• Susan Wittig Albert's "Thyme of Death" series - herb related
• David Baldacci's "The Winner" and "Last Man Standing"
• Nevada Barr's "Anna Pigeon Mysteries" -
  They are all set in National Parks. Anna
  Pigeon is a park ranger with a lot of baggage.
• Lillian Jackson Braun -The Cat Who...
• Rita Mae Brown's "cat" mysteries series -they take place in Va.
• Jill Churchill's "Grace and Favor mystery series" - set in New England in the 1930's
• Harlan Coben in-depth mystery thrillers
• Patricia Cornwell's "Kay Scarpetta" series- medical examiner, intense
• Joanna Curl's "Chocolate series" - her gal is working in a chocolate store
• Jeanne Dams's "Dorothy Martin series" - a retired American school teacher moves to England and stumbles over bodies in several books in a series.
• Diane Mott Davidson - catering/food related mysteries
• Carola Dunn's "Daisy Dalrymple series" - early 1900's England
• Joanne Fluke's "Hannah Swenson mysteries" - her "detective" owns a bakery
• Anne George's "Southern Sisters series"
• Elizabeth George's "psychological mysteries"
• Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhome mysteries
• Barbara Hambly - One series is set in New Orleans in the early 1800s. The "detective" is a freed black who is a musician and a trained surgeon; his sister is a voodoo priestess.
• Gwen Hunter's medical/mystery/thriller books about a fictitious town in SC with a small-town female doctor (Rhea Lynch, M.D.) and her trials/tribulations with everyday life (romance, friendships, hospital work, etc...). She has visited at least one high school to sign books.  (thanks to M.H. Brandon for info)
• Laurie King's "Mary Russell series" (Sherlock
  Holmes' partner & wife)
• Carolyn Hart's "Death on Demand series" that is set on a fictional island off the coast of South Carolina
• Kay Hopper's "Shadows" series - psychic thrillers with a little romance -"Stealing Shadows", "Hiding In The Shadows" and "Out Of The Shadows"
• Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner
• P.D. James' "Adam Dalgliesh Mysteries"
• Kate Kingsbury's Manor House series - World War II England setting
• Nancy Martin's "Blackbird Sisters series"
• Annette Meyers's detective books - The detectives are Smith and Wetzon - fun books
• Perri O'Shaughnessy (author team of 2 sisters)legal thrillers
• Linda Palmer's Love and Murder
• James Patterson's Honeymoon and Fourth of July
• Anne Perry's "Charlotte & Thomas Pitt series" - The first one is The Cater Steet Hangman. The setting is Victorian London where a young lady of the upper class meets & marries a common police detective.
• Elizabeth Peters' mysteries
• Kathy Reichs's "Temperance Brennan" series - "Deja Dead" is the 1st book. Tempe is a medical examiner who works between Quebec and North Carolina.
• Peter Robinson's "Inspector Banks series" about an English detective
• Elliot Roosevelt's "Eleanor Roosevelt mysteries" wrote a mystery series in which he has his mother, Eleanor, investigate; set in 1940's
• Lisa Scottoline is a good legal mystery writer, similar to John Grisham
• Alexander McCall Smith's "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" series
• Patricia Sprinkle's "Thoroughly Southern Mysteries" take place in the South. A couple of the books are set in Atlanta (Dunwoody and Buckhead).
• Margaret Truman's "Capital Crime series" about a a Washington D.C. law professor
• Jacqueline Winspear's "Maisie Dobbs" - with a historical flavor

These were recommended by Media Specialist of S.C. on the S.C.A.S.L. ListServ
(S.C. Association of School Librarians).