Can’t get enough of Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, or Julia Child?
Good news! Mystery writers are bringing your favorite writers to life in their novels.
It’s part of a trend in the past few years where authors are including real-life writers in their mysteries. In some books, the authors make appearances as side characters, but in other books they themselves are the sleuths.
It’s a fun way to make historical fiction even more vibrant.
So enjoy a dive into the past with some of your favorite authors as proverbial tour guides. Here are six fictional mysteries about famous authors!
The Case of the Christie Conspiracy
Eliza Baker needs a job. She’s been making money hustling folks at the nearby chess club, but it’s not lucrative enough or steady.
She takes a job as Dorothy Sayer’s assistant for the newly formed Detection Club, populated with the creme a la creme of mystery writers of the day, even though Eliza does not like mysteries.
As the proverbial bug on the wall, she sees how Agatha Christie’s recently published controversial The Murder of Roger Ackroyd nearly tears the group apart. But when one of the members ends up shot in the middle of the Detection Club’s first initiation ceremony, all signs point to Christie.
On top of that, Christie disappears the following day without a trace. Now Baker needs to find out if the writer is behind the death of the man who was pushing to expel her from the group, or if something else is going on.
It’s the first in the Detection Club mystery series.
The Vanished Bride
Not all mystery series in this genre have mystery writer characters. This series has the Brontë sisters!
In 1845—before the sisters became famous—a small community is shocked when a newly remarried woman goes missing from her home. More disturbing is that she leaves a giant blood stain behind.
The three sisters are nearby, living with their father and brother for the first time in years. When Emily, Anne, and Charlotte Brontë read about the crime, they decide to use their skills to find out what happened to the young woman.
But not everyone thinks three young ladies should be looking into a possible murder investigation, especially not the person behind the disappearance.
There are four books in the Brontë Sisters Mystery series.
Mastering the Art of French Murder
U.S. expat Tabitha Knight has just arrived in 1950s Paris, France to spend time with her French grandfather. She ends up meeting Julia Child who awakens a desire in Tabitha to learn how to cook French food.
Things couldn’t be brighter in Paris. That is, until a woman’s body is found in the cellar—and Tabitha recognizes her from the party the night before.
Evidence points to Julia and/or her sister Dort. Tabitha now has to look into the shadows behind the City of Lights before it’s too late.
It’s the first in the three book (so far) series of the An American in Paris Mystery series.
Colleen Cambridge also has her own series in the world of Agatha Christie, called the Phyllida Bright Mystery series. In this, Agatha’s housekeeper, Phyllida Bright, finds herself turning sleuth after people keep turning up dead in Agatha’s world.
Death and the Sisters
This one includes the amazing Mary Shelley…before she wrote Frankenstein.
Rival stepsisters Mary Godwin and Jane Clairmont agree on two things: they don’t want the life of a typical Victorian woman, nor do they want to work in their father’s bookshop.
So, naturally, they find themselves drawn to Percy Bysshe Shelley, who seems otherworldly at a dinner party at the house. But their rivalry over their mutual interest gets pushed aside when a rival of Shelly’s is found murdered in their father’s bookshop.
It’s the first book of the Mary Shelley Mystery series. Redmond has also written a mystery series involving Charles Dickens!
The Queens of Crime
Here’s another one for fans of Golden Age of Crime writers. This time, it’s Dorothy Sayers who takes the lead and narrates the story.
It's the 1930s, and Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, Baroness Emma Orczy, Ngaio Marsh, and Margery Allingham are annoyed at being shut out of the world of detection just because of their gender.
They form the Queens of Crime and plan to solve a challenging real life crime. They decide to look into the mysterious death of an English nurse named May Daniels, who disappeared from a train station and is found murdered in the woods.
A Knife in the Fog
Last but not least, here’s a series focusing on none other than Arthur Conan Doyle and the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes, Professor Joseph Bell.
It’s before Sherlock Holmes has taken off, and Conan Doyle is figuring out how to make a living. One day he gets a message from the former Prime Minister William Gladstone with an intriguing offer: help the Metropolitan police catch the man known ominously as Jack the Ripper.
Conan Doyle pulls in his friend and mentor, Professor Joseph Bell, and a writer, Miss Margaret Harkness, who provides insight into the area. The three try to figure out who the serial killer is before he can kill again.
There are two books in the Margaret Harkness and Arthur Conan Doyle series.
