Dick Francis is more suspense than mystery, I feel, and the details thing is really great (though some of the oldest ones might bug you for gender issues, like ENQUIRY, which is otherwise great).
Marsh and Allingham are fairly simple, short British mysteries, but both wrote series with ongoing characters. Marsh had some set in New Zealand, where she lived, and some set during WWII, and some in theater settings, all of which were interesting, though there are racial issues in some of hers. Allingham did the Campion series, which is a bit more spies than policework some of the time, and there're even a couple that are science-fictiony. If you don't like mysteries in general, you might not like these, as they are generally considered exemplars of the genre. Both have been adapted for television at different times.
P.D. James' novels are more complex, most of them following the rather dour and depressed policeman/poet Adam Dalgliesh. I think they're characterized as police procedurals. They're not cheery books, but I found them absorbing, back when I read them in the 80s.
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Wed, Mar. 12th, 2008 09:17 pm (UTC)Marsh and Allingham are fairly simple, short British mysteries, but both wrote series with ongoing characters. Marsh had some set in New Zealand, where she lived, and some set during WWII, and some in theater settings, all of which were interesting, though there are racial issues in some of hers. Allingham did the Campion series, which is a bit more spies than policework some of the time, and there're even a couple that are science-fictiony. If you don't like mysteries in general, you might not like these, as they are generally considered exemplars of the genre. Both have been adapted for television at different times.
P.D. James' novels are more complex, most of them following the rather dour and depressed policeman/poet Adam Dalgliesh. I think they're characterized as police procedurals. They're not cheery books, but I found them absorbing, back when I read them in the 80s.