Humor in Mysteries - yes or no?

I love this question, but I have found so few... I really like Janet Evanovich sometimes. Hers are light, fun reading.

But I want to hear about other authors! I have a hard time finding them. What are Hiaasen's books like? Are they straight mysteries, or do they have some suspense/thriller elements?

ltd.

I don't usually read mysteries, but the author that changed that for me was Joeseph Wambaugh, who injects tons of humor and irony in his stories.

Tri

I'm a great fan of the Lovejoy novels, by Jonathan Gash. Great characters, veryfunny, clever plots, and insight into the world of antiques -- fascinating.

Lovejoy

poetinahat said:

I'm a great fan of the Lovejoy novels, by Jonathan Gash. Great characters, veryfunny, clever plots, and insight into the world of antiques -- fascinating.

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I agree. Wonderful, funny, very well-written novels. I've read them all at least twice. I'm also a huge fan of the TV series.

I was surprised to find how much humor is in Moby Dick when I finally got around to reading it.

And for you Lovejoy fans, Strand magazine publishes some of the short stories from time to time.

I enjoy all of the above and love my mysteries with humour in them. Gash, Evanovich and Hiaason are all on my bookshelf. I also like Dorothy Cannell's first two or three mysteries. (The Thin Woman is brilliant). But her humour got old for me. I love the humour in the Mrs. Murphy mysteries. Oh, and MC Beaton. I spit out my beverage a minimum of three times in each Agatha Raison mystery.

Soccer Mom said:

Oh, and MC Beaton. I spit out my beverage a minimum of three times in each Agatha Raison mystery.

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That should be the official way to rate them:

"This book was a 3 on the Spitometer, but her last one was just a two-spit book." LOL

ltd.

M.C. Beaton's Agatha and Hamish series should not be read while eating or drinking. Guaranteed to make you choke or spit out.

Lovejoy and definitely Evanovich, and also Carol Higgens Clark.

Kate Thornton said:

I love to read a mystery that also gives me a good laugh or two.
Carl Hiaasen is one author who can make me spit out my coffee.

Who does this for you?

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Charlotte MacLeod. Her plots are wildly improbable and her characters should be locked up in the loony bin. (She was the inspiration for my own Mark Stoddard mysteries series.)

Donna Andrews

Owl's Well That Ends Well
Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon
We'll Always Have Parrots

'nuf said!

Yes, I love Charlotte MacLeod. (She also wrote under Alisa Craig). Donna Andrews and the wacky bunch of cousins are wonderful too.

I can't believe I didn't mention Barbara Peters and the Amelia Peabody mysteries. I love that fussbudget.

Kate Thornton said:

I love to read a mystery that also gives me a good laugh or two.
Carl Hiaasen is one author who can make me spit out my coffee.

Who does this for you?

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Johnathan Gash, Joseph Waumbaugh, and of course, John Serra.

John

Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series. Paranormal suspense humor-- what's not to love?

Victor Grischler's GunMonkeys.

I laugh out loud at some moments.................

but

If you didn't think Goodfellas had some funny moments, like the trunk scene, then GunMonkeys might not make you laugh.

A Canadian author called Linwood Barclay has two books out now called Bad Move and Bad Guys. Very funny. I don't normally enjoy funny books but his made me laugh out loud. I like funny movies, funny tv shows, but not funny books. it's weird.

I know they're not always a laugh-riot but Sue Grafton's mysteries occasionally get a guffaw out of me. I enjoy the injection of humor into mysteries.

MFM

Janet Evanovich makes me laugh so hard I cry. Any scene involving Bob the dog pretty much does it for me.

I'm a sucker for those Grandma Mazur scenes, ditto Lula. I like a bit of humor in all things.

Talk about Bob the dog, how about the scene with all of the dogs chasing Stephanie, knocking her down, and having a humping frey!? I had to read that one out loud to all of the people who heard me going wacko in the next room. Hysterical!

MC Beaton, Hiiassen, and I agree Evanovitch definitely! (grandma Mazur, Lulu and Bob the dog - the scene where she got Bob to poop on her arch enemy's lawn had me absolutely rolling!).

Another favourite, Elizabeth Peters with her Vicky Bliss series as well as her character Jacqueline Kirby (a librarian). I am not so fond of Ameilia Peabody any more, although I really enjoyed her first 2 or 3.

I will read anything by Joan Hess - she has 2 series - the Maggody Mysteries (Arlie Hanks is the woman sherrif and apparently the only sane person in Maggody - a hick town like Hooterville in the Ozarks) and her Claire Malloy series - a book seller with a teen age daughter - these are laugh out loud funny.

I also adore the character Marcus Didius Falco who is an "informer" in Rome around 70 AD or so, by author Lindsay Davis. They are brilliant and Falco is as wise cracking as any PI today.

I've recently stumbled across the "Miss Zukas" mysteries by Jo Derske (sp?) She is a librarian and since I have worked in libraries I found them very amusing (not slap your knee funny just bright and witty).

Any Grandma Mazur scene ranks high on the Spitometer. Any old lady who dresses like that, acts like that, and has no issues walking up to closed coffins at funeral visitations and opening them up to see how the dead body looks... I think she's one of my favorite book characters of all time.

Kate Thornton said:

OMG - Victor Gischler is a fave of mine from the old Plots With Guns days...!

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I'm friendly with Victor, and even had my first story published on P.W.G. back in 2003, summer edition.

I've pictures of he and I at Pistol Poets Launch in NYC when he came into town on my own site.

He's a cool Kat.