Nesbo

... but Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser. Wodehouse, meets Fleming with a touch of O'Brien.

His Jack Reacher books are great fun if slightly ludicrous.

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Start with Little Face, then onto the rest. There are six: a series, I suppose, in that they feature the same detectives, but they work as "standalones".

By far the best Crime Writer I have discovered recently.

Very gritty accounts of life in the New South Africa.

Start with Devils Peak.

Sounds like a riveting read.

Case Histories, One Good Turn, When will there be good news & Started Early took my dog. Page turners every one.

Philip Marlowe in Nazi Germany more or less. They are supremely entertaining, blokeish, often funny, not terribly taxing and definitely not moronic.

Ken Follet, The Pillars Of The Earth followed by World Without End.

Perfect holiday books. Long, exciting, full of intrigue, not taxing, a lot of fun.

Bernie Gunther seconded.

I read Dissolution, the first of CJ Sampson's Shardlake series recently. I thought it was fantastic - a period setting that doesn't ram historical detail down your throat, yet conveys the religious fervour and general grubbiness of the times perfectly. Add to that a murder in a monastery and a detective employed by Cromwell who may risk his life if he doubts his boss' motives, and it's quite riveting.

Though I don't know if it's blokey. Are monks and hunchbacks blokey?

Christopher Brookmyre's books are good, crime-based but with a large dose of Scottish humour.

http://www.brookmyre.co.uk/books/

Fowler this time. His Bryant and May books are easy to read, set in London mostly, and tread the line between crime and occult/psychogeography/police procedural.

I imagine you've done these? Pretty good hammock fare. Also, books of detective short stories by different authors are fun. Reread Sherlock Holmes?

Caleb Carr's The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness - Dr. Laszlo Kreizler: like a New York Sherlock Holmes. In fact Carr's last book (The Italian Secretary) resurrected Holmes and Watson.

C.J Sansom's Matthew Shardlake books: hunchbacked lawyer turns detective in the age of Henry VIII

He writes these A M A Z I N G books about a guy called Sherlock Holmes. Have you heard of them?

Turn of the 19th century Russian Sherlock Holmes style character Erast Fandorin.

As far as I know he has only written 5 books. I've read, and thoroughly enjoyed, the first three, but his best one is supposed to be the fifth. They're British spy thrillers. The first one, Remembrance Day, is about terrorism (and has a great opening scene), whereas the next two, A Spy's Life and Empire State, revolve around a British spy who works for the UN. Looking at who you like they should be right up your street.

Falco books set in Rome are superb with a brilliant sense of the Roman world and excellent crime novels to boot. Falco himself is a great creation.
The Silver Pigs is the first one of about twenty!!

go for the Bernie Gunther novels by Philip Kerr, though the first three which have been collected under Berlin Noir are the best. A couple of other suggestions.
- The Benjamin Black thriller/novels, based in 1950's Dublin. They are written by John Banville. I think he's picked on an interesting period, though they are probably more crime novels than out and out thrillers.
- The Andrea Camilleri books. There are about 11 or 12 in the series, all based in Sicily. The honest cop who loves his food, disastrous love life and, thankfully, not overtly political. In a way they are more like screenplays but hugely enjoyable.

. go for it

If that's what you want then check out Matthew Reilly. His biggest influence is cinema, he set out to do in novel form what your average blockbuster does on screen. So lots of action, outrageous set pieces and for the most part guaranteed pageturners. Perfect holiday reading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Reilly

... Series is highly recommended if you like believable, police procedurals. Set in Sweden and written in the 60's/70s by a husband and wife. Very influential on Mankell and others.

If you've not tried him both The Dawn Patrol of The Gentleman's Hour are really enjoyable, 'lighter' reads featuring surfing PI Boone Daniels.

A much denser novel is The Power Of The Dog. It's a multi layered novel based around the war on drugs and so-called The Mexican Trampoline. I found it absolutely gripping from cover to cover. I give you a 100% money back guarantee if you don't enjoy this one.

The Winter of Frankie Machine is a more straightforward thriller, but none the worse for that.

Isle of Joy is a Kennedy era piece with a thinly disguised John and Jackie providing the mise en scene for protagonist Walter Withers to work his way around.

....Kindle's very good "sample chapter" function to try out some of these. Did Deon Meyer on the way in. Trying Sophie Hannah on the way back. It's the obvious way to sample things. Funny, I never stood in a book shop and read anything other than the blurb on the back.

