Recommended Murder Mystery Novel Series Best Murder Mystery Series

Recommended Murder Mystery Novel Series

Best Murder Mystery Series

List by Patti Wood

Agatha Christies – The best of the best murder mystery novelist and if you have not read her you must start now. She has several “Crime Solvers “in her various mysteries including Hercule Poriot. She wrote over 33 novels with this single character and 82 works all together. I read my first of her novels “Halloween” in sixth grade and since then I have read all over her novels short stories and plays many times. Why Didn’t They Ask Evans and They Mysterious Affair at Styles are among her best. By the way she is the most read author in the world. Another, fun fact, is her second husband (in real life) was an archaeologist and she went with him on his expeditions and wrote many of her later novels from her tent in a dessert!

Ann Perry - Victorian mysteries featuring Inspector Monk- Monk is a London policemen who has lost his memory and is trying to hide that fact. I love his love interest the very intelligent and strong character in her own right, Hester who is a nurse who served with Florence Nightingale and his best friend, the lawyer Charles. The books wrestle with moral issues and enlighten you on the realities of poverty, prostitution, inequality, justice, war, health care for the poor, the class system, parliament and more. She has a few other mystery series as well. The best of the Monk series is The Twisted Root. The Twisted Root, “The young man stood in the doorway, his face pale, his fingers clenched on his hat, twisting it around and around."  Her work is amazingly thought provoking and informative so don’t be surprised if you read all of her over 55 books. Here is line from Paragon Walk,   "Inspector Pitt stared down at the girl’s body, and an overwhelming sense of loss soaked through him. He had never known her in life, but he knew and treasured all the things that now she had lost."

Robert Parker’s Spenser series- a private detective in modern day Boston with a girlfriend he loves and honors, and a best friend who is bad ass. The prose is sparse, sharp and often funny. I love the scenes where he cooks dinner for his love and they cuddle with each other and the dog.  I have read all the Spenser books well over 30 and most of his other books.

Donna Leon - The books are set in modern day Venice. The “Commissario” Guide Brunetti has to work around the corrupt and quite broken police and justice system to solve murders. He goes home for lunch and his professor wife fixes dinner for the family and loves to curl up with a book. Prepare yourself, as you will want to cook or find good Italian food after reading any of the descriptions of his meals. I have read over 20 books in this series.

Andrea Camilleri - In this often funny, always delicious series set in Sicily, Inspector Montalbano. He struggles with sleep, his romantic relationships and getting his team to do their work, but, goodness, he eats very well.

Charles Todd -This is actually a s mother-and-son writing team lives in the eastern United States, in North Carolina and Delaware respectively. The best series is set in post-World England and  deal with the cases of Inspector Ian Rutledge, a veteran of the European campaigns who is attempting to pick up the pieces of his Scotland Yard career. However, he must keep his greatest burden a secret: suffering from shell shock, he lives with the constant, cynical, taunting voice of the ghost of Hamish MacLeod, a young Scots soldier he was forced to execute on the battlefield for refusing an order. (Yes, a ghost talks to him throughout the series. They are also the authors of a series about Bess Crawford, a nurse serving in France during World War I. I have read over 30 of this teams novels. The best is the Red Door, but it will only make sense if you have read the other novels.

Ann George - All her books are light and amusing. The main characters are two over sixty sisters from Birmingham who keep running into murders. I met the lovely author at a writer’s conference in Birmingham. Strange that a murder Mystery can make you laugh, but this book does. Series Murder Carries a Torch.  New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2000.

Diane Mott Davis -The main character in Mott Davidson's novels is Goldy Schulz, a small town caterer who also solves murder mysteries in her spare time. At the start of the series, Goldy is a recently divorced mother with a young son trying to make a living as a caterer in the fictional town of Aspen Meadow, CO. I really like that Goldy has a son, she truly take care of and eventually a happy healthy marriage. A happy family life is unusual for a crime solver in the murder mystery genre. As the series progresses, new characters are introduced that change Goldy's professional and personal life. I have read all 17 of Goldy books. I love that she has tons of coffee and chocolate to get through her "murderous" days.

