British Mystery Series by Author
By clicking on the author's picture you will be linked to a description of the author and the series in sequential order.
By clicking on the series link, you will be linked to Hinsdale Public Library materials.
Authors/Characters
Author: Nancy Atherton
Aunt Dimity
series. Set primarily in the Cotswolds, Aunt Dimity is the central character in a series of cozy mystery/gothic romance novels. Although the series is named for Aunt Dimity, the books actually follow Lori Shepherd, who is "assisted" by her deceased aunt in solving various mysteries.
Author: Stephanie Barron
Jane Austen
series. These historical mysteries feature English author Jane Austen playing amateur sleuth. The books are presented as lost diaries that have been "edited."
Author: M.C. Beaton
Agatha Raisin series. Agatha is a frustrated, yet endearing, middle-aged public-relations agent who moved from London to the Cotswolds after she took early retirement and sold her public-relations firm. She solves murders in each of the earlier books, but in the fifteenth book she sets up her own detective agency. The police, and even some of her acquaintances, insist that she solves crimes through accident and luck.
Author: Mark Billingham
Tom Thorne series. Brooding and melancholy, Detective Inspector Tom Thorne, heads a team of London detectives in a series that offers a twist on the serial killer genre.
Author: Gyles Brandreth
Oscar Wilde series. The Victorian author and playwright Wilde makes for a suave sleuth as he solves crimes. He is assisted by Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, and the poet Robert Sherard, who "narrates" the novels.
Author: Simon Brett
Fethering series. Fethering is a fictitious village on England's south coast. It is the place of residence of amateur sleuths Carole Seddon, a retired civil servant and her neighbor, Jude Nichols, whose origins are obscure.
Author: Emily Brightwell
Mrs. Jeffries series. Everyone is awed by Inspector Witherspoon's Scotland Yard successes, but they don't know that his secret weapon is his housekeeper, Mrs. Jeffries. She keeps his house, keeps him on his toes, and helps solve his cases.
Author: Dorothy Cannell
Ellie Haskell series. Ellie is an interior decorator who solves mysteries along with her husband Ben, a writer and chef. Joining them are Hyacinth and Primrose Tramwell, a pair of dotty sisters and owners of the Flowers Detection Agency. Outlandish characters enliven the stories.
Author: Agatha Christie
Miss Marple series. Miss Jane Marple, an elderly spinster who lives in the quiet village of St. Mary Mead, is deceptively dotty and fragile looking. With her sharp eyes and intelligence though, she knows human nature and helps to solve crimes that have the police stumped.
Hercule Poirot series. The intrepid Belgian detective lives in England and as he often must explain, he is not French. With his egg-shaped head, famous mustaches and superior intellect, he uses his "little grey cells" to solve crimes that appear unsolvable.
Author: Barbara Cleverly
Detective Joe Sandilands series. Joe Sandilands is a World War I veteran and hero who entered into police work as a natural progression from military intelligence service. He is tall and good-looking except for a battle scar over one eyebrow that pulls his face into a permanent quizzical expression. Unlike many protagonists in this genre, Sandilands doesn't have any significant vices or idiosyncrasies, in fact, he's quiet likable. These crime thrillers are set in and around India during the period of the British Raj.
Author: Deborah Crombie
Duncan Kincaid/Gemma Jones series. Superintendent Kincaid and Sergeant Jones are Scotland Yard detectives who start out as partners and end up clandestine lovers as the series develops. The plots can be twisting and complicated as the two main characters blend their private and work lives. This series is a step above a Cozy mystery.
Author: Clare Curzon
Mike Yeadings series. The series features Superintendent Mike Yeadings and his Thames Valley CID department. Those who like their British police procedurals with a tinge of the macabre will be rewarded.
Author: Jeanne Dams
Dorothy Martin series. Dorothy is a retired American schoolteacher now residing in England with her second husband, Chief Constable Alan Nesbitt. Her outspoken American ways can cause some wincing on the part of her husband, but she is a good, amateur sleuth who helps solve crimes in the London area.
Author: Colin Dexter
Morse series. Morse is a senior Criminal Investigation Department officer with the Oxford City Police force. He drives a Jaguar, enjoys real English ale, poetry, art, the classics, cryptic crossword puzzles, and has a penchant for music (especially opera and Wagner.) Despite his sullen temperament, his appearance of snobbery, and his treatment of his assistant, Sergeant Lewis, he is likeable enough as he successfully solves the latest crime.
Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Sherlock Holmes. The incomparable Holmes is the prototype for the modern mastermind detective. The cases he solves are fastidiously recorded by his friend and assistant Dr. John Watson.
Author: Carola Dunn
Daisy Dalrymple series. The Honourable Daisy Dalrymple has taken a job as a journalist to ensure her independence -- an unusual step for the daughter of a viscount in 1922. Her investigations often take her abroad in this series of well-drawn characters, snappy dialogue, and interesting plot twists.
