Hi all, I recently fell down a Carmen Sandiego nostalgia rabbithole and re-played some of the games from my childhood. I'm now looking for books that have the same vibe: nerdy/bookish main characters, a mystery to be solved… They don't necessarily have to go jetsetting like the agents do in Carmen Sandiego.
I don't mind a bit of action as long as it's not too macho/hypermasculine, but my ideal is something like Brendan Slocumb's Symphony of Secrets or a way better written Dan Brown equivalent. Thanks in advance for your suggestions!
by thefrillyhell
2 Comments
Omg, I just fell down a Richard Osman rabbit hole after reading “We Solve Murders”.
He’s known for “The Thursday Murder Club” series which has 4 books that feature 4 amazing characters who live at a retirement community in England and they become amateur sleuths and solve crimes. Super cozy mystery vibes and his writing style is a blend of wit, warmth, and cleverness. He also is British so their dry humor is my favorite. It’s like Carmen Sandiego or Nancy Drew but for adults, lol. I’m obsessed with his books
You might try the four Wener-Bok Mysteries by Charles Goodrum starting with Dewey Decimated which features a team of librarians from a Rare Book Collection library in Washington D.C.
Very and different are four mysteries by Sarah Caudwell with narrator being an Oxford Don who is the former professor of a group of young barristers who get tangled up in murders: Thus Was Adonis Murdered, The Shortest Way to Hades, The Sirens Sang of Murder and The Sibyl in Her Grave
The Commandante Adamsberg Mysteries by Fred Vargas with a team of eccentric French Police officer’s who get cases which often seem to have an arcane or uncanny twist. The First is the CHalk Circle Man.
The Kathy Mallory Series by Carol O’Connell has a recurring character who is kind of nerdy genius.
P.D. James’s Adam Dalgliesh mysteries feature and Inspector who is a published poet.
Gospel by WIlton Barnhardt with two academics trying beat some religious fundamentalists to a newly discovered Gospel is much more fun and literary version of a Da Vinci Code type story.