Phil Lovesey, the son of Peter Lovesey.

When The Ashes Burn
Screaming Tree
Ploughing Potter's Field
Death Duties

Val McDermid is very good!

I think you might enjoy Robert Goddard's Past Caring if you haven't read it yet.

You may like Michael Marshall, Jeffrey Deaver, and John Case.

So Cold the River by Michael Koryta

Try Gillian Flynn. Dark Places and Sharp Objects. Both involve psychologically unstable characters (guess you can't get more psychological than that) and are written with grace, style, and intense supsense. Beware that both are very "dark," dealing with issues that some may find unsettling.

The Alienist by Caleb Carr, and The Angel of Darkness. The first was pretty good; I haven't read the second.

I can't say enough good things about Mr. White's Confession a mystery set in Missouri between world wars. Characterizations are great and they reflect the mood of the country very well. Police corruption was still unchecked and wreaked great havoc. Gut-wrenching villain, sympathetic suspect, a touch of forbidden love and a cop just trying to do his job. Haters of ambiguous endings need not apply.

Greg Iles has quite a few books, I've read all but maybe the first one that dealt with WWII era.

"The Analyst" by John Katzenbach. Great psychological mystery!

I recently read a novel by Petra Hammesfahr, titled Syysuhri (Finnish; original in German: "Das letzte Opfer"). According to LT, it has been translated to Dutch. It was really rather interesting and most certainly belongs to this genre.
According to FantasticFiction (http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/petra-hammesfahr/), two of her books have been translated to English.

You might also enjoy the 3 books (The Four Last Things, The Judgement of Strangers and The Office of the Dead) that make up Andrew Taylor's 'Roth' trilogy, published in one volume as Fallen Angel/Requiem for an Angel. The trilogy gives three different perspectives on the life of a killer over forty years. Like so many psychological mysteries, this is not so much a 'whodunnit' as a 'whydidshedoit' and, IMO, is far and away the best of all of Taylor's work.

Also The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier. Two men who look alike meet and one forces the other to switch lives in an effort to escape family pressures and financial ruin. The unwilling scapegoat then has to not get caught out and eventually tries to undo some of the damage his treacherous double has done. Well-crafted and written with perfect pitch.

... and by Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca is a classic psychological mystery and if you have not read it then you definitely should do so. It has become something of a classic.

Another possibility with the emphasis on "psychological" rather than "mystery" is Belinda Bauer's Blacklands. She has also just issued "Darkside" (Touchstones doesn't work) which I liked but thought the ending was pretty limp and a bit of a let-down.

You can add Håkan Nesser to the list of psychological mysteries, particularly his 4th (that has been translated), Woman with Birthmark.

I love psychological thrillers - the mess with your mind type.

Heath Sommer was a favourite last year, The Manufactured Identity was amazing in my mind.

Shutter Island and Fight Club are good too.

Thanks for starting this post.

The very best, IMHO, is The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson. Told in the first person by a sadistic psychopath who manages to get you on his side and keep you there.

... and then there is The Silence of the Lambs - and all its sequels.

One of Ted Dekker's books definitely belongs to this category: Kolm3 ("Thr3e" in original language). Very enjoyable, _very_ surprising also. At least if was surprising for me 'cause I didn't read anything about it in advance so I had no idea where it was heading. Even checking the tags about this book gives too much away...