📕 Lyndsay Faye (2012) The Gods of Gotham – Set in 1845, this historical mystery follows the very birth of the first New York City police force during the Irish potato famine. It is told completely in a straightforward, day-by-day chronological sequence through the eyes of an ordinary bartender-turned-investigator, dealing with standard period-accurate crime procedural elements.
🎦 Persuasion (1995) – a film adaptation of the Jane Austen novel. The plot centers on Anne Elliot, a woman dealing with financial difficulties. She encounters Captain Frederick Wentworth, a naval officer whose marriage proposal she had declined years earlier.
📚 Josephine Tey (1929) The Man in the Queue – introduces Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard. When a man is mysteriously stabbed in a crowded London theater queue, Grant leads a meticulous and psychological investigation to uncover the killer in this acclaimed debut.
📺 The Twilight Zone (5 Seasons) – ran for five seasons from 1959 to 1964. Created by Rod Serling, the iconic anthology series blended sci-fi, horror, and suspense. Each episode featured unique characters facing bizarre, supernatural realities, famously delivering shocking twist endings that explored human nature, morality, and timeless social commentary. 👍
📚 Natalie Sumner Lincoln (1925) The Missing Initial – journalist Norma Page witnesses a businessman's murder across a courtyard. Alongside Inspector Mitchell, she works to uncover the killer, whose identity is hidden by a crucial, blood-stained handkerchief lacking a key initial. This classic Washington, D.C. thriller focuses on a high-stakes investigation.
📺 All Creatures Great and Small (1978) 7 seasons – In 1937, a young, newly-qualified veterinarian surgeon, James Herriot arrives in the picturesque village of Darrowby to take up his first job in the established veterinary practice of Sigfried and Tristan Farnon. But in rural Yorkshire, with few medicines available, the treatment of sick animals still seems to be rooted in the Dark Ages. This, together with the country-folk's inherent suspicion of strangers, poses problems for James Herriot in the early years of his career. 👍
📕 John le Carré (2021) Silverview – a spy thriller that uncovers a dangerous security breach in a quiet English seaside town. When a retired Cold War secret agent uses a local bookstore to orchestrate a massive intelligence leak, a high-ranking MI6 chief must hunt him down, exploring deep themes of institutional betrayal. 👎 Google AI revealed the truth behind this type of book; By having Edward Avon completely outsmart the entire multi-million dollar government agency, the book gives that audience this type of book is marketed to (old white men who work at Target, whose wife's have no respect for them) the ultimate fantasy. It tells them that a quiet, ordinary, aging man—someone who looks just like them and has been pushed around by life—is actually the smartest person in the room.
📕 David Mamet (2018) Chicago – a historical crime novel set in 1920s Illinois [travel]. The plot follows Mike Hodge, a hard-drinking World War I veteran and newspaper reporter, who seeks revenge through the city's criminal underbelly after his girlfriend is murdered. The narrative features real-world figures like Al Capone and Dion O'Banion. 👎 Gave up after about an hour. Ask Google about the book and it indicated that pretty much half of the book is two dudes just aimlessly talking about bullshit that the plot doesn't even start till about halfway through the book. Apparently the author is a playwright, not a novelist first. So if you like me and are not into plays, give this one a miss because you just get a lot of dialogue and no plot.
📕 John Darnielle (2022) Devil House – is an atmospheric psychological thriller centered on true-crime writer Gage Chandler, who moves into an infamous California home to investigate an unsolved 1980s double homicide. The novel uses a multi-layered structure to explore the narrative process and the ethics behind true-crime storytelling. 👎 I made it five hours into this 10 hour audiobook only because I was doing various technical things and it was just white noise in the back of my head. Because the book is not written in a linear sequence basically it's completely annoying to listen to. Authors that pull out of sequence narrative style basically are admitting upfront that they got a shit book that nobody would read and they try to do the non-linear or narrative to trick people into reading it. I don't think I'll ever fall for this trick again.
📕 Linwood Barclay (2023) The Lie Maker – follows protagonist Jack Givins, a struggling writer whose life shifts when a mysterious woman hires him to investigate a cold disappearance. As Jack digs deeper into the dark secrets of an idyllic town, he uncovers a web of deception that threatens his own safety.
📺 Upstairs Downstairs (2010) – a British period drama series that originally aired on the BBC from 2010 to 2012. It serves as a continuation of the classic 1970s television series of the same name. The revival is set in 1936 London, picking up six years after the events of the original show. It centers once again on the iconic townhouse at 165 Eaton Place, though with a brand-new set of upper-class residents and household staff. 👎
📕 John Banville (2025) Venetian Vespers – Set in 1899 Venice, this psychological thriller follows struggling writer Evelyn Dolman, who loses his expected inheritance after his wealthy wife is disinherited. During their gloomy honeymoon, she mysteriously vanishes following a chaotic night. Evelyn descends into a disorienting puzzle, questioning his sanity, reality, and everyone around him.
📕 Steve Berry (2005) The Third Secret – A really bad story. Crappy characters, centered around some mysterious "third secret" that women can be priests, priests can marry, homosexuality is OK, and women can decide if they have abortions, all revealed 91% into the book. This "secret" is conveyed through appearances of "The Virgin" Mary. 12+ hours of total crap audio. 👎
📺 Upstairs, Downstairs (1974) – This Emmy Award-winning British drama series tells the story of the wealthy, aristocratic Bellamys and their loyal and lively servants. 👍
📕 Joseph Finder (2025) The Oligarch's Daughter – Former Wall Street manager Paul Brightman hides under an assumed name after spying on his Russian oligarch father-in-law, Arkady Galkin. When assassins discover his location, Paul flees into the New Hampshire wilderness, using survival skills to evade federal agents and Russian operatives while uncovering a massive government conspiracy. – 👎 Kind of a tinfoil hat book. Main character is an idiot. Thinks he's smart, but marries a Russian Oligarch's daughter, and thinks things will go smoothly. He just does one stupid thing after another.
📕 Chris Bohjalian (2020) The Red Lotus: A Novel – follows Alexis, an emergency room doctor whose boyfriend Austin vanishes and turns up dead during a cycling vacation in Vietnam. Her investigation uncovers that Austin was entangled in a deadly corporate conspiracy involving bioengineering, weaponized pathogens, and a catastrophic global pandemic plot. – 👎 The basic line of the story involves the attempt to introduce a plague into humanity via rats, which reproduce fast, and spread disease well. But the girl friend character Alexis Remnick of the initial murdered victim is so annoying, self absorbed, and narcissistic that the story is almost unbearable to tolerate.