Books like 'Final Curtain'
Readers who enjoyed Final Curtain by Ngaio Marsh also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical mystery 20th century thriller crime law-enforcement cozy golden-age-mystery classics whodunit
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Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Illustrated Short Stories by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThey're among the most influential, enduring, and popular short stories in the English language; marvelous mysteries that feature the "most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has ever seen." Here are all 56 Sherlock Holmes tales in one very handsome collection, accompanied by the original artwork in facsimile reproduction...Categorized as:
classics crime historical-fiction humor law-enforcement literary-fiction whodunit 20th-century -
Lord Peter by Dorothy L. Sayers
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAll the Lord Peter Wimsey stories are here, in a single volume, including the one about Harriet, Peter and their three...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime golden-age-mystery historical-fiction humor law-enforcement whodunit -
Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsLord Peter Wimsey and his bride, mystery writer Harriet Vane, start their honeymoon with murder. The former owner of Talboys estate is dead in the cellar with a misspelled "notise" to the milkman, not a spot of blood on his smashed skull, and £600 in his pocket...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime golden-age-mystery historical-fiction humor law-enforcement literary-fiction -
Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsNot all of Miss Marple's best can be found in Agatha Christie novels. There are short stories too.Jane Marple is from the village of St Mary Mead and applies her skills of observation and deduction to a wide variety of mysteries...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime golden-age-mystery historical-fiction law-enforcement literary-fiction whodunit -
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Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsWhen ad man Victor Dean falls down the stairs in the offices of Pym's Publicity, a respectable London advertising agency, it looks like an accident. Then Lord Peter Wimsey is called in, and he soon discovers there's more to copywriting than meets the eye. A bit of cocaine, a hint of blackmail, and some wanton women can be read between the lines...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime golden-age-mystery historical-fiction humor law-enforcement whodunit -
Lord Peter Views the Body by Dorothy L. Sayers
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn this delightful collection of Wimsey exploits, Dorothy L. Sayers reveals a gruesome, grotesque but absolutely bewitching side rarely shown in Lord Peter's full-length adventures.Lord Peter views the body in 12 tantalizing and bizarre ways in this outstanding collection...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime golden-age-mystery historical-fiction humor law-enforcement whodunit -
The Chinese Lake Murders by Robert van Gulik
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA.D. 666The Chinese Lake Murders describes how Judge Dee solves three difficult cases in A.D. 666, shortly after he has been appointed magistrate of Han-yuan."[Robert van Gulik] deftly interweaves three criminal cases involving exotic yet universally recognizable characters, then has his Judge Dee provide a surprising yet most plausible solution...Categorized as:
classics crime historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural whodunit 20th-century adult -
Goldstein by Volker Kutscher
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsVolker Kutscher, author of the international bestseller Babylon Berlin, continues his Gereon Rath Mystery series with Goldstein as a police inspector investigates the crime and corruption of a decadent 1930s Berlin in the shadows the growing Nazi movement.Berlin, 1931. A power struggle is taking place in Berlin's underworld... -
Murder by the Book by Rex Stout
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIt wasn't Leonard Dykes's writing style that offended. But something in his unpublished tome seemed to lead everyone who read it to a very unhappy ending. Now four people are dead, including the unfortunate author himself, and the police think Nero Wolfe is the only man who can close the book on this novel killer...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime historical-fiction humor law-enforcement literary-fiction police-procedural -
Clutch of Constables by Ngaio Marsh
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFive Days Out of Time… that was how the ad had described the Zodiac cruise on the “weirdly misted” English river. The passengers were the usual, unusual lot: a couple of unpleasantly hygienic Americans, an aloof Ethiopian doctor, a snooping cleric with a wall-eye, an artist running away from her success…But they were not all what they seemed...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime golden-age-mystery historical-fiction humor law-enforcement literary-fiction -
Too Many Cooks by Rex Stout
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe guest at a gathering of the greatest chefs in the world, Nero Wolfe must practice his own trade--sleuthing--when he discovers that a murderer is in their midst. One of the chefs has been found dead as a result of a knifing, and Wolfe, who only anticipated being a guest speaker, must now deal with the possibility that he may become a victim as well...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime historical-fiction humor law-enforcement literary-fiction whodunit -
In a Dry Season by Peter Robinson
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsWhen a drought drains the local Thornfield Reservoir, uncovering a long-drowned small village and the skeleton of a murder victim from the 1940s, Detective Alan Banks and Detective Sergeant Annie Cabot must investigate the decades-old crime and unmask an evil secret from the past...Categorized as:
cozy crime family historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural thriller 20th-century -
Hangman's Holiday by Dorothy L. Sayers
