I share My Beloved’s interest in the Yellowthread Street series(Sci Fi, set at a Hong Kong Science Fiction convention, is a hilarious mess of a mystery). I also like J.D. Robb’s In Death series. J.A. Jance’s J.P. Beaumont books, the Nero Wolfe books, and a few others.
Asimov likewise plays fair in The Death Dealers, a straight murder mystery with no sci-fi, where
the professor-turned-amateur-sleuth POV character lays out everything we’ve learned for the big reveal – which prompts his irritated prime suspect to accurately point out why none of it proves anything but all of it arguably counts as weak evidence against someone else. The cop listening to this back-and-forth now knows exactly as much as us and our hero, and seems as unimpressed as the suspect when he steps in to condescendingly explain to the foiled detective that (a) the accused is completely right, since (b) you don’t have anything like this, or that, or the other thing, and – oh, shucks, did I just now use what you told me to bluff the guy into confessing, one whole decade before Peter Falk started in as Columbo? And here I thought you were the smart one.
I’ve only read two of the Charlie Chan novels, but I agree, they were very good, and far better than latter day readers might expect.
The movies are sometimes embarrassingly dated and racist, and make many of us expect the worst- but Earl Derr Bigger’s Charlie Chan is a lot like Lieutenant Columbo- a guy with a VERY sharp mind who’s regularly underestimated because he seems so humble and self-effacing.
The best one ever is Josephine Tey’s The Franchise Affair. It’s wonderful. One of my favourite mysteries of all time.
Sophie Hannah’s Hurting Distance doesn’t have murder either, and it’s also excellent.
It is a shame that Tey doesn’t get more respect or reading. Agatha Christie would have killed to have written anything as good as ‘The Franchise Affair’ or ‘The Daughter of Time’.
I’m not a big fan of conventional mystery genre-type novels (Ellis Peters’ Cadfael series is the exception), so my favorite mystery novel is Peter Høeg’s Smilla’s Sense of Snow. It’s basically only a mystery on its surface – it’s more about cultural issues in Denmark, and the protagonist is extraordinary. If you’ve read a slew of books by male authors who can’t write female characters for shit, this book is the antidote.
One of my all-time favorite books is “The Daughter of Time” by Josephine Tey.
Elizabeth Peters wrote two other enjoyable series besides the Amelia Peabodys, and I mention this because one of them (the Jacqueline Kirby series) also features a book about Richard III. It is called “The Murders of Richard III” and is quite good. I actually enjoy anything by Peters. Her other series is the Vicky Bliss series.
I’m currently reading a series set in Victorian England about a high-born man who is a detective. Apparently this was a less-than-honorable profession in those days. The author is Charles Finch and the detective is Charles Lenox. Very enjoyable.
My big three are Ed McBain, Andrew Vachss and Kinky Friedman.
I’m an Agatha Christie girl… not too early and not too late. Say, 1940-1960.
It’s become such a cliche that it can be hard to appreciate, but at the time I first read Murder On The Orient Express I didn’t know the solution to the mystery. Reading the book was one of the most thrilling literary experiences of my life. It’s sheer genius.
Will Thomas’ Barker and Llewelyn series.
Harlen Coben’s Myron Bolitar series.
Richard Stark’s (aka Donald Westlake) Parker series.
Anything to do with Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot. I also really liked Ten Little Indians.
Randall Garrett’s Lord Darcy stories.
It’s one of mine, as well.
I love Andrew Vachss as well.
In general I don’t like the dark side of life when it comes to reading. Real life is dark enough, so I would rather read “cozy mysteries.”
But I love Andre Vachss. I read all of the books available some years ago.
I then moved on to more comfortable mystery books. Life is hard enough, one doesn’t need to read about the really horrible dark side of life. Which unfortunately, Vachss is more than familiar with. And which the rest of us should not be avoiding, since we should all be vigilantly tryng to correct the horrible things that Vachss talks about. Things that he has firsthand knowledge of.
I’m ashamed of myself, and will look out the books Vachss has written since the last book I read of his.
And I will continue to try to help the best I can . I don’t have the means to help the people Vachss writes about ,since I have no knowledge of them in my town, but I can help the Lighthous Mission in my town. It is a homeless shelter, and I will do what I can.
I’m a big fan of Val McDermid. Her Tony Hill novels are literary potato chips for me. Glancing over a single page compels me to keep coming back for more. Her best work though (IMHO) was the standalone novel A Place of Execution, one of the most ingenious mystery stories I’ve ever come across. I haven’t gotten to see the movie version of it that came out a couple of years ago, but I’ve probably read the book eight or nine times.
Dashiell Hammet.
Robert B. Parker’s Spencer and Jesse Stone novels.
Lee Child’s Reacher novels are kinda sort whodunnits; he just writes damn good stories.
John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee novels.
And Isaac Asimov’s stories about R. Daneel Olivaw (Naked Sun, Caves of Steel, etc.) are good whodunnits as well.
Many, many of the writers already mentioned would also get my vote: Dorothy L Sayers, Ellis Petters, Lindsey Davis and Josephine Tay. One other I would go for from the Golden Age of British whodunits would be Ngaio Marsh’s Inspector Alleyn stories - better writer than Christie, less high brow (and more prolific) than Sayers.
One thought on Josephine Tay:
Daughter of Time is brilliant but historic research has moved on and only the die-hard Ricardians would be quite so certain of Richard’s innocance and Henry’s guilt.
Of the modern mysteries, the books I try to never miss, and will go out and buy in hardback as soon as they come out, are Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch books, and Martin Cruz Smith’s Arkady Renko series.
Thanks, lawoot!
I’ve only read Gorky Park. The ones with the fall of the Soviet Union should be interesting.
Will Thomas posted here to answer a question. I lost track of Barker and Llewely, I’ll have to remedy that.