This book was published at the end of the Regency and harks back to the novels of the 18th Century (no prudery, but primitive sociopolitical views), without any major trappings of incipient Victorianism. It reads surprisingly well in modern English, but that is partly because this is quintessentially a 'Scotch' book -- a commentator says no Englishman could possibly have written this novel. Andre Gide wrote the preface to my Evergreen Edition and he stressed in his adulatory introduction that he could be over-rating the book just because this milieu was all foreign to him as a Frenchman -- after all, they think Jerry Lewis is great (well, he didn't say the latter of course). Still, he rated it as an undiscovered masterpiece. Click HERE for more on this book. It is a classic story of a man who sells his soul to the Devil, but is also a mystery in the sense that there is murder and a pursuit. It pioneers in many ways mystery conventions that developed later, especially in the thriller category. (And is this mysterious benefactor really Peter of Russia?)

This is really an excellent thriller (probably Wheatley's best, and not marred by the racism common to his other books). Hard to categorize: Science-fiction (a death-ray machine), Supernatural (spirit separated from the body in suspended animation), Mystery (not who, but how will this untangle), Spy novel (a sub-plot that is very amusing), Legal and Financial thriller (the machinations of lawyers and the board room), and Horror story (buried alive). Also a touch of Dickens's Christmas Carol. Sir Gifford is 'murdered' by his wife's lover, who is in turn murdered by the wife; his dream self ("Ka") is separated from his body and he is able to witness all of the events occurring as a result of his 'death' but not able to interfere. The plot is far too complicated to summarize yet is very ingenious and satisfying. Loose ends and predicaments are all worked out nicely, and the characters are very well depicted too. Wheatley's masterpiece (unless you count The Devil Rides Out).

When I was younger, I went through a Chestertonian paradox stage and enjoyed this sort of thing; now that I am a hard-set atheist, I don't, but it was worth the recent re-reading. The theological stuff is very irritating and just pig-headedly wrong. However, the premise and plot are good, and unusual -- a charismatic figure leads an anti-Western, anti-Colonial crusade in Africa (in the 1930s no less) based on an anti-intellect, pro-passion belief that death can be overcome by turning all one's pains, loves, and ambitions inward to build up the will to survive for centuries and actually achieve resurrection from the dead (which of course the Christian heroes regard as sinful and evil, but actually has some appeal). Interesting book with some good SF/supernatural elements. The Tories win. He wrote several like this. Williams was one of the 'Inklings' along with C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Science Fiction / Fantasy

Elijah Baley (NYC police) and R. Daneel Olivaw (humanoid robot from the planet Aurora) are an interesting team, with the robot providing pure logic without 'reasonableness' and the Earthman combining cop savvy with inspiration. These books take place about 2000 years in the future, when Earth people congregate in huge underground cities, living on yeast vats and atomic power, and have eschewed the land outside (farmed by robots but otherwise unvisited), and the 50 Outer Worlds, settled as colonies a few hundred years before the ant-hill development, provide the laissez-faire aspect of the human race carried to extremes of selfishness. Asimov likes to contrast extremes, then propose something else in a preachy way. The first book is a least-likely-suspect mystery taking place in the gigantic New York City complex; the second is an 'impossible' crime (no weapon can be discovered) on the planet Solaria, where every human is a hermit. The SF aspect combines the Wellsian Morlock/Eloi dicotomy with Asimov's famous Three Laws of Robotics programmed into robot brains: A robot cannot harm a human being is the first law... "Naked Sun" is far more interesting and exotic and a better detective story; you have seen "Caves of Steel" clones in several SF movies over a period of years, as in the overrated "Matrix" series (but grant that it is the 'first'). These are not great mysteries, but they are very entertaining.

(See also, The Robots of Dawn and Robots and Empire, sequels written later in his life -- they are not as good being much too talky, with distracting tie-ins to his Empire and Foundation series.)