Fits the bill for me.

Blokey as fuck.

Especially the first five or six Harry Bosch stories. Readable, with an edge and well written. Some of the mid period titles are less good - trying too hard perhaps. Of late - the Mickey Haller series - there has been something of a return to form. Guaranteed not to overstretch the intellect as you rock gently in your hammock!

The Elvis Cole series is good fun, though it has taken a darker turn over recent releases. In a (very) simialr vein is Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar series. Jeffery Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme books are a good read, too. Though his take on James Bond left me neither stirred nor shaken.

Mrs C swears by him, set in rural derbyshire (which makes visiting the peak district a bit weird for her now) lots of murders and describes the scenery nicely. Im only just starting one so can't personally recommend but she is no mug and currently reading her way through all of his work in Derby libraries. If it was me i would say Tom Clancy but thats not crime (lots of explosions though)

is a classic. It's got nightfighters in it so it must be blokey and even though you know the ending from the start still quite thrilling.

Police procedurals, set in Portsmouth. Jolly good they are too.

Tim Moore writes very witty travel books.

Very WORD friendly is Ian Marchant. The Longest Crawl and Parallel Lines are lovely books.

Christopher Brookmyre is excellent, but reading a lot of his books is like being ranted at by a highly-opinionated Glaswegian with a loathing for Phil Collins, The Daily Mail, formulaic pop and The Old Firm. It's rather like having a pub conversation with Ganglesprocket.

The Last Stand by Nathaniel Philbrick, the story of Custer at Little Big Horn.
I don't feel the need to big it up, just read it, you will not regret it.
Magnificent story.

His Hap and Leonard series are hilarious, violent, wince-inducing and right on whilst simulatenously being ridiculously macho. I adore them.

John Connolly's Charlie Parker (no, the other one) series are terrific.

Quintin Jardine - Skinner. I - that is, a friend has told me that they are enjoyable police tosh.

I would not recommend Peter Robinson in that case - you may end up flinging the book out of the hammock after the nth shoehorning of one of his current alt-rock favourites into the story...
On the other hand though, if you want some classic rip-roaring adventure of the square-jawed, stiff-upper-lipped, foreigner-punching type, I would recommend Sapper's "Bulldog Drummond" stories. As with Buchan you have to ignore some of the, shall we say, more relaxed view towards what we would now consider acceptable viewpoints, but leaving that aside thay are ripping yarns...

There are a number of really brilliant Spanish, Italian and South American crime thrillers at the minute.
Domingo Villar's Death on a Galician Shore is a very beautiful, often supernatural mystery story with a very well drawn and quite unconventionally cerebral and withdrawn central character.
Ernesto Mallo’s Needle in a Haystack is set in junta era Argentina and is again with sensuously written.
A final recommendation is A Death in Calabria by Michele Giuttari. Prosecutor takes on the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta mafia. It's very beautifully written and the scenery adds a lot to the narrative.

Go for the trilogy - American Tabloid, Cold Six Thousand and Blood's A Rover. They were made for hammocks.

is a great change from the usual crime scene.
And Dennis Lehane does teriffic modern grit. Worked on some of the later Wire I think.

.....anything by these writers would do the trick.

I know I shouldn't but I'm going to mention my Criminal books. Five crime graphic novels with a sixth on the way, written by Ed Brubaker and drawn by me.

James Ellroy's books are fanrastic but well dark.

Fot non-thriller/crime I wholeheartedly recommend Glen David Gold's 'Carter Beats the Devil' and 'Sunnyside'

There are about 17 Dave Robicheaux novels - can particularly recommend The Tin Roof Blowdown, set in New Orleans just after Hurricane Katrina.

John Harvey. He was doing thirty years ago what that Wallander chap is doing now - great, low-key, character-driven crime novels. Start with Lonely Hearts and read the lot.

Stuart Downing - Similar to Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series but not as hard boiled.

I'm very much enjoying Stuart Mc Bride's Logan McCrae series which should appeal to both fans of Graham Hurley and Kate Atkinson

Also, Robert Ellis has written 2 fine LA based crime novels - start with City of Fire.

A big shout out for Craig Russell's Jan Faber series, set in Hamburg. A bit dark but if you like the Nordic crime stuff, this will hit the spot.

Off to check out some Deon Mayer...

He's just concluded a trilogy of superb thrillers set largely in Cold War USSR. How do you solve a murder in a society that doesn't accept that it has murders? That's the setup for Child 44.

