Category: Historical Setting
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Agatha Christie’s Housekeeper Stars in this Inventive Series
An unconventional housekeeper to Agatha Christie, who served with her in wartime, solves mysteries in and around the novelist’s home in the English countryside in the 1930s. It’s a series worthy of the Christie references.
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Chicago’s First Female PI Will Bicycle Right Into Your Heart
An unconventional young PI fights sexism, homophobia, a surly younger brother and a brutal gang lord in turn-of-the-century Chicago in Rob Osler’s second quozy, or queer cozy, mystery series. It’s a winner.
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Edgar Awards 2025: What Mystery Writers Selected as The Best
This year’s winners include a final outing for PI Maisie Dobbs and the story of an aspiring writer who finds her literary idol murdered the day after she gives him her manuscript.
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Agatha Award Winners 2025: Celebrating Traditional Mysteries
This year’s winners include an historical cozy featuring the intrepid sister of the Wright Brothers and a thriller about a Vietnamese-American artist whose picture-perfect life is starting to unravel.
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Escape to 1920s Egypt with this Debut in the “Lady Traveler” Series
Cut off by her wealthy father, Blix Windway makes a living by traveling to exotic places and giving lectures about her adventures. Her search for fresh material in Cairo leads to the pyramids by moonlight, and murder.
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Edgar Award Winners 2024: Few Female Sleuths, Few Surprises
Familiar names and titles dominated the list of award recipients but I think this annual winners’ roundup — described as “the Oscars of mystery awards” — is always worth a look.
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Murder Crossed Her Mind: A Series Keeps Getting Better
I feel no regrets about stopping a series if my interest lags. But this fourth book in the Pentecost & Parker mystery series, featuring a Nero Wolfe-like detective pair in 1940s New York, is every bit as good as the first, second and third.
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One Puzzling Afternoon: Solving a Decades-Old Mystery
At 82, Edie Havercroft’s memory is slipping a bit. So when she claims to have seen a young girl who went missing 67 years ago, is she merely confused or does she know something that can crack the case?
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Take a Chance on Anne Perry’s Christmas Mystery Series
If you’re looking for traditional mysteries set in Victorian England with a Christmas theme, try Perry’s lesser-known series of 21 novellas. The series need not be read in order and features wintry landscapes, lush holiday celebrations and satisfying resolutions.
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Gaudy Night: A Classic Sleuth Remains Relevant Today
Gaudy Night, a classic of mystery’s Golden Age, stands the test of time. It’s a great fall read, with its academic setting and spooky doings, and sleuth Harriet Vane feels real and relatable nearly 100 years after Dorothy L. Sayers created her.
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