dorey

Because I am a sucker for obscure historical detectives, and everybody else should be too.



Series Name: Benjamin January - Barbara Hambly
Length: 21 books, most between 200-500 pages
Time Period: 1840s New Orleans
Shipping Potential: canon f/m, potential for basically anything else you’d like due to the size of the supporting cast
What Do I Ship? Abishag Shaw/Benjamin January. Shaw is a Kentucky policeman who acts dumb, and who admittedly has problems with personal hygiene, but is actually the smartest guy in most rooms. Ben is a 6’3 surgeon turned musician, who is incredibly smart and kind but who also chafes a hell of a lot under the strictures of 1840s New Orleans society. I like how they should be on opposite sides, should really mistrust each other, and yet instead have this slightly odd and really sweet relationship with each other. I love how they trust each other (Shaw somewhat more than Ben, admittedly), I love how they frequently seem to amuse each other and I really love how they just seem to get each other in a really compelling way.

Hannibal Sefton/Benjamin January. Ben remains Ben. Hannibal is an anglo-irish fiddler possibly dying of consumption, addicted to alcohol for at least the first few books and with extremely lovingly described long hair; he is an absolute sweetheart and I love him. I find their friendship really sweet, and I'd love to see that progressing even further. I love how Hannibal is absolutely loyal to Ben, I love how they tease each other so constantly and I love how they always have each other's backs. They're just really adorable with each other, which is nice considering how dark the series can get.
Summary: Benjamin January, a free black man trained as a surgeon but working as a musician, moves back to New Orleans after the death of his beloved wife in France. He wants to live quietly, but crimes keep happening around him with disturbing frequency and - being one of the few people in New Orleans possessed of a brain - he has to keep solving them. He does this with the help of the policeman Abishag Shaw, genius scientist (and eventually his wife) Rose Vitrac, and fiddler (and lovable human disaster) Hannibal Sefton.
Why Do I love It?: I adore the vivid sense of setting, I'm fascinated by the mysteries and I LOVE the characters in it. It's just a really amazingly immersive series, and I can't help but get lost in it every single time I pick it up.

Series Name: Blake & Avery Series - MJ Carter
Length: 3 books, 300-500 pages each
Time Period: 1830s-1840s, India and then London
Shipping Potential: Canon F/M, M/M and F/M potential
What Do I Ship? Blake/Avery, where Blake is a working class Sherlock Holmes-type figure who is very bitter at the whole world (due in part to being deported to India in his youth and then forced to work for the government) and Avery is an upper middle class soldier who initially seems like a selfish twit but has a heart of gold on the inside. There’s about twenty years between them and they have hundreds of differences, but they end up super loyal to each other - to the point where Avery actually names his son after Blake - and genuinely make each other better people.

I also ship Matty/Helen, who don’t actually meet in canon but who I think could be really sweet together. Matty is an extremely lower class street rat introduced in book two, who has been dealt a hard hand by life but who is still constantly fighting for a better life. Helen is Avery’s canon wife (who he has an extremely complicated relationship with), who is very beautiful and seemingly very vapid but who has a lot of interesting ambition and obviously chafes under the roles assigned to women in that period. I think the contrast between Matty’s lower class struggles and Helen’s upper class struggles could just be really fun!
Summary: Avery, upper middle class twit with a heart of gold, is sent to India by his father to make something of himself. When he’s asked to take a message to the mysterious Blake, a man who has turned his back on the East India Company and British society in general, this triggers a series of events that sends them haring across India in search of a possibly fictitious cult and growing an awful lot closer along the way.

They eventually solve that mystery, but when they reunite again in London three years later they end up having to solve more crimes and also to rebuild their relationship and their own lives along the way.
Why Do I love It?: Interesting plots, Historical accuracy AND a relationship between the two main characters so endearing that I had to keep putting my copy of the book down to clutch my face with glee. They’re just really meaty books that have so many iddy moments in them!

