I love mystery novels of almost every variety, from gritty police procedurals to forensic thrillers to refined, drawing-room mysteries. I don’t think I can fit all my favorites into one post, so I’ve broken the list down by gender. Ladies first.
Mystery novelists (and readers) everywhere owe a great deal to Dorothy Sayers, who introduced aristocratic sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey to the world. Wimsey routinely gets called in to investigate bizarre, high-profile murders that are both elegantly constructed and psychologically complex. The best of them feature Wimsey’s neurotic love interest, Harriet Vane. A mystery novelist, Vane meets Wimsey in Strong Poison. She’s the prime suspect in that case, and Wimsey sets out to prove her innocence. The course of romance doesn’t run smooth between the two, as each is too guarded and troubled to trust easily, but their chemistry is wonderful. They cross paths in Have His Carcase and Gaudy Night.
P.D. James has a lot in common with Sayers, though James leans away from the foibles of her detective, Adam Dalgliesh, focusing more on her revolving casts of suspects. That isn’t to say that she ignores her sleuth altogether, but Dalgliesh’s character development is more measured. The mysteries themselves are twisty, locked-room affairs, driven by dark, personal secrets, passions, and jealousies. They can seem a bit frosty at times, but the construction is generally fascinating, and James always strikes a nice balance between deduction and exploration of character. A Certain Justice is one of my favorites, along with Original Sin.
Elizabeth Peters isn’t British, but her protagonists are, and they’re wonderful. Amelia Peabody and her husband, Emerson, are full partners in every regard. Their union is blissful, they work side by side in archeological digs in turn-of-the-century Egypt, and they foil sinister plots by tomb robbers, craven aristocrats, and murderous rivals with poise and good humor. They and their extended family are magnets for trouble, as known for their deductive skills and short tempers as they are for their contributions to archeological knowledge. There are sixteen books in the Peabody-Emerson series, and there isn’t a misstep in the bunch. I’d suggest you start at the beginning, though, with Crocodile on the Sandbank, so you can watch the clan expand. And if you like recorded books, any of the unabridged editions read by Barbara Rosenblat can make the most tedious commute fly by.
Up next, the boys.