Mystery - Reader Recommendations

I read Lie Down with the Devil by Linda Barnes.

Reader Recommendations - Fiction
IF the reader liked the book or series by Barnes, he/she probably likes female PIs or detectives and probably likes series:
I'd recommend Sue Grafton --similar character who also have recurring secondary characters throughout her series as Barnes does. Grafton and Barnes major similarity would be the main character - a strong female character who fights for justice and is physically brave in the face of danger. In terms of setting, Grafton actually is more descriptive about her California setting than Barnes is about Boston.

IF the reader did like female lead characters and liked a big city setting, I would recommend Lisa Scottoline. Scottoline's legal firm setting is a little different than a PI, but Scottoline's lawyers spend more time solving the crime and getting in danger than they do in the courtroom. Scottoline's big city setting is Philadelphia.

Sara Paretsky's series also features a female PI with the big city setting of Chicago.

Nevada Barr also offers another strong female character who faces physical danger. Barr also is highly descriptive - her park ranger moves from park to park and the reader learns a lot about those settings. I guess I read a lot for setting so I'm focusing on that as one factor in my choices.

If the reader likes the ongoing love triangle (maybe triangle is too strong a word), in the Barnes' novels, he/she would probably enjoy the ongoing triangle/tension in Janet Evanovich's books featuring Stephanie Plum, Morelli and Ranger. Of course there's more humor with Evanovich.

Nonficton Recommendations
With a Boston setting and an infamous series of murders, perhaps the reader might like: A Death in Belmont by Sebastian Junger. It's about the Boston Strangler.

A more (relatively) recent sensational Boston murder is also described in a NF book:
Sharkey, Joe (1991). Deadly Greed: The Riveting True Story of the Stuart Murder Case That Rocked Boston and Shocked the Nation. Simon & Schuster

Here's a book on the Mafia in Boston (since Barnes' main character loves a Mafia character)
Black mass : the Irish mob, the FBI, and a devil's deal
by Dick Lehralian
Excerpt from member recommendation on MyLibrary.com
The scene is Boston, starting in the 1970s. The FBI has made it a top priority to clamp down on organized crime (in this case, the Mafia, populated by the Italians of North Boston). John Connolly, a very young FBI agent, is called to the Boston office to work in the Organized Crime unit. The idea was that if he could find someone to rat out the Italians, the FBI's job would be made much easier. Connolly begins to cultivate James (Whitey) Bulger, a former acquaintance from Connolly's old neighborhood in South Boston. Bulger was a career criminal, beginning his future occupation as a young boy, and he and one of his associates, Steve Flemmi, had ties to the Italian mob in Boston. Whitey was also part of a gang in Southie. He became an informant for the FBI, and in return, he was given protection by the FBI. His information was very helpful and did help to put away some of the Mafia guys, but in the meantime, he also gave info on anyone in South Boston that he considered might be standing in his own way as he rose up through the ranks of the criminal underworld. bcquinnsmom | Mar 25, 2008