Contemporary Mystery Series I Love

As a historian and historical novelist who hosts New Books in Historical Fiction, I spend a lot of time reading books set in the past. However, I don’t read only books set in previous centuries. In fact, I enjoy good contemporary mysteries just as much as historical ones. So to follow up on last week’s post, here are a few, perhaps not so well known contemporary mysteries series I love.

Ann Claire, A Cyclist’s Guide to Crime and Croissants (Cyclist’s Guide Mysteries)

As I’ve mentioned before, what sets a particular mystery series apart for me is a compelling main character, and Ann Claire has created a great one in Sadie Greene, a former accountant who nine months before the story opens ditched her high-pressure, high-paying corporate job to buy Oui Cycle, a business that organizes bicycle tours in Provence, France. Sadie is still recovering from the death of her closest friend, Gemma, and the story of what happened to Gemma runs throughout the book as a mystery of its own.

But things really heat up when Sadie’s former boss, Dom Appleton, and his immediate family join her latest tour—already a high-stakes outing given the presence of an online critic known for his scathing reviews. When Dom turns up dead and a hot, English-speaking detective arrives to deal with the case, all the elements are in place for a captivating mystery told with a light-hearted verve.

Book 2—A Cyclist’s Guide to Villains and Vines, which takes place in Alsace—came out in May.

Krista Davis, Murder, She Barked (Paws & Claws Mysteries)

It’s no secret that I’m a sucker for mystery novels featuring dogs and cats with a role to play in the story. I wrote an entire blog post on cats in fiction, although not all the examples were mysteries. Here the animals in question are a Jack Russell terrier and a Calico kitten, each of whom helps the main character, Holly Miller, in its own way.

Holly is at a low point in her life, having just lost her job, when an emergency call sends her rushing to Wagtail Mountain, the site of her grandmother’s inn. At a gas station along the way, she rescues the Jack Russell at a gas station and encounters a troubling accident close to the inn. As the story develops, Holly revives old ties, questions her unsatisfactory romantic life, and yes, discovers who killed the inn employee who died in the accident. But what appeals to me most about this series is the fun the author has with the town of Wagtail and the inn itself, which have been turned into a pet paradise.

The latest book, The Wagtail Murder Club, came out last February.

Uzma Jalaluddin, Detective Aunty (Kausar Khan Investigates)

One issue with mystery series featuring amateur detectives is the need to explain why ordinary citizens decide to hunt down murderers instead of the police—and, for the most part, despite the insistence of police officers that they be allowed to do their jobs. Uzma Jalaluddin solves this problem in several ways.

First, Kauser Khan, like Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, is an older woman with great powers of observation and a fair amount of free time on her hands. Second, the chief suspect in the murder is Kausar’s estranged daughter. And third, the detective in charge of the investigation is a white Canadian, with few ties to and limited knowledge of the South Indian community where the murder takes place.

Again, the main draw for the series is Kausar Khan herself. A relatively recent widow who lost touch with her family during a prolonged bout with depression, Kausar is shrewd, forthright, intelligent, and a woman who does not suffer fools gladly. One can easily believe that she would dive in, solve problems, and at the same time be underestimated simply because she’s a woman in her fifties who spent most of her life as a homemaker and mother.

Her second adventure, Moonlight Murder, will come out next May.

Ruthie Knox and Annie Mare, Homemaker (Prairie Nightingale)

Prairie Nightingale, the heroine and amateur detective of the series that bears her name, is in some ways not unlike Kausar Khan. Prairie is divorced, not widowed, but she has turned her skills as a homemaker into a flourishing business, even as she juggles the demands of caring for two teenage daughters and dodges her ex’s attempts to rekindle their relationship.

She also sticks her nose in where it doesn’t belong (according to those targeted) as a matter of course, and no detail escapes her attention, so when one of her former friends vanishes, Prairie is determined to find out what happened despite opposition from the good-looking FBI agent who shows up in town. And find out she does.

By the end of the story, Prairie has decided to start her own detective agency. Her next case, Trailbreaker, is due out in January 2026.

Claudia H. Long, Murder Without a Duck (Simpato Mysteries)

Full disclosure: Claudia Long is a friend of mine as well as a member of Five Directions Press. However, she chose to publish these mysteries with Sibylline Digital First, and they are delightful, so I have no problem with, I hope, sending more readers her way.

Sal DeVine has temporarily lost her license to practice law, thanks to the shenanigans of her unappealing ex-husband, so she leaves the big city for the town of Simpato, California, where she owns a house left to her by her parents.

Simpato, the legend goes, got its name—which the locals render as “Sin-Pato,” meaning “without a duck”—due to a spelling mistake by a drunken clerk. But the town has fully embraced its heritage, with ducks in every possible name and form. Moreover, Sal soon discovers that her legacy includes more than the house: her mother was known as the “Keeper of Secrets,” and residents begin showing up her door at regular intervals to divulge things they don’t dare tell anyone else.

This lighthearted tone continues through the novel, even as one of the secrets turns out to have long-term consequences. Even if I hadn’t known the author, I would love these books. And indeed, I have the second, Truck a Duck, which came out in August, waiting on my tablet for the next time I take a break from historical fiction.