Here are 51 books that Ruth Galloway fans have personally recommended once you finish the Ruth Galloway series.
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I’m Julia Buckley, a passionate lifelong reader, English teacher, and mystery writer. I gravitated toward mystery as a child when my mom read all the greats of 20th Century Mystery and Romantic Suspense and then passed them on to me. When I became an English teacher, I had the privilege of teaching some of the great Gothic classics like Jane Eyre, Rebecca, and The Castle of Otranto. Teaching these great works and researching the way that all Gothic literature stemmed from Horace Walpole and Ann Radcliffe, I realized that MANY of the books I read are tinged with the Gothic.
No one writes suspense like Ruth Ware! Her books are all compelling page-turners, and yes, she follows my magic formula. All of her heroines are young women who go from a stable existence to some sort of fish-out-of-water situation that creates suspense. In this book, the young narrator, down on her luck, decides to respond to a letter claiming she is an heiress. While she knows that the letter has been sent to her because she bears the same name as the real heiress, she decides to claim the family fortune, or whatever she can get, and then run away.
But when she is introduced to the mysterious family members and finds that there are skeletons in the ancestral closet, she starts to feel trapped. At this point, I am nestling in with the popcorn and Diet Coke because this is the evening’s entertainment. I love the way Ware pushes…
'I read this in two lightning-quick sittings...I absolutely adored it' Lisa Jewell, bestselling author of The Family Upstairs
HAL MUST KEEP GOING OR RISK LOSING EVERYTHING...EVEN HER LIFE.
When Harriet Westaway receives an unexpected letter telling her she's inherited a substantial bequest from her Cornish grandmother, it seems like the answer to her prayers.
There's just one problem - Hal's real grandparents died more than twenty years ago.
Hal desperately needs the cash and makes a choice that will change her life for ever. She knows that her skills as a seaside fortune teller could help her con her way…
I was twelve years old when I first read Jane Eyre, the beginning of my love for gothic fiction. Murder mysteries are fine, but add a remote location, a decaying old house, some tormented characters, ancient family secrets, and I’m all in. Traditional Gothic, American Gothic (love this painting), Australian Gothic, Mexican Gothic (perfect title by the way), I love them all. The setting in gothic fiction is like a character in itself, and wherever I travel, I’m drawn to these locations, all food for my own writing.
So much so that I’ve read it several times since I first encountered it as a teenager. (Plus watched both movie versions, twice each.)
The first line, "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again," drew me in and refused to let go. I wanted to return to Manderley. I wanted to find out what dark secrets would be revealed there. The unnamed, naive young heroine is haunted by the all-pervading presence of her husband’s first wife, Rebecca… and so was I.
And although some of the social attitudes are jarring to a 21st-century reader, and although I know the plot by heart now… I will still return to it.
* 'The greatest psychological thriller of all time' ERIN KELLY * 'One of the most influential novels of the twentieth century' SARAH WATERS * 'It's the book every writer wishes they'd written' CLARE MACKINTOSH
'Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again . . .'
Working as a lady's companion, our heroine's outlook is bleak until, on a trip to the south of France, she meets a handsome widower whose proposal takes her by surprise. She accepts but, whisked from glamorous Monte Carlo to brooding Manderley, the new Mrs de Winter finds Max a changed man. And the memory…
I grew up reading Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and everything British. My first novel celebrated American literature and small towns, and my first murder mystery was a love letter to England. I once spent twenty days visiting almost thirty bookshops and reading my way all over England, and let me tell you, I learned a thing or two about murders.
Harbinder Kaur, the lead detective in Elly Griffiths's charming series, describes herself as “the best gay sikh detective in West Sussex,” and together with a few amateur sleuths, she forms a delightful cast in a sort of modern-day Miss Marple-romp.
It begins with an old lady using her binoculars to take careful note of what’s happening in her sleepy seaside village, and as all fans of British cozy crime know, where there are nosy neighbors, dead bodies will soon turn up. I loved Elly Griffiths's series about archeologist Ruth Galloway, and this new series does not disappoint. In fact, Elly Griffiths herself makes a small and entirely involuntary cameo in my book.
The ultimate gripping murder mystery to curl up with, from the bestselling author of The Stranger Diaries and the Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries
The death of a ninety-year-old woman with a heart condition should absolutely not be suspicious. DS Harbinder Kaur certainly sees nothing to concern her in carer Natalka's account of Peggy Smith's death.
But when Natalka reveals that Peggy lied about her heart condition and that she had been sure someone was following her...
And that Peggy Smith had been a 'murder consultant'…
While an adjunct professor at a local Midwestern college, I taught a night course in gothic literature. It was winter and my drive was over an hour to the satellite location. The wintry journey seemed apropos of the gothic’s dark themes, eerie atmosphere, and supernatural world. Though I’d enjoyed gothic novels in the past, this course cemented my love of all things gothic. By teaching the course, I enhanced my understanding of gothic fiction through such stories as, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, and Where are you going, where have you been by Joyce Carol Oates.