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsAmusing and absolutely appalling things happen on the way to the gallows when murder meets Lord Peter Wimsey and the delightful working-class sleuth Montague Egg. This sumptuous feast of criminal doings and undoings includes a vintage double identity and a horrid incident of feline assassination that will tease the minds of cat-lovers everywhere...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime golden-age-mystery historical-fiction humor law-enforcement whodunit -
Have His Carcase: Special Edition by Dorothy L. Sayers
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhen Harriet Vane finds a dead body on the beach, she and Lord Peter Wimsey must solve a murder when all the evidence has washed out to sea Harriet Vane has gone on vacation to forget her recent murder trial and, more importantly, to forget the man who cleared her name-the dapper, handsome, and maddening Lord Peter Wimsey...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime golden-age-mystery historical-fiction humor law-enforcement whodunit -
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The Unexpected Guest by Charles Osborne, Agatha Christie
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhen a stranger runs his car into a ditch in dense fog near the South Wales coast, and makes his way to an isolated house, he discovers a woman standing over the dead body of her wheel-chair bound husband, gun in her hand. She admits to murder, and the unexpected guest offers to help her concoct a cover story...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime historical-fiction law-enforcement literary-fiction whodunit thriller -
Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe wealthy Agatha Dawson is dead--a trifle sooner than expected--but there are no apparent signs of foul play. Lord Peter Wimsey, however, senses that something is amiss and refuses to let the case rest--even without any clues or leads. Suddenly, he is faced with another murder: Agatha's maid...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime golden-age-mystery historical-fiction humor law-enforcement whodunit -
Storm in the Village & Fairacre Festival by Miss Read
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsStorm in the Village, Miss Read, Headmistress of Fairacre School, learns of a proposed new housing development that soon has the citizens of Fairacre up in arms.In The Fairacre Festival, after a storm damages the church roof, the villagers must raise money for repairs...Categorized as:
historical-fiction classics humor cozy literary-fiction fiction historical audiobook -
The Reckoning by Rennie Airth
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Second World War has ended, leaving a bruised and fragile peace. But this tranquillity is threatened when a shocking murder takes place in the Sussex countryside. Before long, police experts discover a link to another, earlier, killing hundreds of miles away ..Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural thriller 20th-century adult audiobook -
Lightning Men by Thomas Mullen
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom the acclaimed author of The Last Town on Earth comes the gripping follow-up to Darktown, a “combustible procedural that will knock the wind out of you” (The New York Times).Officer Denny Rakestraw, “Negro Officers” Lucius Boggs and Tommy Smith, and Sergeant McInnis have their hands full in an overcrowded and rapidly changing Atlanta... -
The Rubber Band by Rex Stout
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWhat do a Wild West lynching and a respected English nobleman have in common? On the surface, absolutely nothing. But when a young woman hires his services, it becomes Nero Wolfe’s job to look deeper and find the connection...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime historical-fiction humor law-enforcement literary-fiction 20th-century -
Champagne for One by Rex Stout
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFaith Usher talked about taking her own life and even kept cyanide in her purse. So when she died from a lethal champagne cocktail in the middle of a high society dinner party, everyone called it suicide—including the police. But Nero Wolfe isn’t convinced—and neither is Archie. Especially when Wolfe is warned by four men against taking the case...Categorized as:
cozy crime golden-age-mystery historical-fiction humor law-enforcement thriller 20th-century -
Hunting Shadows by Charles Todd
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA dangerous case with ties leading back to the battlefields of World War I dredges up dark memories for Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge in Hunting Shadows, a gripping and atmospheric historical mystery set in 1920s England, from acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Charles Todd.A society wedding at Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire becomes a crime scene when a man is murdered...Categorized as:
cozy crime family historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural thriller 20th-century -
The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout, Robert Goldsborough
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA summary from the back cover:Paul Chapin's college cronies never forgave themselves for the prank that crippled their friend. Yet with Harvard days long behind them, they thought they were forgiven -- until a class reunion ends in a fatal fall (for one of them). Now this league of frightened men is desperate for Nero Wolfe's help... -
Poirot quitte la scène by Agatha Christie
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsArthritic and immobilized, Poirot calls on his old friend Captain Hastings to join him at Styles to be the eyes and ears that will feed observations to Poirot's still razor sharp mind. Though aware of the criminal's identity, Poirot will not reveal it to the frustrated Hastings, and dubs the nameless personage 'X'...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime golden-age-mystery historical-fiction law-enforcement literary-fiction whodunit -
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Thrush Green by Miss Read
