Mysterylist.Com started setting up individual web pages for classic mystery novelists, but this is impractical, especially considering that the author of this web site tried to read every novel in a series when doing such a page, and many are no longer available, so the page could not be completed in a lot of instances. Also, few of these authors fall into the 'best-of-the-Golden-Age' category or Grobius's Top 50; they are mostly modern authors who write in the tradition and who, while not having produced single masterpieces, qualify for this page by having produced a body of work that does set up their detectives as being worthy of inclusion in the pantheon of investigators. (However, some important Golden Age authors were omitted, so I will try to make up to some extent for it on the Series Pages.) There is absolutely no intention for this page to become definitive or even partially complete. E-mail is welcome. See also Historicity below.
Category Pages:
British Police | Amateurs | Professionals | Private Eyes | Cops | Historical Detectives | Superheroes | Villains
With the advent of Brother Cadfael, historical mystery stories became a popular sub-genre, although there were plenty of examples before then, such as Lillian de la Torre's Dr Johnson. Click one of the links below to skip to that author. -- Grobius, November 2001
This is a new addition to the site (by oversight it wasn't in the original scheme). It is obviously still under construction.
Alexander | de la Torre | Lovesey | Other Police | Prolific Authors | Saylor
Bruce Alexander: Sir John Fielding (Magistrate)
This author (who died in 2003) wrote a substantial series about this historic judge, founder, with his brother the novelist Henry, of the Bow Street Runners, a forerunner of the Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard). They are basically thrillers rather than strictly clued mysteries, and are narrated by the young Jeremy Proctor, Fielding's teenaged assistant and apprentice detective. Of interest is the fact that Justice Fielding was blind, hence his nickname among criminals: 'The Blind Beak'. The period settings are well-described and accurate, each covering a different aspect of the times, making this one of the best series in this milieu. |
Lillian de la Torre: Dr Sam: Johnson (Lexicographer)| Given the nature of the man, and the fame and structure of Boswell's biography, it is only natural that it would occur to somebody to write up the adventures of Samuel Johnson as a detective, and in a way that emulates the Sherlock Holmes stories. De la Torre did a suberb job of this, for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine starting in the late 1940s, with the series having been reprinted in four volumes (something like 40 stories in all). They are reasonably good as detective stories, but their main virtue is in the character of Dr. Sam: and in the accurate scholarship of each tale's background, most based on a real historical incident or character. The earlier stories (e.g., in The Detections of Dr. Sam: Johnson) are better and more fleshed out, the later ones tending to formula. [These are all short stories, so this entry is a violation of the rules of this web site, which is novel-based!] |
Peter Lovesey: Sergeant Cribb (Victorian Scotland Yard) |
The Sergeant. Cribb/Constable Thackeray mysteries are set in the 1870s-80s. They are not great mysteries as far as plots go -- more like thrillers with a surprise villain who could really have been anybody: the denouement is convincing, but seldom well clued in the GAD sense. What is good about them is the dry presence of Cribb, who never gets promoted to Inspector even though he has inspectorial duties and rights -- his superiors such as Inspector Jowett are too old-school-tie to put up with him, and many of the books end up with him solving the crime and having the credit given to someone else. Also the puritannical nature of Thackeray who always ends up doing the dirty back-stage work among naked ballerinas, etc. Back then, Inspector was a very high-level job (only three of them in the CID, for example), not like now with every police station having one. Second nice thing about these is the picking of a setting, such as long-distance walking marathons or bare-fisted prize fighting or the 'Season' in Brighton, that is particularly 'period' but not so alien that we don't understand it, and Lovesey does his research well on the details. Third is the breezy but accurate style with not much attempt to sound 'contemporary' to the period except for the occasional "ain't it" and some "sirs" and "madams" (along with hat-lifting) -- this emphasizes the fact that the Victorians were no different from us even considering the gloss of politeness and class-consciousness. Fourth: the ancillary stuff, such as what it was like to ride in a hansom cab, dodging through traffic and horse shit; throwing a ha'penny bit to a street urchin for some minor begging service; dealing with phalanxes of prostitutes while attending a music hall -- no matter how 'gentlefolk' some of the characters are, this is, after all, a police series dealing with low-lives. Everybody has a hidden motive or some sort of unmentionable-in-polite-society secret, which livens things up. Very nice series, although some of them fail just because Cribb does not always convince the reader with his running around in that particular circle. The best of them (so far in my rereading) is the first, "Wobble to Death", taking place at a six-day walkathon race, a 500-miler, in a suburban agricultural crystal palace, with nice chapter summaries of the placement of each contender (at least the ones who haven't been murdered or nobbled yet) at the end of each day of the race. Wonderful (reminds me of the Olympics).
