I am rapidly coming towards the end of the Mary Russell series – I’m about to start book 15 of 17 – so I’ve started looking out for a replacement series. I originally called this post historical mysteries and then realised that this week’s Book of the Week was a historical mystery, but that’s not what I’m looking for. I want the historical equivalent of a cozy crime and I probably want it set in the twentieth century. I tried twentieth century mystery in the title but that would also cover books that are a bit more violent than I want. I’m after a series I can binge while I wait for the next Phryne Fisher, Royal Spyness and Maisie Dobbs and to help fill the gap now Carola Dunn has retired and there are no more Daisy Dalrymples coming. I want Golden Age mystery level gore and clever solutions and if it can have a bit of a sense of humour about, so much the better.
The problem – as you can tell – is that I’ve already read a lot of series in this area, which makes it hard to find more. There are a lot of books on kindle that look like they might fit the brief but it can be hard to tell from the sample if they’re actually what your after – or all to easy to tell that it’s not. So if you have suggestions – do hit me up in the comments.
Before you do though, I have got a couple of books laid in to try. Now not all of these are series, but these are what I’ve picked up from the Works recently in the hope of finding a lead somewhere in there. Martin Edwards is the editor of all of those British Library Crime Classic anthologies and this is a sequel to a book of his I’ve read already. I’ve read one of the Sulari Gentil books already – and have another one on the pile too. Edward Marston had loads of series and this is just the one that appealed to me the most from the options. And Victoria Walters is a romantic fiction writer who has made the shift across so I think it might be in a style that appeals. So, suggest away!
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 