Modern Whodunit Authors?

[Meadmaker]

Are there any fans of "whodunit" murder mysteries here?

Can you recommend some good authors?

Let me explain. I'm looking for books in the mold of some of Agatha Christie's best works. There is a clear list of suspects, because everyone is on a boat, or plane, or whatever. The puzzle pieces are slowly revealed. Your job is to pay attention and figure out who the murderer is as time goes by.

I'm surprised how difficult it is to identify such books. I've done some googling, and some of the books that I've come up with (including some that, sadly, I have purchased) were stories that involved a murder, but they were really about engaging plots and things that happened during the investigation. For example, I purchased "The Lying Game", after seeing it recommended. Well, technically, it is a book about someone trying to find out who killed someone....in the case of "The Lying Game" it was in fact the dead person trying to find out her own murderer. However, it wasn't a whodunit it all. Indeed, the end of the book came, and the murderer hadn't even been revealed.

No, I want a classic style.

One of my motivations here is to actually adapt it into a game. Some friends of mine get together on New Year's Eve to play "How to Host a Murder" or one of many variations on it, i.e. the dinner party murder mystery games where each player plays a suspect and reveals clues as the dinner goes on. I've always thought it would be cool to write one myself, but I thought it might be easier to adapt someone else's work. Agatha Christie is too well known, but perhaps some lesser known author?

So, ideally, 6-8 suspects. One murderer. A lot of the "How to Host a Murder" series, including the one we played last night, seem to all end with "Everyong tried to kill him, but this particular person succeeded." That makes for lousy stories and disappointing reveals, where the clues really could have fit almost anyone because they were all trying to kill him. I figure something that actually was published as a novel probably wouldn't have more than one or two would be murderers.

I wouldn't mind if, of the eight suspects, a few were eliminated rapidly. That could be eliminated from consideration, or actually eliminated, as in "And Then There Were None". The players could still continue on, and I can adapt. I just need a little nudge in the right direction.

So, has anyone read some good novels lately that fit the bill?

 

[bruto]

I used to read a bunch of classic mysteries, but have read little in recent years. But recently have been enjoying some of the Scandinavian ones. You might try Jussi Adler-Olsen, who has a series with a detective who works cold cases. Lots of twists and turns, false leads and so forth. If you need multiple suspects he usually seems to have a few.

Jo Nesbo is another who looks petty promising so far.

I am assuming you've looked into some of the classic British ones like Josephine Tey and Dorothy Sayers, and later ones like P.D. James.

 

[blutoski]

Are there any fans of "whodunit" murder mysteries here?

Can you recommend some good authors?

Let me explain. I'm looking for books in the mold of some of Agatha Christie's best works. There is a clear list of suspects, because everyone is on a boat, or plane, or whatever. The puzzle pieces are slowly revealed. Your job is to pay attention and figure out who the murderer is as time goes by.

I'm surprised how difficult it is to identify such books. I've done some googling, and some of the books that I've come up with (including some that, sadly, I have purchased) were stories that involved a murder, but they were really about engaging plots and things that happened during the investigation. For example, I purchased "The Lying Game", after seeing it recommended. Well, technically, it is a book about someone trying to find out who killed someone....in the case of "The Lying Game" it was in fact the dead person trying to find out her own murderer. However, it wasn't a whodunit it all. Indeed, the end of the book came, and the murderer hadn't even been revealed.

No, I want a classic style.

One of my motivations here is to actually adapt it into a game. Some friends of mine get together on New Year's Eve to play "How to Host a Murder" or one of many variations on it, i.e. the dinner party murder mystery games where each player plays a suspect and reveals clues as the dinner goes on. I've always thought it would be cool to write one myself, but I thought it might be easier to adapt someone else's work. Agatha Christie is too well known, but perhaps some lesser known author?

So, ideally, 6-8 suspects. One murderer. A lot of the "How to Host a Murder" series, including the one we played last night, seem to all end with "Everyong tried to kill him, but this particular person succeeded." That makes for lousy stories and disappointing reveals, where the clues really could have fit almost anyone because they were all trying to kill him. I figure something that actually was published as a novel probably wouldn't have more than one or two would be murderers.

I wouldn't mind if, of the eight suspects, a few were eliminated rapidly. That could be eliminated from consideration, or actually eliminated, as in "And Then There Were None". The players could still continue on, and I can adapt. I just need a little nudge in the right direction.

So, has anyone read some good novels lately that fit the bill?

:: 1
The subgenre (publishers have sub-sub-sub-categories these days) closest to most Christie novels is often referred to as Cozy Mysteries. (wikipedia: Cozy Mystery^WP) "...a subgenre of crime fiction in which sex and violence are downplayed or treated humorously, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community."

There are also some TV series in that subgenre, such as Midsommer Murders and Father Brown.