The Cribb Series: Wobble to Death, The Detective Wore Silk Drawers, Abracadaver, Mad Hatter's Holiday, Invitation to a Dynamite Party, A Case of Spirits, Swing Swing Together, Waxwork.
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Old British Police Series (mentioned only)
Fans of Victorian Police and others of the early days are encouraged to try these series:
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The Prolifics (mentioned only)
This reviewer is constrained by budget and bookshelf space from buying up every book in a long series, but there are some authors of historical detective stories who are both prolific and entertaining. If the subject period is of interest to you, by all means obtain the entire series. Of the following, I have read at least one or two books in each series (and a couple of them have been mentioned separately on this site):
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Stephen Saylor: Gordianus the Finder (Roman detective)|
Without question, this is the best detective series set in Ancient Rome going, with extremely accurate historical backgrounds, interesting characters (many well known known in reality), and clever plots not so much of detection but of intrigue and personality. There have been arguments that Saylor is anachronistic in that he often shows 'modern' attitudes to human rights and the like; this is an unfair judgement of Gordianus (especially), even if he frees his Egyptian/Jewish slave and marries her. Human nature has not changed since Roman times -- especially bureaucrats, lawyers, politicians and the like --, and the culture and civilization of the era had many things in common with our times, with the main difference being the lack of power technology, its replacement being slave labor.
Early books in the series mainly involve the great lawyer/orator/politician Cicero and are often based on real cases; Gordianus is his (often) reluctant agent, if you will, Paul Drake to his Perry Mason or Archie Goodwin to his Nero Wolfe. There are also involvements with the Catiline Conspiracy, the Spartacus Slave Rebellion, Sulla's Dictatorship, etc. All of the books follow a carefully planned chronology, starting in Gordianus's youth and ending up in his old age, with sidelines involving his associates, slaves, loves, adopted children that add human interest without serializing the plots (each book can be read independently of the others, but it is more fun to read them in order). Orthodox mystery plots are more prominent in the earlier books such as Catilina's Riddle and Murder on the Appian Way. The later books in the series are a multi-volume saga concerning Julius Caesar, Pompey, Crassus, and the Civil War -- an extended novel of politics and intrigue (and an opportunity for Gordianus to 'name-drop' by encountering practically every famous Roman of that era you have ever heard of).
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Miscellaneous 
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Among the many historical detectives there is no space to review here, but are well worth reading, are:
They are highly recommended. |
In addition to being able to plot a good detective story, the author of this type of book obviously has to be well-read in the historical period and able to convey the background in a lively manner (without huge gobs of explanatory text). One must also avoid anachronisms, such as fingerprints or ballistics; Cadfael's expertise, for example, is explained by his pre-monk background as a soldier -- his knowledge of wounds -- and also his current occupation in the herbarium -- knowledge of poisons. Dialogue (unless supposedly colloquial Latin) must be handled carefully. On the other hand, human nature is a constant, so normal human motives -- greed, anger, thirst for power, sexual passion, etc. -- continue to apply. The pitfall for all writers of historical detection, no matter how well they've 'swotted' up on their material facts, is the tendency to transpose modern attitudes into the past, especially in the case of the detective, whom the author wants to make as attractive as possible. Human nature does not change but mindsets do. Hence, if a society dependent upon slavery is depicted, it is improper to make the detective an emancipationist. The application of modern Political Correctness to historical fiction is a mortal sin. And a final caveat: the rules of good writing, plotting, drama, character, suspense, human interest apply, as they do with any form of detective fiction, and the lack of these elements is not redeemed by pedantic accuracy as the benchmark.
Mail Recommendation to grobius@sprynet.com
If you would like to write your own short precis of a series detective, please send it to me by regular e-mail (click the red grobius@sprynet.com for a standard e-mail screen and include your text either as an attachment or as a block in the message area). If I approve it -- judgement is mine alone -- I will host it on this site on another web page following a similar format to this one. Once there are at least three entries, that page will become reality, with its own link on the home page, so please feel free to submit your favorite detective!
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