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsMiss Read's charming chronicles of small-town life have achieved an almost legendary popularity worldwide by offering a welcome return to a gentler time and "wit, humor, and wisdom in equal measure" (Cleveland Plain Dealer). This volume introduces Thrush Green, the neighboring village to Fairacre: its blackthorn bushes, thatch-roofed cottages, enchanting landscape, and jumble sales... -
Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers, Mark Meadows
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsRustic old Riddlesdale Lodge was a Wimsey family retreat filled with country pleasures and the thrill of the hunt -- until the game turned up human and quite dead. He lay among the chrysanthemums, wore slippers and a dinner jacket and was Lord Peter's brother-in-law-to-be...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime family golden-age-mystery historical-fiction humor law-enforcement -
The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhen a disfigured corpse is discovered in a country parish, the local rector pleads with Lord Peter to take on what will become one of his most brilliant and complicated cases...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime golden-age-mystery historical-fiction law-enforcement literary-fiction whodunit -
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsNinety-year-old General Fentiman was definitely dead, but no one knew exactly when he had died—and the time of death was the determining factor in a half-million-pound inheritance...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime golden-age-mystery historical-fiction law-enforcement whodunit thriller -
The Face of a Stranger by Anne Perry
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratings"Richly textured with the sights and sounds of London and its countryside...Solidly absorbing and Perry's best to date."THE KIRKUS REVIEWSHis name, they tell him, is William Monk, and he is a London police detecive. But the accident that felled him has left him with only half a life; his memory and his entire past have vanished...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural whodunit thriller -
Death in a White Tie by Ngaio Marsh
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA body in the back of a taxi begins an elegantly constructed mystery, perhaps the finest of Marsh's 1930s novels.The season had begun. Debutantes and chaperones were planning their luncheons, teas, dinners, balls. And the blackmailer was planning his strategies, stalking his next victim.But Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn knew that something was up... -
Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie
Rated: 3.99 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsIt was an open and shut case. All the evidence said Caroline Crale poisoned her philandering husband, a brilliant painter. She was quickly and easily convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Now, sixteen years later, in a posthumous letter, Mrs. Crale has assured her grown daughter that she was innocent...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime golden-age-mystery historical-fiction law-enforcement whodunit thriller -
The Mousetrap and Other Plays by Agatha Christie
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThis special collection of Agatha Christie's greatest suspense plays includes The Mousetrap (the longest running play in history), Ten Little Indians, Witness for the Prosecution, Appointment with Death, The Hollow, Towards Zero, Go Back to Murder, and The Verdict...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime golden-age-mystery historical-fiction law-enforcement literary-fiction thriller -
To Love and Be Wise by Josephine Tey
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhen a young strikingly handsome photographer mysteriously disappears, it's up to Inspector Alan Grant to discover whether he accidentally drowned, committed suicide, or met his death at the hands of one of his many female admirers... -
The Documents in the Case by Dorothy L. Sayers, Robert Eustace
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe grotesquely grinning corpse in the Devonshire shack had died horribly—with a dish of mushrooms at his side deadly enough to kill thirty victims...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime golden-age-mystery historical-fiction law-enforcement whodunit 20th-century -
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In the Teeth of the Evidence by Dorothy L. Sayers
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAll that was left of the garage was a heap of charred and smouldering beams. In the driving seat of the burnt-out car were the remains of a body...An accident, said the police. An accident, said the widow. She had been warning her husband about the danger of the car for months. Murder, said the famous detective Lord Peter Wimsey--and proceeded to track down the killer...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime golden-age-mystery historical-fiction law-enforcement whodunit thriller -
Striding Folly by Dorothy L. Sayers, Janet Hitchman
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThree of Lord Peter Wimsey's most baffling cases demonstrate his unique detction skills at their most spectacular.The engima of a house numbered thirteen in a street of even numbers; an indignant child accused of theft, a dream about a game of chess that uncovers the true story behind a violent death...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime golden-age-mystery historical-fiction humor law-enforcement literary-fiction -
Sweet Danger by Margery Allingham
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWay back during the crusades Richard I presented the Huntingforest family with the tiny Balkan principality of Averna but since then the kingdom has been forgotten, until circumstances in Europe suddenly render it extremely strategically important to the British Government... -
Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert, Michael Mcstay
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAnother classic Michael Gilbert thriller, set within the legal profession. The mystery begins when the body of a client is found dead in a deed-box of the impeccable legal firm of Horniman, Birley and Crane. But why? And how was the Horniman system broken? A classic English murder mystery.Michael Francis Gilbert ( 1912- 2006) is recognized as one of the most versatile British mystery writers... -