What I admire about this gothic mystery is how it alternates between three narrators—a high school English teacher, her teenage daughter, and a detective—without losing tension and suspense.
The plot is beautifully interwoven. The English teacher, who’s writing a biography of an author of gothic tales, learns that her best friend is murdered, and that a line from the gothic writer’s story is found near the murder victim. Her diary becomes an outlet for her fears and suspicions, until someone writes in it.
THE TIMES CRIME BOOK OF THE YEAR. THE RICHARD & JUDY BOOK CLUB PICK.
'Utterly bewitching ... a pitch-perfect modern Gothic' AJ FINN, author of THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW
A dark story has been brought to terrifying life. Can the ending be rewritten in time?
This is what the police know: English teacher Clare Cassidy's friend Ella has just been murdered. Clare and Ella had recently fallen out. Found beside the body was a line from The Stranger, a story by the Gothic writer Clare teaches, and the murder scene is identical to one of the deaths in the…
Alongside my early career as a children’s writer, I was a consultant to police forces about anti-corruption measures. It gave me a great look inside investigations…but my NDAs meant I couldn’t use any of that information in a mystery story. So, an amateur sleuth it had to be—but one who didn’t do stupid things instead of going to the police! Before that, I worked in children’s television, and I understand the power of the media to get people to talk. I brought those two sides of my work life together to create Poppy, my main character, and put her in Sydney, Australia, the city of my heart.
Okay, sometimes you need sweet-as-pie…I love this series of cozy mysteries (set in a Texas town) because of the characters, and this book introduces you to the important ones. This series got me through COVID and its brain fog aftermath.
It’s a series I could rely on to have interesting mysteries, lots of food (the main character ends up as a baker/caterer), and a bit of romance, but mostly just people it’s fun to spend time with. I particularly like the mother of the love interest (the love story plays out over the series), who basically runs the town while being lovely and welcoming to newcomers. Such a nice change from the nasty mother-in-law trope!
Everyone knows everyone in small town Airlie Falls, so where could the killer be hiding?
For one brief hour on a sunny Texas morning, amateur baker Rosie Hart glimpses the life she's always dreamed about—thanks to a surprise inheritance from the late Miss Alice. But her benefactor is barely cold in the ground when Rosie is accused of her murder.
As the only stranger in the tight-knit Airlie Falls community, and the only person with an obvious motive, all eyes turn to Rosie. Especially when more bodies begin to pile up and mysterious letters from the grave start circulating faster…
Alongside my early career as a children’s writer, I was a consultant to police forces about anti-corruption measures. It gave me a great look inside investigations…but my NDAs meant I couldn’t use any of that information in a mystery story. So, an amateur sleuth it had to be—but one who didn’t do stupid things instead of going to the police! Before that, I worked in children’s television, and I understand the power of the media to get people to talk. I brought those two sides of my work life together to create Poppy, my main character, and put her in Sydney, Australia, the city of my heart.
I’ve always felt that Jane Austen was a bit hard on Caroline Bingley in Pride and Prejudice, so I was delighted to find this book by collaborators Gardiner and Kumar, which puts her at the centre of the story. I found it witty, intriguing, well-researched, and beautifully written.
I particularly liked the Indian plot elements—it’s rarely recognised that there were Indian communities in London and elsewhere in the UK during this period, and it was fascinating to read about the ‘Calcutta Coffee House’ and its patrons. I’m looking forward to more books in this series!
A missing maid. A murder most foul. A highly imprudent adventure. Only her fine eyes can uncover the truth.
Two years after the events of Pride and Prejudice, Miss Caroline Bingley is staying at her brother's country estate within an easy ride of Mr and Mrs Darcy's home, Pemberley, and wondering if there's more to life than playing cribbage and paying calls on country neighbours. So when Georgiana Darcy's maid, Jayani, vanishes - and worse, Georgiana disappears in search of her - Caroline races to London to find them both, and quickly discovers a shocking, cold-blooded murder.
I’m Julia Buckley, a passionate lifelong reader, English teacher, and mystery writer. I gravitated toward mystery as a child when my mom read all the greats of 20th Century Mystery and Romantic Suspense and then passed them on to me. When I became an English teacher, I had the privilege of teaching some of the great Gothic classics like Jane Eyre, Rebecca, and The Castle of Otranto. Teaching these great works and researching the way that all Gothic literature stemmed from Horace Walpole and Ann Radcliffe, I realized that MANY of the books I read are tinged with the Gothic.
Mary Stewart was the greatest of the Romantic Suspense writers of the 20th Century. I discovered her as a teenager, but I still re-read her books today. This book is an homage to Shakespeare’s The Tempest (including the title), and Stewart weaves in clever allusions throughout this suspense novel.
