As you may know, I love me some detective fiction. So in 2025, over on Tumblr I started a book club dedicated to crime fiction. It’s grown and it now has its own Fable club too. Come check us out if you’d like to join a group of fellow murder mystery fans.
Here’s our schedule the 2026 Murder Mystery Book Club
JAN: The Red House Mystery (1922) by A. A. Milne (yes, that Milne, of Winnie the Pooh fame) – Anthony and his friend Bill are enjoying the house party thrown by Mark Ablett at The Red House, when Mark’s brother is found dead and Mark is missing.
FEB: Overture to Death (1939) by Ngaio Marsh – A new piano should be a wonderful gift for the parish hall, but then (okay, sorry. I’ve got to quote the official blurb on this, it’s soo good) “a chord was struck, a shot rang out and Miss Campanula was dead.”
MAR: And Then There Were None (1939) by Agatha Christie – The classic locked room and closed circle mystery by the queen. Ten strangers answer an invitation to stay at a remote island… then start dying. Which one of them is the killer?
APR: Whose Body? (1923) by Dorothy L. Sayers – Sayers debut novel and the introduction of Lord Peter Wimsey. A business man disappears. A body is found in a bathtub. Wimsey investigates.
MAY: The Crime at Black Dudley aka The Black Dudley Murder (1929) by Margery Allingham – A group of people are trapped in a secluded house, Black Dudley, with a haunted family heirloom and a suspicious death.
JUN: The Daughter of Time (1951) by Josephine Tey – A bedridden police inspector becomes obsessed with a 400 year old crime and sets out to find the truth.
Yes, this is technically after the golden age, but Tey is a golden age queen so I’m hoping you’ll think it fits.
JUL: Heads You Lose (1941) by Christianna Brand – We’re back with the country house murder mysteries. This time the guests become suspects when a village woman is found dead.
AUG: A Murder is Announced (1950) by Agatha Christie – The inhabitants of a small village all read the same announcement in the newspaper: a murder will take place that night at Miss Blacklock’s. Curious, they turn up and become witnesses to a murder.
Again, outside the Golden age time frame but this has one of the greatest clues I’ve ever seen a mystery and, frankly, I just want to talk about it.
SEP: The Wintringham Mystery aka Cicely Disappears (1927) by Anthony Berkeley – Demobbed army officer Stephen Munro starts a new job as a footman and welcomes Lady Susan Carey’s guests for a weekend party. But when Cicely disappears and his boss doesn’t want to call the police, Stephen investigates.
This was originally serialised in a newspaper in 1926, and the Daily Mirror ran a competition with a prize of £500 (approx £30,000 today!) for anyone who correctly guessed the solution. No one won. Even Agatha Christie entered and couldn’t solve it. Do you think we can?
OCT: The Hollow Man, aka The Three Coffins (1935) by John Dickson Carr – We’ve got a locked room mystery with a killer who can walk through doors, be unseen while being watched and leave no footprints. Dr Gideon Fell must solve the conundrum.
NOV: The Big Sleep (1939) by Raymond Chandler – America’s response to the neat puzzle mysteries of the 1920s was the hardboiled crime novel. Detective Philip Marlowe is introduced here when he’s hired by a man in a wheelchair to find out who’s blackmailing him.
DEC: Ask a Policeman (1933) by The Detection Club – Written by six different golden age members of The Detection Club, it’s republication has an introduction by Christie. With chapters by Dorothy L. Sayers, Gladys Mitchell, Helen Simson, Anthony Berkeley, John Rhode, and Milward Kennedy.
A newspaper tycoon and all round nasty person is murdered and four famous detectives are invited in to solve the case: Mrs Adela Bradley, Sir John Saumarez, Lord Peter Wimsey, and Mr Roger Sheringham.
Oh and none of them are writing their own detectives!
All of the books are also available as audiobooks, and most are freely available through libraries. So if you’re having trouble finding them, check out your local library or (and you didn’t hear this from me) search for the title and “audiobook” on YouTube.