Courtship & Corpses

Endless Night by Agatha Christie

Romance plays a part in many of Agatha Christie’s mystery novels, and often the resolution of the mystery clears the way for the lovers to be together. Happily ever after.

But not always.

The narrator of Endless Night says right up front that this will be as much love story as mystery. In fact, it is well into the book that the first death finally occurs. On the surface, Endless Night is a love story between a working-class boy and a poor little rich girl, but right from the start, there is an atmosphere of creeping menace, of something not quite right. In true Agatha Christie style, the ending turns everything you thought was true on its head.

But not always.

One For the Money by Janet Evanovich

Stephanie Plum is between a rock and a hard place. Unemployed and on the verge of being evicted from her apartment, she’ll do anything to avoid moving back in with her parents. Including taking a job working for her creepy cousin Vinny tracking down skips—people who have missed their court date and are now wanted by the law.

Unfortunately, her first assignment is Joe Morelli—a cop accused of murdering a witness. Even worse, Stephanie knows Morelli . . . um, personally.

The first three books of the Stephanie Plum series are my favorites. They are laugh-out-loud funny—seriously, I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing when I listened to the audiobooks at work years ago. There are always fireworks of one kind or another with Stephanie and Morelli, making One for the Money a perfect Valentine’s read.

Murder at the Brightwell by Ashley Weaver

Ashley Weaver conjures the glamour of 1930s high society with skill, and reading one of her Amory Ames books always feels like a bit of a vacation for me.

Amory Ames is fed up with her husband Milo’s wandering ways, so when her ex-fiancé shows up asking for her help separating his younger sister from an unsuitable young man, it seems like the perfect time for a getaway. Unfortunately, there is more than romance going on at the Brightwell, and Amory soon finds herself neck deep in a murder investigation. 

I’ve really enjoyed the entire series so far, but this one may be my favorite. The complicated relationship between Amory and Milo is a lot of fun to read, and in spite of his roguish ways, Milo might be one of those literary crushes I mentioned.

Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters

After spending her life tending to her widowed father, Amelia Peabody is finally setting off on the adventure she’s always dreamed of—seeing the places she’s only read about in books. While touring Rome, she rescues another young Englishwoman who has been abandoned there by her lover. The two travel on together to Cairo, where they fall in with a pair of archaeologists, the Emerson brothers, and join them at their dig.

Amelia finds that she enjoys the archaeological life, especially when she’s trading insults with the older Emerson brother, who resents the intrusion of women on his site. Women are the least of Emerson’s worries, however, when their camp is visited by another uninvited guest—a mummy that seems intent on doing harm to someone in their party.

This is possibly my favorite mystery series ever. Amelia is hilarious—always sure of herself and charging headlong into danger armed with her trusty parasol. The cast of characters grows throughout the series, which spans a period from the 1880s to the 1920s, with no shortage of romantic entanglements. If you’re looking for a book boyfriend, keep your eye on Amelia’s son Ramses, who grows from frighteningly precocious boy to brooding man over the length of the series.

Southern Spirits by Angie Fox

Verity Long is having a hard enough time keeping it together—after jilting her hometown’s golden boy on their wedding day (with good reason), she’s been forced to sell the contents of her family home to pay back her fiancé’s family for the wedding that never happened, and the house is next. The last thing she needs is to unknowingly tether herself to the ghost of a gangster and draw the attention of the golden boy’s cop brother.

Southern Spirits is the first in the Southern Ghost Hunter series—entertaining stories about Verity and her ghost sidekick, who helps her see spirits and right wrongs both new and old.