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

It’s About Time – Time to Find Your Green

by Jean Leave a Comment

My favorite Twilight Zone episode is called “Time Enough at Last.” It’s about Henry dreamstime_l_10021911Bemis, a henpecked bank employee, who is a bookworm. One day, Henry takes his lunch and a book into the bank vault. When he comes out, the world has been destroyed by a nuclear blast, and everyone is dead. He finds a stash of food, enough to last him a long time.

So Henry, smart man, heads for the library. As he sorts the books into piles, his glasses fall off his head and he accidentally steps on them.

All the books in the world, and all the time in the world to read them, but no way to see. Life just isn’t fair.

© Alexander Pladdet | Dreamstime.com - Alarm clockThe older I get, the more I think about time. All the time left to me in this world. I recently bought an old-fashioned ticking clock because I heard the sound was soothing to puppies (I had a puppy last year for a short time). But I find the ticking of the clock to be restful for me as well.

I especially appreciate the clock when I am meditating. Clocks – a symbol of time – tick on and on, always at the same speed. Never faster, never slower. Somehow that thought is comforting to me in an elemental way. My life is moving into its next-to-last era. But I have no power to make it go slower, nor can it go faster. I can’t “make our sun stand still.”

Andrew Marvel’s poem “To HIs Coy Mistress” begins “Had we but world enough and time…” and describes how he would love his mistress until “the last age.” But,

“…at my back I always hear
Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.”

I’ve probably said this before, but I believe it’s worth repeating, that the older we get the more patient we are. The young, with all their lives ahead of them, are impatient. They want things to happen NOW. They rush around town in their mini-vans (I did it too), with carloads of pre-teenagers. As my daughter-in-law says, “This is our job right now,” caring for children.

So what’s my job right now, with at most two more decades of life left?

The older I get, the more determined I am not to spend time doing things I don’t want to do. I heard someone at the library today talking about the new Harry Potter book. She said, “I spent 5 hours of my life reading it.” With not enough time to read all the books I want to read, I’m much more selective about what I read. I seldom finish a fiction book, unless it’s a mystery. I used to love science fiction but I can’t deal with it now for some reason. I never re-read a book, although I am considering re-reading the Lord of the Rings.

As I turned 60 (almost a decade ago now) and my mother died, I began to think more about the time left to me, and I retired. I was accused of being “selfish,” and I would agree with that. Who else’s life am I going to live but my own.

How will you spend the rest of your life? Will you spend it running around with no intent? Will you spend it doing what others want you to do?

Are you considering a job change? Maybe you want to move, to be closer to family – or further away. I know sometimes circumstances don’t let us do what we want, but we can start making plans.

A young woman I know is struggling about whether to stay in a bad marriage. She has a young son and is worried that divorce would hurt him. It may, but the hurt to her fills me with sadness. I would say, “find your own life.” Leave that dark life and Find Your Green.

Time’s a wasting. Don’t waste another minute. Find a way to live the life you want to live, with who you want to be with and where you want to be.

You’ll never find the time later.

Filed Under: For Readers Tagged With: finding time, finding your green, meditations, reading fiction

A True Confession – I Don’t Read Much Fiction Anymore

by Jean Murray Leave a Comment

Long-time fiction junkie confesses – “I read very little fiction now.” 

From the time I learned to read (about age 5, as I remember), I have read fiction. I love good stories, and my top favorite books of all time are fiction.

Gone with the Wind was the first great book I read that I didn’t have to read for a class assignment. I remember reading one summer and crying and being overwhelmed with the drama of Scarlett O’Hara’s story.

I’ve read

  • Mysteries, including every since Agatha Christie, including all the short stories and plays),
  • Science fiction – Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Larry Niven,
  • Fantasy, starting with Tolkein and then all his imitators, like Terry Brooks.
  • General book club fiction, from several book clubs that I belonged to over the years.

But I find myself picking up what I think will be a great fiction book, reading a little and putting it down. I’m bored.

Readers of Fiction are Great People

Research has uncovered something interesting about people who read fiction. According to arts.mic, fiction readers “tend to be more empathetic to others.” Using Twitter and newspapers don’t count. When you envision yourself as the characters in a book, you can on their emotions. Hence, fiction readers, says the article’s author Gabe Bergado, tend to be more empathetic to others in the real world.

