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I've just commented on a thread where a city-based reader asked for #ruralnoir recommendations; female authors & protagonists (most 'best of rural noir' lists are extremely male-centric). Here's a dirty dozen of great tales/series I recommended they give a go. What do you think? 
So @christine_carbo is a newer-to-me author I first read last year. Fantastic rural crime set around Glacier National Park in Montana. Loved her 2018 release A SHARP SOLITUDE so much that I went online that day and ordered her entire backlist. Review: bit.ly/2JXE0Bu
Another 2018 discovery for me (though I'd met her at writers festivals before that): @KarinSalvala. Her terrific Macy Greeley series is set in small-town Montana. Cracking reads. Another 'read one, buy them all' experience for me. Review of BURNT RIVER: kiwicrime.blogspot.com/2018/03/review…
I've been intrigued by Alaska since I was a kid - I've yet to visit despite exploring a lot of US & Canada. I'd heard good things about Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak series, set there, and really enjoyed A FATAL THAW recently. I'll definitely be reading a lot more of the series.
Not every big bestseller is brilliant, but sheesh @TheGillianFlynn can write. I know, I know, everyone knows GONE GIRL. But for me her other novels, SHARP OBJECTS & DARK PLACES, are even better. Just superb. DARK PLACES is grimy, raw rural noir. Review: kiwicrime.blogspot.com/2015/01/review…
#SouthernCrossCrime (Oz & NZ writing) is now getting greater notice globally, deservedly so, and among the newer voices advancing antipodean is London-born Aussie (of Irish descent) @aoifejclifford. Check out rural tale SECOND SIGHT, per @kcfromaustcrime : bit.ly/2FzVPad
My pal @GregFleming4 pointed me towards @MejiaWrites in 2017. Her rural noir THE LAST ACT OF HATTIE HOFFMAN (EVERYTHING YOU WANT ME TO BE in USA) was outstanding. Her latest, LEAVE NO TRACE, is also brilliant. Fab thrillers set in rural Minnesota. Review: kiwicrime.blogspot.com/2018/09/review…
Swedish crime writer @camillagrebe's tales have garnered plenty of acclaim at home and are now becoming more available for English-speakers. AFTER SHE'S GONE, a bleak and unsettling rural noir tale, won 2017 Swedish Crime Novel of the Year & was published in UK last week.
Wellington author @TrishMcCormack2 writes rural mysteries set among the rugged national parks of New Zealand's South Island, featuring glacier guide and amateur sleuth Phillipa Barnes. For me, the latest COLD HARD MURDER is the best of the series so far: bit.ly/2WojaRB
When it comes to the longest running rural mystery series with female protagonists, a rare rival to the 20 novels in Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak series would be @nevadabarr's 19 novels in her popular series starring Park Ranger Anna Pigeon (each set in a diff national park).
'Rural Noir' is often thought of as more a US thing; rural US tales are of a diff nature to UK village mysteries (Aust/NZ/CAN share frontier edge/wilder aspects with US rural noir). But for me, @inkstainsclaire's Norn Irish border series starring Paula Maguire is fab 'rural noir'
A crime series set among the seemingly genteel world of Ohio Amish country sounds like it could lean 'cosy', but @LindaCastillo11's bestselling tales starring Police Chief Kate Burkholder is anything but. Ruthless local politics, gory murders, dark tales. lindacastillo.com
Years on, I still recall the gut-punch opening of @vandasymon's first Sam Shephard novel, OVERKILL. Released in the NH last year, it sees the rural cop digging into the disappearance of a local woman in a close-knit NZ farming community. A review: bit.ly/2KYqbDC
