Hmmm. I'd recommend Christopher Brookmyre, who does crime meets political satire - might not be what she's after, but they're bloody good reading. Boiling A Frog is my favourite.
Michael Connolly does a good line of private detective novels with his Harry Bosch series, but his book The Poet is a good standalone one about a serial killer.
You could also do Lee Childs' Jack Reacher novels. More adventure than crime, but a nice easy page turner of a read.
James Ellroy's LA trilogy is excellent too, you probably have seen LA Confidential. That is based on part of the series.
And finally Christopher Fowler, started off as a horror writer, but has a series about a pair of detectives called Bryant & May, very eccentric very British stories about very strange crimes. Great fun series, would make a very good tv series actually. But they must be read in order, because each book follows on from the previous, giving away plot details, even though they are standalone mysteries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Fowler#Bryant_and_May_Mysteries
