Comfort Reading: Classic Mystery and Detective Fiction

There is comfort to be found in the world of these classics of detective fiction. Pick one up for the first time, or return to an old favorite.

Here is a collection of classic detective fiction to get you started.

Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories Volume I by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Maybe not the first fictional detective, but arguably the best known, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science, and logical reasoning.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie. The queen of crime is the epitome of the classic mystery novel. Her plots are always possible, logical, and fair to the reader. Begin with Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in this, his very first case.

Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers. First in a series of novels set between the first and second world wars featuring English aristocrat and amateur sleuth Lord Peter Whimsey.

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. Featuring hardboiled private eye Phillip Marlow. It is evocatively written, conveying the time, place and ambiance of Los Angeles and environs in the 1930s and 1940s.

Fer-de-lance by Rex Stout. First of many novels featuring the eccentric, orchid loving, gourmand detective Nero Wolfe and Archive Goodwin, his sharp-witted, dapper young confidential assistant.