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Mac McRyan is the main character in this thriller by Roger Stelljes. 4. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. Sometimes authors will write a sequel years later or decide to elaborate on everything with an entire series. If you like getting goosebumps and staying up way too late even though your alarm is set for 5:00 a.m., then we know you’ll like this. But the order and resolution that appealed in the first wave of golden age novels are far less common in the second. That’s what inspired me to write books that honour the golden age, most obviously through my series character, the real-life author Josephine Tey. 3. J ust how golden was the golden age of crime fiction? But it took the second world war and its aftermath to bring them to maturity; many of the authors whose careers began 20 years earlier wrote their best books in the 1940s and 50s. Tarnished Empire: A Standalone Enemies-to-Lovers Billionaire Romance, The Widow's Cabin: A gripping psychological thriller with a twist you won't see coming. Updated hourly. The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham (1952)Not every golden age novel is set in a village: Allingham’s beautifully evoked fog-bound London is a character in its own right, synonymous with the palpable sense of evil that seeps from the pages. No pillar of the community was above suspicion. But Christie ultimately becomes less fascinating than Walker’s charismatic tutor. The Night Stalker is volume 2 of the detective Erika Foster novels and we definitely feel it should be on your “must read” list. His descriptions of a psychopath killer are creepily accurate. There's a problem loading this menu right now. It’s no mystery that detective stories flourished in Britain after the first world war: loss, violence and social change are at the heart of most crime novels, and there’s surely no period in our history when all three were experienced more deeply. Some of us are literature pros and snobs, some of us have a Masters in English and some of us are English teachers, some of us want more romance and some of us want more blood and guts. All rights reserved. © 2020 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. After surprising twists, Weinberg provides a satisfying conclusion while asking the question: does a mystery lose its magic once it’s solved? 10. To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com. Mobsters! Walk the Wire (Memory Man Book 6) David Baldacci. 6. $3.99 #26. 5. By showing so effectively the aftermath of crime, she paved the way for modern novels to treat crime as an entertainment while never forgetting its painful reality. English fresher Jess Walker is studying Agatha Christie, wrestling with the author as both a feminist revolutionary and purveyor of order and compromise. Dedicated to Christianna Brand, this novel established Graham as the natural successor to Brand’s impeccable plotting. Brand’s books are peopled with subtle, beautifully drawn characters and richly evocative of their time and place. For some, the celebrated flowering of the detective story in the 1920s and 30s gave us enduringly popular, elegantly written novels that have yet to be bettered. Top subscription boxes – right to your door, © 1996-2020, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Hopefully you haven’t read all of them yet. What you like, we might hate. The Agatha Christie series by Andrew Wilson This current effort started with a highly creative, what-if reimagining of Dame Christie’s mysterious disappearance in 1926 … For some, ‘cosy crime’ of the 1920s and 30s is class-ridden and formulaic – but classic authors such as Agatha Christie and Josephine Tey paved the way for modern fiction as we know it, Wed 13 Nov 2019 16.29 GMT After her dreams of becoming a police officer come crashing down, Emma starts working for a private detective agency in Accra. Your email address will not be published. Many great detective novels are written by detectives, but others are written by authors who rely on a lot of research in order to write from a detective’s point of view. It’s hard to think of a more brutal novel than this groundbreaking, characteristically ingenious story of 10 people invited to a small island, only to be killed off one by one. Here are the suggestions we came up with: Sometimes the stand-alone books leave you feeling disappointed because you know that there won’t be a continuation of the story. One thing to check on is when your version was printed. As you approach our list, remember to be open-minded. The Great Depression! The Killings at Badger’s Drift by Caroline Graham (1987)A tranquil English village, the death of a well-loved spinster – you could be forgiven for placing this 50 years earlier were it not for the barbed humour that is sometimes lost in the parallel TV world of Midsomer. A psychological thriller rather than a classic whodunnit, the battle between good and evil is convincingly played out in the genteel squares and dark alleyways of postwar England’s capital. 9. ... (Emma Griffin FBI Mystery Book 9) A.J. The period introduced us to household names such as Christie, Sayers, Allingham and Tey, and established detective fiction as a brand through those addictively collectable green and white Penguins. Murderers are more complex, and the body in the library finally leaves a stain on the carpet. That is, if you’ve already read volume 1, The Girl in the Ice. Newer versions have been edited, so hopefully you’ll get your hands on a clean copy! Green for Danger is set in a military hospital during the second world war, where a patient’s death is the catalyst to a tale of intrigue, jealousy and frustrated passions. An English Murder by Cyril Hare (1951)As the glut of reissued Christmas mysteries testifies, there’s something appealing about the combination of sherry, fruit cake and sudden death. Your email address will not be published. The Act of Roger Murgatroyd by Gilbert Adair (2006)Adair’s Evadne Mount trilogy (this was followed by A Mysterious Affair of Style and And Then There Was No One) is both a celebration and parody of the golden age, and Christie in particular. Here are 10 novels that celebrate it. For others, golden age or “cosy” crime, is a lowbrow, sanitised form of fiction; class-ridden and formulaic, and full of meddlesome British spinsters and eccentric foreigners whose lives (and deaths) were somehow less real than those developing concurrently on the hardboiled American streets. Creepy, twisted psychologically thriller anyone? Nothing is off-limits: the child did it; the policeman did it; they all did it. Chicago! Anxious about her uncertain future and career in the city, she soon finds herself investigating the case of a missing American citizen in Ghana. We also love the main character, Erika, and that we begin to get a more detailed picture of her past. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (1939)Christie was ruthless with her characters and readers. For some, the celebrated flowering of the detective story in the 1920s and 30s gave us enduringly popular, elegantly written novels … The innocent suffer and the culprit isn’t always caught, but the noose is a tangible presence. She consistently tore up the rule book in her unsettling, highly engaging novels. Rivers. It grabs you right from the get-go and is pretty fast paced. He provides the reader with very (very) detailed descriptions, which some find to be extremely helpful so they can picture everything in their mind, but some of you might prefer a more to-the-point approach without all the fluff. For me, this is her masterpiece. Witty and cleverly plotted, the book is an unsentimental tribute to the doctors and nurses who calmly carried on working as the bombs fell around them. They struggle with injustice and the shortcomings of the law. These novels simmer with a restlessness that still feels urgent. Putting ourselves in a neutral position, we approached the crime and detective novel selection process by thinking about the books from both sides: as if we were first-time crime novel readers and as experienced crime novel readers. We must admit that if you haven’t read the other books, this one can be confusing, so if we’ve succeeded in doing anything today it is convincing you to pick up book number one as soon as possible and start reading so you can work your way up to this one.

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