Great Mystery Novels for Halloween

The leaves are starting to turn and the weather is changing and all I want to do is curl up with a blanket and a book. Maybe Halloween has officially done me in, but this seems like the perfect time to read a good mystery.

A Quick Disclaimer: I think the Mystery / Suspense genre has been butchered to a great extent. It's hard to find a good mystery that doesn't leave you thinking you were just manipulated for an entire book thinking that first it was the high school football coach and then the cheerleader, but no, it couldn't be the cheerleader because she was under the evil influence of the drug lord downtown so then you think it was the drug lord instead. And then you found out it was the WIFE. This is a true story, by the way, in a book I will NOT be recommending. Because at the end all I could think was the writer must think he's one hard core story teller and I just wanted to punch him in the face because he was absolute crap.

Here are my recommendations:

Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene. Bear with me here. But Nancy was my first introduction to mysteries as a girl and I voraciously read them as fast as I could get them. Kaylin gave me the first six books of the series last year for my birthday and I thought it would be a cute jaunt to read them but I found my heart quickening with each book because Nancy Drew is seriously one tough chick. She'll jump into any moving car, find mysterious passage ways and follow them to see where it leads, sneak into creepy houses . . . and maintain a great tan (because in Nancy's world, it's perennially summer). Maybe they're written for kids but I still enjoy them.

All Around the Town by Mary Higgins Clark. For the most part, I think Mary Higgins Clark is a subpar writer. Hey, I want to enjoy her books, but she writes with absolutely no personality. Her books are practically flatlined before you even start one of her novels. But All Around the Town is a great read. I bought this book for a trip to Hawaii when I was in high school and was gripped. It was so good that I read it every chance I got . . . who cared about Hawaii. My friends totally made fun of me until I finished it and then one-by-one they could all be seen reading that book on the beach and anywhere else they had the chance.

A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch. I just finished this book and it's not bad. Perhaps a little slow and the mystery could have been tighter but I enjoyed it. It's the first in the series and so I'm hopeful that the writer will improve. Taking place in the Victorian era, it's a nice journey to another time.

Masie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear. This is my favorite so my review is completely biased. Just to warn you, the Masie Dobbs series is a slow start. The first book is kind of boring, but if you stick with it you will not be disappointed. Masie Dobbs is a female PI just after the First World War stuck somewhere between the changing line of class distinction, feminism, and the aftermath of WWI while WWII is distantly in the future. Most of the time, I can figure out the culprit but it's all in the journey and figuring out why they did it--that becomes the real mystery. Even my mom (whose literary tastes couldn't be further from my own: she likes pioneer books, I read the Classics) loves them. Look at the book art--proof that you can judge a book by its cover because that is actually why I picked it up in the first place. Seriously, go get them. They're so fun to read and you might shed a tear in the process--very few writers can elicit entertainment and genuine emotion in the same book.