Something like 2% of the population has evolved telepathy by 2300 AD, ranked officially at three levels of degree by the official Esper Guild. That means that there are members in the police force, so murder is unheard-of (espers can discover intent before the fact and prevent it, or detect it afterward easily enough). Ben Reich, a robber baron type powerful in these times, decides to commit a murder (no mystery about that), devises a way to bypass the esper police, and does it. Then follows a classic battle or chess game between the detective who knows he did it and the perpetrator who has vast resources and strength of mind to evade punishment. Interesting idea that you can block a mind reader by having a jingle run around in your head: "...tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun." (Hasn't that happened to all of us? Don't think of pink elephants.) What happens to the villain in the end is much more devastatingly depressing than would have been a simple execution. There are no unfair violations of detective-story rules, however. Exciting story.

"Androids" became the great movie "Bladerunner", except for the fact that apart from the basic plot these masterpieces are totally different in characterization and emphasis. The book is a skewed Procedural Novel with great emphasis on philosophical matters, in a world denuded of most non-human animal life by a nuclear war, so that even a spider or toad is a precious creature and people buy robotic sheep as pets and for status; the movie is a surreal Chandlerish cop story set in a weird future Los Angeles -- what they have in common is the theme that artificial human beings (androids), built as slaves, can go rogue and have to be hunted down and destroyed ('retired'). While the book takes place in a suburban environment and the movie in a dank, dark, and crowded 'cave of steel', and in that way are completely different, the common theme and plot are retained, so both are masterpieces in their own way.

It is hard to describe "Flow My Tears" (title based on Dowland's lute classic Lachramae Antiquae Pavan). In form it is the classic detective story situation where the protagonist blacks out and wakes up in a seedy hotel with no identity (a Woolrich specialty, also used by several other writers). The SF aspect involves an alternate world -- supposedly 1988! -- where there is a universal police state, college students shot on sight, people without 'papers' imprisoned for life in labor camps, blacks sterilized to reduce their population. Then there is Dick's characteristic emphasis on metaphysics and mind-altering drugs (which is part of the plot of this, a drug that actually changes reality for more than the user). He is justifiably a cult writer.

These are not mysteries, per se, but definitely both in the noir detective genre.

This story is a blend of science-fiction and mystery, with Lord Darcy and Master Sean O'Lochlainn serving as investigators for the Duke of Normandy. It is set in an alternative world where Richard the Lion Heart survived and the whole trend of Western civilization changed (i.e., no Magna Carta). Magic 'works' and is actually refined to a science where forensic investigation involves wizards, sympathetic magic applied to weapons to determine who wielded them, etc. The books are set in modern times, but the differences caused by this bifurcation in history are interesting -- e.g., regular technology is about at the steam-engine level, the 'Evil Empire' is Poland, Normandy still rules Britain, and so on. The detective story aspect of these books involves locked-room murders of the Carr sort that DO NOT involve witchcraft, so 'standard' police procedure does not work (nice twist in that Carr makes his crimes seem to be supernatural and turn out not to be, whereas Garrett's are approached from a supernatural point of view and still end up with mundane solutions -- not a different approach really but a completely different slant). That's what makes them almost unique.

(He also wrote several short stories involving Lord Darcy, which are collected in a couple of editions, and Michael Kurland, who wrote a nice pastiche or two about Moriarty and Holmes, contributed more to the series.)

The Triune Monarchy of Scythia-Pannonia-Transbalkania is a Ruritania-type kingdom located between Serbia and Hungary in the heydey of monarchies before the Great War. The book even has maps. Dr. Engelbert Eszterhazy, with his knowledge of medicine, phrenology, alchemy, psychology, lycanthropy, history, and literature is the ideal investigator when odd events occur in the kingdom. While not strictly detective stories for the most part, though all involving mysterious events, the collection is an amusing and well-thought-out romp for fans of Anthony Hope, Robert W. Chambers, Baroness Orczy, and the like. The story titles are: "Polly Charms, the Sleeping Woman," "The Crown Jewels of Jerusalem," "The Old Woman Who Lived with a Bear," "The Church of Saint Satan and Pandaemons," "Milord Sir Smiht [sic], the English Wizard," "The Case of the Mother-in-law of Pearl," "The Ceaseless Stone," and "The King's Shadow Has No Limits." -- the titles themselves convey some of the charm of the tales.

Other ...

Ben Snow is a gunman who travels the Wild West in the 19th century (he might be Billy the Kid in disguise). These are interesting, if pulpy, stories, with unusual settings. As with most Hoch tales, there is usually a locked-room or other 'impossible' situation, also a touch of the macabre.