History's Mysteries...

Top five Tuesday is here already! In honor of the recent excellent guest review of Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation series, I've decided to offer up my current top 5 historical mystery series. Obviously since I am new to the Willig series, she isn't on there yet, but I hope you'll check out these other, very fine, historical mystery writers...

The Lady Julia Grey Series - Deanna Raybourn
Excellent Victorian era series featuring Lady Julia Grey and her delicious husband, Nicholas Brisbane.  With four titles in this series, Ms. Raybourn just gets better and better, I am eagerly looking forward to the fifth.  

The Julian Kestral Series - Kate Ross
In my opinion, one of the best historical mystery series ever! Set in Regency times, Julian is a suave, erudite and fashionable rogue, however his dapper exterior hides a much deeper core. It breaks my heart that Ms. Ross only completed four books in this series prior to her untimely death. If you are a fan of historical mysteries, hunt them down and read them all.  Brilliant!

The Sebastien St. Cyr Series- C.S. Harris
Excellent Regency era series featuring the dark and cynical Sebastian Alistair St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin.  Harris creates truly remarkable supporting characters and St. Cyr is a perfect world-weary hero, but I live in fear that he will choose the wrong woman.  Team Hero for the win!

The Molly Murphy series - Rhys Bowen
This entertaining series set in turn of the century New York is a delight. A bit lighter in tone than the other series, it features a protagonist who is funny, smart and endearing, even though she isn't much of a detective. The setting and the historical period, along with the aforementioned heroine, make this series a winner.

The Lady Emily Series - Tasha Alexander
Another Victorian era series featuring a very sharp lady protagonist. Lady Emily exhibits remarkable growth throughout this series and a strong cast of supporting characters, including sexy new husband, Colin Hargreaves, an agent for the crown, make this fast-paced and far-reaching series a delight.


There you have it.  I hope that you'll share your favorites in this genre, I am always on the look out for a new series to love!  

To glom or not to glom?

Do you glom?  Yes, I'm aware that glom has a multitude of meanings, but in this case we're discussing the one that involves a reader obsessively reading all of an author's backlist.  I am a big time glommer.  I confess that when I read a book that I love, it is a certainty that I will immediately set about locating and reading other books by that writer.  I think that glomming is an activity that has special appeal for genre readers.  Genre reading, by it's very nature, involves looking for some consistency from writers.  Whether you read, mysteries, science fiction, romance or any other genre, you've most likely identified consistent elements that make a book work for you.  So, it follows that if you love police procedurals and you find a writer who writes a fantastic procedural, you'll want to check out their backlist.

In my world, glomming can also involve reading an entire series, rather than the entire author backlist.  This is especially true of genre writers who may have three or four very different series running at once.  For example, I've recently been laid up recuperating from some minor surgery and I sort of stumbled onto a historical mystery series by Rhys Bowen.  Now Bowen writes three series and they appear to be quite different, so rather than glom her entire backlist, I limited my glomming activity to her Molly Murphy series.  I had tried one of her Constable Evans mysteries years ago and found it a bit to cozy for my taste (I can only read a cozy if there is a cat in it, it's a terrible personality flaw), but the MM series worked for me.  A big part of the charm was the setting of NYC at the turn of the century.  An author could not ask for a more exciting, tumultuous time or place and I'll read almost anything that uses this backdrop.  I decided to glom the series on the strength of setting and I've since worked my way through six of the nine titles available and I have the other three waiting at the library.  While I have a few qualms about this series, it has consistently delivered on the elements that appealed in the first title I read and that is really all a glommer can ask for.

So, any other glommers out there?