Jean Wilson Murray

  • Home
  • Musings on Many Things
  • Finding Your Green
  • Books and The Writing Life
  • Contact

My Absolute Favorite Mystery Novels and Writers

by Jean Murray Leave a Comment

Agatha Christie Unknown author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
I love books and my favorite books are mysteries. I’ve been reading them, buying them, collecting them, and dragging them home from the library since I was very young. Among the first mysteries I read were the Agatha Christie books. At one point, I had almost all of them; right now I have most but some have become lost in my many moves.

A conversation with another mystery novel reader prompted me to construct this list of my favorite mystery writers and novels. I’d be interested in your thoughts about my list, and if you have any to add, I’d love to hear about them. I’m always looking for new mysteries to read!

I tend to British detective novels, sometimes called “procedurals” because they focus on solving a crime. This list doesn’t include suspense or psychological novels, although some mystery writers (Ruth Rendell is the best example) also write suspense novels.

If I find a mystery writer I like, I hope for series. Then I begin with the first in the series. Many mystery series have a plot thread, usually about the main character and relationships, and it helps to start from the beginning.

Some of the books have police or private detectives who are “brooding,” that is, sad, morose, some suicidal. The worst are the Scandinavians (esp. the Wallander books of Henning Mankell). I get tired of morose detectives, would rather just have them solve the crime.

Here’s my list:

New York Detective Library 77 (Public Domain) wikicommons

Best Classic Mystery Writers

Agatha Christie. Of course. I’ve read all her books, some many times. I like Poirot the best, then Jane Marple. I’m not as fond of Tommy and Tuppence some of her standalone suspense novels like Pale Horse. 

Sherlock Holmes. What can I say? Great books, short stories. Holmes was so popular that the public was infuriated when Conan Doyle killed him off, so he had to bring him back.

Josephine Tey. Josephine Tey isn’t as widely known but her Inspector Grant books are great. My favorite is Daughter of Time when Grant is hospitalized and he works on solving the mystery of the Princes in the Tower.

Wilkie Collins‘ The Moonstone is a little dated, but it was the first great classic mystery/suspense. Worth a read.

Edgar Allan Poe. I went through a Poe period when I was younger, and I got back to his mysteries occasionally. Poe set out all the conventions of mystery and detective fiction that authors still follow, including the introduction of August Dupin, detective. Try The Purloined Letter. 

P.D. James, who died recently, wrote about a British detective named Adam Dalgliesh. Also try her novel The Children of Men, about a dystopian society (reminded me of Soylent Green).

Dorothy L. Sayers. Sayers is famous for the Lord Peter Wimsey series. These are dated, but I liked them anyway.

Ngaio Marsh. Her Inspector Roderick Alleyn mysteries often featured the theater crowd in London. They are a little dated but still good

Georges Simenon. Another classic author whose work is a little difficult to read. These Inspector Maigret mysteries are set in France.

Current Mystery Novels/Writers (in no particular order)

Michael Connelly. My top favorite mystery writer. His Harry Bosch mysteries are always good, about Harry Bosch, an L.A. detective, who is now retired. Some mysteries feature other characters like Harry’s half-brother Micky Haller (the “Lincoln Lawyer”). Always great stories.

Louise Penny writes about a fictional village in Quebec called Three Pines, and a Montreal homicide official named Armand Gamache. Quite a roster of quirky characters and a continuing plot line.

Colin Dexter. I LOVE the Inspector Morse mysteries. Yes, I know he’s brooding, but there is also humor in the stories and good plots. He’s a national hero in England, and you can get a Morse tour in Oxford. I heard that Queen Elizabeth came to a party where Dexter was and she asked, “Is Morse here?”!!

Rennie Airth. Airth’s books are another find a few years ago. They don’t make the NYT bestseller list, and they are few and far-between (only 5 to date), but they are great. The stories focus on a British detective a named John Madden after World War II. I read River of Darkness and I was hooked.

Martha Grimes. The titles of Grimes’ mysteries are the names of British pubs, like The Man With a Load of Mischief and The Old Fox Deceived. Richard Jury is the detective who solves mysteries with his friend Melrose Plant, a British aristocrat. Another group of quirky characters.

Nevada Barr. Anna Pigeon, the central character of Barr’s mysteries, is a forest ranger. The mysteries take place in interesting national parks and some dangerous places. Since her first mystery in 1993 at Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Anna has solved mysteries at 19 parks and counting.

Peter Robinson His DCI Banks series (British) has been going on for 30 years, and I have to confess that’s how long I’ve been reading them. Banks is a police detective, low on the “brooding” scale because he has a varied love life.

Ann Cleeves writes about the Shetland Islands, which really come alive in her stories. The “Shetland” series with Jimmy Perez and the detective Vera Stanhope mysteries are good. She also has several other series if you get done with these and want more.

