I am not an avid reader by far these days, but I love the whole mystery genre a lot (mostly games these days). I recently decided to catch up on my literary knowledge and started reading older mystery novels I have missed out on. So far I am about Halfway through the entire collection of Sherlock Holmes stories and decided to read "And then there were none" by Agatha Christie as a way to get away for a bit from Holmes.
Would love to read more classic mystery novels, can you suggest me some?
by Trilightning7
11 Comments
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
Besides *And Then There Were None*, Agatha Christie has two big-time detective series — Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. I like Poirot better than Marple, but recommend both!
For other classic mystery heavy-hitters, you’ll definitely want Dorothy L. Sayers and Raymond Chandler. Edgar Allan Poe may be up your alley, too.
Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie
The Name of the Rose
The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux
Anything by Dorothy Sayers. I enjoyed them so much many years ago.
You might like Margery Allingham- *Police at the funeral* is funny, while *The fashion in shrouds* and *Tiger in the smoke* are both more serious. (There are a lot of other novels too)
You might like Elizabeth Daly as well.
Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammet, Rex Stout, Ellery Queen, Earle Stanley Gardner
The Richard Jury series by Martha Grimes is excellent!
This is a modern novel, but if you enjoy the classic mystery structure you might enjoy reading Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone and its sequels by Benjamin Stevenson. It’s 4th wall breaking narrator has a deep understanding of mystery novel structure and kind of simultaneously deconstructs the genre while also giving a really excellent murder mystery story. Read the synopsis and see what you think!
Ellery Queen series by Ellery Queen. Largely forgotten these days, but those books have some of the sharpest plotting in the mystery genre, in my opinion.
The early novels even had a “Challenge to the Reader” near the end where the author claimed all the same clues were shared with the reader as well as the detective. Could you solve the crime?
John Dickson Carr (who also wrote as Carter Dickson) was a master of the “locked room” mystery and impossible crimes.
Happy reading.