The Other Baker Street Irregulars

The iconic figure of Sherlock Holmes has proven the inspiration for fictional detectives that run the gamut from Hercule Poirot to Temperance "Bones" Brennan, from Lt. Columbo to Richard Castle. And yet the inspiration for fictional detectives can come from all sorts of places -- even from the history books themselves.

In this book list, we offer a selection of murder mysteries that all feature a real-life historical figure as their story's star. While fictional, these novels offer a peek into what life would've been like in a variety of times -- and with a variety of very unique people. Here are historical figures like you've never seen them before. Read on and enjoy!



-- Aristotle

Philosopher, scientist ... and now, detective. In Margaret Doody's Aristotle Detective, the young student Stephanos narrates the tale of his teacher solving crimes, using deductive reasoning on par with Sherlock Holmes. The twist, of course, is that Stephanos is a student in 332 BCE Athens, and his teacher is none other than Aristotle himself. Yet this is no dry-and-dusty take on history: Doody seamlessly weaves disguises, escapes, and midnight attacks in with well-researched details of 4th century BCE Athens -- home and politics, citizenship and the legal system, the treatment of men and women, and more. The result is a story as historically informing as it is immensely entertaining.

Click here to request Aristotle Detective




-- William Shakespeare

The era: Elizabethan England. Symington Smythe (who doesn't care for his name) has been trained by his uncle as an ostler, but his real passion lies in a far different direction: the theatre. When, much to his father's disgust, Symington makes for London to realize his dreams, he does so quite on his own. That is, until he encounters one William Shakespeare, a young man also on his way to a life in the theatre. While meeting up with Shakespeare puts Symington on the path towards conspiracy, mistaken identity, arranged marriages, and murder, there's no denying it's an exciting way to jumpstart an artistic career.

Click here to request A Mystery of Errors



-- Jane Austen

Jane Austen couldn't be happier to be visiting her newly-married friend, Isobel Payne, Countess of Scargrave. But then, tragedy strikes, as Isobel's husband (many years her senior) falls victim to a strange and swift-moving illness. Isobel is heartsick, but her problems are only beginning, as she soon receives a message accusing her of adultery with her husband's nephew -- and of murdering her husband the Earl. Terrified, Isobel turns to Jane for help, and so it is up to the young author to uncover the clues and peel back the mystery before Isobel is disgraced ... and before Jane herself makes an enemy.

Click here to request Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor



-- Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt begins her (fictional) amateur sleuthing quite without meaning to; a young woman who works for Roosevelt is accused of murdering her boyfriend. Convinced that her employee is innocent, Roosevelt takes it upon herself to prove it -- even if that means stepping on the toes of several government officials, including the Congressman whose son was the murdered man. There's jewel thefts, gambling, and false identities to contend with, but through it all, Roosevelt -- like her real-life incarnation -- remains steadfast and determined to see justice done.

The Eleanor Roosevelt mystery series deserves special mention for being the work of a perhaps-unlikely author: Roosevelt's own real-life son, Elliott Roosevelt. (Though whether or not he had ghost writers helping him out has been a topic of debate.)

Click here to request Murder and the First Lady



-- Edgar Allan Poe

"Now, in my opinion, Dupin was a very inferior fellow." So said Sherlock Holmes, in a line in which author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle poked gentle fun at Holmes's literary predecessor: C. Auguste Dupin, the deducting detective of Edgar Allan Poe's trio of mystery tales. The truth remains that it is Poe, not Conan Doyle, who wrote the first Western modern detective story -- a debt which Conan Doyle himself acknowledged on multiple occasions, with obvious admiration for Poe. It makes Poe a natural fit as the star of a mystery novel, even if we remember the author far better for his tales of horror.

In this young adult read, we hear the tale of Edmund, whose mother is gone and whose sister has just vanished. Alone in the dark streets of nineteenth-century Providence, Rhode Island, Edmund has no one to turn to for help -- save a dark and shadowy stranger who introduces himself only as "Dupin." It seems this man needs Edmund's help as much as Edmund needs his, as the two of them work together to solve the mystery surrounding them.

Click here to request The Man Who Was Poe




-- Post by Ms. B

Conspiracy Theory

This May saw the release of the fourth book in Dan Brown's Robert Langdon series, Inferno. Set in Italy, the novel centers around Langdon, a Harvard professor of symbology (a fictional academic discipline, but go with it -- it's part of the fun). Langdon's in town to stop the release of a newly-developed strain of bubonic plague; while he's there, he finds himself drawn into a mystery at the heart of Dante's famous literary masterpiece. Surrounded by artistic, secret passageways, and cutting-edge science, Langdon must figure out who to trust even as he works to solve the mysteries of Dante's Inferno.

Like its predecessors -- Angels and Demons, The Da Vinci Code, and The Lost Symbol -- Brown's latest entry in the Robert Langdon series is all about puzzles, secrets, and historical conspiracies. When Brown burst onto the bestseller list with The Da Vinci Code, it was neither his first novel nor his first entry in the Langdon series -- but it was the novel that catapulted him to national attention. The Da Vinci Code, with its blend of thriller intrigue and alternate history, offered up the idea of a secret conspiracy, millennia old, that captivated and thrilled fans with its unique twists on conspiracy theories.

