29 books like The Case of the Murdered Muckraker

Who wouldn’t love a fun book about royals and murder?

Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie, Georgie for short, is waaay down the line of people to inherit, 34th in the queue, to be precise. And she’s flat broke. Thrown out of the Scotland castle that is her childhood home by her greedy sister-in-law, Georgie cleans homes in secret to earn a bit of money.

Things are just beginning to look up when she finds a dead Frenchman in her bathtub! If being suspected of murder is not enough, she’s also been given a job by the Queen to spy on the playboy Prince of Wales.

Georgie is irrepressible and full of spunk. She’s clumsy, makes mistakes, and fails often, but never gives up. A most relatable heroine.

I found the premise of this book intriguing. A detective with amnesia discovering his identity through his interactions with those who knew him before his accident? Yes, please! It's so unique!

This first book in the Inspector Monk series sets the stage for the many great books that follow with a brilliant murder mystery, interesting characters, and an immersive setting. I loved the intersection of Victorian London and the Crimean War and the many ways in which Perry brought the history to life with characters Dickens would be proud of, puzzles that would please Agatha Christie, and world-building that would satisfy Brandon Sanderson.

I love all of Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael books for so many reasons.

One is the crisp excellence of writing, one is her illuminating description of her medieval setting, one is her endearing protagonist, one is her exceptional plotting. This particular title has a most intriguing plot and a thoroughly satisfying resolution.

I chose the book (which I have reread many times) with a satisfied smile. And finally, the books are set in the England I so love, even if her setting is 11 centuries ago. 

I dearly loved the Robin Paige books and was so sorry when Susan and Bill Albert (the authors behind the pseudonym) stopped writing them.

These books were always entertaining and always provided me with a place where I wanted to live for a while with people I wanted to know.

Real people were always creeping into the story, in this case Messrs. Rolls and Royce, in a fictional account of their first meeting. So redolent of the time, late 1800s, and the place, coziest England.

A little witchcraft, a balloon race, an automobile race featuring a steamer, an electric, and a gasoline-powered auto—what could be more atmospheric, more fun, or more conducive of a fascinating murder?

I believe that this book is a nice starting point for students (starting with undergraduates) who are interested in learning more about media scandal via particular examples.

I was attracted by the book because it focuses on some of the most influential and notorious media scandals in history. What I found particularly useful for my research was the detailed timeline that helped me to put the wide-ranging scandals into historical perspective.

This is why I personally recommend this book to anyone interested in the social phenomenon of media scandal.      

Jurgis Rudkus, the protagonist of Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel The Jungle, is a Lithuanian immigrant who comes to Chicago at the turn of the 20th century to work in the city’s notorious meat-packing industry.

Described as a “very steady man” who “does not easily lose his temper,” Jurgis reminds me of my father, Jerry. Like Jurgis, my father’s solution to most of life’s problems is to just work harder, regardless of the personal consequences.

In the novel, Jurgis injures himself on the job and Sinclair captures not only his physical agony but the more formidable dread of not being able to provide for his family, the working-man’s greatest fear.

Often panned for over-politicizing Jurgis’s plight, The Jungle elevates an anonymous member of the laboring class and presents him as a symbol of virtue, valor, and hope.

When I think of the classic mysteries of the Golden Age, I automatically picture an English country house. In Deborah Crombie’s A Bitter Feast, Scotland Yard Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his wife, Detective Inspector Gemma James, are invited for a fall getaway at Beck House a country estate in the Cotswolds. When a posh charity luncheon catered by brilliant young chef Viv Holland turns deadly, Duncan and Gemma are pulled into the investigation. While I enjoyed the masterful unfolding of the investigation and the fascinating behind-the-scenes look into a high-end restaurant kitchen, it was the iconic setting that hooked me. Worthy of Miss Marple herself.

I investigated the murder of Irene Hart after I found an account of the crime in this anthology of murders. I was horrified to see that there had been an apparent miscarriage of justice with the wrong man being hanged. I researched the case and wrote my first book. Margaret’s book is very special to me as it started my career as a true crime writer. Although this is an anthology of crimes committed in the author’s home town they could have happened anywhere. The motives and reasons for murder are the same everywhere: greed, jealousy, sex, envy, or just a purely evil soul. Excellent book by an author who had a weekly true crime column in the local paper.

This is another favorite series, but this book in particular is a pivotal story.

The secrets of Duncan's ex-wife are fascinating in their own right but also in how they impact the relationship of the central series characters, Duncan and Gemma. The mystery is resolved in this book, but the personal revelations ripple through the series in fascinating ways and raise the stakes going forward.

I saw the 2010 movie first and then later found the book version in a thrift store and had to grab it. Both book and movie deftly create a gloomy, gothic, Romantic atmosphere; the book develops the characters and relationships further. It’s the age-old story of a man seeking to rid himself of a curse, pursued by the law and betrayed by someone who was supposed to protect him—I’m a sucker for that kind of tale! If you enjoy the classics like Dracula and Frankenstein, but find it harder to get through them or connect with them emotionally because of the older language and style, give this book a try.