We had a friend stay with us last night....she teaches English as a foreign language at International schools but is French herself.
Agatha Cristie gets the thumbs up from her too, so thanks Bryan and Terry. Terry's suggestion of Katherine Pancol's triology -- "Les Yeux Jaunes des Crocodiles" was also on her list.
Our son is 29 and in England and our friend's 11 or 12 year old son is so shockingly clever that nothing he is studying or reading for pleasure comes down to my level.
Other suggestions included Guillaume Musso, Marc Levy, Anna Gavalda, Stieg Larsson's "Millenium" trilogy and Yasmina Khadra's "Attentat"
We have a paper/bookshop in the village and a public library ("go on a Saturday" everyone says, "when the old librarien is there"!) And then there's Amazon, of course. I checked their site and a lot of the classics are available FOC but I think I'll give them a miss for a few years yet. Camus is still protected (therefore not free) but I have had a few goes at the first chapter and enjoyed the challenge.
Thanks again everyone: I'm making lists of all the suggestions.
You could try Katherine Pancol's triology -- "Les Yeux Jaunes des Crocodiles", "La Valse lente des Tortues" and "Les Ecureuils de Central Park sont tristes le lundi". Odd titles but don't be put off by that. They are beautifully written.
I also enjoyed "L'elegance du herisson" by Muriel Barbery.
As someone has already said -- Agatha Christie. My wife taught herself English by reading her books so it could work in French too. Or you could try Georges Simenon -- the Maigret books.
And you could go to your local library (assuming you have one) and see what ideas they have.
Besides indeed reading a lot of newspaper (both for the language and the understanding of the French) I bought quit a few French versions of the books that I knew already very well in English. Knowing the plot spoils the experience a bit, but let's you concentrate more on the grammar used
If you just want to read the novel and ignore the philosophy behind it then Camus is good and he uses short easy to read phrases. Maupassant, Zola, Sartre again just for the novels. Otherwise go for modern authors - just pop into your local presse/librairie, I've just finished "les gens" by Philippe Labro which is excellent, before that "j'étais derière toi" by Nicholas Fargues, again I really liked that - I pick up whatever takes my fancy from the folio selection in the supermarket! Did enough serious literature at uni to put me off going back to all that analysis stuff, just want to read for pleasure now!
Do you have kids in school? If not, ask friends what their kids read in lit class in high school. My kids thought I was ver nerdy but I was glad I read some Maupassant, Voltaire. I don't have the list but you can get it even off the internet I'd say.