Since then, there have been plenty of other titles released in the Da Vinci Code vein, leaving readers who are fans of Brown with more "historical conspiracy" fiction to whet their appetites. So if you're one of those fans of Brown's latest, check out these other conspiracy thrillers:

-- The Charlemagne Pursuit by Steve Berry.

Ex–Justice Department agent Cotton Malone has just found out that his father didn't die in 1971 on a nuclear submarine in the Mid-Atlantic. His father was, instead, on a top-secret mission to the Antarctic. On a quest to find out the truth, Malone is joined by twin sisters Dorothea and Christl (whose own father also disappeared on the same mission). The answers take them to Charlemagne’s tomb, where they uncover clues about a horrifying Nazi conspiracy.

-- The Demonologist by Andrew Pyper.

Instead of symbology, Professor David Ullman studies "demonic literature" -- which includes such tomes as Milton's Paradise Lost. Still, Ullman himself is a non-believer -- at least until a trip with his twelve-year-old daughter to Venice. Now Ullman is on a quest to find and rescue his daughter ... from the Underworld itself.

-- Sanctus by Simon Toyne.

Reporter Liv Adamsen -- along with the rest of the world -- has just seen a man climb the mountain called Citadel, the oldest inhabited place on the planet. On a quest to discover what happened to her long-lost brother, Adamsen journeys to Turkey, only to discover that the mysterious climb has touched off an unstoppable chain of events. It's something that the Sancti, a group of secretive monks, will stop at nothing to keep hidden.

-- The Breath of God by Jeffrey Small.

Grad student Grant Matthews is on a quest to discover the hidden roots of early Christianity. He never expected a 2,000-year-old story of one pilgrim's journey through India, to ignite a controversy that will put his own life in danger.

-- Relic by Tom Egeland.

"The Norwegian Da Vinci Code?" Translated from the original Norwegian, the book features albino archaeologist Bjørn Beltø, determined to get to the truth of the ancient document unearthed in a golden tomb. While the plot will be familiar to Da Vinci Code fans, Beltø's quirks makes him a fresh and unique character in his own right.

-- The Last Ember by Daniel Levin.

Once a doctoral candidate in classic literature, Jonathan Marcus ultimately became a lawyer. When an upcoming case takes him to Rome, he never expected to stumble across a hidden message that had been previously lost in a fragment of an ancient tomb. His discovery takes him on a mission to stop the efforts of those who would rewrite history.

-- 12.21 by Dustin Thomason.

Okay, the world didn't end on December 12, 2012 after all. Still, the premise of this novel makes for a fun conspiracy read. Two weeks before the fateful date, researcher Chel Manu is handed a codex from a mysterious stranger that purports to explain what happened to the Mayan civilization. And, if the discovery is to be believed, that catastrophe is about to happen a second time.

-- The School of Night by Louis Bayard.

The School of Night was a secret gathering of five brilliant scholars during the time of Queen Elizabeth I. Four centuries later, disgraced scholar Henry Cavendish has been sent on a mission to recover a stolen letter. But whatever the letter contains -- the secret formula for alchemy, the path to a hidden treasure, or merely the truth about the School of Night -- there are others who will stop at nothing to gain the letter for themselves.

-- Interred With Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell.

It's every Shakespearean's dream: an uncovered lost work of Shakespeare's. But the night when the reconstructed Globe Theater is burnt to the ground, Shakespearean scholar Kate Stanley is given a piece of an unexpected puzzle by her mentor, Rosalind Howard. Then Howard winds up dead. Soon, Stanley is running across the world as she struggles to unlock the clues in Shakespeare's plays and uncover the answer to one of the greatest secrets in history.

-- The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury.

Despite the building's rich history, FBI agent Sean Reilly never expected to see four Knights Templar -- on horseback! -- charge into the Metropolitan Museum. The "Knights" broke in to steal an unusual medieval artifact, an ancient decoder. Joined by archaeologist Tess Chaykin, Reilly finds himself caught in the center of a deadly race to recover the lost artifact -- and undercover the truth behind a mystery that's been centuries in the making.



-- Post by Ms. B

Mystery vs. Thriller -- what's the difference?

In a true mystery novel, the murder or action has already taken place and the rest of the story is devoted to finding out who-done-it and why. Motivation is part of the puzzle; and most of the action takes place in the mind of the protagonist. Often, the villain remains unidentified until the very end, while characters are developed and the lead sleuth gains important psychological insights into all the suspects.



By contrast, a suspense novel is one in which the action or crime is yet to happen. The reader is led to the climax as tension rises continuously. Often the reader knows exactly who is going to perform the anticipated event -- without knowing exactly when, where, or how it will occur.



When in doubt as to how to classify a book -- Mystery or Suspense -- we take our cues from the author’s reputation or the publisher’s recommendation. For example, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson has elements of both mystery and suspense. By applying all the criteria, we have placed this entertaining novel in our Mystery Section. Check it out on your next visit!