32 books like The Body in the Library

I get a kick out of a story that presents a main character who doesn’t fit the expected norms of a hero or heroine. A feisty, middle-aged African-American housekeeper/cook is not your typical amateur sleuth. When her checks bounce because her rich employer fails to pay her, Blanche goes on the lam. Hiding as a maid for a wealthy family, things look bleak when a murder occurs in the home.  Blanche calls on her savvy and wit to discover the truth. As the story unfolds, the author uses humor and biting sentences to present a glimpse into the foibles of southern society toward domestic help. This is the first of this cozy mystery series featuring a very memorable character, Balance White. An enjoyable read!  

Once you read Blanche on the Lam, I believe you won’t hesitate to search out book two of the series to see what further adventures… show more.

Not only did I, as the reader, get a great mystery to solve, but the main character is a baker who owns her own shop, The Cookie Jar, so there are a ton of delightful recipes included! I enjoyed the family dynamics in Fluke’s books between Hannah, her two sisters, and her mother.

The romantic dynamic between Hannah and the two love interests was intriguing. It’s also set in Minnesota, where I’m originally from, so I could perfectly picture the setting and feel the cold in winter. 

The best way I can recommend this book is by informing you that, over the years, I have purchased every book in the series and read them more than once. Between 1967 and 2007, Lillian Jackson Braun wrote twenty-nine Cat Who books. This prolific writer passed away in 2011, but her novels are still popular. Her cozy mysteries do not feature the usual female sleuth. Instead, the main character is a reporter named Jim Qwilleran and his two Siamese cats, Ko Ko and Yum Yum. The story I picked to feature is The Cat Who Played Post Office. After millions were bequeathed to Qwilleran from Francesca Klingerschoen, known to Qwilleran as Aunt Fanny, he moves himself and the cats to the enormous mansion he’d inherited. After hiring a staff of local servants, a shocking murder takes place. Qwill’s ability to listen to others and his desire to investigate, combined… show more.

Patricia Wentworth is one of the most atmospheric writers I’ve read.

This is the first in her Miss Silver series, featuring an elderly lady who looks a lot like Miss Marple but pre-dates her. While still within the cozy genre, parts of this book, especially the opening section, where the mysterious man in the gray mask makes his first appearance, can make your spine tingle with that delicious feeling of tension that only a good mystery book brings.

Like Miss Marple, Miss Silver is adept at deducing what the various protagonists might do based on her reading of their psychology, but the characters are much better fleshed out in these books, as is the period in which it is set. And the romance is a definite bonus.

This is another murder mystery set in a quintessential English village and where we meet detective Adam Dalgleish for the first time. The day after the church fete, Sally Jupp is found dead in her bedroom, the door locked from the inside. I loved the way tension gradually builds through the story and how expertly each character is drawn. Nobody is who they seem, including the victim.

I chose this book as it was the one that introduced me to Morse, not the code but the Detective Chief Inspector. Apart from being an excellent crime solver, he is also a superb Times crossword solver. I liked that this cerebral activity was a clue in itself to his method of disentangling the threads linking the criminal to the murder. In that respect, he resembles Poirot, like Morse, a man of limited physical activity.

I found the man, rather than the policeman, was an enigma. He can be charming, but mostly he’s curt, cranky, and cynical. He has a passion for Real Ale, Scotch Whisky, and pubs but loses himself in classical music and opera. He’s a bachelor, sometimes a little lecherous, but he loves and admires women.

I was amused by the fact no one knew his first name. If asked, he would say it was Inspector. In… show more.

I first discovered the Inspector Littlejohn stories by George Bellairs when I briefly lived on the Isle of Man. Littlejohn has a dry sense of humour and a sharp tongue. In this story he is called in to investigate the death of a bishop whose emaciated body has been found at the bottom of the cliff at Cape Marvin. Little is known about the bishop and it is up to the inspector to discover if the answer to his death can be found in his past or in the secretive village of Cape Marvin.

Everyone has probably seen an episode (or two hundred) of that favorite British detective series, Midsomer Murders. But not everyone knows that the series about what has to be the most depleted part of England is, in fact, based on seven novels by Caroline Grahams.

This is the first book, but they are all definitely worth a read. It’s easy to see how the books turned into a beloved TV series, with its unique blend of cozy English villages and twisted English villagers. 

I’ve read several of this author’s books, so I am familiar with her talent for telling compelling stories. Like all the best reads, I couldn’t put it down from the very first page.

The heroine is a strong woman whose world falls apart at the death of her son and the prospect of his heart being donated to someone else. I loved how the author handled this intensely sensitive subject while keeping the mystery side of the story at the forefront. I liked that there is a creepiness to a few of the characters, too, so you never know for sure who the good guys are.

This was difficult to do well, but Ackroyd makes it work–and he makes it look easy: One half of the story is told in a very idiosyncratic version of early eighteenth-century English (the other half in contemporary English). The level of sheer craftsmanship is impressive.

The story gripped me: a serial killer mystery with touches of the occult and supernatural. London is a haunted place in this story, but not only the victims of the past but also the killers are still with us today. We come to understand that our entire world is built on the flawed achievements of the past.