Three recs, murder mystery edition

A historical mystery series, a Baltimore mystery series, a laugh-out-loud mystery series

Nov 17, 2023

I started reading Agatha Christie when I had covid over my birthday in 2022. The virus made it difficult to focus and, for the first time ever, I found it hard to watch TV. I needed to sleep, to calm down. To be distracted and relaxed. What could be more distracting and relaxing than the queen of murder mysteries?

The first time I remember reading her novels was while I was backpacking around India and Southeast Asia at age 22. Every hostel and cheap hotel had a seemingly never-ending supply of dog-eared Christie and P.G. Wodehouse books, so it wasn’t exactly a conscious choice. Honestly, I steered more towards the Wodehouse – farce seemed more fun, at the time – but the strangely calming experience of reading Death on the Nile during a harrowing bus journey through the mountains of Kerala stuck with me.

Not to equate covid and one-lane mountain roads, but, well, I guess that’s why they’re called cozy mysteries. Agatha’s audiobooks not only got me through the rest of the virus, but they became my nighttime routine. I’ve always liked a good murder mystery – there’s a reason they’re so enduringly popular, with their symmetry and formulas and promise that everything will work out in the end – and yet I was still surprised by how much I enjoyed these.

I’m sure I’m the first person to discover that Christie was, in fact, very good at what she did. Because she was an early and much-imitated master of the genre, I sort of figured her books might now feel a bit tired and expected. Cozy and comforting, but no longer surprising. Nope. Maybe I’m overly credulous but I mostly find her impressively good at not falling into patterns and avoiding the expected. As I said, turns out she knew what she was doing.

The other consequence of immersing myself in classic mysteries for the last year and a half is that I’m now reading mysteries of all sorts as fast as I can get through them. Again, I’ve always enjoyed them. But now, the moment someone asks if I’ve read one I haven’t, it becomes the next book on my library wishlist. (Don’t ask me how long my library wishlists are – I have two, and they both have more books that I will ever be able to get through.) It might be a problem, but it’s not one I want to fix.

Which leads us to this week’s recs…

Since I first mentioned this love of fun murder mysteries a few weeks ago, I’ve been inundated with requests for recs. So, this week, I’m departing from the usual format in order to rec three of my favorite mystery book series. Which, on the one hand, means no TV (sob!), but on the other hand means you get like 30 recs for the price of 3, so, you know, swings and roundabouts, as the British say. If you’re missing TV, comb the archives or send me a request for the next issue.

Rec 1
Mary Russell

This series from fellow Bay Area writer Laurie R. King was probably my first murder-mystery love. I was about 9 or 10 when my mom read the first two books and told them to me as bedtime stories – and I fell in love. Fast-forward to high school, when I was delighted to discover that new books were still being published, and I fell in love all over again.

To be clear, the Mary Russell books are basically really good Sherlock Holmes fan fiction. The whole premise is that Holmes, while retired as a beekeeper in Sussex during WWI, takes a young woman as his apprentice. Thus, the first book: The Beekeeper’s Apprentice.

But, again, it’s really good. Well written, and delving into theology and science and history and literature and and and. I honestly don’t much care for Conan Doyle’s Holmes, but this one’s much more interesting and three-dimensional. The books are set all over the world (we love travel-via-novel), and, with a female protagonist, we get to explore aspects of humanity and society that Conan Doyle was never much interested in. While the mysteries are of course central to the plot and keep you on the edge of your seat, the best of these are so much more.

At this point, there are 17 books, with an 18th on the way in the new year. Like any series, they’re up and down. But once you fall for the characters, you just want to keep hanging out with them.

Where: Reserve at your library or order from your non-Amazon bookseller of choice (like Bookshop US or Bookshop UK).*

Rec 2
Tess Monaghan

I only just this summer discovered these Baltimore-set, hardboiled-P.I.-type detective novels (courtesy of my friend Margaret, who also has a great Substack!), so was honestly shocked to discover that they were also mostly written in the 1990s and I have somehow been sleeping on them all this time.

I mean, it’s pretty clear from the first book, Baltimore Blues, that they’re not modern. For instance, the snarky ex-journalist protagonist (a woman in her late 20s) talks about “never quite getting into compact discs” and it’s not until about book 7 that cell phones become normal, rather than a topic of conversation. Which is actually kind of delightful, if unnerving at times. It’s a funny kind of period piece, getting to live in the idiosyncratic milieu of 1990s Baltimore – a place I assume most of us have given little thought outside of The Wire.

Speaking of The Wire… I was also surprised to discover that author Laura Lippman was (until recently) David Simon’s wife – and that I’d still somehow never heard of her. (Well, not so much much surprised that I’d never heard of her so much as depressed at the grim predictability.) I assume they met as journalists at the Baltimore Sun, where they were both apparently very good at their jobs. But, interestingly, they were not yet a couple when the first Tess Monaghan books were hitting stands as bestsellers and The Wire was changing television. Their work already seems to have been in dialogue, and I’d kind of be curious to rewatch The Wire while also reading Tess Monaghan’s version of the city.

Like the best noir mysteries, Tess is a compelling character in her own right, going through her own growing pains, relationship troubles, and family issues, even as she solves delightfully dark and twisty crimes. Thus far, I’m seven books in, and I’m still chomping at the bit to get the next one off the library waitlist.

Where: Again, if you choose to buy from a non-Amazon online bookseller, I like Bookshop US or Bookshop UK.*

Rec 3
The Thursday Murder Club

If the title of this relatively new British mystery series from UK comedian and TV personality Richard Osman doesn’t give it away, these books lean more “cozy” than “hardboiled.” But only insomuch as they’re laugh-out-loud funny and the protagonists are exactly the sort of people you’d expect to populate a sleepy English town with an unusually large number of murders.

That is, the Thursday Murder Club of the first book’s title is a group of pensioners (British terms, here!) living in a retirement community. Instead of bridge or water aerobics, their hobby of choice happens to be solving cold case crimes. Of course, maybe some of those cases turn out to not be quite so cold after all. And almost none of the crimes are all that cozy.

Like any good mystery series, these strike the perfect balance between twisty, compelling plots and idiosyncratic characters you don’t want to stop hanging out with. They’re page-turners with the added bonuses of being a rollicking good time and delightfully well-written. What gives them an extra added something, though, are the themes of aging. How society treats you as you get older, what happens when you start losing your friends, how you find purpose and community and identity in a new phase of life. There’s a fundamental decency and kindness to the characters that, somehow, feels refreshing in this day and age.

Where: Again, if you choose to buy from a non-Amazon online bookseller, I like Bookshop US or Bookshop UK.*

*(In the name of full transparency, I’ve included affiliate links to Bookshop.org – if you’re going to order from them anyway, please use my link so I can make a little extra cash! If you want to see/order any/all of my book recs, I’ve made lists on Bookshop, too: US version, UK version.)

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