Why So Series? Part 2

 

    Sometimes a reader might want to return to the comfortable and comforting. Maybe that means reading a favorite again.  That was never me; there are probably only 4-5 books that I've ever read more than once.  Maybe that means reading new adventures of familiar characters in a series of novels.  Here's part 2 of a look at some historically themed mystery series that you might want to consider.

    My latest read of these selections is the first entry in the Harlem Renaissance Mystery series called Dead Dead Girls, written by Nekesa Afia.  It's an interesting premise and a rich setting to explore, the Harlem Renaissance of the roaring twenties, one of the most exciting and active moments in American history. A young woman named Louise mirrors the twenties, struggling to balance two lives --- old-fashioned, traditional father and upbringing on one hand and the life of a modern girl, a flapper, on the other. Unfortunately, the author missed the mark. The story is somewhat interesting, but it's obvious that the author was more interested in writing a "woke" commentary than a true historical novel. There were some anachronisms and things that just didn't make sense to my mind.

    Jonathan Putnam is much more successful with his Lincoln-Speed mystery series. These books focus on Abraham Lincoln and his best friend, Joshua Speed, in Illinois as they solve crimes. His stories are based on kernels of truth, and the reader can tell that Putnam has done his research. Speed is actually the star of the novels; he is the narrator, and Lincoln, in fairness, doesn't appear in large sections of the books. Putnam's Lincoln generally sends Speed out to do the legwork, puts the clues together, and comes up with the solution. Still well -written and entertaining.

    The Hangman's Daughter series is translated from the author's original German. The author discovered that he is descended from a family of medieval German executioners. The position of Hang,an or Executioner was a necessary but unpleasant part of medieval life. The job was often passed down from father to son. Executioners were not only executioners, but torturers, and interrogators, and often they also possessed a very specialized novel of medicines, poisons, medical treatments, because their work often involved inflicting great pain and taking the accused to the brink of death, but pulling him back at the last possible moment.  So after the author discovered his own ancestry, he created Jacob Kuisl an executioner in 1660 Germany who, along with his family, solve mysteries and crimes.  Enjoyable series.

    Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child are very successful authors on their own, but together, they have created two very popular mystery series that have a lot of historic themes. One series stars eccentric (OK, weird as heck) FBI Special Agent named Aloysius Pendergast.  There are now 22 Pendergast novels in the series. Besides being grounded in history, there is also frequently a supernatural or seemingly supernatural element involved.

    The pair recently spun off a character from the Pendergast books into her own series, and the third in the series has just been published. Nora Kelly, the protagonist, is an archaeologist who often stumbles into archaeological and historical mysteries that require her to work with the FBI.  

Why so Series? Part 1

     I've just recently listened to the first two books of British tv presenter and comedian Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club trilogy, and I was quite satisfied. The stories were good, the characters even better, and the narrator of the audiobooks is one of the best ever.  While there's not really a whole lot of history in the novels - except that the main characters are all in their 70s and living in a senior development - there are lots of detective stories rooted in history, and many of these have become series. A reader can follow along with the twists and turns of a good mystery and immerse themselves in another time, simultaneously. Some of these books I've mentioned before, here's a list just to get you started.

    Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series is a favorite series (15 books).  Gunther, the main character, starts out as a detective in 1930s Berlin in the first book of the series, vainly trying to keep order and sanity under Nazi rule. Over the course of the series, he finds himself involved in cases that take him all the way through the Cold War.

    Tony Hillerman's series (25 books)about Navajo Nation detective Joe Leaphorn is classic. The books combine good mystery stories with lots of depth in Navajo culture and beliefs. Since Tony's death, his daughter Anne has continued the series. Now Joe Leaphorn mostly acts as a consultant while his former partner Jim Chee solves crimes with his wife Bernie Manuelito.

    So far, there are 22 Phryne Fisher novels, and two tv series based on them. Phryne is an Australian flapper, a very modern woman for the late 1920s and early 1930s, who finds herself mixed up in all sorts of illegal shenanigans.

    Craig Johnson's Longmire (21 books) has also been made into a tv series. Sheriff Walt Longmire is a contemporary Wyoming Sheriff, but his work often involves historical objects and artifacts and dealings with the local Cheyenne reservation.

    Brad Meltzer has some catching up to do. His Beecher White series only has 3 titles at the moment, but I'll let it slide, since Meltzer has written dozens of other titles. Beecher White is an archivist, yes and archivist - employed at the National Archives in Washington DC- and he is recruited to join the Culper Ring, an organization named after the spy ring formed by George Washington during   the Revolution. As Meltzer tells it, the Culper Ring has spent the last two hundred years protecting Presidents and preventing national catastrophes. 

    And if you want to go back a few centuries, there's always the Cadfael series (and another tv series) of 24 books. Cadfael is a 12th century former Crusader who becomes a monk, and of course he finds lot of mysteries to solve in monasteries, convents, and medieval villages.

Phryne Fisher's Marvelous Mysteries

     No doubt, the British are all in when it comes to creating great fictional detectives: Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, and Hercule Poirot, for example. British television has made many detective series into great period shows that we love to watch, like Father Brown, Grantchester, Maigret, and even one revolving around a medieval monk detective, Cadfael. The Canadians have even gotten in on the act with shows like The Murdoch Mysteries, following a turn of the 20th century scientific-minded detective. Almost all of these shows are based on novel series. However, one of the most fun detectives in fiction and television is Australian: the Honorable Miss Phryne Fisher.

    Phryne Fisher is the creation of Australian author Kerry Greenwood, and she is a thoroughly modern woman of the late 1920s, a wealthy flapper, in Melbourne, Australia. Fisher is a female detective, a socialite, and a philanthropist. She's a totally liberated woman woman who flies a plane, drives her own sports car, carries a gun, often wears trousers, and is sexually frank and open. As of now, there have been 21 Fisher books, an Australian tv series (In the US, the series can be seen on PBS, various streaming sources, Youtube, and the Ovation channel.) , and a feature film. She is surrounded by an interesting set of characters, like her personal lady's maid Dot, her servants Mr. and Mrs. Butler, a Scottish woman doctor, and two truck drivers who act as her investigators and "muscle" on occasion, Bert and Cec (pronounced Cess, from the British Cecil). Phryne herself is intelligent, funny, courageous, inventive, and she is the epitome of fashion. 

    Both the tv show and the books paint an interesting picture of life in 1920s-1930s Australia, reflecting class, race, and gender issues of the time. Just like in the US, the 1920s were a tumultuous decade of conflict between traditional and conservative. Miss Fisher's mysteries often deal with modern issues like illegal drugs, immigration, and sex trafficking.  The books are relatively short and quick reads, averaging a couple of hundred pages or 5-6 hours in the audio versions (which we are listening to - great narration so far). 

    If you're looking for a new mystery series, give Phryne a try.