The Family Vault by Charlotte MacLeod
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA mislaid corpse strikes terror in the hearts of Boston's strangest family. Like many old New England families, the Kellings live to die. Although their family vault is spacious and comfortable, for Sarah Kelling's Great-Uncle Frederick it will not do. In his will, he demands to be buried inside the ancient family tomb at Boston Common, which hasn't admitted a new member in over a century...Categorized as:
cozy crime historical-fiction humor law-enforcement literary-fiction whodunit 20th-century -
Death Times Three by Rex Stout
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThis collection showcases Nero Wolfe’s uncanny crime-solving ability—as well as his incredible appetite—when he tackles murder three times over. Features an introduction by Rex Stout biographer John J. McAleer... -
The Lacquer Screen by Robert van Gulik
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsEarly in his career, Judge Dee visits a senior magistrate who shows him a beautiful lacquer screen on which a scene of lovers has been mysteriously altered to show the man stabbing his lover. The magistrate fears he is losing his mind and will murder his own wife...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural 20th-century adult book fiction -
The Case of William Smith by Patricia Wentworth
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWho was William Smith? And why was Mavis Jones so horrified to see him? For seven years William had worked as a woodcarver for the local toyshop, ignorant of his true identity. The war had robbed him of his memory, and no one expected him to ever find the answer...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime golden-age-mystery historical-fiction law-enforcement 20th-century adult -
Ladies' Bane by Patricia Wentworth
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMiss Silver travels to the country to investigate a young man who may be deceiving his wifeNo one has seen Allegra Trent since she got married. Her husband swept her off her feet and out of London, to a faraway town called Bleake. She has stopped writing letters, and her family has begun to worry...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime historical-fiction law-enforcement literary-fiction thriller 20th-century -
A Quiet Place to Kill by N.R. Daws
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn this tense thriller set on a WW2 airbase, a female pilot faces danger in the sky—and a murderer on the ground.July 1940. As the Battle of Britain begins, the women of the Air Transport Auxiliary carry out the dangerous task of ferrying warplanes to RAF airbases...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction whodunit thriller law-enforcement police-procedural cozy mystery -
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Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsHere is a sparkling collection of mystery gems, polished puzzlers from the pen of Agatha Christie starring the vain, eccentric and utterly brilliant Hercule Poirot.Hercule Poirot grapples with a chain of mysteries that challenge his ingenuity and display the author's wide-ranging imagination to fine effect...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime golden-age-mystery historical-fiction law-enforcement literary-fiction whodunit -
Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsIt seems that no matter how hard he tries, Poirot never quite gets a holiday. This story sees him in Devon, Agatha Christie’s home county, and, of course, among the scantily clad sunbathers, a murdered woman is found.It was not unusual to find the beautiful bronzed body of the sun-loving Arlena Stuart stretched out on a beach, face down...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime golden-age-mystery historical-fiction law-enforcement whodunit thriller -
Peril at End House by Agatha Christie
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsHercule Poirot is vacationing on the Cornish coast when he meets Nick Buckley. Nick is the young and reckless mistress of End House, an imposing structure perched on the rocky cliffs of St. Loo.Poirot quickly takes a particular interest in the young woman. She has recently narrowly escaped a series of life-threatening accidents...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime golden-age-mystery historical-fiction law-enforcement whodunit thriller -
Poirot a Styles Court by Agatha Christie
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsAgatha Christie's debut novel was the first to feature Hercule Poirot, her famously eccentric Belgian detective. A refugee of the Great War, Poirot is settling in England near Styles Court, the country estate of his wealthy benefactor, the elderly Emily Inglethorp. When Emily is poisoned and the authorities are baffled, Poirot puts his prodigious sleuthing skills to work...Categorized as:
classics crime historical-fiction cozy law-enforcement thriller whodunit police-procedural -
Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsOur indomitable Miss Marple turns ghost hunter and uncovers shocking evidence of a very old crime.Soon after Gwenda moved into her new home, odd things started to happen. Despite her best efforts to modernize the house, she only succeeded in dredging up its past. Worse, she felt an irrational sense of terror every time she climbed the stairs...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime golden-age-mystery historical-fiction law-enforcement whodunit thriller -
4.50 From Paddington by Agatha Christie
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsA new tie-in edition of Agatha Christie's bestseller, to coincide with the broadcast of the new movie on ITV starring Geraldine McEwan. Includes a full colour plate section, a 'making of' essay, background facts and a bonus chapter. For an instant the two trains ran together, side by side. In that frozen moment, Elspeth witnessed a murder...Categorized as:
classics cozy crime family golden-age-mystery historical-fiction law-enforcement literary-fiction
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