The 1920s are made for mysteries. Hemlines rose, telephones rang in every parlor, and behind the good manners of the age there were plenty of secrets worth killing for. If you love a clean, clever mystery with a strong sense of time and place, here are three series to start right now, each set in the 1920s and each best read from Book 1.
1. The Thornwick Tea Shop Mysteries (England, 1925)
Start with: Murder Steeped in Thyme
When botanist Bea Hawthorne inherits her late aunt's tearoom in the Kent village of Thornwick, she hopes for scones, sweet tea and a little peace. Instead she finds a death everyone is content to call natural, and a battered ledger no one was meant to read. A botanist notices the wrong herb and the too-quiet grief, and Bea is about to learn that the kindest-looking places keep the darkest accounts.
Perfect for: readers who love English villages, herbs and poisons, and a heroine who solves crimes with knowledge rather than force.
2. A Thornwick Hat Shop Mystery (1920s Paris and England)
Start with: A Palette for Poison
Paris, 1925. Milliner Agnes Ambrose knows that silk can reveal what people try to hide. Commissioned to make a striking hat for a private art exhibition, she is drawn into a world of hidden paintings, powerful collectors and a death that refuses to stay buried. In Agnes's world, every stitch tells a story, and some stories are deadly.
Perfect for: readers who love fashion, art and elegant society, with sixteen books to enjoy once you're hooked.
3. The Gilded Peacock Mysteries (Chicago, 1926)
Start with: The Postcard Diagram
Corinne Voss is the new dance captain at the Gilded Peacock, a Bronzeville supper club where everybody keeps two faces. All she has left of her missing sister is a postcard written not in words but in dance steps. When the club's aging dresser is found dead beside a trunk marked with the same strange latch, Corinne realizes the postcard was never a keepsake. It was a warning.
Perfect for: readers who love jazz-age atmosphere, found family and a mystery with real heart.
Which one should you read first?
- Want a cup of tea and a village full of secrets? Murder Steeped in Thyme.
- Want glamour, fashion and Paris? A Palette for Poison.
- Want jazz, Chicago and a puzzle hidden in dance steps? The Postcard Diagram.
Every book is available in paperback and hardcover, printed just for you, and many are also available as ebooks. See the full Series Reading Order to plan your next read.