The first great thing is the setting: Corfu, a Greek island, is said by locals to be the magical island of Prospero, the magician. The young narrator goes to this island. She needs to get away from her failed acting career, and her sister is pregnant and needs care. But the island is full of mystery, and something is not right with the wealthy and eccentric neighbors, two of whom live in an old castle.
This book contains everything from my first recommendation. Spooky setting? Check. Great heroine? Check. Romance? Yes, indeedy. With passages I have re-read many times. Humor: Check.…
When Lucy comes to Corfu to visit her sister, she is elated to discover that the castello above their villa is being rented to Sir Julian Gale, one of the brightest lights in England's theatrical world. As a minor player in the London theatre herself, Lucy naturally wishes to meet him—that is, until her sister indicates, with uncharacteristic vagueness, that all is not well with Sir Julian and that his composer son discourages visitors, particularly strangers. Yet Lucy has already encountered Sir Julian's son on the morning of her arrival, in a tempestuous run-in that involved the attempted shooting of…
Alongside my early career as a children’s writer, I was a consultant to police forces about anti-corruption measures. It gave me a great look inside investigations…but my NDAs meant I couldn’t use any of that information in a mystery story. So, an amateur sleuth it had to be—but one who didn’t do stupid things instead of going to the police! Before that, I worked in children’s television, and I understand the power of the media to get people to talk. I brought those two sides of my work life together to create Poppy, my main character, and put her in Sydney, Australia, the city of my heart.
I’ve been a reader of Jennifer Crusie for a while, so I was delighted to find that she’d moved into murder mysteries. Then, when I read this, I thought: Liz Danger and my Poppy would really get on well—so naturally I loved it! I like the creation of a small town that isn’t the normal sweet-as-pie cozy place, and the slow-burn romance is handled deftly. Just quirky enough but not too quirky.
I like Liz and her ambivalence about the town and her erratic family. Because it’s a collaboration, the two points of view (Liz and cop Vince Cooper) are distinctly different, which I really enjoyed. I immediately went on to read the rest of the series, which is the highest praise I can give!
From the NY Times Bestselling duo that wrote Agnes and the Hitman, the first book in a new series.
Liz Danger has come home after fifteen years to deliver a giant teddy bear for her mother’s birthday (color: Guilt Red) when a cop with a great ass picks her up for speeding, fixes the missing lug nuts in her back wheel, pulls her out of a ditch, doesn’t give her a ticket, and helps her avoid her family. This is a man with real potential.
Vince Cooper picks up Liz for speeding and his life gets a lot more interesting.…
At one time, it was commonplace for male mystery writers to devote a substantial amount of plot to romance; for example, Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White or Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon. In recent years, this tradition has eroded to the point where romantic mysteries are primarily written by women. I think romance spices up mysteries. In Death is Potential, Kate Swift is more invested in solving the murder mystery because she is protecting her lover.
I like this series set in wartime London. Electra “Ellie” McDonnell, a safecracker, is in business with her Uncle Mick, they rob homes of the rich.
After they are arrested, the handsome Major Ramsay has a deal for Ellie: if she will help him, he’ll let her, and her uncle walk free. A straightforward deal, except for the romantic complication.
As the Blitz continues to ravage London, Ellie McDonnell is approached by British Intelligence officer Major Ramsey with a new assignment. She is to travel under an assumed identity to the port city of Sunderland and there await further instructions. Ellie, ever-ready to aid her country, heads north, her safecracking tools in tow. But before she can rendezvous with the major, she witnesses an unnatural death. A man falls dead in the street in front of her, with a mysterious missive clutched in his hand. Ellie's instincts tell her that the man's death is connected in some way to her…
At one time, it was commonplace for male mystery writers to devote a substantial amount of plot to romance; for example, Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White or Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon. In recent years, this tradition has eroded to the point where romantic mysteries are primarily written by women. I think romance spices up mysteries. In Death is Potential, Kate Swift is more invested in solving the murder mystery because she is protecting her lover.
I like this series because it is well written and the author – J.K. Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith – always features clever plot twists.
The Cormoran Strike series features an on again, off again romance between private investigator Cormoran Strike and his partner, Robin Ellacott. In the latest installment, The Running Grave, Cormoran and Robin are hired by a wealthy man whose son has joined a cult.
Robin joins the cult and moves into its rural Norfolk headquarters. The chapters devoted to her cult experience are well-written and creepy. Too bad there’s not more sex.
'The work of a master storyteller' Daily Telegraph
'One of crime's most engaging duos' Guardian ________
Private Detective Cormoran Strike is contacted by a worried father whose son, Will, has gone to join a religious cult in the depths of the Norfolk countryside.
The Universal Humanitarian Church is, on the surface, a peaceable organisation that campaigns for a better world. Yet Strike discovers that beneath the surface there are deeply sinister undertones, and unexplained deaths.
In order to try to rescue Will, Strike's business partner Robin Ellacott decides to infiltrate the cult and she travels to Norfolk to live incognito…
