Mysteries are probably the most popular of all the fiction genres, and there are mystery novels to satisfy every taste, from the tame to the grotesque. You’ll find some of my favorite books here, but keep in mind that mystery writers are, in general, incredibly prolific, so take these suggestions as just a place to start. (See also: Police Procedurals and Private Eyes)

A subgenre of mysteries has an amateur detective as its main character, and the biggest challenge for the writer here is to come up with an occupation in which it makes sense that said amateur detective will frequently stumble on (both literally and figuratively) dead bodies. Nancy Pickard had the right idea when she made her heroine, Jenny Cain, the director of a charitable trust, in Generous Death. What could be better than to have a profession that brings you into close contact with death and money, both prime movers in the crime business?

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Mysterious Occupations

You can find amateur detectives involved in occupations ranging from A (Actor: Charlie Paris, in Simon Brett’s Star Trap and others) to at least W (Writer: Molly Cates, in Mary Willis Walker’s chilling Under the Beetle’s Cellar and The Red Scream), with stops along the way at B (Banker: John Putnam Thatcher, in Emma Lathen’s most excellent Banking on Death; A Place for Murder; Murder to Go; Accounting for Murder; and many more), and C (Caterer: Goldy Bear, in Chopping Spree and other humorous mysteries by Diane Mott Davidson), to a major pileup at L (for Lawyers and Little old ladies).

Here are some of my favorites, in these and other occupations:

Sarah Caudwell’s Thus Was Adonis Murdered (lawyers)

Edmund Crispin’s Gervase Fen series, especially The Moving Toyshop; The Case of the Gilded Fly; and The Glimpses of the Moon (Oxford don)

Agatha Christie’s Nemesis, a mystery featuring Miss Marple, written quite late in Christie’s career, but up to her high standards (little old lady)

Dorothy Sayers’s Gaudy Night, the best of the Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane series (wealthy dilettante and writer)

Nevada Barr’s Blind Descent; Flashback; and Hunting Season (park ranger)

M. C. Beaton’s Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death (the first in the series featuring a public relations flak)

Ayelet Waldman’s The Big Nap (stay-at-home mom, ex–public defender)

Susan Conant’s Bloodlines (dog fanatic)

Earlene Fowler’s Mariner’s Compass (museum curator)

Joan Hess’s Out on a Limb (bookstore owner)

Jonathan Kellerman’s When the Bough Breaks (psychologist)

Sharyn McCrumb’s Paying the Piper (anthropologist)

Barbara Neely’s Blanche on the Lam (cleaning woman)

Rick Boyer’s Billingsgate Shoal (doctor)

Michael Nava’s Rag and Bone (lawyer)

Lia Matera’s Face Value (lawyer)

John Mortimer’s Rumpole of the Bailey (British lawyer)

Veronica Black’s A Vow of Compassion (nun)

G. K. Chesterton’s The Best of Father Brown (priest)

Harry Kemelman’s Friday the Rabbi Slept Late (rabbi)

Ellis Peters’s A Morbid Taste for Bones (medieval monk)

Amanda Cross’s The Theban Mysteries (college professor)

Carolyn Hart’s The Christie Caper (bookstore owner)

Elizabeth Peters’s Crocodile on the Sandbank (Victorian explorer and fan of all things Egyptian)