Who are your favorite crime or spy novelists?

I’m partial to John LeCarre for spy novels. His books are really complex and he is clever in what information he reveals and when. There are always surprises and you have to read very closely. Plus things often go wrong—even the good guys are incompetent and make mistakes.

For crime fiction, I tend to like the gritty, realistic, big city stuff. Police procedural and a focus on investigations and interviews. The Dublin murder squad novels by Tana French are great. And there’s a wonderful old series set in Sweden by Mag Sjowall and Per Wahloo (sp?). Also fantastic. Richard Price is another good modern crime novelist.

Who are your favorites? (And please join this group and use it for your book-related posts!).