Items15The creator’s order
  1. 1The Moving Toyshop (1946)The Moving Toyshop (1946) 7.3/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 1946A poet finds a body in an Oxford toyshop, then discovers the same premises occupied by a grocery store. Crispin lets the indignity of trying to explain that to anyone carry the comedy. Keep the original account of the shop in mind while the chase gets sillier; the joke gives you a concrete…0
  2. 2The Examiner (2024)The Examiner (2024)Published Jan 1, 2024The bickering in an art master's program arrives as emails, messages, and student work. The format makes a small change in someone's version of events as worth noticing as a new piece of evidence. Read this for the pleasure of sorting through a group that can be funny about almost anything except…0
  3. 3Bad monkey (2013)Bad monkey (2013) 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2013A severed arm turns up in the Florida Keys and a reluctant restaurant inspector takes the discovery seriously enough to ask questions. Hiaasen's real-estate satire gives the people he meets excellent reasons to be slippery. Pick it for a case with a hard edge, where the money and the outlandish…0
  4. 4Everyone in This Bank Is a Thief (2026)Everyone in This Bank Is a Thief (2026) 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2026A murder turns the people being held in a bank into suspects. Ernest Cunningham is so willing to tell you what kind of mystery he is in that the setup starts to feel like an argument between narrator and reader. Pick it if you like a confined set of suspects and a storyteller who makes a game of…0
  5. 5A Deadly Episode (2026)A Deadly Episode (2026) 10.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2026The actor playing detective Daniel Hawthorne is stabbed on the set of a film about one of his cases. The real Hawthorne steps in to investigate. Start here if you like a mystery that makes funny work of film-set grievances while leaving room to ask who the intended target was.0
  6. 6Thus was Adonis murdered (1981)Thus was Adonis murdered (1981) 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 1981A barrister goes to Venice and finds herself suspected of murder after her copy of the Finance Act turns up near a body. A tax statute makes for a wonderfully unromantic clue on a Venetian vacation. Choose this for very dry comedy and a puzzle that lets a small piece of legal reading do a…0
  7. 7The Expectant Detectives (2024)The Expectant Detectives (2024)Published Jan 1, 2024The women in a prenatal class form an investigative group after a murder in their village. They barely know one another, and now they have names to clear. The mix makes this an easy place to start if you want the ordinary irritations of meeting new people to carry some of the comedy.0
  8. 8Somebody owes me money (1969)Somebody owes me money (1969) 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 1969A cabbie gets a tip on a horse race instead of a tip he can spend, then finds his bookie dead when he goes to collect his winnings. His wish to get paid keeps pulling him toward people with reasons to think he knows too much. The distance between his small ambition and the trouble it buys makes…0
  9. 9The Postscript Murders (2021)The Postscript Murders (2021) 9.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2021Peggy Smith used to help crime writers plot their murders. When she dies, that line of work gives her carer reason to look more closely at what seems like an ordinary death. Read this if you enjoy the affectionate joke of people who know the rules of mystery novels trying to make use of them…0
  10. 10Murder Must Advertise (1933)Murder Must Advertise (1933) 5.3/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 1933Lord Peter Wimsey goes undercover at an advertising agency after a copywriter dies on the stairs. The jokes about how hard people work to make a phrase seem effortless make the office worth visiting in its own right. Listen to the conversation around the desks; this is a case where the workplace…0