# Let's talk about our favorite mystery novels **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 16, 2012, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-our-favorite-mystery-novels/618982 "2012-04-16T18:48:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Christopher\_Robin\_Davies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8dc957/32.png) [@Christopher\_Robin\_Davies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Christopher_Robin_Davies)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2012, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-our-favorite-mystery-novels/618982/1 "2012-04-16T18:48:19Z")
My personal favorites are the Lord Peter Wimsey and Philip Marlowe novels. I love Sherlock Holmes too though techically most of those are short stories rather than novels. Most contemporary mystery stuff does nothing for me I am afraid but I am open to recommendations that might change my mind. Anybody care to talk about the stuff they like best? ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2012, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-our-favorite-mystery-novels/618982/2 "2012-04-16T19:00:01Z")
Well, one of my favorite novels of all time, _ **The Brothers Karamazov** _, is really a murder mystery. Does that count? You’d probably say no. So, if we stick just to novels you’d find in the Mystery section at Barnes and Noble, my favorites are… Agatha Christie: _ **Curtain** _, and _ **The ABC Murders** _ Dick Francis:\*\*\* Banker\*\*\* Gregory McDonald: _ **Fletch** _, _ **Flynn’s Inn** _, and _ **The Buck Passes Flynn** _ Ellis Peters: \*\*\*The Leper of St. Giles \*\*\*(or almost any of her Cadfael series) ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2012, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-our-favorite-mystery-novels/618982/3 "2012-04-16T19:27:22Z")
I just bought the complete Sherlock Holmes novels for my nook, and I’m happily working my way through them. I also like the Nero Wolfe series, though I can’t say that I really like any of Stout’s other works. In particular, I’ve tried to slog my way through the _Mountain Cat Murders_ at least three times, and failing each time. I really think that Stout hit upon a winning formula with Archie, Nero, and the setting, and when he tried to get away from that formula and setting, he just didn’t distinguish himself. My personal preference is science fiction/fantasy mystery. Larry Niven has written a number of short stories and novels that are science fiction (they take place in the future, with future tech) that are essentially mysteries, and they work well. For instance, in _Dream Park_, there’s a theme park that allows people to use costuming and holo tech to portray various gaming classes, and one plot is about how the gamers go about winning the game, but the real story is a mystery about how a man died. Niven plays fair, he gives the appropriate clues to the readers, and you don’t have to know about a rare poison that someone from Alpha Centauri B IX would commonly carry about its person. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2012, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-our-favorite-mystery-novels/618982/4 "2012-04-16T19:57:25Z")
I’m a sucker for Nero Wolfe as well–got hooked when the series was on A&E. Very slowly working my way through the canon in publication order; my last was Over My Dead Body. (I’ve read a number of the books already, but lost track of which ones, so I’ve started over with Fer-de-Lance.) Bonus: I used to live next door to the location of Wolfe’s brownstone, per the plaque erected by the NYC Wolfe Pack. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-our-favorite-mystery-novels/618982/5 "2012-04-16T20:26:32Z")
I also love Lord Peter Wimsey. Other current favorites include: Edmund Crispin, The Moving Toyshop. Lunacy set in Oxford. The Nero Wolfe series. I read them all, in order, within a few months. Keeping them for long winter night rereads when I get old. Laurie King’s The Beekeeper’s Apprentice. This is Holmes as I fantasized him when I read the Conon Doyle stories. Margery Allingham’s Albert Campion stories. She was a contemporary of Dorothy Sayers. The series started out light and frivolous, but became more accomplished as it went on. John Dunning, The Bookman’s Wake Kate Wilhelm, the Constance and Charlie mysteries, starting with The Hamlet Trap. Vicki Lane, Signs in the Blood, set in the North Carolina mountains. Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody series. Laugh out loud funny spoofs of the Victoria Holt type of Victorian romantic suspense. The author has a Ph.D. in Egyptology, so she knows her stuff. But her sense of humor is even better. Alan Bradley, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Precocious child chemist in 1950’s England solves the mysteries. Arturo Perez-Reverte, The Club Dumas and the Flanders Panel. One about literature, one about art, both wonderful. Author Spanish, settings Europe. Lisa Lutz. The Spellman Files series. Contemporary San Francisco setting. Very funny modern detective family, narrated by the bad girl of the family. L.C. Tyler. The Herring Seller’s Apprentice. Modern England, a mediocre mystery writer and his obnoxious, pushy agent. Intelligently humorous. Alfred Alcorn, Murder at the Museum of Man. Satiric and good. Oh, I’ve liked Tony Hillerman and Aaron Elkins, Martha Grimes, and a host of others. But the ones above will survive the next move. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-our-favorite-mystery-novels/618982/6 "2012-04-17T04:10:57Z")
