One opf the most unusual, but highly addictive series I’ve ever read is the Mongo series by George C. Chesbro. It stars Dr. Robert Frederickson, a forensics professore and part-time private eye.
Oh, he’s also an ex-circus dwarf, martial artist, and possibly psychic.
It’s way less corny than it sounds.
Sir John Fielding is an 18th Century magistrate in London. He’s also blind. The stories are narrated by his apprentice, Jeremy Proctor. They’re some of my favorite books, and I was sad to find out that the author Bruce (Alexander) Cook passed away last year. 
He did leave at least one more manuscript that is due out in January 2005. I think there are 10 or 11 Fielding books total. He also wrote a couple books under the name Bruce Cook about a mexican private detective named Chico Cervantes. They are good as well, but I enjoy the Sir John ones better.
I thought of another suggestion: Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. They are set in Gaborone, Botswana and the main character is Precious Ramotswe. I love these books. They are different from any detective series I’ve ever read.
I would like to recommend the books of Sarah Caudwell. The narrator is Hilary Tamar, a professor of law at Oxford; the books are set concern the activities of four young lawyers in London’s Temple Bar. They are just hilarious. Much of the narration takes place in the form of letters between the protagonists. Unfortunately, there will be no more books because the author died in 2000.
Another author I have not seen mentioned is Lynn Hamilton. Her series protagonist is Lara McClintoch, a Canadian owner of an antiques store, but the stories are set all over the world and tend to involve archaeology.
Another Canadian series I have enjoyed is by Suzanne North. The protagonist is Phoebe Fairfax, who is a camera person for television station in Calgary, and in her spare time shoots nature documentaries.
Ellen Hart has a series starring Minneapolis restaurant owner Jane Lawless and her friend thespian Cordelia Thorn.
And another series I just started reading is by Sarah Andrews and features petroluem geologist Em Hansen. Set out West in oil country.
Good thread; I look forward to reading some of the other recommendations I hadn’t tried before.
Oh, wonderful suggestion. I love Caudwell. If you like Sayers, especially, I think Caudwell is a great fit.
And the name Tamar made me think of Tamar Myers, who might appeal to those who enjoy Janet Evanovich. She has a series set amongst the Mennonites and Amish in Pennsylvania that is very funny.
Tamar Myers, in addition to her Pennsylvania Dutch series, has another one set in Charleston. Same kind of humor.
I can’t believe nobody has mentioned Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan series. It’s a very good series. Lippman also writes stand-alone thrillers.
For something different, Christine Goff has a series of birdwatcher mysteries, where the protagonist is different in every book, but in all cases connected to the local birding group.
Sarah Strohmeyer has a series beginning with Bubbles Unbound (I think) that has as its heroine a gutsy hairdresser who’s trying to become a legitimate journalist. Very funny; she’s mining the same vein of humor as Janet Evanovitch and doing it very well.
I’ve just started reading the China Bayles mysteries by Susan Wititg Albert and, the Benni Harper mysteries by Earlene Fowler. I really enjoy them and am hunting down all of the books. Both series have had a book nominated for an Agatha Award and Albert has also had one nominated for an Anthony Award.
Beyond having decent mysteries, they also carry interesting facts about herbs and quilting respectively.
A series that I have just finished is the Southern Sisters mysteries by Anne George. An Agatha Award was won by this series. While murder may be this highest sin in these books, acting as common-as-pig-tracks comes a close second. They are fun books.
You might also look into the Jessie Arnold mysteries by Sue Henry. Jessie is a musher and a dog breeder in Alaska. The descriptions of the wilderness of Alaska are fantastic.
And, Archer Mayor has a gritty series that takes place in a police department in the small town of Brattleboro, Vermont that is quite good.
How about J.A. Jance?
First Series: J.P. Beaumont set in Seattle.
Second Series: Joanna Brady set in Arizona.
Her website is www.jajance.com
Oh, another great recommendation. I think these books just keep getting better.
I’ve only read one Bubbles book, and quite enjoyed it.
I recommend Randy Wayne White’s Doc Marion Ford series…
Some of the titles are:
Tampa Burn
The Man Who Invented Florida
Doc Ford is a marine biologist who lives in a stilt house in the Florida Keys. His sidekick is an old hippie who does psychedelic drugs and wears a sarong…(he’s a man)
Please let me know if I am logging too many lists into this thread. I just love to read and I do enjoy mystery series. I’m in the middle of three different books now. One book stays in my bag, one next to the bed and the last floats around the house.
