I love mystery novels (not gory!) , historic novels (not too academic!) , and books with a spiritual....?

Question

message. Is there a modern, well written novel out there for me? Any recommendations welcomed.

Answer 1

These are some of the best historical fiction I have read:
Matthew Pearl's "The Dante Club" and "The Poe Shadow"
Tracy Chevalier's "Girl With a Pearl Earring"
Tobsha Learner's "The Witch of Cologne"
Kathryn Lasky's "Beyond the Burning Time" and "Blood Secret"
Elizabeth George Speare's "The Witch of Blackbird Pond"

You might also like:
Arturo Perez-Reverte's "The Flanders Panel" and "The Club Dumas"
Katherine Neville's "The Eight"
Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose."
Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason's "The Rule of Four"

Some of my fav mystery authors, in no particular order:
Lilian Jackson Braun
Carole Nelson Douglas
Camille Minichino
M. R. Sellars
Karen Irving
Jasper Fforde
Sandra Tooley
Lee Driver
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Agatha Christie
Harry Kemelman
Margaret Truman
P. D. James
Martha C. Lawrence
Ellery Queen
Ralph McInery
Tony Hillerman
Erle Stanley Gardner
Susan Wittig Albert

Answer 2

i can't think of a better title that fits your description than Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamozov. The novel is on the surface a mystery novel and court-room drama set in Russia in the 19th century. The novel reveals a lot about the social environment of Russia during this period and highlights through a number of its characters a number of intellectual, social, and spiritual issues relevant to that period. In addition, the novel serves as a sort of spiritual biography of Dostoevsky (widely accepted as being one of the greatest novelists in World Literature), whose first works reveal the author as bordering existentialist, and whose final work answers the author's own questions concerning the existence of God, doubt, free will, and reason.

...i too, enjoy books that are historical, have a spiritual significance, and keep the reader guessing...i could not have been more pleased with this work!

Oh, or you could try some of the mysteries of G.K. Chesterton. I've read The Man Who Was Thursday, but he wrote a number of others, that certainly fit your criteria. Chesterton is a genius, and I've enjoyed a number of his non-fiction in addition to Thursday.

Answer 3

The Blue Bottle Club by Stokes
All the Way Home by Tatlock
The Locket by Evans
The Tresure Box by Stokes
The Shunning by Lewis

as for nongory mysteries, try authors Earlene Fowler and Dorothy Gilman.

Answer 4

Rita Mae Brown -- the Mrs. Murphy sequence and the Fox searching sequence, set in Virginia Tony Hillerman -- mysteries set interior the yankee Southest Dick Francis -- all contain horses indirectly Ngaio Marsh -- Detective Roderick Alleyn, more desirable typically than not in and round London Edward Marston -- sequence about an Elizabethan theater troupe, initiating with The Queen's Head Ellis Peters -- sequence about Brother Cadfael, an English monk interior the 1100s

Answer 5

How about "historic" mystery novels. Its a rather large sub genera of mysteries. Many are written by people with academic credentials who are careful with their scholarship, and they are ripping good yarns as well. Think Brother Cadaefl series. There are medieval ones and Tudor one and Egyptian one and Roman ones. I don't know just what all. They are my favorite light reading. Stephen Saylor write a nice Roman series that he has recently completed. Sharon Newman has a nice French medieval series. And as to spiritual messages, many of these deal with spiritual questions and ethical dilemmas as well.

Answer 6

A book that was just published last year called Red Bird Just Like This. It's by Earl Jesse Stevens. It's an autobiographical novel, and man has this guy lived through some things. It's a funny, inspirational galavant through love, loss, education, poverty, violence, drugs, gypsies, gamblers, musicians, surgery, death, time and erotic encounters.

Answer 7

Doesn't fill the spiritual part too much, but "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova is good so far. I'm in the middle of it and so far there is nothing much gory about it. Though it is a "dracula" novel, so who knows what the ending will turn up. :)

Answer 8

hmm... i recently enjoyed arkly reaming exter, by Jeff Linsay, and the second book in the series.

From Publishers Weekly
It's been years since there's been a thriller debut as original as this one by Lindsay, who takes a tired subgenre-the serial-killer novel-and makes it as fresh as dawn. Lindsay's premise alone is worthy: narrator Dexter Morgan, a blood-spatter specialist for the Miami cops, is also a serial killer. But all his life, Dexter has followed the rules set down by his cop foster father (who knew of Dexter's proclivities), to indulge his passion only by slaying other serial killers. What makes this novel zing, though, is the narration-humorous, self-deprecating, smart and sometimes lyrical, it's a macabre fun ride ("I thought about the nice clothes that I always wore. Well of course I did. I took pride in being the best-dressed monster in Dade County"). The story opens with Dexter at play, kidnapping and killing a priest who has murdered a number of children, then moves on to the main plot, a series of gruesome killings of prostitutes by an unknown madman. Dexter's foster sister is a Miami Vice Squad cop working on the killings, so Dexter decides to help her solve the case. This puts him in conflict with a dumb but ambitious female homicide detective as well as, soon enough, the killer himself, whose approach to serial killing mirrors Dexter's own, uncomfortably so. Might Dexter himself be the culprit? The answer feels a bit contrived, but will surprise most readers, and it's a minor flaw in a gripping, deliciously offbeat novel that announces the arrival of a notable new talent.

From a custoemr review on amazon:
Lindsay has delivered an inspired mystery, one that demands to be read, in one sitting if possible, the elegant Dexter speaking to the need for justice where often there is none. Can't help but smile at the young man's antics, dancing in the moon-drenched night with his own demons and skirting the edge of mayhem. With infinite grace, the author reaches into the dark heart of each of us, igniting atavistic memory, no doubt with a smile on his face. Luan Gaines/2004.


there's also, 1776 by Mccullough, if you dont' mind sloughing through tons of American colonial histroy... (it's dipiction of Gerneal George Washington is awesom though, it's like Gi Joe, I swear.)

Answer 9

Try two books that fulfill all your requirements: mistery, history and spirituality: "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco and "Imprimatur" By Rita Monaldi & Francesco Sorti. Ah, try also "The Rule of Four" by Caldwell & Thomason.

Answer 10

The Good Weeds , History stories