Michael Connolly's 'Bosch' series and Mark Billingham's 'Thorpe' series.

The Aurelio Zen series is good. I started with The Dead Lagoon, set in Venice. But then I was in Venice at the time.

has a particular rich style "uber hardboiled", similar to david peace. Oh a lighter note there's james lee burke robichoux series. aurelio zens good as you are in Oxford you have read morse?

is very, very funny, with a great turn of phrase and a nice line in rock music references. I'd recommend any of his stuff unreservedly - he's very rock'n'roll. For a quieter experience, with a nicely-observed sense of place, a good feel for the compromises involved in long-term relationships (and in the morality of policing), and a good illustration of differing European sensibilities (Dutch; French; Czech in France; French in Holland etc.), I like Nicholas Freeling - especially the van der Valk and the Henri Castang series. Freeling is particularly good at conveying an impression of being transplanted from one European culture to another (van der Valk has a French wife, Castang's is Czech - or is she Slovak? It's been some while...), and both detectives have the occasional story set elsewhere in Europe. I think you, as an ex-pat, might enjoy the sense of dislocation Freeling portrays.

Have you worked your way through the Parker series?

the Kenzie and Gennaro novels. Brilliantly plotted, well written, fantastic characters, great back-story.

Start with "A Drink Before the War". I'd bet that, like me, you'll get to end of the Kenzie & Gennaro books and wish there were more of them.

Highly recommended.

Frank Lean - all set in the North West and ... er... someone Robinson (Peter?) set in Yorkshire - you're on safe ground with those two.
For something a little more challenging try David Peace's Red Riding Quartet - 1974, 1977, 1980 and 1983. It helps to start with the first one, but I think I actually read 1977 first.

...would be Reginald Hill's Dalziel & Pascoe series. Better than the TV series and always entertaining whilst containing a good 'whodunit' element. The later ones are probably more nuanced that the earlier ones but do dip in anywhere.

If you like dark scandinavian stories then I would suggest Karin Fossum, the Norwegian 'queen of crime'. Try 'Don't Look Back' and 'He Who Fears The Wolf'.

Donna Leon's tales of Italian detective Brunetti highly enjoyable, good if you want a series featuring one special policeman character. Also these are set in Venice, which adds colour and interest.

For sheer unputdownable excitement I would recommend anything by Patricia Highsmith, especially the Ripley books. Ripley is the hero but he's also the criminal, so that's an interesting, different perspective.

Brookmyre is an absolute MUST - Quite Ugly One Morning is stunningly Scottish and hilarious whilst being disgustingly violent (in a good way)

Carl Hiassen's also excellent, or try Iain Banks' Complicity for a truly grotesque and literary crime novel.

Cathi Unsworth - The Singer.
Tonino Benaquista - Someone Else
Henning Manquels series
Natsuro Kirino - Out
Edward Bunker - Dog Eat Dog

Jake Arnott? - Is he out of fashion these days? The Long Firm and He Kills coppers were both great novels mixing real life characters with fictional villains and creating a nostalgia for the grubby side of sixties London.
Of course when it comes to crime there is no-one to match Elmore Leonard - particularly recommend Killshot, Maximum Bob and La Brava.

much appreciated. Plenty to be going on with here.

Am currently on holiday and have just finished this book.

Hardly a cheery little number. The subject matter terrible and the prose style is brutal.

It is however top class crime writing. Recommended!

Will leave it a little while till I start the next book in the series.

george pelecanos gets my vote,not just a great crime writer but a great writer full stop....

you should see the film Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.

is a fantastic read.

I'm not sure if you've seen the movie adaptation. The joy of reading a well written book may well lessen after seeing the film adaptation.

I haven't seen the film; I avoided it like the plague, keen to keep my memory of the story untainted. In my experience of screen adaptations, they are often little more than a bastardisation to fit inside the available time.

Come on, it has to be the jewish country and western singer turned hard boiled gumshoe in NYC. He was on the Rolling Thunder Revue, you know. Start with Greenwich Killing Time where a hank Williams obsessive is bumping off country stars as they gig in New York.

I second the earlier posts on George Pelecanos (anything he's ever done) and Denise Lehane's Kenzie & Gennaro series.

It was hearing that these guys were both involved in a TV show that first made me check out The Wire a couple of years ago.