This is my favourite genre! (My side gig is writing genre short stories and novels. Cozy Mystery, Hard Boiled Detective, and SciFi)


:: 2
The 'everyone tried to kill him and this person succeeded' model is a product of limitations of the stageplay medium and some laziness on the playwright's part. I think the producer hopes that 'we keep changing the ending' means return customers and more flexibility in casting, but it doesn't really work well IMO. It's overdoing that rule for this genre that the author needs to play fair - the reader has to be given all the clues, no last second reveals as the cuffs go on.

I wrote a murder dinner about thirty years ago as part of a business proposal to buy and convert a 19th century house that used to be a seniors hospice and had gone bankrupt - i wanted to put in a decent kitchen and run a murder mystery night with proper food and some high quality props. Sort of like the Disneyland Haunted House, with trapdoors and secret passageways, &c. I just couldn't interest investors and the cost estimates were more than my credit could support in those days. Nevertheless, I did some test runs at a friend's house, and I think the concept is valid.

The clue I was most proud of was that the victim's dying words were to tell the guests that the murder weapon was hidden in Carnarvon Castle. The library had an entire wall of books on castles, so my test runs had people poring over these books for some context.

Meanwhile, there was a model of a cruise ship in a glass case right in the center of the dining table in front of them throughout dinner. Its plaque was flopped over so we can't see the name of the ship. SS Carnarvon Castle.


ETA:
Oh, also, my model is a bit different in that the serving staff would be hired actors, but playing the role of guests outside of the meal period, and one of them would be the murderer. The customers would not play characters, they would be 'invited guests of the murdered host', and just have to question everybody, and they would have been encouraged to dress in period to add an element of participation, and uncertainty about who could be a valid suspect.

 

[Meadmaker]

:: 1
The subgenre (publishers have sub-sub-sub-categories these days) closest to most Christie novels is often referred to as Cozy Mysteries. (wikipedia: Cozy Mystery^WP) "...a subgenre of crime fiction in which sex and violence are downplayed or treated humorously, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community."

There are also some TV series in that subgenre, such as Midsommer Murders and Father Brown.

This is my favourite genre! (My side gig is writing genre short stories and novels. Cozy Mystery, Hard Boiled Detective, and SciFi)


:: 2
The 'everyone tried to kill him and this person succeeded' model is a product of limitations of the stageplay medium and some laziness on the playwright's part. I think the producer hopes that 'we keep changing the ending' means return customers and more flexibility in casting, but it doesn't really work well IMO. It's overdoing that rule for this genre that the author needs to play fair - the reader has to be given all the clues, no last second reveals as the cuffs go on.

I wrote a murder dinner about thirty years ago as part of a business proposal to buy and convert a 19th century house that used to be a seniors hospice and had gone bankrupt - i wanted to put in a decent kitchen and run a murder mystery night with proper food and some high quality props. Sort of like the Disneyland Haunted House, with trapdoors and secret passageways, &c. I just couldn't interest investors and the cost estimates were more than my credit could support in those days. Nevertheless, I did some test runs at a friend's house, and I think the concept is valid.

The clue I was most proud of was that the victim's dying words were to tell the guests that the murder weapon was hidden in Carnarvon Castle. The library had an entire wall of books on castles, so my test runs had people poring over these books for some context.

Meanwhile, there was a model of a cruise ship in a glass case right in the center of the dining table in front of them throughout dinner. Its plaque was flopped over so we can't see the name of the ship. SS Carnarvon Castle.


ETA:
Oh, also, my model is a bit different in that the serving staff would be hired actors, but playing the role of guests outside of the meal period, and one of them would be the murderer. The customers would not play characters, they would be 'invited guests of the murdered host', and just have to question everybody, and they would have been encouraged to dress in period to add an element of participation, and uncertainty about who could be a valid suspect.

At a game convention I attended about 30 years ago, there was an excellent murder mystery put on. It was a "famous detectives convention", and each of the guests (i.e. us) was to assume the role of a famous detective. (I was Jack Friday.) However, as dinner began, it was obvious that "Charlie's Angels" were actors who were part of the main entertainment. However, no murder or body yet.

As we sat down to dinner, there were the expected jokes of "Why don't you try the dressing first..." and that sort of thing. One of the "Angels" got a phone call. A couple of other things happened. As desert was served, Charlie Chan, seated at my table, made another joke about desert tasting funny. I kind of rolled my eyes, thinking it had been quite done to death, when he stood up, staggered a step or two, and fell against a post, which conveniently had a light switch, and the room went dark, and a shot rang out.

I was quite impressed that they managed to pull off the murder as part of the live action without making it obvious who did it.

