I really like Elizabeth George. Her Thomas Lynley series is terrific. It's set in modern England (mostly; with excursions into nearby locales). The stories are original; the characters are original: like Peter Wimsey, Thomas is titled; unlike him, he is employed by Scotland Yard and greatly plays down his title. His partner is Barbara Havers, a brilliant woman from a working class family with troubles of her own: a mother who develops Alzheimer's. Barbara's supposedly plain, but some of that might be cultivated: she doesn't care what she wears or how she looks.

They both have extended family/friends: he has his old friend and police photographer Simon and Simon's wife/Lynly's old girlfriend Deborah (and daughter of his manservant); Lynly's girlfriend Helen; his siblings and their families; and his mother. Barbara has only her mother, but then gets Pakistani neighbors in a man and his young daughter. They have problems of their own, too. Then there are the police commissioner and various other people at the yard, like ambitious Detective Winston N'kata.

Settings in the books take the reader from drawing rooms to surf shops in Cornwall to crime-ridden projects and youth clubs in London to country homes of the wealthy and poor alike, to country inns and gypsy camps; even inside homes of traditional Muslim and Indian families.

The books are very well-written; the plots, characters, settings, and details plausible. You won't find yourself cringing on these accounts--just from the crimes themselves.

It's best if you start at the begining with A Great Deliverance and work your way up to the latest, because of the character development:

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The 15 books have now been made into a television show currently airing in the U.K. and sometimes on PBS in the U.S.

My newest favorite series is The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. This series is set in modern South Africa, where protagonist Precious Ramotswe opens her own agency. It's full of the life and flavor of modern South Africa. There is a major mystery running through the book, while she solves many smaller mysteries and develops her own life. We also get her backstory in the first book. Really fun and not nearly as heavy as Elizabeth George's books. She kind of reminds me of some of John Grisham in his lighter moods and inclusion of local color. This is another one the BBC has picked up for development into a TV series.

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John LeCarre is one of the legends of mystery and spy novels. Best to start from his first novel, as story lines carry through his books
Source(s):
Just read his first three books!

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If you have not read any of the J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts) novels, you are missing a real treat. The first one is Naked in Death.

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I don't read a huge number of mysteries, but a couple of authors not yet mentioned:

Harlan Coben (http://harlancoben.com). His Myron Bolitar books are really good reads. The main character is a sports agent who solves mysteries centered around his clients.

Robert Crais (http://robertcrais.com). Most (maybe all) of his books are about Elvis Cole, an LA private eye. Fairly violent, but very well written.

Mike Carey (http://mikecarey.net). Mainly known as a comic writer, he's written four novels (of which I have read the first two) starring Felix Castor. Castor is a world-weary guy with a talent for seeing and removing ghosts. The books are set in a modern London in which the dead have risen. These are very much hard-boiled noir detective books, with an overlay of supernatural fantasy. Great reads, and I can also recommend the audio versions.
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