July is Crime Month here at Booktopia — a month-long celebration of crime fiction and edge-of-your-seat thrillers, as well as the readers who devour them. Today, creator of the beloved Phryne Fisher mysteries Kerry Greenwood is on the blog to share some of the books on her shelves that she loves the most. Read on …
Gaudy Night
by Dorothy L. Sayers
This is my kind of crime novel, by my no.1 heroine. Never repeat yourself! we admonish ourselves. Sayers never did. Her books are all brilliant, but this one is justly the favourite of women readers everywhere. URST is finally vanquished, after Peter Wimsey has laboured for Harriet Vane as Jacob did for Rachel. She finally accepts him because he is kind, generous, respectful, and really does take ‘No’ for an answer. Just like Mr Darcy, really
Buy it here
Necklace and Calabash
by Robert van Gulik
Judge Dee (Di Ren-jeh to modern Chinese folk) is the Chinese Sherlock Holmes, the more so for having actually lived during the Tang Dynasty. As a humble district magistrate he must detect, solve, and punish crime; and if he gets it wrong, then good intentions are no excuse. This is my favourite Judge Dee. Entrapped in a tangled web of courtiers’ intrigue, he finds the missing Imperial treasure and restores Confucian verities to a chaotic world.
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Night Watch
by Sir Terry Pratchett
Most of Pratchett’s fantasy books are brilliant. This one is a tour de force. While we may regret the temporary absence of Captain Carrot (the true king of Ankh-Morpork), the time travel motif has never been more cleverly handled. While Pratchett’s books are usually classified as fantasy, most of the Ankh-Morpork ones are more properly crime novels, and this is no exception. Sam Vimes may be a Duke, but he always gets his man. Even if he has to go back thirty years to get him.
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Rivers of London
by Ben Aaronovitch
As with Pratchett, most people categorize Aaronovitch as fantasy. Yet they are crime novels in the truest sense. Peter Grant is a wonderful creation: Sierra Leonian by ancestry; but a Londoner to his marrow-bones. It is very difficult to write Wodehousian adventure stories, which is why most writers do not attempt it. Aaronovitch creates the most intricate mysteries, and makes us laugh while doing it. All the books are superb; but this (the first) fired my imagination like no other.
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Rest You Merry
by Charlotte MacLeod
It was this book that inspired me to write an Australian Cosy. Peter Shandy loathes Christmas. Everyone else at Balaclava Agricultural College loves it. So he decamps for the holidays, leaving the loudest and most garish decorations on endless and unstoppable loop. Thus begins a murder mystery like no other. The irascible Viking College President is a highlight not to be missed. MacLeod wrote a great many cosies set in Maine, the Mid-West and the Canadian border; but this is my favourite.
Buy it here
One For The Money
by Janet Evanovich
There are currently twenty-seven Stephanie Plum novels, of which this is the first. I love them all. She is a bounty-hunter and detective who tears her way across the USA solving crimes and getting her man. Born and raised in Noo Joisey (where else?) she finds herself broke, unemployed, and in debt. She decides to get on the front foot and go after Bad Guys. I love her books for many reasons; not least because she does neither self-doubt nor self-pity. Stephanie is an inspiration for us all.
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Kerry Kerry Kerry
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The Lady with the Gun Asks the Questions
The ultimate Miss Phryne Fisher story collection
The elegant Miss Phryne Fisher returns in this scintillating collection, which features four brand-new stories.
The Honourable Phryne Fisher - she of the Lulu bob, Cupid's bow lips, diamante garters and pearl-handled pistol - is the 1920s' most elegant and irrepressible sleuth. Miss Phryne Fisher is up to her stunning green eyes in intriguing crime in each of these entertaining, fun and compulsively readable stories. With the ever-loyal Dot, the ingenious Mr Butler and all of Phryne's friends and household, the action is as fast as Phryne's wit and logic...
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