Mystery

I’m the daughter of a mystery fan, and that has influenced me. Mom had quite a few of the mystery classics, though today she’s not as interested as she used to be. Here are some of my favorite mystery writers:

First a classic, Michael Innes. I just love his books. You can tell that the author was a university professor. The books deal with culture and many are set in or around universities. They’re also really good mysteries. I have never read even one of his books that I didn’t like. Most of the books are set in England (or at least Britain). The first of them take place in the 1930’s and the last of them were written in the 1980’s, just before the author died, so I assume they deal with the 1980’s too.

I love Reginald Hill‘s Dalziel and Pascoe mysteries too. Excellently written. Dalziel (pronounced Dee-ell, apparently) which means devil in Cornish, if I remember correctly, is a loud-mouthed disrespectful, big fat man who is brilliant at solving puzzling murder cases. Pascoe is his assistant. My favorite character though, is Wield, who is gay. He’s a very nice guy without being a wimp like Pascoe.

What about dog mysteries? Susan Conant writes them. They’re not quite as good as Michael Innes’ books, but if you like dogs, you might want to read all her books. Susan Conant’s sleuth, Holly Winter, works freelance for a dog magazine. She, like the author, lives in Massachusetts.

Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown also write pet-related mysteries. The series is called the Mrs Murphy Mysteries. Mrs Murphy is Sneaky Pie Brown’s alter ego, a smart tabby. Her assistant, Tuck, is a pembroke welsh corgi. I don’t think my cats, or my dog will ever help me write a book. They do know how to turn a computer off, that’s about it. The stories are set in the American South, Virginia.

I really love Janet Evanovich‘s Stephanie Plum mysteries. They’re hilarious. Whenever I’m depressed (and that happens a lot), I need to read one of her books. New Jersey seems to be a weird, but funny place, at least according to Janet Evanovich. I just love her language. The style is very unique.

I love historic mysteries and I love to study languages, so naturally, I like the French series about the dectective Nicolas Le Floch by Jean-François Parot. It’s set in the 18 century Ancien Régime – pre-revolutionary France.

As most people know by now, there are Swedish mystery writers too. One of them is Emma Vall (who is actually three women, using the same pen name). They are reporters. Though I normally don’t enjoy reading about politics, the books by Emma Vall are very interesting. It might be difficult to make a good translation of these books, since the historic and political background is so typically Swedish, but if they are translated, be sure to check them out.

Emma Vall uses a female main character. Vall’s Amanda Rönn is a high school teacher who becomes a reporter. What I don’t like about Amanda Rönn is that though she’s quite young, she constantly falls for much older men. That’s not really my thing, but might be explained by the fact that at least one of the women behind the pen name is quite a bit older than her main character.

A mystery writer I’ve just discovered is Åsa Nilsonne. She’s really a psychiatrist and a psychotherapist, but now she’s writing mysteries too. I’ve read a book by her called Smärtbäraren (“The Pain Bearer/Carrier”) and also her series about a cop called Monika Pedersen. Åsa Nilsonne’s books are very well written and well put together, with all kinds of interesting facts.

Another favorite Swedish mystery writer is Arne Dahl. He writes about a fictive group of police officers in Stockholm – the A group, which investigates crime with international connections. Since his books are about a whole group of cops, there are several main characters to choose between. My favorites are Arto, who is an former attorney from Finland, and Jon who is gay and used to be harassed at the last place he worked. The other team members don’t appeal to me, but the books are quite good, even though Arne Dahl tends to lose touch with reality. Some books really take off into the unlikely.

Laura Trenter is a relatively new mystery writer. She writes for kids, but a grownup reader can probably find something they like about her writing. If her name looks familiar, it’s because her parents wrote mysteries as well, though not particularly for children. I liked Det Brinner (‘There’s a Fire’) best, since the main characters were a bit older than her other characters. Also, I felt that the plot was a bit more complicated. I wish these books had been available when I was a child.

Laura’s parents called themselves Trenter after a mystery classic, E C Bentley’s Trent’s Last Case. Any serious mystery fan should read that book.

Leena Lehtolainen is a Finnish mystery writer, who writes about female cop Maria Kallio. I really like her books. Fortunately, they’ve been translated into Swedish. I don’t know much Finnish… Actually that’s an understatement. I know less than a dozen words, all told, but that’s another story.

Other newer favorite mystery authors are Eliot Pattison (whose Chinese ex-cop solves mysteries in Tibet – again Tibet, that I find so fascinating) and Barbara Nadel. Her inspector Çetin Ikmen solves mysteries in his native Istanbul (though he is partly of Albanian ancestry and his Albanian side of the family has made him a little psychic.) In both books you learn much about the culture and history of the respective countries and the natives are vividly described.