They all have a real sense of place, and plots that aren't utterly contrived (a little far fetched at times, but we seem to live in far fetched times).

The third book, Agent 6, features the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. It's both familiar and distant.

And I'd second the Fred Vargas books. Her Adamsberg books have a certain element of Holmes about them.

Famous Five - Enid Blyton
Action, Adventure, Intrigue and lashings of Ginger Beer!!!
Tony aged 12 3/4

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Someone-Else-Tonino-Benacquista/dp/1904738125/re...

Bit of Raymond Chandler? Drinks too much but rock hadn't been invented then. The Saint books are interesting curios, and Micky Spillane and Daishell Hammett also good retro fun.

Peter Temple's books featuring Jack Irish are brilliant.

Begin at the beginning

http://www.crimedownunder.com/petertemple.html

Is Edinburgh's finest excluded because of his love of the pub, a glass of whiskey, and The Rolling Stones?

One of the best by Elmore Leonard, written long before he got famous and, to my mind, a bit 'self-aware', is Stick. Stripped to the minimum of description it's a tour de force in style and skill. A lot of the time he doesn't even identify who's speaking and yet you know immediately who it is. There might be drinking. But no music.

Highsmith's Strangers On The Train is pretty amazing. If all you know is the film then you are in for a wallop to the head. Assuming you haven't already read it, of course.

Ripping yarns? Into The Heart Of The Sea by James Philbrick is phenomenal. The true story of the whaling disaster that inspired Melville to write Moby Dick.

And Rat Pack Confidential by Shawn Levy has lots of drinking but no rock music. Best book I've read about the Las Vegas 5.

You could do worse than try David Belbin's 'Bone and Cane', as reviewed in 'The Word', which has since been number one best seller in Fiction and Mystery on Amazon (largely, I suspect, because it's currently discounted to £1 on Kindle). First in a crime/thriller series about a new Labour MP and her ex-boyfriend, just out of prison for cultivating cannabis, it's a new kind of crime novel and a definite page turner.

but how about Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen's Union?

It's from 2007, so you have probably read it, but if not then I enjoyed it and I think it ticks the boxes in the original post.

The best crime series by a long chalk is John Sandford's Prey series.

He's also written some other books that are equally good. Probably the most underrated crime writer.

For a lighter read, Robert Crais (Elvis Cole series) and Harlan Coben (Myron Bolitar) are good fun.

Jo Nesbo deteriorates book by book, although The Leopard is a bit of a return to form. But his tranlator wants shooting.

If you want Scandinavian, and you haven't read them yet, Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy is absolutely outstanding, and well served by the translator.

But if you like British, then Graham Hurley's Portsmouth novels are unfailingly excellent, and Peter James, who sets his action in Brighton, is also good.

Just finished Scott Turow's 'Innocent', the sequel to 'Presumed ...' Read the original when I was in my teens, otherwise would never have picked this up, but it's compelling. Turow seems to have nailed the courtroom thriller.
Otherwise, based on your love of The Wire and Richard Price, would definitely get some George Pelecanos in there, if you haven't read him before....

Graham Hurley

Kinky Friedman’s early detective stories are quite enjoyable.
Crime Fiction – Tick (sort of)
Blokey – Tick
Not massively taxing – Tick
Not moronic – Tick
Detective must not drink too much – Cross
Must not bore you with knowledge of rock – Tick (Country & Western instead).

And now for someone completely obscure: Charles Willeford. A few of his novels have been made into films (Miami Blues and Cockfighter) but basically he laboured in obscurity. He's sardonic, hard-boiled and very surprising. My introduction to Willeford was the comedy-thriller "THE SHARK-INFESTED CUSTARD". Come on, you have to give it a go on the basis of the title alone.
Oh, and the abridged audiobooks of the Lee Child "Jack Reacher" series are worth checking out. The reader plays Jack Reacher as Clint Eastwood. Which makes more sense than Tom Cruise (who is scheduled to play him on the big screen)

Douglas E Winter - Run. A cracking read, I think it ticks all the boxes above.

Also very good in this area - Rob Ryan (9 Mil is a great start, all of the rest of his books pass the Hammock Test

Another great series is Jon A Jackson's Mulheisen series, starting with Hit On The House.

... Chris Brookmyre has a new book out?

Hurrah and huzzah. Let joy be unconfined.

*heads over to Amazon*