Alexander McCall Smith - The Number One Ladies Detective Agency features Mama Precious Ramotswe and set in Botswana. Her main character also has a happy family life. I especially love that Precious adopts her children and she loves and respects her husband. The first novel was published in 1998. They are described as a “staggering success” and have sold more than 20 million copies in English editions alone and been translated into 40 languages.” I have read 17 books in this series.

Janice Frost - Loved all of her books. They are like candy bars. The one you will read and then want to talk to someone about it immediately is “Her Husband’s Secret.” Oh my gosh! just order it right now if you like light murder mysteries.

Mary Kay Andrews - is the pen name of American writer Kathy Hogan Trocheck, based in Atlanta, She writes light breezy murder mysteries.

Stuart Woods - His Stone Barrington books are addictive. Stone is a misogynist. He dates strong seemly intelligent women, and beds them with the speed and ease of ordering a cocktail. Stone and his best friend, New York’s Chief of Police eat out at the same restaurant for years but go through women like paper towels.  I am embarrassed to admit I have read all 42 of Wood’s novels, I believe with a desire to understand bad boy men. 

Jasper Fforde - "The Eyre Affair". It is a detective science fantasy novel. Hard to describe as it is more like science fiction that a mystery, but very fun to read.

Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

Top Dark Murder Mystery Novels, List of Recommended Mysteries

Top Murder Mystery Novels

List of Recommended Series and Dark Mysteries

by Patti Wood

 

Kate Atkinson -If you have not read her work, start with behind the Scenes at the Museum and go from there. Her novels are lovely, complex reads. The detective novels are the Jackson Brodie novels. In When Will there be Good News -Atkinson writes about truly horrific matters, often involving violence against women. She brings such remarkable tonal range to her material—four revolving narrators alternate between wit and somber reflection.  Human Croquet (1997).  There is one passage where a character who was adopted as a baby by an older couple is discussed; that says they were an old couple who only knew about gin and canasta, so they taught him both. Oh my gosh, I love it. She describes the character's little quirks of body language so very well. Other writers have adapted the four Jackson Brodie novels for the BBC under the series titled Case Histories, featuring Jason Isaacs as Brodie. I have read everything she has ever written. I love her work.

Defiantly one of the best murder mystery series in modern fiction.

 

Elizabeth George – Her Inspector Linley Mysteries are so well written. Linley's partner Barbra Havers is one of the most interesting, vulnerable, and authentic mystery characters I have ever had the pleasure of getting to know in fiction. If you read all her novels, you will get the painful delight of seeing how she handles a moral dilemma in a case involving her neighbor and the neighbor's daughter. I loved traveling the arch of her character. She is one of those fictional characters that feel like a family member, a troubled family member, but a family.

 

Henning Mankell - I loved all his dark, disturbing, and prose-filled novels. Wallender has an interesting relationship with his father and his daughter that is fascinating to follow throughout the series. The best of the books is told from his daughter's perspective. There are 13 books in the Wallander series, and he also has other excellent novels. Unfortunately, the BBC version of the stories was dark as well.

 

Tana French - The best of her novels is "The Secret Place" A year after the brutal murder of a young man at a posh school for girls, the case remains unsolved. Then 16-year-old Holly Mackey approaches Detective Stephen Moran with a tantalizing clue. French brilliantly and plausibly channels the craziness of youth and shared bonds of friends. Her other books are ok, but this one was special.

 

Peter Hoeg- I have only read this Danish author's work, "Smilla's Sense of Snow" The main character is an expert on ice/snow, and she helps solve a murder case with her expertise in a way that speaks to the quirkiness of my body language expertise. Smilla is 37, unmarried, and, like Isaiah, part of Denmark's small Eskimo/Greenlander community. She is also a minor Danish authority on the properties and classification of ice. Smilla is never less than believable in her contradictions--caustic, caring, thoughtful, impulsive, determined, and above all, rebellious. The best translation of a book I have ever read, the translator Nunnally won an award for best translation.

 

Dennis McFarland - A Face at the Window, Wow!  What a book. It's a deep, disturbing ghost story, a page-turner, and a sophisticated bit of literature. I loved how it got me inside the head of an intelligent and troubled man. In that respect, it reminded me of another good read from years ago, Presumed Innocent. FYI another book that was better than the movie. A quote for A Face at the Window.