Author: Christopher Fowler
Bryant and May series. Two detectives, Arthur Bryant and John May, are members of the fictional Peculiar Crimes Unit. The series is set primarily in London, with stories taking place in various years between World War II and the present. While there is a progressive narrative, many of the books focus on flashbacks to major criminal incidents from the detectives' shared past. Interwoven are factual layers of London's history and society and can include famous landmarks as well as the network of tunnels and underground rivers beneath the city.
Author: Jonathan Gash
Lovejoy series. This series covers the adventures of Lovejoy, an amateur sleuth, a bit of a rogue, and a British antiques dealer based in East Anglia. His scruples are questionable, but he does have a reputation in the antiques trade for an almost supernatural talent for recognizing exceptional items as well as spotting fakes or forgeries.
Author: Elizabeth George
Inspector Lynley series. The main characters are partnersThomas Lynley (a peer of the realm) and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers of New Scotland Yard who solve murders together and singly. They are sometimes joined by forensic scientist Simon St. John and his wife Deborah. The story lines can be disturbing and intense, but are well-written and have been made into a popular TV series.
Author: Caroline Graham
Chief Inspector Barnaby series. Inspector Tom Barnaby, eventually Detective Chief Inspector, solves murders in small villages all around the English countryside. A genius in criminal investigation, he is highly experienced and very methodical (prone to taking his time). In fact, he often quickly reaches a conclusion as to the identity of the murderer, only to reveal that fact later on after he has accumulated enough evidence. A happily married man, he and his wife, Joyce, have an adult daughter named Cully. The books have been turned into a very popular TV series.
Author: J.M. Gregson
Lambert and Hook series. In Gloucestershire, Chief Superintendent Lambert and DS Hook investigate crime. The trademark meticulous descriptions of police investigative techniques are here along with solidly constructed characters.
Inspector Peach series. The irreverent, irrepressible DCI Percy Peach will appeal primarily to fans of the jauntier British procedurals, those in the Inspector Morse mold, but will also appeal to the more academic fan.
Author: Elly Griffiths
Ruth Gallowayseries. Ruth, a quirky and sharp-tongued anthropologist, lives happily alone digging in the remoter parts of Norfolk. She is occasionally called in to investigate newly discovered bones that have become uncovered in a variety of settings.
Author: Martha Grimes
Richard Jury series. Initially a Chief Inspector, later a Superintendent, Jury is invariably assisted in his cases by his hypochondric, but dependable sergeant, Alfred Wiggins. Often they are joined by Melrose Plant, a British aristocrat who has given up his titles. Jury is very attractive, but is unlucky in love and tends to be melancholy. Adding to the series are a re-occurring ensemble of characters.
Author: Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
Bill Slider series. Slider is a police inspector with Shepherd’s Bush CID in London. He and his team cover the streets investigating crime and often turning up dark secrets. Taunt psychological thrillers.
Author: John Harvey
Resnick series. Detective Inspector Charlie Resnick is the protagonist of a series of police procedural novels. Based in Nottingham, Charlie is complex and capable, a man who loves justice, jazz and cats.
Author: Veronica Heley
Abbot Agency series. Bea Abbot and her husband had been running the highly successful, Abbot Agency for many years, but when he falls ill and dies, she is pressured by her Member of Parliament son to retire. Bea is so tired from the long years of nursing her husband that all she wants is peace and quiet, and to have her pretty early Victorian house in Kensington, London all to herself. What she gets, is a couple of young lodgers with troubled backgrounds, and an old friend banging on her door, asking for help. What she gets is murder! And that scenario launches the series. Other crises follow in subsequent novels and Bea tends to take on cases where the client is reluctant to involve the police.
Author: Reginald Hill
Dalziel and Pascoe series. There is a great contrast between the large, gruff, uncouth Andy Dalziel, an old-school detective, and his colleague, the suave, smooth, highly-educated Peter Pascoe. Set in Yorkshire, the pair solve crimes assisted by able colleagues, in these subtly psychological and suspenseful novels.
Author: Susan Hill
Simon Serrailler series. In this series of gripping psychological thrillers, Detective Chief Inspector Serailler and his team tackle tough issues and crime in the cathedral city of Lafferton. Simon is a handsome, enigmatic man, who can be charming, but who at times can also be distant and cold.
Author: Hazel Holt
Sheila Malory series. Mrs. Malory is a plain-spoken woman residing in the little seaside town of Taviscombe. A middle-aged widow, she potters about between charities, neighbors, chores and pets, and ends up stumbling over bodies or tracking missing persons. There are some similarities to Miss Marple, but unlike Miss Marple, she is younger and has a much more hopeful and warm-hearted approach to people.