In some sense, it actually worked better that way, because now we were all giving eyewitness testimony, and it was a confused jumble including some false reports, not because they were set up, but just because eyewitnesss testimony is horribly unreliable. I, myself, reported that I had followed one of the Angels out of the room, but later it was revealed that I had actually followed an Angel, but not the one I named. The Angel I said I was following assured me she never left the room.

All in all, it was well worth the price of admission, and better than I expected at a game con.


Meanwhile, back to my original project, I thought about Dorothy Sayers. I haven't read her in 30 years or so, but I haven't quite decided what I'll use. I would prefer someone less famous, just in case someone recognizes a plot.


It was interesting browsing Amazon and seeing the "cozy" description. That was kind of used informally back when I was reading more mysteries, but it seems it has become accepted jargon. I was a fan of the quintessential cozy detective, Miss Marple. However, some of the genre these days seems to feature detectives who sometimes aren't even detectives at all, but people caught up in a murder, and the focus is on the fact that the "detective" ends up falling in love with one of the suspects. You didn't have to worry about that with Miss Marple, although the suspects sometimes fell in love with each other.

 

[Nova Land]

I'm way behind on reading so can't recommend any current writers who write classic-style mysteries, but here are a few suggestions for somewhat older works.

1. Anthony Boucher was better-known as a writer of science fiction, but between 1937 and 1942 he also wrote 7 mystery novels which are puzzles of the kind you describe but which are not nearly as well-known or widely-circulated as books by Agatha Christie or Ellery Queen.

2. Similarly, Fredric Brown was a science-fiction writer who also wrote mysteries of the puzzle variety. I think most of his mysteries books are pretty long out-of-print (but are likely available cheaply second-hand), and I don't think he's that well-known among modern readers.

3. If you're willing to go back even farther, you could look up some of the Philo Vance mysteries by S. S. Van Dine. These were puzzle stories of the type you're describing, with very long sections at the end of the books as Philo Vance went into great detail describing who committed the murder, how they did it, and how Vance was able to eliminate all the suspects apart from the one whom he had determined was the killer.

 

[catsmate]

1. Anthony Boucher was better-known as a writer of science fiction, but between 1937 and 1942 he also wrote 7 mystery novels which are puzzles of the kind you describe but which are not nearly as well-known or widely-circulated as books by Agatha Christie or Ellery Queen.

And one, Rocket to the Morgue, that mixed the then LA sci-fi writers community into a mystery. See if you can spot the Heinlein, Parsons and Hubbard expys.

OK, for the classic Golden Era you can start with the 'Big Three' which are
Agatha Christie
Dorothy Sayers
Margery Allingham
Ngaio Marsh
Gladys Mitchell
Yes I know that's five; even the commentators couldn't agree...
There are new novels in the series of all of them (except Mitchell) by modern authors.

[The following list includes authors by pen-name where used, to avoid complicating matters]
Then there's Patricia Wentworth whose 'Miss Silver' books are basically like Miss Marple going professional.
For a modern writer using Golden Age tropes try Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher; a favourite of mine.
If you fancy a similar treatment of Sherlock Holmes dry the 'Holmes and Russel' books by Laurie R. King.
Van Dine has been mentioned, though I'm not really a fan.
Other authors:
Ernest Bramah, creator of the blind detective Max Carrados
E. W. Hornung, creator of John Dollar, "The Crime Doctor"
J. E. Preston Muddock
Arthur Morrison
Baroness Orczy
R. Austin Freeman, who created Doctor Thorndyke, arguably the first truly scientific investigator
Freeman Wills Crofts, creator of Inspector French and others
John Rhode, author of the Dr. Priestley books
Ernest Dudley, creator of the psychiatrist Doctor Morelle (better known from radio plays which are available online)
The unfortunate short lived Pamela Branch only wrote four novels but one of the (The Wooden Overcoat) is my absolute favourite and incorporates her masterpiece creation; the Asterix Club.
Glyn Carr wrote a number of excellent books, using incorporating mountain climbing and his series detective Abercrombie Lewker.
Christianna Brand
Amy Myers is a modern writer (though no longer ariting) but her Victorian/Edwardian set Auguste Didier books are excellent.
Anthony Berkeley; while Sheringham can be grating the books are good.
Arthur B. Reeve
Basil Copper wrote many of the 'Solar Pons' Holmes pastiches and his own novel Necropolis is an excellent Victorian piece.
A. E. W. Mason
Carter Dickson (awa John Dickson Carr) was the master of locked room mysteries; the later books are unfortunately mixed his his post-war political views and terrible characterisation
The Isaac Bell novels of "Clive Cussler" are interesting, Edwardian techno-thrillers of sorts.
Edmund Crispin's output was marred by his alcoholism but the Fen stories are generally excellent and funny too.
Josephine Tey wrote the classic The Franchise Affair but the other Inspector Grant novels are good too.
E. C. R. Lorac
H. C. Bailey, though personally I found Fortune irritating
Patricia Highsmith
E. C. Bentley
Ronald Knox (the priest who started a panic)
Patricia Moyes
Cyril Hare, personally I prefer the Francis Pettigrew books
Victoria Houston's 'Loon Lake' books have a modern setting but are favouries of mine as are those of Susan Conant and Laurien Berenson.
Michael Innes is a classic GA writer, mostly involving Inspetor Appleby; Appleby's End is a favourite of mine (try the radio adaption with Hurt and Le Mesurier)
Michael Gilbert, especially the brilliant Smallbone Deceased which does for solicitors' officers what Sayers did for advertisers.
Nicholas Blake, the Nigel Strangeways books are reasonable
Philip MacDonald, especially The Rasp
Michael Kurland is a prolific writer of mysteries (try the Moriarty books for a refreshing take on the Holmesian genre) and sci-fi (including fantasy mysteries in the Lord Darcy series)
Cay Van Ash wrote a couple of Fu Manchu books that are better than the originals; Ten Years Beyond Baker Street is especially recommended
J. C. Masterman wrote a couple of good academic set mysteries

