Today, I want to recommend books in my favourite genre – mysteries. This includes children’s mysteries and detective fiction as well. I have read 129 books by 20 writers so far in this genre; though admittedly, the bulk of my mystery novel consumption (40%) is Agatha Christie.
Note: I consider crime thrillers and cosy mysteries as separate categories; otherwise the total book count would be 213.
Now, let me give you a synopsis of 10 of my favourite detective books:
1. The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
How does one even comment on the master detective? I’ve read Sherlock Holmes stories at least thrice over, and they never fail to entertain and educate. If you haven’t read any of them – at least The Hound of Baskervilles, please please please do yourself a favour and read!
2. Peril at End House by Agatha Christie
Nick Buckley, the young owner of End House, keeps escaping life-threatening accidents. Poirot is convinced that they aren’t accidents but attempts at her life. He gets involved and must prevent the murder before it happens.
Agatha Christie is pure joy when it comes to mystery novels. I cannot rave about her enough. You can finish this engaging book in one sitting – 6 hours max.
3. Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
This is the third book in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, and once again, a masterpiece in simplicity and humour. The way different small mysteries come together as a whole, while weaving together Madame Precious Ramotswe’s life in Botswana, is a delight.
In this book, Mma Ramotswe deals with the poisoning of a government official’s brother and the suspicious morals of beauty contestants. Meanwhile, her fiancé JLB Matekoni is going through depression. Mma Ramotswe must solve the mystery and help Matekoni through.
4. The Red House Mystery by AA Milne
We all know Alan Alexander Milne as the creator of Winnie the Pooh, but he also wrote this brilliant detective novel called The Red House Mystery. I didn’t expect much from the book when I started reading it, but it turned out to be top-notch! It is pacy, imaginative, humourous, and thrilling.
The Red House is a cosy English countryside house belonging to Mark Ablett. Amateur detective Anthony Gillingham and his friend Bill Beverley, who have been invited to stay, find that a mysterious shooting has resulted in a death, and Ablett is absconding. They investigate and prod around quirky characters and intriguing situations to solve the mystery. One wishes that Milne wrote more with Gillingham and Beverley as partners.
5. The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz
The House of Silk is a Sherlock Holmes novel authorised by the Arthur Conan Doyle Estate, written to mimic Doyle’s style. Horowitz managed to place the story right in the middle of the Sherlock Holmes narrative, with references to past and future cases and incidents.
Holmes and Watson are approached by fine art dealer Edmund Carstairs, complaining of being threatened by a criminal who has followed him from America. A death occurs, and the duo enter a scary world of criminal underworld, drugs, and politico-criminal links.
Quite a satisfying read, this one has no element that jars from Doyle’s narrative style. Dr. Watson’s keen observation, the gentle revelation of the threads of the mystery, the deductive powers of Holmes – everything is perfectly done.
Horowitz has tried to better the originals – perhaps not consciously – but both the magnitude of the crime and the slow but steady unravelling of the mystery suggested that he was trying hard to both meet the expectations and surpass it.
6. Why Shoot a Butler by Georgette Heyer
Georgette Heyer is better known for her historical romances, but her detective stories and mysteries are quite well written. In Why Shoot a Butler, barrister Frank Amberley tries to find out why the Norton Manor butler was found shot dead out on the road, and what Shirley Brown was doing next to the butler’s body in the middle of the night. When a second death happens at the manor, Amberley turns detective to get to the bottom of the family’s secrets.
Amberley’s arrogance and Brown’s fierce independence lend to several witty conversations. Heyer’s forte is character delineation and ambience-building, and this book gives you a good dose of both.
7. Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey and series is worth checking out. The seventh instalment, Five Red Herrings, is about an artist who is found dead on jagged rocks near a stream. There are six prime suspects, and five of them are red herrings. Lord Wimsey has to figure out who the real murderer is.
To be honest, the book drags too long for a mystery novel. The whole rigmarole of train timings and who saw who is tedious to remember and catch up on. However, the last few chapters in which Lord Wimsey reconstructs the crime is brilliantly done.
8. Feluda Mysteries by Satyajit Ray
I believe that Satyajit Ray’s films have overshadowed the fame of his books. His Feluda mystery series features Pradosh Mitter and his sidekick cousin Topshe. The mysteries often take place in exotic places and the narration, done by Topshe, is funny and pacy. You can either read the individual novellas – small, quick reads – or read the complete collection available in two volumes. They’re primarily written for the teen/YA audience and are highly entertaining. Feluda is like a mix of Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes.
9. Dante’s Wood by Lynne Raimondo
The protagonist of this book is the almost-blind psychiatrist Mark Angelotti, and he ends up investigating a murder because of a confession from one of his patients. Intriguing, right?
Angelotti gets involved as a witness in a case of murder slapped against 17-year-old intellectually challenged Charlie Dickerson. Angelotti is sure that Charlie could not have killed the woman, but when DNA test of the dead woman’s unborn baby showed the father to be Charlie, he gets confused and takes it upon himself to investigate the possibilities that the police had not even bothered to look at.
Meanwhile, he deals with his degenerative blindness – Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy – caused by a genetic mutation, and tries to come to terms with his own relationship with his divorced wife and child.
The story is moderately paced, and gains speed in the second half of the book. A crime thriller with a first-person narrative is always more fun to read, because we are prejudiced by the narrator’s preferences, and the writer has more scope to play with the ideas he can put into our heads.
Raimondo has since written two more books in the Angelotti series. Check it out!
10. Murder on the Links (The Defective Detective #2) by Adam Maxwell
This may seem like an odd-one-out in the ranks of several great writers, but I like Adam Maxwell’s humour and storytelling. His writing is almost farcical of the genre, which makes it even more interesting. Quirky, humourous, and enjoyable, Murder on the Links features narcoleptic Clint who woke up on the golf links, next to a corpse. When he became one of the suspects for the murder, Clint decides to do his own sleuthing.
This is a short novella, a quick and easy read. You should check out the rest of the Defective Detective stories, just for fun.
There’s another post talking about my favourite authors, and that contains more recommendations in Agatha Christie and Alexander McCall Smith. If you all have any recommendations for me in the detective/mystery category, please tell me through comments!
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