I’m looking for something different than the gritty, tough detective stories and would appreciate some recommendations: a detective book that’s funny – not necessarily “ha ha” funny (although that’s good too!), but one that puts a smile on your face without foregoing its need to be serious and actually solve a crime. Something like Jeeves & Wooster meet Sherlock Holmes if you will.
by nathanrrrr
10 Comments
Everyone in my family has killed someone
Try The Big Over Easy. It is a very silly book about a detective tackling the case of Humpty Dumpty. It is amusing but also a reasonable detective novel, so should meet your requirements.
Carl Hiaasen is a great source for this. *Bad Monkey* is a great entry point.
This American Life did an excellent hard boiled PI spoof by humorist writer Simon Rich a couple of weeks back. It’s an 18 minute segment – [https://www.thisamericanlife.org/851/try-a-little-tenderness/act-one-19](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/851/try-a-little-tenderness/act-one-19)
*Montgomery Bonbon* series by Alasdair Beckett-King
The world’s greatest vaguely foreign detective is secretly an eleven-year-old girl with a fake mustache. It’s a murder mystery series…for kids. *H*owever, its humor and charm are age-independent.
Jana DeLeon Miss Fortune series and Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich are both laugh out loud light mysteries.
Chris Grabbenstien’s John Ceepak mysteries might work. Murder mysteries, but it’s a very Holmes & Watson setup, with an ex-MP as the detective and the local kid as the temp police help during the summer. The younger guy narrates it.
John Scalzi’s Dispatcher series could be another. Fun premise, though this one might be a little darker.
Oh! Tim Dorsey’s Serge Storm series. Kinda silly, off-the-wall premise, not really a detective, but the same vibe as Carl Hiaason. Crimes and whatnot (though Serge is the one doing them, but they’re all bad people!)
The Elvis Cole books by Robert Crais
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers; The Spellman files series;Mrs Pollifax series
bukowski’s pulp