Peter Grainger. I happened on to the DCI Smith series on Amazon. These books are only available on Kindle. Smith is quirky rather than brooding, and he’s endearing. I can’t wait for the next one.

Deborah Crombie‘s detectives are a pair – Duncan Kincaid and Gemma Jones. They start out working together on cases and end up in a relationship. Interesting, multi-dimensional plots that bring parts of England and London to life.

Frances Brody. A British writer you probably haven’t heard of who has a series of mysteries with private detective Kate Shackleton. These stories are set in the post-World War I era. If you like the Maisie Dobbs mysteries, you might like these.

Elizabeth George. Her mysteries feature Inspector Peter Lynley, a British peer, and his partner Barbara Havers, the exact opposite. Barbara is always in trouble for her dress and behavior, but she’s a brilliant detective. This write got off the track (in my opinion) for a while with some not-so-good books, but she’s back on with her last two.

William Kent Krueger. I found Krueger’s work in a bookstore in Minnesota. He writes about Minnesota in his Sheriff  Cork O’Connor series, which feature interactions with local Indian tribes and have some beautiful settings. Also try his stand-alone novel Ordinary Grace; it’s excellent!

Val McDermid. She writes about Tony Hill, a criminal psychologist who works for the British police on assignments. A Place of Execution, a psychological thriller, is just about the best mystery I’ve ever read.

Laurie R. King. King re-visits Sherlock Holmes in his retirement as he meets and marries a young woman named Mary Russell. After their first few mysteries, they take off around the world.

Ian Rankin. The Inspector Rebus novels set in Scotland are a little dark and super-brooding, but I skip through those parts. In case you haven’t noticed, I read fiction in part because I want to experience the setting.

Caroline Graham. If you have ever watched Midsomer Murders, you’ll recognize the main character, Inspector Barnaby. Graham’s first book, The Killings at Badger’s Drift, started the series. Just good mysteries/puzzles. The TV shows are set in the beautiful Cotswolds in England.

Anthony Horowitz. He has picked up the styles of Agatha Christie (in Magpie Murders) and Sherlock Holmes (The House of Silk). Good writing.

Peter Lovesey is another British writer with a series about a detective. in this case, it’s Peter Diamond. Lovesey also has two other series: (1) A series set in the 1920s; the first is The False Inspector Dew, and (2) a series set in London in the 1870s featuring Sergeant Cribb. All are good. Check out especially Rough Cider, a standalone.

C.J. Sansom. I’m usually not fond of Medieval mysteries, but Sansom’s Matthew Shardlake Tudor mysteries (set in Medieval England) are interesting and avoid some of the more obvious anachronisms.

Ruth Rendell. Besides PD James, Rendell is probably the co-queen of British mysteries. She writes psychological thrillers but her best writing is in the Inspector Wexford series. Some of the psychological books are written under the name Barbara Vine. My favorite is A Dark-adapted Eye, a Barbara Vine novel.

Charles Finch writes about a Victorian gentleman named Charles Lenox who starts solving crimes in London to help friends. The later books in his series have Lenox setting up a detective bureau.

Peter May has several series of psychological thrillers and detective novels. His best series is the Lewis Trilogy, set on the Isle of Lewis off the coast of Scotland, featuring detective Fin Macleod. Lots of atmosphere here.

Mark Mills. I’ve included Mills in this list even though his books are more in the suspense/thriller category. Try The Information Officer, about a young lieutenant who solves a mystery on Malta during World War II. All his books are stand-alone.

Robert Goddard has been writing standalone mystery/suspense novels for 30 years, starting with Past Caring in 1986. (And, yes, I’ve been reading his books for almost that long). Each one is different and interesting. He also has a new series about a WWI former pilot named James Maxted. Some of his mysteries are set in England, others around the Continent – France, Spain, Italy, Germany.

Reginald Hill. Another quirky British cop series with Inspector Dalziel and his sidekick Peter Pascoe trying to solve mysteries in Yorkshire. They make for good reading. On Beulah Height is another of my top favorite mystery stories.

Christopher Fowler. Arthur Bryant and John May are a team of detectives in a special branch of the London police, called the Peculiar Crimes Unit, who solve unusual (peculiar) crimes. Good mix of characters and plots, many of which give a different view of London; one, for example, focused on the sewers of London. The latest, Hall of Mirrors, goes back to the beginnings of the pair, as they are in their 30s.

Jacqueline Winspear writes about the World War I era in England, with her character Maisie Dobbs at the center. Maisie is a private inquiry agent who solves mysteries for a price. A recent one, In This Grave Hour, involves Belgian refugees. The series has continued into World War II.

