would appreciate some advice

Hi Everyone,

I'm looking to get into reading mysteries to broaden my horizons and I haven't the faintest idea of where to begin. I would prefer a series though so that I can find a character I love and watch them grow, lol!

Normally I read classics and historical fiction. I also really enjoy contemporary fiction that involves a historical issue/person in some way. The only mystery stuff I have read is the Stephanie Plum series. I really enjoy it but it leans a little to far into romance for me. and it's very repetitive (especially by the time you get to book 14!). I would like something a little different I think.

If anyone has the time I would love to get some advice on where to start!

Historical mysteries might suit your reading tastes. Is there a particular era that you prefer?

#1

I posted a comment on your site with a suggestion of a series I really like by Jacqueline Winspear. I would call it historical fiction. The first book is Maisie Dobbs, which is also the name of the main character (and must be read first to really enjoy the series). The first book is more novel than myster, but after than she becomes and investigator and each novel has a mystery involved.

I have been reading mysteries for years and I have found several authors that have a main person who is someone you can grow with over the years of his books.
Listed are my favorite and you have to read them in order to follow the life of the character and his growth from book to book.

John D. MacDonald - Travis Mcgee seies
Michale Connelly - Bosch series
Lawrence Block - Matt Scutter series

If you want the order of the books let me know and I will send the order so you can follow the character.

There's an LT group on Historical Mysteries that you should check out for recommendations.

I read a lot of historical mysteries, and my favorites are:

The Mathew Bartholomew series set in the middle ages in Cambridge by Susanna Gregory beginning with A Plague on Both Your Houses. Note that as a first book her writing was weaker here than in later books, but it is still good to start here. The series really puts you into the times. very well researched with interesting characters and plots.

Elizabeth Peters Amelia Peabody series is an excellent Victorian series beginning with Crocodile on the Sandbank.

Steven Saylor's Roman series about Gordianus the Finder is one of the best set in ancient times. The first is Roman Blood.

For the Renaisssance era, try P. F. Chisholm's Sir Robert Carey series, beginning with A Famine of Horses.

For a mix of present day and history, there's a superb series by Kate Ellis. Wesley Peterson is a British cop who studied archaeology in school. His best friend, Neil, is an archaeologist in the Devon area where Wesley is a detective. The modern day crimes that Wesley and his colleagues investigate have parallels in the history Neil is unearthing in his archaeological digs. Interspersed between scenes of the modern day story are excerpts from historical documents. The first in the series is The Merchant's House.

Enjoy!

Historical mysteries--no one has mentioned the Sister Fidelma series by Peter Tremayne.

Or Brother Cadfael by Ellis Peters.

David Liss has written some wonderful, involved stories-A Conspiracy of Paper is one i especially loved

if you want to try something fairly contemporary, there is Berlin Noir by Philip Kerr. a trilogy that takes place in Berlin (!) during and after WWII..one volume book of three novels. i flew through them..good reads all

I loved Iain Pears's An Instance of the Fingerpost, which is a very complicated and ambitious sort of mystery, but well worth reading. I also think Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir books are great, but Jdthloue obviously has great taste.

What about Lindsey Davis's series set in Ancient Rome in the time of Vespasian. There is a great cast of characters from female gladiaters,healers, and seers, to mothers, murderers, and milionaires. He roams the empire from Britain to Palmyra.andthe writing is so amusing and vivid that I wish I was there with him,
Claireyork

#9 davidliss

I own An Instance of the Fingerpost--thanks for the nudge to read it!

I can recommend the Phryne Fisher series taking place in 1928 Melbourne, Australia written by Kerry Greenwood. They've become available here bit by bit and are great fun to read. Very true to the times and roaring fun. There are 16 books so far.

I also really like the Laura Joh Rowland Ichiro series that take place in feudal Japan.

For contemporary times, one of my favorites has to be Henning Mankell with his Kurt Wallander series set in Sweden.

For historical mysteries, I loved Dissolution by C.J. Sansom. It's the first in a series set in England during the 16th century, in the reign of the Henry VIII.

I can also second the Berlin Noir series. I just finished the second, The Pale Criminal, and thought it was great.

One of my favorites is the Molly Murphy series by Rhys Bowen. Murphy is an Irish immigrant in New York in the late 1890's and becomes a detective to survive. These are best read sequentially.

For contemporary mystery, I like the Det Alan Banks series by Peter Robinson, set in the English Midlands.

A little history and a lot of laughter beckons in McCathy's Bar (Pete McCarthy). A travel tale through historic Ireland with a confused Englishman searching for his heritage. Funniest book ever!

This sounds like something I want to read. Would you give the author and book name again for me.

dragonsign

These aren't historical, but you did mention you also read contemporary fiction so I suggest Sue Grafton, Marcia Muller, Margaret Maron and Lee Harris. Laurie R. King has done an interesting historical series featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes.

