TBSL mysteries?

You guys have any favorites for mysteries? (besides the obvious Agatha Christie). I'm looking for old mysteries to add to the library.

I read a few Nicholas Blake mysteries in an anthology a while back; set in the 30's and they didn't take themselves very seriously--some dry humor to keep things moving. Can't remember the titles of all of them, but There's Trouble Brewing was one of them.

I would agree that all the Nicholas Blake mysteries from the 1930s and 1940s are excellent. They all feature Nigel Strangeways: https://www.librarything.com/series/Nigel+Strangeways+mysteries.

If you would like to read American mysteries of the 1930s with a focus on clues and detection (as opposed to tough guys), try Ellery Queen: https://www.librarything.com/series/Ellery+Queen.

And if you're good with reprints of 1920s and 1930s mysteries, British Library Crime Classics has brought back many good books: https://www.librarything.com/publisherseries/British+Library+Crime+Classics

Took me a moment to remember 2 women mystery authors I love:

Christianna Brand wrote English mysteries in the 1940s and 1950s. When I read Death in High Heels I was over the moon with delight. Her most famous mystery, I think is Green for Danger. Some feature recurring detectives but could be read in any order.

Helen McCloy, an American, wrote very intelligent, clever mysteries starting in the late 1930s, many of which featured Dr. Basil Willing, a psychologist. While reading in order would be preferable, it's not mandatory, and you might have trouble finding some.

Not on the Guardian list, but I would add:

Dorothy L. Sayers - sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey, my favorite book: Murder Must Advertise

Ngaio Marsh - sleuth Roderick Alleyn, my favorite book: A Clutch of Constables

Edmund Crispin's books about Gervase Fen are good, very witty and with twisty, sometime absurd, plots.

And Gladys Mitchell's Mrs Bradley mysteries are excellent. Nothing like the TV adaptations! What I like is that she sets up the story and characters so that by the time the crime occurs and Mrs Bradley appears you really know and care about the victim and those around them.

speaking of Dorothy L. Sayers... here's an article in the New Yorker:

https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/an-overlooked-novel-from-1935-by-th...

I have always wanted to try G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories. On The List TBR That Never Ends.

On my favorite mystery bookshelves:

Dorothy L. Sayers - Lord Peter Wimsey
Josephine Tey
Arthur Conan Doyle - Sherlock Holmes
Rex Stout - Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin
Hugh Pentecost - not sure he qualifies, he may have written in the '60s. Pierre Chambrun, hotel manager

These are not my favorites, but are in a collection I have of Golden Age mystery authors:
J. P. Marquand - Mr. Moto series
Francis and Richard Lockridge - The Norths

>6 rhinemaiden: I also enjoy Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter mysteries, though my favorite is The Nine Tailors. There was a series of television adaptions done in the 1970s with Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter. I always picture him when I read those mysteries.

>1 toast_and_tea: The list is too long to remember them all. Some that come to mind:

• the madcap mysteries of sisters Constance Little and Gwenyth Little (works all reprinted by the now-gone Rue Morgue Press)
• Phoebe Atwood Taylor's Asey Mayo and Leonidas Witherall series
• Todd Downing's Hugh Rennert series (reprinted by Coachwhip Publications)
• Rupert Penny's Inspector Beale series (reprinted by Ramble House)
• the mysteries of J. Jefferson Farjeon (several, including the Ben the Tramp series, reprinted variously)
• J. J. Connington's Sir Clinton Driffield mysteries (reprinted by Coachwhip)
• the many works by Edgar Wallace, though in general his are less mysteries than crime thrillers

I'm sure I'm leaving out some that I might include if I were making up the list on a different day.

>11 fuzzi: fuzzi: oh, yes! Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter was perfect casting! I recently watched Murder Must Advertise on youtube... and (just checked) Nine Tailors is there for viewing as well! Will watch later... change ringing, anyone?

>12 harrygbutler: Hi! Haven't spoken to you in a while. I changed my name, so you might not know me.

>13 rhinemaiden: from memory: Tin, tan, din, dan, bin, bam, bong, bo?

Decided to read through the Lord Peter Wimsey stories by Dorothy L. Sayers. It's been about ten years since I've done so. I'm including the short stories listed in Lord Peter.

I've never read a Dorothy Sayers--recommend a title for a beginner?

>17 gmathis: Do you like to read a series in order? Each mystery is a stand alone, but there are some details of Lord Peter's life which progress.

Here are my favorites: The Nine Tailors takes place in the Fens and has much to do with church architecture and bell ringing.

Murder Must Advertise is a wonderful picture of the advertising methods of the 1920s-1930s. It is also funny and charming, but I think it might be better if you have an understanding of who Lord Peter is before you read this.