I listen to a lot of mysteries on my iPod. Grew up on Lord Peter, and have listened to them all, as well as Chesterton’s _Father Brown_ books. Contemporary authors I love: **Sue Grafton** (_A is for Alibi_, etc… _S is for Silence_ is my favorite); **Dick Francis** and son **Felix** ; **Brad Meltzer** (_Zero Game_ and _The Millionaires_ are fun “innocent-characters-caught-up-in-a-thriller” books); **Nevada Barr** (\*Flashback \*is the perfect double-mystery). Oh, and **Lawrence Block** writes books with a burglar-for-hire, _Bernie Rohdenbarr_, that are hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-our-favorite-mystery-novels/618982/7 "2012-04-17T12:40:47Z")
Just off the top of my head… Lois McMaster Bujold’s _The Mountains of Mourning_ and _Diplomatic Immunity_. (SF mystery) Charlotte MacLeod’s _Wrack and Rune_ and _The Luck Runs Out_. (Humorous mysteries) Harry Kemelman’s _Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry_ and _Tuesday the Rabbi Saw Red_. Gregory McDonald’s _Fletch’s Fortune_ and _Confess, Fletch_. Agatha Christie’s _Mrs. McGinty’s Dead_ and _Cat Among the Pigeons_. Susan Conant’s _Bloodlines_. Dick Francis’ _Nerve_. Erle Stanley Gardner’s _The Case of the Ice Cold Hands_. Robert Barnard’s _Death by Sheer Torture_. I also enjoy Donna Andrews’ mysteries, but can’t pick a favorite. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-our-favorite-mystery-novels/618982/8 "2012-04-17T13:12:25Z")
> [@LawMonkey](#): > > Bonus: I used to live next door to the location of Wolfe’s brownstone, per the plaque erected by the NYC Wolfe Pack. 😃 You and a whole bunch of other folks, including some fish. 🙂 I second Stout’s Nero Wolfe and Chandler’s Marlowe. I’d say _the Big Sleep_ is my favorite mystery of all. Amelia Peabody is also good. Her spouse (called by the Egyptians, “The Father of Curses”, is fighting for his life, and Amelia says, “I’m sure that Emerson was enjoying himself immensely…” ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-our-favorite-mystery-novels/618982/9 "2012-04-17T13:17:49Z")
Sherlock Holmes (novels and stories) Robert H. Van Gulik’s _Judge Dee_ novels, set in T’ang dynasty China, and using elements taken from Chinese mystery novels written hundreds of years ago. Van Gulik plays fair, too – if a clue is a linguistic one, he gives it to you in English form (Van Gulik was a _Dutch_ diplomat writing about _Chinese_ history in _English_. And other languages, too. The man was astonishing) Fredric Brown’s mysteries. Brown has, sadly, faded from the scene, but he was a helluva science fiction, fantasy, and mystery author, who wrote in a simple, direct, yet compelling style. He also came up with the most amazing stories and twists that show nifty insight into human psychology. One short story has the _reader_ as the victim. Another is a Deal-with-the-devil story that is _not_ fantasy. Great stuff. Throughout the 1950s he cranked out at least a mystery novel a year, and at least one was in print up until sometime in the 1990s. Now I don’t see his stuff on any bookstore shelves. Read his first novel, _The Fabulous Clipjoint_, which won him an Edgar. Or _The Screaming Mimi_. or _The Night of the Jabberwock_, which is a Lewis Carroll-themed murder mystery. Several of his works have been filmed, but greatly changed from the originals. I’d _love_ to see _the Screaming Mimi_ done straight. Lindsay Davis’ _Marcus Didius Falco_ mysteries set in ancient Rome. I have to read more of these. My wife’s read them all. Rex Stout’s _Nero Wolf_ novels. It took me a while to get into these, but they’re worth it. I also like Robert Goldsborough’s sequels, which i’ve finally read the last of. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-our-favorite-mystery-novels/618982/10 "2012-04-17T13:47:03Z")
Just curious- is there such a thing as a good, compelling mystery that doesn’t involve someone being murdered? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-our-favorite-mystery-novels/618982/11 "2012-04-17T14:03:01Z")
I keep returning to Nero Wolfe. I’ve read most of them a hundred times in the last 20 years or so but I keep going back. I haven’t managed to get through all of them, I don’t think, because neither my hometown library nor the one in the city where I currently live HAVE them all, unfortunately. I don’t like Goldsborough’s pastiches, though…even if new Wolfe books are set in the modern day, they should never have Archie using a computer to keep the orchid records! And while part of the charm of Stout’s NW mysteries is the sense of timelessness in them (things barely change at all from the earliest to the latest books), stretching that another 40/50/60 years is a little much. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-our-favorite-mystery-novels/618982/12 "2012-04-17T14:13:05Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Just curious- is there such a thing as a good, compelling mystery that doesn’t involve someone being murdered? Certainly. Several of the Holmes stories (as Watson himself admits) “have no actual legal crime” in them. One of the Judge Dee stories in the volume _Judge Dee at Work_ has no crime in it vat all. There are several mysteries that revolve around the solutions of thefts, rather than murders, although murders are often involved. I suspect this is more to give a note of urgency and seriousness in many cases – if nothing is at stake, why go to all the trouble of solving the thing/ ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-our-favorite-mystery-novels/618982/13 "2012-04-17T15:23:11Z")