Author: Bill James
Harpur & Iles series. Colin Harpur is a Detective Chief Inspector and Desmond Iles is the Assistant Chief Constable in an unnamed coastal city in southwestern England. Harpur and Iles are complemented by an evolving cast of other recurring characters on both sides of the law. The books are characterized by a grim humor and a bleak view of the relationship between the public, the police force and the criminal element.
Author: P.D. James
Adam Dalgliesh series. Detective Chief Inspector, later Commander, of the Metropolitan Police Service of New Scotland Yard in London, Dalgliesh is an intensely cerebral and private person. A widower, he lives in a flat above the Thames where he writes poetry in his spare time. He and his crack squad of CID officers handle only the most sensitive of cases. Dalgliesh is a later example of the gentleman detective.
Author: Peter James
Detective Superintendent Roy Grace series. These crime thrillers featuring CID Detective Superintendent Grace are based in Brighton where Grace and his team often find themselves in a race against time in solving cases. Over the course of the series, the mysterious disappearance of his wife, Sandy, haunts him and is a reminder of his troubled past.
Author: Laurie King
Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series. A "protege" of Sherlock Holmes, Mary Russell is who Holmes would be if the Victorian detective were young, female, and of the twentieth century. In the early novels Holmes is Mary's mentor.
Author: Janet Laurence
Darina Lisle series. Darina is a caterer-chef and cookbook author in West Country, England who often becomes involved in solving food-related deaths.
Author: Peter Lovesey
Peter Diamond series. Diamond, head of CID in modern day Bath, is a large, tenacious investigator who often works outside of police procedures. He does his best to avoid his boss who would only slow him down in solving his cases.
Author: Stuart MacBride
Logan McRae series. McRae is a detective sergeant in Aberdeen, Scotland, a setting of horrific crimes, murders, serial killers, and much eating of chips and drinking of beer. The violence in the book is often depicted in graphic detail and the books are surprisingly vivid in their descriptions of the city. The city is as much a character in the book as the detectives in the homicide department and the victims of crime are.
Author: Barry Maitland
Brock and Kolla series. Detective Chief Inspector David Brock is the head of the Serious Crimes division of Scotland Yard. Brock and his team are assigned only the most serious and perplexing of cases. On his team is Kathy Kolla who progresses in rank from Sergeant to Inspector under his tutelage. She becomes a key partner in unraveling the crimes they have to solve. The cases take Brock and Kolla to all corners of London, and occasionally the world, in these sharply observed and award winning crime novels.
Author: Val McDermid
Tony Hill series. The series pairs British clinical psychologist Hill, a brilliant criminal profiler, and his long-term work partner and sometimes lover, Detective Chief Inspector Carol Jordan. The novels are tense thrillers dealing with serial killers and other dangerous criminals and often depict violence and torture. The novels were made into the Wire in the Blood TV series.
Author: Jill McGown
Lloyd and Hill series. Detective Chief Inspector Lloyd and Sergeant Judy Hill are a crime solving duo in England. She is smart and ambitious, determined to succeed on her own; he is supportive but secretly wishes for a more old-fashioned kind of relationship. They know each other well -- she tolerates his smugness and flair for dramatic effect and he appreciates her cool logic and occasionally brilliant insights. Together, they make an interesting and believable detecting team.
Author: John Mortimer
Rumpole series. Horace Rumpole, an aging London barrister, defends any and all clients. In fact, his skill at defending his clients is legendary among the criminal classes. A man of strong ethics, he prefers not to advance, content in his role of defender in the "Old Bailey." Among Rumpole’s many courtroom weapons is humor. How much tougher it is for the prosecutors when the jury is laughing at their case.
Author: Chris Nickson
Richard Nottingham series. Nottingham is the Constable of the City of Leeds in the 1730’s. While the series has its share of murders, they’re also about the people in the city, relationships, and life in the 18th century where there is one law for the rich, and a much more brutal one for the rest of society.
Author: Nick Oldham
Henry Christie series. DCI Henry Christie investigates crimes in bleak northern England. Intelligent and appealing, Christie is the type of tough, caring, no-nonsense officer we imagine an effective policeman should be. Married with two fast-growing daughters, he is the epitome of a working class northerner. He commands respect from his team because they know that when the going gets tough he’ll be leading from the front. He likes to ruffle feathers and has little time for superior officers who can’t pull their operational weight.
Author: Anne Perry
William Monk series. Set in Victorian England, Monk is a very clever man who wields irony and sarcasm with considerable skill while remaining obstinate, proud, and impulsive. This normally disastrous combination of attributes (which caused his firing from the Police force) is offset by his intelligence and unswerving sense of justice and humanity to those he deems worthy.
