Holiday Book Recommendations

For the fan of traditional mysteries, think Agatha Christie

Interestingly, three of the traditional mysteries I’ve loved this year have been an homage to another well-known book. Two tip their hats to Agatha Christie and one to F. Scott Fitzgerald (who didn’t write mystery at all!)

Both Christie-inspired mysteries reference MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS. Sulari Gentill’s FIVE FOUND DEAD is unapologetically set on the Orient Express. Brother and sister protagonists Joe (a crime fiction writer) and Meredith (an attorney) journey on the iconic train to celebrate Joe’s success in a health battle. But as soon as he begins settling in to write his next book, the cabin next door becomes a crime scene. Like the Christie novel, this is a locked room mystery loaded with red herrings.

Eva Jurcyk’s 6:40 TO MONTREAL, also set on a train with a mystery writer on board, begins with Agatha, the aptly named protagonist, boarding a commuter train as a mini writing retreat. The weather, and a suspicious death, quickly derails Agatha’s plan, which it becomes increasingly clear was never just a writing retreat. Atmospheric and incredibly claustrophobic, Jurcyk’s ode to Dame Agatha verges on a pulse-pounding thriller.

While the title of Thomas Maier’s book MONTAUK TO MANHATTAN certainly references a commuter train associated with the well-heeled, the story plays out mostly in Montauk, where an actress vanishes from the set of a television mini-series. A sweeping novel with big ambitions, MONTAUK TO MANHATTAN touches on everything from wealth, justice, Me Too, the theft of indigenous land and even the fate of modern fiction. It is admittedly more literary fiction than mystery, but I had to include it.

From trains to riverboats, Laura Lipmann’s MURDER TAKES A VACATION is a delightful mystery with an even more delightful protagonist. Muriel Blossom, a recent widow and the fearless receptionist of a private detective, takes a long-awaited European riverboat cruise only to get caught up in a murder investigation, with a surprising array of suitable and unsuitable gentlemen hanging around her. Lipmann peppers in some humor and some romance in this sparkling mystery.

THE UNDERSTUDY by Morgan Richter would be perfect for the mystery-reading opera or theater fan in your life. Set in New York City, the story follows Kit, an opera singer who has finally landed a leading role in a small opera company preparing a big opera adaptation of the 1970s cult classic film Barbarella. But Kit’s understudy has a secret, and when things start going wrong for Kit and the production, she must uncover them. THE UNDERSTUDY is very atmospheric and full of twists.