I love the Brunetti books by Donna Leon, they are set in Ve ice in modern times but are great stories, and the main characters are wonderful.

If you like Victorian era detective novels, you might want to try the William Monk and/ or the Thomas Pitt series, both written by Anne Perry.

Susan Hill's crime novels have a good balance of character and mystery. Certainly I would recommend them.

Hi David Liss,

I just finished listening to Coffee Trader on audio, and really enjoyed it. Conspiracy is on my TBR list. Are you working on anything right now?

You might also like The Conjurer by Cordelia Frances Biddle. First in an historical series set in Philly.

Ooh, I really liked The Conjurer and am looking forward to more...

oh wow. Thank you everyone!

I apologize for not saying "Thank you" sooner but I haven't been on in a while. Have been totally busy with school but thank you for all the great advise!

I have read a couple mystery books though since I posted. I read Dead Until Dark (the book True Blood is based on) and enjoyed that. I'm also reading an Anne Perry book.

I have a couple others waiting in the wings and I look forward to trying some of the ones mentioned by everyone.

Thanks again! :)

Stay away from the Brother Caedfal series by Ellis Peters *yawn. Historical detective fiction at its worse. I like Iain Pears too but he has a series that is about art crimes in Italy; the books are historical because the paintings are historical paintings that require historical sleuthing.

When my wife asked me something similar many years ago, I got her started with Dorothy Sayers' The Nine Tailors, a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery. She's been a mystery buff ever since. Seems like it might fit your reading tastes, too.

For historical, I've really enjoyed the Knights Templar books by Michael Jecks as well as the Dame Frevisse books by Margaret Frazer

Candace Robb's Roger the Chapman series is a good historical series as are the Owen Archer books by Kate Sedley.

pmarshall

Candace Robb wrote the Owen Archer books, I know. They are quite good.

I haven't read the Roger the Chapman series, but I believe Kate Sedley wrote those. (Touchstones say "yes")

It may not be historical, but Sherlock Holmes by Authur Conan Doyle, is sett in the late 1800's in England. Its fantastic!

>29 MusicMom41: Yes I wrote them backwards. Thanks for fixing them. Try Roger the Chapman, he is a peddler out of Bristol in the late 1400 and I fine his adventures enjoyable.

pmarshall

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm looking for new mystery ideas for my mysteries category in the 999 challenge. Mysteries aren't a challenge for me--about 1/3 of what I read usually are mysteries--so I decided to use 999 to discover some new authors! (Or "old"-- i.e. classic mystery--authors)

Paul Doherty writes under several names ,all published by Headline.The best series are the 15 Hugh Corbett mysteries set in the early 1300s and the 10 Brother Athelstan mysteries set in the late 1300s.
Edward Marston also has several eminently readable mystery series : 11 about the Domesday period, published by St Martin's Press; 16 about a troupe of Actors in Elizabethan times, published by Headline and St Martin's Press; 6
about the Restoration period, published by Allison and Busby; and 5 about the Railways in the mid 1800s, also published by Allison and Busby.

I might be biased but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Donna Leon's Inspector Brunetti novels, starting with "Death at la Fenice". They're not particularly gruesome by modern standards, but that might be a good thing.

I've been posting commercials for Maisie Dobbs all over the place...written by Jacqueline Winspear, they're set in early '30's London and deal with the times-they-are-a-changing issues that came about after World War I. Excellently written; not gory.

I suggest the Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane series by Dorothy L. Sayers. Start with Strong Poison.

I agree wholeheartedly with gmathis! The Maisie Dobbs series is fantastic--worthy of rereads. The first 5 are now all available in paperback and #6 will be published sometime in 2009. (source: FantasticFiction.com)

Maisie Dobbs
1. Maisie Dobbs (2003)
2. Birds of a Feather (2004)
3. Pardonable Lies (2005)
4. Messenger of Truth (2006)
5. An Incomplete Revenge (2008) (ditto)
6. Among the Mad (2009)

Kathi--I love all the Lord Peter Wimsey novels:

Peter Wimsey
1. Whose Body? (1923)
2. The Clouds of Witness (1926)
3. Unnatural Death (1927)
4. Lord Peter Views the Body (1928) (Short stories)
5. The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club (1928)
6. Strong Poison (1930)--and Harriet Vane
7. The Five Red Herrings (1931)
8. Have His Carcase (1932)--and Harriet Vane
9. Hangman's Holiday (1933) (Short stories)
10. Murder Must Advertise (1933)--one of the best without Harriet
11. The Nine Tailors (1934)--one of the best--period!
12. Gaudy Night (1935)--and Harriet Vane (my personal favorite Sayers novel)
13. Busman's Honeymoon (1937)
14. In the Teeth of the Evidence (1939) (Short stories)

edited to try to get touchstones to work!