For a more supernatural theme there are the Carnacki stories and the immensely prolific Seabury Quinn, creator of the occult Poirot, Jules de Grandin

 

[Andy_Ross]

LJ Ross

 

[Worm]

If you fancy a similar treatment of Sherlock Holmes dry the 'Holmes and Russel' books by Laurie R. King.

Came here to recommend this. I was sceptical of a Holmes update, but I think Laurie King does a pretty good job. The series picks up with Holmes after he nominally retires, and follows his ongoing career through the eyes of Mary Russell who meets him on the Sussex Downs.

Start with 'The Beekeepers Apprentice' but keep going, because the series really matures.

 

[Spektator]

At a game convention I attended about 30 years ago, there was an excellent murder mystery put on. It was a "famous detectives convention", and each of the guests (i.e. us) was to assume the role of a famous detective. (I was Jack Friday.)
(Snip)

Joe's lesser-known brother?

 

[thines]

Mysteries.

The Leavenworth Case by Anna Katharine Green, first published in 1878. And, of course, The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. For more modern writers, I thoroughly enjoy the books by John Sanford.

 

[Vixen]

Are there any fans of "whodunit" murder mysteries here?

Can you recommend some good authors?

Let me explain. I'm looking for books in the mold of some of Agatha Christie's best works. There is a clear list of suspects, because everyone is on a boat, or plane, or whatever. The puzzle pieces are slowly revealed. Your job is to pay attention and figure out who the murderer is as time goes by.

I'm surprised how difficult it is to identify such books. I've done some googling, and some of the books that I've come up with (including some that, sadly, I have purchased) were stories that involved a murder, but they were really about engaging plots and things that happened during the investigation. For example, I purchased "The Lying Game", after seeing it recommended. Well, technically, it is a book about someone trying to find out who killed someone....in the case of "The Lying Game" it was in fact the dead person trying to find out her own murderer. However, it wasn't a whodunit it all. Indeed, the end of the book came, and the murderer hadn't even been revealed.

No, I want a classic style.

One of my motivations here is to actually adapt it into a game. Some friends of mine get together on New Year's Eve to play "How to Host a Murder" or one of many variations on it, i.e. the dinner party murder mystery games where each player plays a suspect and reveals clues as the dinner goes on. I've always thought it would be cool to write one myself, but I thought it might be easier to adapt someone else's work. Agatha Christie is too well known, but perhaps some lesser known author?

So, ideally, 6-8 suspects. One murderer. A lot of the "How to Host a Murder" series, including the one we played last night, seem to all end with "Everyong tried to kill him, but this particular person succeeded." That makes for lousy stories and disappointing reveals, where the clues really could have fit almost anyone because they were all trying to kill him. I figure something that actually was published as a novel probably wouldn't have more than one or two would be murderers.

I wouldn't mind if, of the eight suspects, a few were eliminated rapidly. That could be eliminated from consideration, or actually eliminated, as in "And Then There Were None". The players could still continue on, and I can adapt. I just need a little nudge in the right direction.

So, has anyone read some good novels lately that fit the bill?

If you like something a little offbeat, I can recommend Antti Tuominen, The Man Who Died and Palm Beach Finland. It's scandinavian noir meets Kurt Vonnegut Jnr.

 

[theprestige]

I've been trying to figure out something about noir detective stories versus whodunit detective stories. There's a difference between the two that I'm trying to put into words.

I've just read through the entire John D. McDonald Travis McGee series. It feels more noir than whodunit to me.