Two more series that I have grown attached to are:
The Tory Bauer mysteries by Kathleen Taylor. They are set in a small town in South Dakota. You really come to know the town’s residents and see how each of them affect the others by even the smallest of actions. This series has a strong following. I have been trying to get a copy of the first book, but it has run at about $50 on eBay for the paperback edition.
Kathy Hogan Trocheck’s Callahan Garrity series set in Atlanta, Georgia is a great mixture of mystery, humor and relationships. It is sort of a slightly more serious, southern version of the Stephanie Plum mysteries.
I can’t believe no one’s mentioned Dorothy L. Sayer’s Lord Peter Wimsey books. They’re a must-read. I second Nero Wolfe. I also like Jonathon Kellerman and his wife,* Faye Kellerman*. Jonathon’s Alex Delaware mysteries are good, although I liked the earlier ones better than the later books. Faye’s Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus just get better and better.
StG
I’d join in recommending Dorothy Sayers, Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe books, and Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. If you read Parker’s Spencer series, be sure not to miss the earlier books where he still has the gritty feel of his models. (To my mind, the later books get too self-congratulatory.) Raymond Chandler’s books are still very readable. I can’t remember if anyone’s mentioned Marshall’s Yellowthread Street books, set in pre-handover Hong Kong.
Thomas Perry’s Jane Whitefield series is good for the clever ways she hides people
Arthur Upfield’s Napoleon Bonaparte series gives an interesting view of the Australian outback in the 20’s and 30’s and the ways of the aborigines.
Robert K Tannenbaum’s Butch Karp series should probably be read in order, as the relations between the characters changes over time.
Among the Noir mysteries, I like:
Dennis Lehane’s Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro series (3 I think)
Walter Mosely’s Easy Rawlins series for a look at black LA from the 40s on.
George Pelecanos – Nick Stephanos series although all his books cover the same Greek and Black communities in Washington DC.
Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder series, although he seems to have lost his enthusiasm in the later books.
Loren D Estleman’s Amos Walker series are typical noir.
James Sallis’s Lew Griffin paints a portrait of a man who just walks away from everything. Quite depressing IMHO
And the darkest vision of them all, Andrew Vachss’s Burke series.
My current favorite:
Michael Connelly’s Hieronymus Bosch series for it’s alienated character and very clever detecting. In addition, his books outside the series are also extremely well done. I am currently reading ‘The Poet’
If you like Ellis Peters, you might enjoy Peter Tremayne’s Sister Fidelma series.
Because Peter Tremayne is the pen name for Peter Beresford Ellis, who was Ellis Peters’s brother. Sister Fidelma is an Irish nun/lawyer/investigator. Peter Beresford Ellis has written some pretty decent Irish history books and has a great grasp on the period. I’d especially recommend Act of Mercy, it’s a few books into the series, but he’s really hit his stride as a mystery author rather than historian, and I found it thoroughly tense and tangled.
My personal collection includes every one of Ian Rankin’s Rebus novels and multiple copies of some of them, for that matter. Wonderful, dark without being offensive and very interesting.
I haven’t seen any mention of Ross MacDonald’s Lew Archer novels in this series. They’re kinda canon, but if you haven’t read them yet for any reason, hie thee hence immediately. He set the standard for private eye stories for decades.
Carl Hiaasen is generally adjudged a humor or regional writer, but all of his stories tend to hinge on murders at some point. My fave is Native Tongue, about dark deeds at the Amazing Kingdom of Thrills (aka Disneyland). Absolutely a hoot, and you’ll go away knowing the rules really are different in Florida.
I don’t think I saw John Mortimer’s Rumpole of the Bailey series.
If you like the proud, noble, lonely PI type of mystery, you might want to try Stephen Greenleaf’s John Marshall Tanner series. There are about ten or twelve and most are excellent. Later in the series, the author seemed to find some aspect of society to hinge the plot on (surrogate motherhood, repressed memory, etc.) and explore it. They’re mostly set in late 70s-to-contemporary San Fransisco.
They’re very, very good, but I think he’s brought the series to an end with Ellipsis, which I also thought was the weakest book.
The fact that I have a crush on John Marshall Tanner and he’s not a real person, has nothing to do with my recommendation. : )
The great thing about series authors is finding a new one you like, then realising there are a bunch more with the same characters that you can read. Bonus!
Lawrence Block - Matt Scudder
Raymond Chandler - Philip Marlowe
PD James - Adam Dalgleish
Rex Stout - Nero Wolfe
Ian Rankin - Rebus
I have found these five to have lasting appeal. Dick Francis gets a bit tedious IMO, though I thought Reflex was good. It’s not a series anyhow, although God knows the main character is almost exactly the same every time, just a different name. The first four Scarpettas were good, then I reckon it all went to pot.