Charles Todd is actually a mother-son writing duo that has been working together since 1996. They have two series – the Ian Rutledge mysteries and Bess Crawford mysteries, set in England. Rutledge is a British police detective and WWI survivor with guilt that won’t let him go. The guilt takes the form of a voice in his head from a man he killed during the war. It takes a while to get used to that voice (MAX brooding), but the stories are good. Bess Crawford is a nurse during WWI and after who solves mysteries with the help of her family and a friend.

Jill McGown, who died in 2007, wrote about a detective pair – Inspector Lloyd and Judy Hill. She also wrote some standalone mysteries.

Sue Grafton. I was sad to read the Sue Grafton died in 2017. She wrote the Kinsey Millhone mysteries about a private detective in a fictional town in California. The first in the series was A is for Alibi. Grafton got all the way to Y is for Yesterday but never got to Z.

Alan Bradley‘s series is unique because the detective is a young girl named Flavia deLuce. She lives with her father and sisters in a falling-down house in a small English village in the 1950s. The plots and her part in them are sometimes unbelievable, but they are fun.

Henning Mankell. As I mentioned earlier, Mankell’s series character Kurt Wallander is the king of brooding. But the plots in his series set in Sweden are fascinating studies of human minds. Brutal crimes, like the one in Faceless Killers, are standard. Just so you know.

Chris Grabenstein. For a fun final series, there’s nothing to beat Chris Grabenstein’s John Ceepak mysteries. They are set in the 1950s in a beach town on the Jersey Shore. The stories are told by officer Danny Boyle, and the mysteries center on carnival rides like Tilt-a-Whirl, Fun House, and Mad Mouse. Bruce Springsteen lyrics are a favorite of John Ceepak, who is kind of a super-hero cop.

Mystery Novelists you won’t find on my list

Donna Leon Guido Brunetti mysteries. I find the corruption in the Italian criminal system disturbing.

Anne Perry Daniel Pitt and William Monk mysteries. Not as well written as some of the ones I mentioned.

Elly Griffiths’s books are too full of personal problems to make good mysteries.

Alexander McCall Smith. I couldn’t get into his Ladies’ Detective Agency novels.

Anything by James Patterson. Patterson has become an industry.

No mystery where a cat or a dog is involved.

Nothing like Silence of the Lambs  (too creepy)

Robert B. Parker. The TV series of the Jesse Stone novels with Tom Selleck was better than the books.

James Runcie. I tried to read his Sydney Chambers mysteries after the series came out on Masterpiece. They are very dated. Stick to the PBS version.

_______________

If you enjoyed this post, you can sign up for my newsletter and read about women adventurers. You will receive my Timeline of Women Adventurers to see the ones I’ve published – and which are coming up – and get updates when I publish new articles.

Filed Under: Finding Your Green, For Readers

Contentment and the Boiled Frog

by Jean Leave a Comment

boil

“I have learned to be content in every situation.” – The Apostle Paul

“I am still determined to be cheerful and to be happy in whatever situation I may be, for I have also learnt from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions and not about our circumstances.”  – Martha Washington

When I was in my counted cross-stitch phase (actually Phase 1), many years ago, I did a cross-stitch on the St. Paul quote about contentment. I would tell people that learning to be content is a goal, not a reality. I still believe that contentment is not that easy to achieve.

What is Contentment? 

Contentment is the ability to consider your circumstances and be okay with them. That doesn’t mean you must be wildly happy or joyous, although joy is always preferable. Contentment just means that you can live with where you are.

But contentment can be a trap. We as human beings can get used to just about anything. Here’s an example – I talked to my next-door neighbor the other day and she said she has lived without kitchen cabinets and counters for almost a year. They had to tear them out because of mold problems, and they have not been able to replace them yet. She has a table she works from, and she has all the appliances, but no counters or cupboards. I expressed my horror, and she said, “no big deal.”

She has gotten used to the situation, adapted her thoughts to the less-than-ideal kitchen arrangement, and gone on with her life. We all do that. We live in terrible marriages, with crazy relatives (they are all crazy and we are the sane ones, of course), and belligerent children.

Have you managed to be content with life? 

It’s all about our attitude, as Martha Washington said. Abraham Lincoln said,

“Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.

My theory is that we can handle one major disruption (no kitchen), and maybe two, but that we must have something positive to offset it (maybe a happy marriage), to offset it.

I’m not saying contentment is an algebra equation, with two parts happiness balancing two parts unhappiness. But I am saying that contentment can be attained pretty easily. Too easily. Contentment can be a trap.

Enter the Boiled Frog

Sometimes we accept contentment too easily. The story about the boiled frog goes like this:

Put a frog in a pan of cold water, and put the lid on the pan so he can’t jump out. This works best with a glass lid so you can see what happens to the frog. Then turn on the heat, low. Keep turning up the heat. After some time, the frog, still contentedly sitting on the bottom of the pan, will be dead. Boiled frog.

