I don’t typically enjoy mystery novels where the detective pulls off the mask in the last few pages and goes “Of course! It’s Nick, the great grand nephew of the victim who I never expected because they weren’t at all a part of the plot!”, or ones where someone who was previously killed comes back to life and is actually the murderer all along. To be honest, those endings always seem contrived and unfulfilling to me. I’m also not a fan of epistolary novels where it’s just series of letters back and forth.
I’m looking for something more Sherlock Holmesy, where I’m basically the shadow of the detective, figuring it out with them.
Basically, I don’t want to think “How could I have possibly known it was you?” at the end of the book, but I also don’t want to trudge through several chapters of dense exposition without feeling a connection to the main characters.
Anyone have any suggestions?
by Intelligent-Hawkeye
10 Comments
It sounds like *part* of your wish list is the “fair play” subgenre: your want to know all of the clues and have a shot of figuring it out.
But it also sounds like you want it to be less of a “tricky puzzle” that some fair play mysteries can be, where you could have *technically* figured it out… But it requires the murderers having 5 layers of absurd gambits. Unfortunately, Christie, the Grand Dame of “fair play,” falls into this pretty often. You disguised yourself as the victim with perfect timing then switched back moments later? Are you secretly a wardrobe assistant on the first act of Les Mis?
So for more social, fair play-y mysteries:
Thursday Murder Club series: not always entirely fair play, but quite close. All about the social politics. Murderer is definitely known to the reader. The cops are definitely “dumb, overweight, and piggish” in a way many find distracting.
Many books of Tana French fall into this category: small communities, info being revealed bit by bit…
I’ve heard Janice Hallett and Ruth Ware both fall into this category, but haven’t yet read them. (Hallett is on my ereader, though!)
I just finished Night Swim by Megan Goldin and enjoyed it. The protagonist is a true crime podcaster who used to be an investigative reporter. The author weaves a current story with one from the past and does a decent job of keeping the reveal a surprise. Trigger warning for SA.
I liked it well enough I immediately read the second one but that one isn’t really a whodunnit.
I’m going from your title, rather than your explanation, and my suggestion would be the Thursday Murder Club series of 4 books by Richard Osman. I think they are a great example of murder mysteries that almost anyone can enjoy.
That said, I have never predicted any of the endings of any of the books, but I think that’s part of the fun of it. I have never felt “ripped off,” as though the author cheated to make it difficult to solve the mystery. I always felt delighted by the outcome.
They are stand alone books, but they should be read in order.
Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson. The narrator is a crime writer who is completely transparent with the reader.
Louise Penney’s books about Inspector Gamache would fit the bill, they’re very character driven and well plotted.
As others have mentioned, the Thursday Murder Club is excellent.
Dorothy Sayers’ mystery novels are classics for good reasons.
The murder of Roger Ackroyd.
That’s all I’m going to say. Nothing more. Nothing less.
I’m not 100% sure if this would fit what you are craving, but a book I read recently that stuck with me was “Eight Detectives” by Alex Pavesi. It’s eight short detective stories woven together in a narrative. I’d recommend looking it up and seeing if it appeals! I think I especially liked it because I get frustrated for similar reasons to you with plots that just throw murderers in out of left field. I felt when reading each of the stories that I could piece the threads together, though not easily.
The Alex Deleware series by Jonathon Kellerman. It is about a child psychologist who helps his best friend Detective Milo to solve crimes
I am about to finish the still life, first book of the inspector Gamache series buly Louise Penny and thoroughly enjoying how something small happens each chapter and we are all moving along together.
Been wanting a cozy mystery without it being too murder-y , like you I too don’t like the bam reveal in the end and my time wasted getting to know so many irrelevant plot details and/or people.
I felt none of that with this series so far!
Tana French is great, mainly because her books are very character driven and don’t fall into any of the usual stereotyped tropes of crime fiction.