The first novel is Whose Body? Honestly, it is a great introduction to the detective and has a wonderful description of his library.

Some people love the trilogy of his romance, which begins with Strong Poison.

>18 MrsLee: They all sound like fun! Since most of my book shopping is secondhand, I rarely make it through series in precise order.

>19 gmathis: I don't think that will matter much with these. I didn't read them in any order at all and loved each one of them. But I like to give warnings just in case. :)

I second recommendations of Sayers and Phoebe Atwood Taylor. I also would push forward Raymond Postgate and E.C.R Lorac; you can find their books in the British Library Crime Classic series. Lorac has a very calm and amiable detective inspector, Macdonald. Postgate first caught my attention with Verdict of Twelve but he's got a couple others as well.

Although I very much enjoy reading Golden Age mysteries, I am hopeless at spotting clues and honestly don’t even really care about solving the mystery, or about the rules of “fair play” (shocking, I know 😏 ). I am there for the characterization, the social milieu, the atmosphere, maybe the prose if I’m lucky. Arthur Rees’ The Shrieking Pit, published at the end of World War I, is an excellent example, set in seaside Norfolk, partly at a creepy inn. Ambience to burn, and well-written too. It also fits very well into my project of reading both non-fiction and fiction about all the English counties.

I love the fact that there is a subset of Golden Age mystery writers known as the “Humdrums”, even if Julian Symons didn’t mean it to be complimentary when he coined the tag. Critic Curtis Evans and a number of bloggers have championed these authors, who indeed can be rather restful and soothing in their approach, and what’s wrong with that? They are also very readable and professional.

One of the Humdrums is J.S. Fletcher (1863-1935), whom I have not read before, so last night I started The Charing Cross Mystery (1923), and I will report back. It gets off to a good start with an unexpected death on a train; trains are always aces in my book.

Mystery novelist Dorothy Cameron Disney (1903-1992) is easily confused with her contemporaries Dorothy Salisbury Davis (1916-2014) (I’ve read her novel The Clay Hand) and Doris Miles Disney (1907-1976) (haven’t read yet, but plan to). DCD is usually grouped with Mary Roberts Rinehart and Mignon G. Eberhart in the “Had I But Known” school. These books feature female protagonists / narrators who do not see dangers coming, although of course it all becomes clear in retrospect.

There are certainly traces of this approach in DCD’s first novel, Death in the Back Seat (1936), about a nice young couple who find themselves in way over their heads during a home caretaking gig in Connecticut. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and its small town atmosphere. The solution is VERY complicated, you won’t figure it out.

I obtained this book through one of those many “Megapack” / omnibus editions of genre fiction that are all over Amazon. I find that these often represent a very good value.

>23 PatrickMurtha: I like books with train travel too. Mary Roberts Rinehart’s The Man in Lower Ten is a nifty murder on a train.
I love mysteries even though I don’t make much effort to figure them out.

>25 BonnieJune54: The atmosphere of those old trains! I love it in movies too.

A couple more for anybody still looking:

-Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver mysteries - my favorites are Miss Silver Comes to Stay and Latter's End
-Georgette Heyer wrote a good series of country house mysteries -- Why Shoot a Butler? for example

>27 merrystar: I read Penhallow by Georgette Heyer a few months ago. Wasn't a likeable character in the whole cast, but that made it stereotypically funny.

>28 gmathis: Penhallow is a strange one - was that the first one you read? It never seemed like the mystery was really the point at all in that one.

>29 merrystar: Yes...I'll have to try to hunt down some of the others for comparison purposes.

I am reading Erle Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason series in publication order, and just started the fourth, The Case of the Howling Dog. The well-known Perry Mason formula is not yet settled in these first few books, and as many have noted (and the most recent Mason TV series with Matthew Rhys reflected), the style is more hard-boiled.

As books are coming out of copyright, there are a couple of good series that are reissuing Golden Age authors. If you look for Spitfire Publishers, it is publishing a lot of British writers who were in the Detection Club with Christie, Sayers, etc and worked on the collaborative novels of the Detection Club. (This might be mentioned already in #3 above)
Also, Otto Penzler's publishing company is doing an American series with books from authors like Stanley Ellin, Ellery Queen, and Mary Roberts Rinehart.

If you like old novels involving trains and mystery you might want to check out The Wire Devils by Packard

>33 alco261: Great suggestion! I love books like that. I just downloaded it from Project Gutenberg.

I just finished reading Who Killed the Curate? by Joan Coggin and enjoyed it a great deal. Fair warning, however, that the main character is extremely ditsy.