We need some joy in our lives. While I’m a big fan of balance, balance can be a trap too. Every so often we must jump out of the pan and run in the grass and kick up our heels and experience the heights of human behavior. And we sometimes need to get angry, to say, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more.”

Be content. Contentment is good. But don’t let contentment lull into a false sense of security. Get happy. Get angry.

Contentment in your work life:

Are you still happy to be going to work? Can you say you are just content, or are you really excited to be doing the work you love? I remember when I started teaching college students, I thought, “I can’t believe I’m getting paid to do this! It’s so much fun!” After a while, though, I realized I was getting bored with it, and tired of the politics. Have you found the balance between contentment with your work and contentment at home?

Contentment in your personal life:

Are you content with your circumstances? If so, celebrate. Many people are not. If not, is there something you can do to make a change, before you are boiled and don’t know it?

Contentment is a Goal, a Process. 

Meditating on your attitude and becoming more content with where you are can bring benefits to your life. Just be aware of the dangers of contentment, and if the water starts getting too warm, consider jumping.

Filed Under: Finding Your Green

My #1 New Year’s Writing Resolution – It’s Not What You Think

by Jean Murray Leave a Comment

There is some magical thing that happens when you put something out into the world. We get what we focus on, what we work on. I have lots of specific goals for this year, but only one firm resolution.

My #1 writing resolution for 2015 was not to write two hours every day on my fiction, and an hour daily on non-fiction, web course, and marketing.stones success

It’s not to get my first novel (A Hill of Beans) ready to show to an agent or editor or get self-published.

It’s not to get my easy-start-business-for-writers course (The Thriving Writer) completed and ready for you to join, and have The Thriving Writer book self-published.

It’s not to have a website for my second book (Bridget Larkin’s Journey) completed, with her journal, images, and the first draft of her story done.

It’s not to get my Larkin Chronicles newsletter up and running, with monthly – or more often.

My #1 resolution for 2015 was to begin a writing production schedule and to FOCUS on that schedule. My schedule will include priorities and sub-priorities:

  • Fiction writing first, with Hill of Beans my top priority, then Bridget Larkin’s Journey
  • Then, because I need to make money in order to continue, The Thriving Writer – book and online course.
  • Then my blog and the Bridget Larkin’s Journey blog.
  • And, finally, planning for the future novels in the Larkin Chronicles series.

Notice these are not goals. This is a system. So, what’s the difference?

Goals vs Systems

James Clear, writing in Entrepreneur in December 2013, says we should forget goals and concentrate on what he calls our “system.” For example, my goal might be to write a book. My system is the daily/weekly/monthly writing schedule that will get me there. Clear says that by focusing on the goal we cause ourselves too much stress, not reaching a goal causes us unhappiness, and reaching a goal causes us to quit.

As Clear suggests, I’m thinking long-term. By setting up my writing system, I’ll be more productive in 2015, and future years. My specific goals may be in my head, and they will be replaced by other goals (new novels, different marketing efforts). But the system will continue.

My biggest problem with creating a writing system is the ups and downs of daily life. How, for example, do I account for personal and family commitments, getting together with friends, doctor visits, meetings for the volunteer group I’m a part of, and vacations/holidays?

Writing is the Big Rocks

Here’s what I’ve figured out: Using Steven Covey’s analogy of “big rocks, little rocks,” writing is my big rocks. I have to put my fiction writing into my system first, along with a (very) few personal commitments. Then smaller and smaller rocks, until I’ve accounted for my time.

Yes, I still need to make writing my top priority every day, and I need to do my writing first before I get stuck in the minutia (the emails, checking Facebook, cleaning up around the house). But having a system will allow me some flexibility.

Checking in/Metrics

For a long time, I’ve been a big believer in metrics (checking in to see how I’m doing, based on some specific numbers). Clear also suggests the concept of feedback loops (he uses a spreadsheet). He says:

Feedback loops are important for building good systems because they allow you to keep track of many different pieces without feeling the pressure to predict what is going to happen with everything.

I try to keep it simple:

(1) I have a to-do list for each area I’m working in because I like to check things off when they are done. By the way, I keep my lists in Evernote, so I can see them anywhere and in any of my devices.

(2) I have started using a writing production worksheet (thanks, Jamie Raintree!) to mark my progress on writing (words, usually, or time editing), marketing, and other writing-related tasks.

That’s all I need to keep me focused and keep track of my progress.

Onward and upward. For 2015, my suggestion is to think in systems, rather than goals or resolutions. You know mine now, so what are yours?

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Finding Your Green, The Writing Life Tagged With: books on writing, james clear, planning, steven covey, writing goals

© 2021 · Jean Wilson Murray ·