As far as I can tell, the noir structure is to introduce a mystery, with a likely line of inquir y that the detective follows. It generally starts with a straightforward crime, and an obvious suspect. The detective then unravels the thread, finding more suspects, or other crimes, or sometimes just confirming their original suspicions. They get beat up. They solve the mystery, which generally is a boring, tawdry thing that didn't even really need solving.

The whodunit structure lays out the whole mystery all at once. The dimensions of the crime, the list of suspects, the lines of inquiry, are all presented up front. The detective isn't following a single thread to an ugly truth (about themselves, and about the world). He's picking up a skein of threads and weaving a tapestry - the set-piece reveal in the drawing room in the last chapter.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Try the 'Secret Files of Sherlock Holmes' and the sequels 'Secret Chronicle' and 'Secret Notebook' by June Thomson.

They are supposedly unpublished works by Dr Watson they are cases mentioned or hinted at in the actual Sherlock Holmes books.

They are very well written and well worth reading.

 

[Vixen]

I've been trying to figure out something about noir detective stories versus whodunit detective stories. There's a difference between the two that I'm trying to put into words.

I've just read through the entire John D. McDonald Travis McGee series. It feels more noir than whodunit to me.

As far as I can tell, the noir structure is to introduce a mystery, with a likely line of inquir y that the detective follows. It generally starts with a straightforward crime, and an obvious suspect. The detective then unravels the thread, finding more suspects, or other crimes, or sometimes just confirming their original suspicions. They get beat up. They solve the mystery, which generally is a boring, tawdry thing that didn't even really need solving.

The whodunit structure lays out the whole mystery all at once. The dimensions of the crime, the list of suspects, the lines of inquiry, are all presented up front. The detective isn't following a single thread to an ugly truth (about themselves, and about the world). He's picking up a skein of threads and weaving a tapestry - the set-piece reveal in the drawing room in the last chapter.

I think that the core difference is that there is a strong social issues awareness element in noir. We become aware of the terrorists, drug dealers, social conditions, etc. The detectives (think Wallander) tend to be very human, often with drink or marriage problems, fat and middle-aged, etc.

 

[bruto]

I've been trying to figure out something about noir detective stories versus whodunit detective stories. There's a difference between the two that I'm trying to put into words.

I've just read through the entire John D. McDonald Travis McGee series. It feels more noir than whodunit to me.

As far as I can tell, the noir structure is to introduce a mystery, with a likely line of inquir y that the detective follows. It generally starts with a straightforward crime, and an obvious suspect. The detective then unravels the thread, finding more suspects, or other crimes, or sometimes just confirming their original suspicions. They get beat up. They solve the mystery, which generally is a boring, tawdry thing that didn't even really need solving.

The whodunit structure lays out the whole mystery all at once. The dimensions of the crime, the list of suspects, the lines of inquiry, are all presented up front. The detective isn't following a single thread to an ugly truth (about themselves, and about the world). He's picking up a skein of threads and weaving a tapestry - the set-piece reveal in the drawing room in the last chapter.

I think one common way of slicing it up would be to put McGee in the category of "crime novel," in which there is less mystery and more concentration on the events and the people. This and noir are not mutually exclusive. The degree to which it is "noir" would, I think, depend on how compromised you consider the good guys to be. A kind of bumper-sticker level of description is that in "noir," one is dealing with bad versus worse. It's been a long time (yikes, like over 30 years....) since I read all the McGee novels, but as I recall he tries at least to maintain a pretty high moral standard (describing himself even as quixotic) while being pretty lax about technical legalities, so it's probably a toss-up. The world he works in is certainly pretty dark at times.

I don't think old Travis is quite what our original poster is after, but if you're looking for some winter reading with an addictive quality somewhere between salted nuts and popcorn, the Travis McGee novels are recommended.

 

[catsmate]

Try the 'Secret Files of Sherlock Holmes' and the sequels 'Secret Chronicle' and 'Secret Notebook' by June Thomson.

They are supposedly unpublished works by Dr Watson they are cases mentioned or hinted at in the actual Sherlock Holmes books.

They are very well written and well worth reading.

They're not bad, and I have literally several hundred Holmesian pastiches (ETA: 325 volumes), but the later collections aren't great.

