Mysteries and crime novels have never been my type of reading. The purpose is to figure out whodunit, which, given a finite set of possibilities (limited to the text of the novel), quickly devolves into keeping track of the author’s phrasing, and the author’s ambiguity, and what seemingly meaningless detail has been relayed, until the focus of the novel is the author’s skill in hiding his/her invention from you.
I ran across P.D. James’ list of the five best crime novels, for the Wall Street Journal’s “Five Best” series, and decided to give mysteries another try. It’s turning out to be quite good reading. See the details at the WSJ.
Her list is:
- “Tragedy at Law” by Cyril Hare
- “The Franchise Affair” by Josephine Tey
- “The Moving Toyshop” by Edmund Crispin
- “Murder Must Advertise” by Dorothy L. Sayers
- “Dissolution” by C.J. Sansom
Dissolution was a great book, but being a murder mystery set in a monastery, I was constantly in a Name of the Rose mindset. Dissolution wouldn’t make a bad movie, at that.
The Franchise Affair was a great read, too. I had problems with certain passages of the older English (English English, not American English), but nothing that influenced the stream of the book.
Murder Must Advertise didn’t hold my attention for three pages. Couldn’t do it. It required way too much active engagement; I had to strain to tell who was saying what, and what what was.
The other two are next….