I have always been pretty empathetic, and a good listener. Maybe that’s why. I wonder if my personality will change as I read less fiction.

Why I don’t read much fiction anymore:

    1. There is so much fiction out there, and 90% of it is mediocre. I love the phenomenon of self-publishing and how it has opened up the world to many new authors. Those many new authors are getting published, but I’m not sure that’s all good. Without a traditional vetting process as the publishers perform, many mediocre and less-than-mediocre novels are published. Sorting through the possibilities is overwhelming.
    2. Non-fiction has been my priority over the past few years, particularly history and biography, that I’m reading as background for the stories I’m writing myself.
    3. My time is limited. I have no time to sit for hours and read a fiction book. I quickly decide if I’m going to read a book after reading a page or two. Most fiction gets discarded at this point. I do listen to fiction on audio while I’m doing other things (mostly quilting or driving). To make me interested enough to spend my time listening, the book has to be fast-paced. My favorites to listen to are Janet Evanovich (Stephanie Plum rocks!), Michael Connolly (still the greatest mystery writer currently), or Dennis LeHane. I couldn’t put down his recent trilogy about the Coughlin family.

Reading Extraordinary 5-Star Fiction

Yes, I do still read some fiction. I can’t wait for the final novel in Jane Smiley’s “Hundred Years” trilogy: Golden Age. (UPDATE: I did read this book, but I was disappointed. It was not at all as good as the first one in the series. Proves my point.)

And I always have the next in Louise Penny’s great mystery series about a Canadian detective on my pre-order list.

The less time I have, the more selective I am about the fiction I read. I find new books to read from the NY Times Book Review. Then I go to the library or download on Kindle. And I start reading. It usually only takes me a page or two to see if I want to continue. Mostly I don’t.

Note for Writers: Make the First Pages Fantastic!

The bottom line for this article is: make sure the first pages of your fiction are the best you can make them. Grab me. Then don’t let me go. Make we want to keep turning the pages. Want my opinion about your first 5 pages? Send me a comment and I’ll tell you where to send your pages for my review.

Thanks for your time!

Jean Wilson Murray

Filed Under: For Readers

How I Work as a Beta Reader

by Jean Murray Leave a Comment

I love to read, and I enjoy doing reviews of what I read. I am available as a beta-reader, but I want to clarify what I will do, and what I won’t do.

Woman with big mug of tea reading a book and making notes

Fiction: I do very few reviews of fiction. I read very little fiction these days (that’s the subject of another blog post). I will read an occasional historical fiction book if the subject and time period are interesting to me.

Non-fiction: I will beta-read most non-fiction, including business, scientific, motivational, humor, history, and biography. I probably won’t read a biography of someone who isn’t dead.

Short stories/memoir/poetry: I’ll beta-read short stories and poetry, but almost no memoir, unless the subject really interests me.

What I will give you as a beta-reader

  • I will read through the entire book – I promise!
  • I will comment on the content giving you an overall comment on its benefits to your target audience.
  • I will give you a list of questions and comments. I’ll tell you what I think works well and what I think doesn’t work, and why. 
  • I will note places (sentences/paragraphs) that are unclear or need more explanation (my opinion).
  • I will tell you when I find inconsistencies, like two names for the same character or place, or when the gun was a pistol in Chapter 1 and a rifle in Chapter 13.
  • If I find something I think is an error or an anachronism (like having a character in 18th century England say, “awesome!”) I’ll point it out.
  • Because I have a background as an English major and teacher, I may not be able to resist  pointing out some egregious grammar/spelling/word choice errors, but I won’t sweat the small stuff.

What I won’t give you as a beta-reader

  • I won’t promise to give you a review unless I feel the book is worthy of 5 stars, I am a bit of a rebel here, because I don’t feel every book is worth a 5 star review. I know that most people want 5 star reviews to boost ratings on Amazon.  Let me know if you want me to do a review (Amazon and Goodreads) knowing this.
  • I won’t tell you how to fix things.  That’s your job.

Still want me to be a beta-reader? Send me an email (jean [at] jeanwilsonmurray [dot] com or comment on this post.