 

[catsmate]

OK, modern authors I omitted from my prior post.
John Sandford: The Davenport and Flowers series, not a 'Whodunit', more of a police procedural.
M. R. C. Kasasian: The Gower Street Detective Series. Victorian setting, a serious pastiche of the genre.
Sally Wright: The Jo Grant Mystery series
Susanna Gregory: her Matthew Bartholomew series is ser around the Plague period in Cambridge. Excellent.
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro: the Mycroft Holmes series.
Glen Petrie also write a series starring a young Mycroft Holmes but they're long out of print
Diane Kelly: the Paw Enforcement series is good
Edward Marston: the Victorian set Railway Detective series
Caroline Graham's Midsomer/Barnaby series is excellent, though short and much darker than the TV series.
Francis Durbridge: some of the Paul Temple books/radioplays are good, some are terrible.
Francis Selwyn's 'Sergeant Verity' series of Victorian mysteries are good.
Simon Clarke: the Inspector Abberline books.
Jeffery Deaver's books, especially the Lincoln Rhyme novels, mix mystery and procedural very well.
John Creasey was immensely prolific. The Gideon and West books are rather dates but some are surprisingly good for the rate at which they were churned out.
John Wainwright's books, such as the Inspector Lyle series, are forgotten but quite good.
P. J. Tracy's Monkeewrench books again mix mystery and procedural very well.
Peter Lovesey's Cribb series (Victoria setting) are good. I haven't read the Diamond books.
Paul Doherty writes historical mysteries; the Corbett, Athelstan and Shallot series are recommended.
D. M. Greenwood's Theodora Braithwaite are interestingly odd but very hard to acquire.
Peter Tremayne's excellent Sister Fidelma have a historical/clerical background.

Hope this helps.

 

[theprestige]

I think that the core difference is that there is a strong social issues awareness element in noir. We become aware of the terrorists, drug dealers, social conditions, etc. The detectives (think Wallander) tend to be very human, often with drink or marriage problems, fat and middle-aged, etc.

I think one common way of slicing it up would be to put McGee in the category of "crime novel," in which there is less mystery and more concentration on the events and the people. This and noir are not mutually exclusive. The degree to which it is "noir" would, I think, depend on how compromised you consider the good guys to be. A kind of bumper-sticker level of description is that in "noir," one is dealing with bad versus worse. It's been a long time (yikes, like over 30 years....) since I read all the McGee novels, but as I recall he tries at least to maintain a pretty high moral standard (describing himself even as quixotic) while being pretty lax about technical legalities, so it's probably a toss-up. The world he works in is certainly pretty dark at times.

I don't think old Travis is quite what our original poster is after, but if you're looking for some winter reading with an addictive quality somewhere between salted nuts and popcorn, the Travis McGee novels are recommended.

Thank you both. Your posts are very helpful in clarifying my thoughts, and giving me new insights on the genres.

And I agree, McGee is not a good fit for the OP's intent.

I just started McDonald's first crime novel, The Brass Cupcake. It's definitely got a noir tone, but it's also got a pretty clear whodunit structure, at least at the beginning so far.

 

[dudalb]

No love for the Hard Boiled school of Detectives?

Raymond Chandler
Dashell Hammett

 

[catsmate]

No love for the Hard Boiled school of Detectives?

Raymond Chandler
Dashell Hammett

Well that's a different sub-genre.

 

[Meadmaker]

Joe's lesser-known brother?

It was Joe, wasn't it? I think I conflated the character name and the actor name. The actor was jack Webb, right?

 

[Kaylee]

Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time and Brat Farrar.


I read quite a few books but I don't tend to remember the author's name or even the plot. However, even though I read those two books years ago (decades ago?), I still recall them.

I may try her other books. Thanks for posting the question!

 

[wasapi]

No love for the Hard Boiled school of Detectives?

Raymond Chandler
Dashell Hammett

Chandler and Hammett were the best. Ever. There is no one I've read that could copy their writing. I cut my crime reading teeth on them.

 

[Darat]

Ann Cleeves, straight forward detective stories. She has a series with a recurring detective.

It's what the TV series "Vera" is based on.

 

[bignickel]

:: 1
The subgenre (publishers have sub-sub-sub-categories these days) closest to most Christie novels is often referred to as Cozy Mysteries. (wikipedia: Cozy Mystery^WP) "...a subgenre of crime fiction in which sex and violence are downplayed or treated humorously, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community."

There are also some TV series in that subgenre, such as Midsommer Murders and Father Brown.

Heh; me and my wife had a chuckle on this; Midsomer Murders is chock full of sex and violence. I'm trying to think of the episodes that don't have sex and violence in them.

 

[catsmate]

Ann Cleeves, straight forward detective stories. She has a series with a recurring detective.

It's what the TV series "Vera" is based on.

I preferred the Perez series ('Shetland').

 

[catsmate]

Heh; me and my wife had a chuckle on this; Midsomer Murders is chock full of sex and violence. I'm trying to think of the episodes that don't have sex and violence in them.

The Midsomer books are far darker than the TV adaption.

 

[Meadmaker]

What I decided to do was to subscribe to Kindle Unlimited, and get access to a whole lot of low budget mystery stories that I could skim, by mostly unknown authors. I figured I didn't really care about the quality of the writing. I just wanted a setting and some clues.

The first book I read was by someone named Dianne Harman.

