90 books like Requiem for an Angel

I highly recommend every mystery Sayers has written. She’s my kind of author — articulate, inspiring, a writer who writes about her surroundings with a realism that allows a reader to enter and learn more: In this book, death by the ringing of church bells in a small English village.

She’s complex but delivers layers of life and death with profound simplicity and understanding. The daughter of a minister, an advertising copywriter, a poet, she graduated from Oxford and used her life experiences to color every page she wrote.

I love her spunk and the exciting way she has written. But mostly, I love her monocled amateur sleuth, Lord Peter Whimsey who exploded on her typewriter in her first mystery.

From the very beginning of her writing career, I’ve loved the novels of P.D. James. Her clear-eyed understanding of the human condition, and the precision of her writing, have always set her a bit apart from other writers in the genre, but this novel blew me away. As she explores the death of two men in the crypt of a London church—one a prominent member of Parliament, the other a homeless vagrant—she transcends genre altogether and creates a work of such depth and complexity that it resonates with me still, many years later. She wrote some fine books both before and after, but this will always be for me the high water mark of one of my all-time favourite writers—and role models.

Set in the evocative, spooky borderlands known as the Marches, between England and Wales, this is part of a series by Phil Rickman. Through the novels we follow the trials and tribulations of Merrily Watkins, a parish priest and the official exorcist for the Hereford diocese of the Church of England—thus introducing a strong element of the supernatural. Merrily is a believable and sympathetic protagonist, with her share of human weaknesses, and she’s surrounded by a rich, unforgettable cast of ongoing supporting characters: daughter Jane, musician Lol, and the wonderful Gomer Parry. It was difficult to choose one book from this fine series, but I settled on this one because it features one of my own favourite churches—Kilpeck, in the wilds of Herefordshire.

Flavia de Luce is surely one of the most original—and the most delightful—detective characters ever written. The precocious eleven-year-old lives in a crumbling manor house in the English countryside, with her vague father, beastly older sisters, and faithful retainer Dogger. Her interest in chemistry—and death—tend her get her into trouble on a regular basis. In this book, Flavia is on the scene when the body of the church organist turns up in the medieval tomb of St Tancred, the parish church’s patron saint. Predictably, she sets out to solve the murder, tearing about the village on her faithful bicycle Gladys. Alan Bradley evokes a world—rural England in the 1950s—that many of us would love to return to (in spite of the murders!) and has created an unforgettable heroine. If you enjoy mysteries that make you smile, rather than… show more.

I am most excited to talk about this book since Cidney Swanson became one of my favorite authors. I’ll admit a lot of people don’t know who she is, but she’s a very sweet and talented author more people should know about.

Halley, our main character, ends up house-sitting for a well-to-do scientist. As she’s sitting for him in his fancy house, an earthquake hits and Halley is now face-to-face with an earl definitely not from this time period. The earl is confused to say the least, but Halley and her friends are now responsible for helping him get back to where he belongs. Turns out the scientist has secrets in his fancy house, and he’s not willing to share. When Halley and her friends find themselves involved in the scientist's mess, they are now trying to help the earl and save themselves. This book has danger, intrigue, and sweet… show more.

Do you like smart writing with lots of humor? How about historical accuracy with a nod to science fiction? Characters that speak to your soul? Must Love Breeches has all this and more. This romance pairs a modern woman with brains and an indomitable spirit with a rakishly handsome, revenge-seeking nobleman. The backdrop is an 1834 London so realistic you’ll be checking your pockets to make sure they weren’t picked.

While it’s hard to dismiss 12 Monkeys on a list of fiction where there are not machines creating the passage for time travel (even though it was never a novel), I have to say Jack London’s The Jacket does a better job at being subtle. The novel was adapted into a film in 2005 and follows a main character who experiences a time slip at the point of a near-death experience when he is in confined situations (i.e., when they think he’s dead and put him in a casket or when they need to subdue him in a straitjacket.) These tight confines of space initiate his ability to time travel through teetering on the brink of death. The story is slightly more ‘spiritual’ than ‘science based,’ but I felt it stood out as a good example of using the power inside of us to be able to defy the fabric… show more.

This book starts with the gorgeous Ali Stinson going from riches to rags. Things aren’t looking good for her until she meets handsome blond bartender Sam. There are surprises throughout the story, a playboy ex-husband who creates mischief, and thrilling twists leading to a memorable ending. There’s more to Ali and Sam than who you meet at first glance. Strong women are my thing and she’s smart—very smart—with a spine made of titanium. Sam is more than just a hot bartender by the pool. He has a secret too. And yes, the bedroom scenes are full of steam. Did the book thrill me? Yes, very much!

Not as outrageous as the other books on this list, but unique all the same. Lanny introduced me to the idea of experimental and literary fiction. In fact, until reading Lanny, I hadn’t written fiction for years. Yet this book swarmed my brain with new ideas poised to push the boundaries of my written ability. Lanny is tender, surprising, sad, poetic, and wholesome.  

It’s too easy, in time travel fantasies, to imagine that you would feel a step above the people around you... that you alone know what’s coming, and just, in general, have your advanced-future-person perspective on the world. That’s not how history should feel. The All Clear series’s time-traveling historians arrive to observe the London Blitz and have that comforting certainty ripped out from underneath them. They’re left lost, alone, and isolated in a well-painted portrait of a world on the edge of collapse.