As I’ve posted in previous threads of this type, I encourage all Holmes fans to check out _The Secret Files of Sherlock Holmes_ and its sequels, all by June Thomson. She writes fantastic pastiches - gets the dialogue, characterization, atmosphere, etc. perfectly right. Several of her stories are as good if not better than Conan Doyle’s. Dan Chaon’s _Await Your Reply_ is an excellent recent mystery. Darkly engrossing - highly recommended. Robert B. Parker’s Spenser books are worth a read. A smart, wisecracking private eye and nice New England atmosphere. My favorites: _Looking for Rachel Wallace, The Widening Gyre, Pale Kings and Princes_, and _Paper Doll_. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-our-favorite-mystery-novels/618982/14 "2012-04-17T15:35:29Z")
My favorites are historical mysteries. Recently I have enjoyed Ariana Franklin’s short series, set in England during the reign of Henry II, that begins with [Mistress of the Art of Death](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0399154140). I love Barbara Hambly’s [Benjamin January](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553575260) mysteries, which are set in New Orleans in the 1830’s. January is a “free man of color”, a former slave who was educated in Paris but has returned to his childhood home after the death of his wife. > [@CalMeacham](#): > > Lindsay Davis’ _Marcus Didius Falco_ mysteries set in ancient Rome. I have to read more of these. My wife’s read them all. You might like Ruth Downie’s [Medicus](http://www.amazon.com/Medicus-Novel-Roman-Empire-ebook/dp/B0013TX7NY/) series, about a Roman army surgeon stationed in Britain at the beginning of Hadrian’s reign. They have a bit less historical information than the Falco books, but their tone is similarly amusing. ---
**Author:** ![Rahne\_McCloud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@Rahne\_McCloud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rahne_McCloud)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-our-favorite-mystery-novels/618982/15 "2012-04-17T16:20:41Z")
Any Agatha Christie - I love them all. Eliazbeth George -Inspector Lynley and Sargeant Havers are a great team. Caroline Graham - Midsomer Mysteries Ellis Peters - Brother Cadfael William Marshall - Yellow Thread Street Mysteries. I got hooked on them. Very funny. Think of Barney Miller set in Hong Kong. ---
**Author:** ![Ian\_D.Bergkamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Ian\_D.Bergkamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ian_D.Bergkamp)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-our-favorite-mystery-novels/618982/16 "2012-04-18T11:53:29Z")
Umberto Eco’s _The Name of the Rose_ is a Holmes homage set in the medieval period with a monk named William of Baskerville taking on the main role. Very well done. I recently discovered the Charlie Chan series by Earl Derr Biggers (I was already familiar with the movies, but not the books) and was surprised by how good all six books were. And I’m a big fan of both Chandler and Hammett. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-our-favorite-mystery-novels/618982/17 "2012-04-18T12:23:47Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Now I don’t see his stuff on any bookstore shelves. Read his first novel, _The Fabulous Clipjoint_, which won him an Edgar. Or _The Screaming Mimi_. or _The Night of the Jabberwock_, which is a Lewis Carroll-themed murder mystery. Good recommendations. One of the good things about e-books is that many of those older, hard-to-find-in-print books are becoming accessible again. _The Fabulous Clipjoint_ [is available free](http://manybooks.net/titles/brownfother09fabulous_clipjoint.html), and the other two you mention have cheap e-editions on Amazon. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-our-favorite-mystery-novels/618982/18 "2012-04-18T12:46:48Z")
Seconding Bujold, Ellis Peters, and of course Holmes. Another SF mystery is Asimov’s **The Caves of Steel**. Asimov plays fair the detective doesn’t know any more than the reader. As the detective is the POV character, you the reader know he’s guessing again for the big reveal, after several incorrect guesses. And the murderer is the last person you’d suspect. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-our-favorite-mystery-novels/618982/19 "2012-04-18T15:16:12Z")
_SS-GB_ by Len Deighton and _Fatherland_ by Robert Harris are both good murder mysteries set in an alternative universe in which Hitler won WWII. The first is set in Occupied London not long after the German victory and focuses on a British police detective. The second is set in Berlin in 1964, just before the first summit meeting between Hitler and President Kennedy… President _Joseph_ Kennedy, that is. The protagonist is a very conflicted SS criminal investigator. Both books are very different in characterization, plot and tone, but are definitely worth a read. ---
**Author:** ![timid1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9a28c/32.png) [@timid1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/timid1)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-our-favorite-mystery-novels/618982/20 "2012-04-18T15:30:58Z")
Something about Florida mysteries gets to me. MacDonald’s Travis McGee and Tim Dorsey’s Serge Storm are my guilty favorites. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-our-favorite-mystery-novels/618982.md?page=2)