 "One Monday morning about a year and a half ago, in late autumn, I woke with a vague awareness of a long dullish instrument of some kind, maybe the butt-end of a medieval halberd, being alternately inserted and withdrawn at the small of my back." The best modern ghost story I have ever read. Read this and then read Frankenstein, the best horror book of all time, written by a 17-year-old girl.

 

Steig Larson –"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." I read the other Larson novels and found them too disturbing, and for a gal that's read well over 1,000 murder mysteries, that says a lot. 

 

Paula Hawkins – I loved The Girl on the Train. But not because it was an exceptionally well-written novel. I found the journey of the Girl and the story so addictive sad, and disturbing. It's one of those books like "Her Husband's Secret." I wanted my friends and family to read it so I could talk to them about what this character did and what they thought about the effect of her choices.

 

Michael Chabon- I love his work. He is such an incredible writer. "The Yiddish Policemen Union" draws on the obscure historical fact that FDR proposed Alaska become the postwar Jewish homeland. Chabon constructs a nightmarish world in frigid Sitka, where black humor is a kind of life-supporting antifreeze and where a browbeaten detective, Meyer Landsman, must stave off Armageddon. The novel combines satire, homage, metaphor, and genuine suspense in delectable prose seasoned with all manner of Yiddish wordplay.

 

Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights, go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Also, check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

Patti's favorites, Best Books, Best Movies of Past Years

Well another year. I hope your life is wonderful, full of joy, laughter and chocolate. Remember in the rush of the holiday season to repeat my favorite phrase, "I am on a journey through eternity and I have plenty of time". It works particularly well in long lines and traffic jams.

I was on FOX TV national news tonight reading photos of President Bush and others involved in the weapon's search in Iraq. You can request the video transcript at yourquestions@FoxNews.com. If you are interested in reading photos, you may want to pick up the December issue of FIRST for Women on the news stands. On page 91, I share some things to look for when reading family photos. I am also in the December Cosmo. My agent has sent my body language book to 15 different publishers. Cross your fingers.

Favorite Movies

Considering how many movie star photos I have read this year, it seems odd that I have seen so few movies. I am still thinking about my favorite movie last year, "Lord of the Rings". It was extraordinary. We are going to watch it again this Christmas, as my mother said she hid her eyes through so much of the movie. It will be like seeing it for the first time. Of course the new Harry Potter Movie is wonderful, much more exciting than the first. I wish there had been a really good romantic comedy this year. I loved the movie, "About a Boy"with Hugh Grant. The book "About a Boy" was one of my favorite this year. I loved how there were chapters from the boys perspective and then the man's, and how the man grew up and the boy got to finally be a little boy.

Books

Everyone raved about the book " Lovely Bones". I thought it was incredibly sad. I got on a PJ Woodhouse kick this year and bought the PBS services on video. The short stories are also wonderful on tape to play in the car. I enjoyed the book "The Eyre Affair". It is a detective science fantasy novel. Hard to describe as it is bizarre but fun to read. My overall favorite is "Portrait in Sepia", the continuation of the lives of the characters in "Daughter of Fortune". I actually read "The Bourne Identity" and loved it. I am waiting to read my favorite living author, Pat Conroy's novel over Christmas. I already read Mauve Binche's new novel. She is warm and wonderful as always. For those of you who like literature, I am reading all of Wilke Collins sensational fiction. "The Moonstone" has always been one of my favorite books, but he wrote so many other novels that are a delight.

TV

A new category for the newsletter. I had to say how addicted I have become to Changing Rooms the BBC original show on which the HGTV show Trading Spaces is based. I love how much fun they have on the show and I love to see the rooms transformed. Of course Ground Force is my favorite show on Sunday mornings. It is delightful to see other people work in the garden while you sit on the sofa in your jammies and drink tea. My other favorite is the IFC show Dinner for Five, where five movie starts sit around and say nothing of any consequence, and are always very blunt. It is great for reading body language. I have not kept up with Judging Amy and The West Wing, my favorite shows from last year. It seems I am always working on the computer at night.

Happy Holidays to You and Yours!

Patti Wood, MA, CSP
Body Language Expert
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Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.