Thomas Pitt series. Set in Victorian England, rumpled, working-class Inspector Thomas Pitt is assisted in his cases by his aristocratic wife Charlotte and her upper class relatives and connections.
Author: Ellis Peters
Cadfael series. Brother Cadfael, a Benedictine monk in Shrewsbury, leads a quiet life as the monastery's herbalist, but because of his skill and knowledge of the outside world (as a former Crusader) he is drawn into the political and social intrigue of the medieval world both inside and outside the monastery. The series is set during the turbulent years of the struggle for the Engligh throne between King Stephen and Empress Maud, both decendants of William the Conqueror.
Author: Ann Purser
Lois Meade series. Lois, a local cleaner in a small English village, has a close and intimate knowledge of many of its inhabitants. Danger lurks close by as Lois becomes embroiled in the deeply hidden passions and emotions smoldering beneath the facade of idyllic village life.
Author: Ian Rankin
John Rebus series. Rebus is a natural leader whose gruff exterior and fierce will to succeed in his field belies a benevolent nature. The post-war upbringing he had in a Scottish housing project amidst the decline of heavy industry, makes him identify with those who struggle against adversity and have a distrust of authority. Rebus has a love of books and music, owns an extensive record collection and drives a old Saab. He is a smoker, a heavy drinker and is married to the job. Married once, the traits that keep him strong (and intimidating) are also the traits that drive those closest to him away.
Author: Ruth Rendell
Chief Inspector Wexford series. Detective Chief Inspector Reg Wexford lives in a particularly murder-prone village in Sussex. Wexford is a great reader with a ready supply of literary quotations. A civilized man with decent values, he is unusually tolerant and compassionate. His success in case-solving is often based on his ability to see in people emotions and motivations that other detectives would miss. He is aided by Detective Inspector Michael Burden who is 20 years younger than Wexford but is older in temperament and a bit of a prude. Rendell's portrayal of the ongoing friendship between the two men creates continuity for the series.
Author: Peter Robinson
Inspector Banks series. After living in London and working in the Metropolitan Police Unsolved Crime Squad, Detective Inspector Alan Banks moves his family to the fictional Yorkshire town of Eastvale. His charming demeanor helps him deal with suspects as well as the victims of crime, but he can come down hard when he needs to get answers quickly.
Author: Fay Sampson
Suzie Fewings Genealogical Mystery series. This series combines mystery and genealogy. Suzie is a keen genealogist who discovers interesting secrets in her family history in England. She helps others with their research too and often uncovers secrets better left buried.
Author: Dorothy L. Sayers
Lord Peter Wimsey series. Set mostly in post-World War I, Lord Peter is an aristocratic investigator who solves mysteries (sometimes murders) for his own amusement as a hobby. Wimsey is assisted by his intrepid valet, Bunter.
Author: Kate Sedley
Roger the Chapman series. A former monk, young Roger the Chapman (or peddler), earns his living selling lace and silk throughout the English countryside. His real passion though is solving puzzles so he uses his keen wit and intelligence to solve mysteries in his travels. The series is set during the tumultuous years of the War of Roses, the fight for the throne between the royal houses of York and Lancaster.
Author: Josephine Tey
Alan Grant series. An Inspector of Scotland Yard, Grant is a slightly built, dapper gentleman police officer of independent means. Grant fancies himself an expert on faces. The five books in which he appears constitute an oeuvre whose highly literate and witty prose have attracted a devoted following.
Author: Charles Todd (aka Caroline and Charles Todd, an American mother-son writing team)
Ian Rutledge series. Still recovering from shell shock and the ravages of his service in the Great War, Scotland Yard Inspector Rutledge's thoughts are haunted by the ghost of a soldier, Hamish MacLeod, who taunts him as he works on his cases. Good, psychological suspense novels.
Author: Peter Turnbull
Hennessey & Yellich series. George Hennessey, chief inspector, and Detective Sergeant Yellich, are with the Vale of York police, in England. In each book in the series the author gives a little biography of the characters. Hennessey is a widower whose wife died suddenly when their son was an infant. The son now grown with a family of his own, George lives with his dog, reads military history, and takes a walk every night about York, ending up at the local pub where he has one pint of bitter. Yellich is a happily married man who is content with his work and his home life.
Author: Nicola Upson
Josephine Tey series. This series is a tribute to one of the most enduringly popular writers of crime and successfully incorporates the life of the author with crime fiction's past.
Author: Jacqueline Winspear
Maisie Dobbs series. Maisie is a psychologist/investigator in post-World War I London. Her beginnings are working class, but fortune brings her into contact with the upper class and where she consequently receives an education. A nurse during the war, Maisie returns to London to work with her mentor, accomplished detective Dr. Maurice Blanche. When Blanche retires, Maisie opens up her own detective agency.