Back to writing…

Jean Murray

 

 

Filed Under: For Readers, The Writing Life Tagged With: Amazon, beta readers, book reviews, Goodreads, reading fiction, reading non-fiction

What Does the Author Owe the Reader? Questions about The Buried Giant

by Jean Murray Leave a Comment

Just read The Buried Giant, by Kazuo Ishiguro, and I have a lot of questions. What in the world was the author trying to say? Should I be worried because I don’t know? Or should he?

The story is about Axl and Beatrice, Britons (Celts) in post-Arthurian England. They are elderly, and their memories are fading, but so are the memories of all those around them. They decide to leave their village, where they are being persecuted because they are old, and travel to visit their son. On their journey they meet a knight (Sir Gawain, nephew of King Arthur, who has grown old), a Saxon warrior, and a young boy with special unnamed powers. They wander around, talk a lot, share some mild adventures,

As with others of Ishiguro’s novels,(like The Remains of the Day), much is suggested, little is directly stated.

The giant is mentioned in the beginning as a physical entity, a ordinary giant; by the end, the giant has become something else. The warrior, Wistan, says, “The giant, once well buried now stirs.” And I understand that the giant is now war and conquest.

I had the feeling that Ishiguro was trying to say something, trying to get me as a  reader to understand something. But I found myself more frustrated at the lack of directness than intrigued.

To give you – and me – something to think about, Ishiguro said:

“Will readers follow me into this? Will they understand what I’m trying to do, or will they be prejudiced against the surface elements? Are they going to say this is fantasy?”

(The genre question is another discussion. If you want to go more deeply into it, read this Guardian article in which Ursula Le Guin takes Ishiguro to task.)

My question is about more than genre; it’s about the relationship between a writer and his readers, and the unstated communication that goes on behind the words.

Is Ishiguro too subtle? If he’s trying to “say” something, get the reader to think a certain way about the effect of the book, is there a point at which subtlety, allegory, is overdone?

Does his subtlety diminish his skill as a writer?

If an author is trying to “do” or “say” something, and readers don’t get it, does that mean the book is a failure? If this wasn’t from Ishiguro, would readers enjoy it, and “get it”?

I shouldn’t have to know what he’s trying to say. I should be able to enjoy the book for the story itself and find the story satisfying. And I should be able to discern what the author is trying to say.

2674672556_dafd9348d4_q
Pilgrim’s Progress flickr Creative commons by PMM

Neil Gaiman, in his New York Times review of The Buried Giant, confesses his “inability to fall in love with it.”   He says, “I suspect my inability to fall in love with it, much as I wanted to, came from my conviction that there was an allegory waiting like an ogre in the mist….” (you’ll have to read the rest of the quote online to see what Gaiman thought the allegory was.)

It may be too simple to state that the book is allegory (extended metaphor); certainly, it has the quality of allegory, like Pilgrim’s Progress. The boatman in the book, for example, immediately brought to mind Charon, the boatman who ferried the dead to the underworld.

Gaiman continues, “it guards its secrets and its world close.” Too close, maybe?

Charlie Jane Anders, reviewing the book on io9, called it a “weird mess,” and said,

Ishiguro’s story is dark and very strange, and leaves you with questions and riddles rather than explanations. The end of the book is one that’s going to haunt and perplex me for a while — which, in the end, is the ultimate proof that this is a book worth reading.

Really? Haunt, yes, but must we be perplexed? Is it good storytelling to perplex readers? Or is it just that Ishiguro missed the mark in his intention?

If you really want to know, Ishiguro explains what he was trying to do, the “universal statement” he was trying to make, in the Guardian article. I certainly didn’t get that out of the book. You can take what you want from what he says, you can decide it says something different to you (like Neil Gaiman), or you can keep re-reading until you figure it out for yourself.

Do I have to read what the author intended in order to understand the book? Shouldn’t I be able to understand it on its own? In one reading?

My head hurts from all these questions. I liked the book, the story was intriguing and the relationship between Axl and Beatrice was touching. But I felt unsatisfied, frustrated by my lack of understanding about what the author was trying to say.

I don’t like working this hard to get meaning from a book. Lazy, I know. Give me a good murder mystery in which the detective sits everyone down at the end and explains who killed who and why and how and where. Miss Plum in the library with a candlestick.

See my Goodreads review of The Buried Giant

Filed Under: For Readers, Story and Storytelling Tagged With: allegory, Kazuo Ishiguro, The Buried Giant

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • Next Page »

© 2021 · Jean Wilson Murray ·