Terrible book. The genre was what I wanted. A set of clearly identified suspects, each with a motive. And.....no clues, really. Suddenly a reveal. Oh, and it was quite "cozy". It even had the word "cozy" in the subtitle. The featured sleuth was a recently divorced woman that falls in love with a man she meets in chapter 2 when she buys a dog from him, so by the end she has a new house, a new boyfriend, and a new beloved dog. That's about as cozy as it gets, but it was a terrible story and an even worse mystery.

One star on this review. I suppose you get what you pay for. There's a reason that most of the books recommended so far in this thread aren't available on Kindle Unlimited.

 

[Darat]

https://www.bookbub.com/ebook-deals/recommended

Suggest you sign up for the above website. They send an email a day with current deals on ebooks. Whilst there is a lot of crap there is also a lot of good stuff that gets put on sale. I've noticed that when a new book in a series comes often the first book in the series will reduced to 99p. So a great opportunity to see if you may like a series for a very small cost.

Thanks to their emails I've got about 10 Pratchett books for 99p each (I have them in hard copy so didn't want to fork out another tenner to get them as an ebook). Lots of science fiction books from major writes, and Bear, Hamilton, Asher, Clarke and numerous others.

 

[Darat]

A spooky coincidence, the author I recommend above Ann Cleeves first books in her Vera and Shetland series are on offer today 1.99 and 0.99

 

[theprestige]

What I decided to do was to subscribe to Kindle Unlimited, and get access to a whole lot of low budget mystery stories that I could skim, by mostly unknown authors. I figured I didn't really care about the quality of the writing. I just wanted a setting and some clues.

The first book I read was by someone named Dianne Harman.

Terrible book. The genre was what I wanted. A set of clearly identified suspects, each with a motive. And.....no clues, really. Suddenly a reveal. Oh, and it was quite "cozy". It even had the word "cozy" in the subtitle. The featured sleuth was a recently divorced woman that falls in love with a man she meets in chapter 2 when she buys a dog from him, so by the end she has a new house, a new boyfriend, and a new beloved dog. That's about as cozy as it gets, but it was a terrible story and an even worse mystery.

One star on this review. I suppose you get what you pay for. There's a reason that most of the books recommended so far in this thread aren't available on Kindle Unlimited.

Hah. That's like the opposite of a John D. MacDonald story: An changing list of potential suspects, none of which quite fit the many clues. Revelations trickle in a bit at a time, but don't reveal much. Cozy only if you think heat, mosquitos, and mud are cozy. The featured sleuth is a married man in a mid life crisis, who falls in love with a woman of ill repute. By the end of the story, his house is burned down, the woman is dead, and his wife, children, and dog have all left him. But he did solve the mystery!

 

[catsmate]

A spooky coincidence, the author I recommend above Ann Cleeves first books in her Vera and Shetland series are on offer today 1.99 and 0.99

It's the flux...

 

[Carlotta]

There's a contemporary mystery author I like-- Louise Penny. One of her books, The Beautiful Mystery, happens inside a monastery on an island in a lake way out in the wilds of Quebec. The rest of the plot might not be helpful, but the set-up is great!

 

[llwyd]

A spooky coincidence, the author I recommend above Ann Cleeves first books in her Vera and Shetland series are on offer today 1.99 and 0.99

I really like her books, a very skilful writer. Another one is Peter Robinson with his inspector Banks series. Tana French is amazing too, very intricate plots (and afterwards you might wonder about their realism) but impossible to put down. To be honest, Nordic Noir is not a thing for me - often too preachy and these countries really are staid and boring, there seem to be way more fictional murders than real ones... Though Sjöwall and Wahlöö were geniuses, obviously.

 

[dann]

I don't read much crime fiction, but during the Xmas holidays I read Harlan Coben's Tell No One (goodreads).
I don't remember why, but very early on I got the impression that Coben might be a skeptic, and then towards the end there was this:

"You remember my friend Wendy Petino?"
"Fellow model," I said. "Flaky as a Greek pastry."
Shauna smiled at the description. "She took me to dinner once with her" - she made quote marks with her fingers - "spiritual guru. She claimed that he could read minds and tell the future and all that. He was helping her communicate with her dead mother. Wendy's mother had committed suicide when she was six."
I let her go on, not interrupting with the obvious "what's the point?" Shauna was taking her time here, but I knew that she'd get to it eventually.
"So we finish dinner. The waiter serves us coffee. Wendy's guru - he had some name like Omay - he's staring at me with these bright, inquisitive eyes, you know the type, and he hands me the bit about how he senses - that's how he says it, senses - that maybe I'm a skeptic and that I should speak my mind. You know me. I tell him he's full of **** and I'm tired of him stealing my friend's money. May doesn't get angry, of course, which really pisses me off. Anyway, he hands me a little card and tells me to write anything I want on it - something significant about my life, a date, a lover's initials, whatever I wanted. I check the card. It looks like a normal white card, but I still ask if I can use one of my own. He tells me to suit myself. I take out a business card and flip it over. He hands me a pen or something, what do I know, right? He has no problem with that either. So I write down your name. Just Beck. He takes the card. I'm watching his hand for a switch or whatever, but he just passes the card to Wendy. He tells her to hold it. He grabs my hand. He closes his eyes and starts shaking like he's having a seizure and I swear I feel something course through me. Then Omay opens his eyes and says, "Who's Beck?'"
She sat down on the couch. I did likewise.
"Now, I know people have good sleight of hand and all that, but I was there. I watched him up close. And I almost bought it. Omay had special abilities. Like you said, there was no other explanation. Wendy sat there with this satisfied smile plastered on her face. I couldn't figure it out."
"He did research on you," I said. "He knew about our friendship."
"No offense, but wouldn't he guess I'd put my own son's name or maybe Linda's? How would he know I'd pick you?"
She had a point. "So you're a believer now?"
"Almost, Beck. I said I almost bought it. Ol' Omay was right. I'm a skeptic. Maybe it all pointed to him being psychic, except I knew he wasn't. Because there are no such things as psychics - just like there are no such things as ghosts." She stopped. Not exactly subtle, dear Shauna.
"So I did some research," she went on. "The good thing about being a famous model is that you can call anyone and they'll talk to you. So called this illusionist I'd seen on Broadway a couple of years ago. He heard the story and then he laughed. I said what's so funny. He asked me a question: Did this guru do this after dinner? I was surprised. What the hell could that have to do with it? But I said yes, how did you know? He asked if we had coffee. Again I said yes. Did he take his black? One more time I said yes." Shauna was smiling now. "Do you know how he did it, Beck?"
I shook my head. "No clue."
"When he passed the card to Wendy, it went over his coffee cup. Black coffee, Beck. It reflects like a mirror. That's how he saw what I'd written. It was just a dumb parlor trick. Simple, right? Pass the card over your cup of black coffee and it's like passing it over a mirror. And I almost believed him. You understand What I'm saying here?"
"Sure," I said. "You think I'm as gullible as flaky Wendy."
"Yes and no. See, part of Omay's con is the want, Beck. Wendy falls for it because she wants to believe in all that mumbo-jumbo."
"And I want to believe that Elizabeth s alive?"
"More than any dying man in a desert wants to find an oasis," she said. "But that's not really my point either."
"Then what is it?"
"I learned that just because you can't see any other explanation doesn't mean that one doesn't exist. It just means you can't see it."

(It doesn't really spoil anything about the plot. It's pretty peripheral. It's more of a discussion about the 'philosophy' of solving crimes, but still ...)

 

[fleabeetle]

Peter Lovesey's Cribb series (Victoria setting) are good. I haven't read the Diamond books.

I have a great liking for Lovesey's Peter Diamond mysteries. Another author / series of which I'm a fan -- an enthusiasm seemingly shared by few -- is Carola Dunn's Daisy Dalrymple novels (I never miss a chance to put in a "puff" for these). IMO Lovesey's and Dunn's output as above, is of non-gimmicky mysteries where one indeed doesn't know who did it, till that is gradually figured out by the investigators over the course of the book.

The Daisy Dalrymple series, set in England in the early / mid 1920s, is on the "cozy" side: for me, redeemed from sickly-sweet coziness by the author's having prominently in the background the shadow of the recent First World War, which in one way or another has caused bad stuff in the lives of nearly all the characters.

 

[wasapi]

Lately I have been reading Michael Connelly, who I believe is a great whodunit author.

 

[catsmate]

I have a great liking for Lovesey's Peter Diamond mysteries. Another author / series of which I'm a fan -- an enthusiasm seemingly shared by few -- is Carola Dunn's Daisy Dalrymple novels (I never miss a chance to put in a "puff" for these). IMO Lovesey's and Dunn's output as above, is of non-gimmicky mysteries where one indeed doesn't know who did it, till that is gradually figured out by the investigators over the course of the book.

The Daisy Dalrymple series, set in England in the early / mid 1920s, is on the "cozy" side: for me, redeemed from sickly-sweet coziness by the author's having prominently in the background the shadow of the recent First World War, which in one way or another has caused bad stuff in the lives of nearly all the characters.

I read one of them, I just try more.

 

[a_unique_person]

Apparently Australian crime fiction is now a thing. My wife has been reading them voraciously. Lots of Bush, droughts and empty space.

 

[catsmate]

Apparently Australian crime fiction is now a thing. My wife has been reading them voraciously. Lots of Bush, droughts and empty space.

I prefer Kerry Greenwood, both the Phryne Fisher and Corinna Chapman series.