Series Name: Cadfael Chronicles - Ellis Peters
Length: 20 books, most under 200 pages
Time Period: 1100s (The Anarchy), England
Shipping Potential: canon f/m, m/m, f/m/m
What Do I Ship? Cadfael/Hugh is my main ship. Cadfael is a monk in his fifties who used to be a crusader and who is now content to solve semi-regular crimes, Hugh is a deputy sheriff (and eventually sheriff) in his twenties who cares very strongly about justice but who is also a born Slytherin. They become pretty much instant BFFs in canon, when Hugh is introduced in book 2, and remain BFFs throughout. They are just INCREDIBLY cute together, and I love them.

I also ship Aline/Hugh/Cadfael. Aline is Hugh’s canon wife and they’re really sweet together, and she ends up having a really sweet relationship with Cadfael too. She’s also so incredibly chill that I can honestly see her discovering that her husband wants to fuck his elderly monk bff, and immediately being completely chill with it. All three of them just really respect each other and care for each other and work together really well, and I think they would also be cute.
Potential Warnings: There’s a brief mention of rape in one of the books, but otherwise these are as light as a crime series can be. There’s also some focus on religion, being that the main character is a monk, but it’s definitely not that heavy.
Summary: Cadfael, monk and former crusader, keeps solving crimes in the town of Salisbury even when he’s supposed to be doing other things. He’s helped by a rotating cast of his friends, allies and enemies.
Why Do I love It?: They're just an incredible amount of fun. They're the perfect mixture of complex mystery paired with just a really reassuring tone/portrayal of the world, and they're the perfect comfort read for a rainy day. I really love the historical setting, I really love the crimes that they have to solve and I especially love the characters and the interactions between them.

Series Name: Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins Mysteries - DE Ireland
Length: 4 books, all 300-400 pages
Time Period: 1910s, England
Shipping Potential: Canon f/m, f/m potential
What Do I Ship? Eliza Doolittle/Henry Higgins. I love their mutual chaotic competence, I love their constant childish squabbling and I love that they obviously care quite deeply for each other underneath it all.
Summary: Set after the film My Fair Lady, Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins are estranged and she's working for his greatest rival. The murder of this rival leads to them reconnecting as friends again to solve the case, repairing their relationship and going on to solve several more crimes afterwards.
Why Do I love It?: I absolutely adored these books! I’ve watched My Fair Lady about once, perhaps twenty years ago, but I feel these stand very well by themselves. They’re just so good. The characters are excellent, the plots are the perfect mixture of interesting and complex and it’s all just insanely feel good. I loved all the books, and I would absolutely love to see anything for them!

Series Name: Father Brown - GK Chesterton
Length: All short stories, gathered into 5 collections
Time Period: 1910s-1920s, mostly set in England
Shipping Potential: m/m potential
What Do I Ship? Father Brown/Flambeau. Father Brown is a catholic priest, Flambeau is the former master thief who he convinces not to be a criminal anymore. Their dynamic is just absolute catnip to me. They start off as enemies, Flambeau even threatens Father Brown with absolute sincerity, but in the end they end up absolutely (and slightly absurdly) committed BFFs who look after each other all the time. I love how Father Brown sees some good in Flambeau, I love how Flambeau is all in regarding his loyalty to Father Brown and I really just love how sweet they are together.
Summary: Father Brown, tiny catholic priest, solves many crimes by being remarkably cheerful about the whole thing. Somehow convinces Hercule Flambeau, initially a super thief, to abandon his life of crime and help him out with catching criminals instead.
Why Do I love It?: They're just so charming! Really comforting and cozy, but also exceptionally well written and with some really interesting crimes. I find them absolutely wonderful, and absurdly enjoyable. I’d recommend the first set of short stories far higher than the following ones, but basically any that feature Flambeau are golden.

Series Name: The Detective Lavender Mysteries - Karen Charlton
Length: 6 books, all 200-400 pages
Time Period: 1820s England (Mainly London, but with a lot of far flung cases)
Shipping Potential: Canon f/m, potential m/m
What Do I Ship? First off: I do love the canon pairings. Ned Woods/Betsy Woods are an established couple from the very start and obviously love each other very much. Stephen Lavender/Magdalena get together during the story, and are also very fun and passionate and sweet.

I also ship Ned Woods/Stephen Lavender. It took a while for me to start properly shipping these two, but by the final book I was definitely all in on them. They’re just so sweet with each other. They have such a firm friendship, and are just so wonderfully loyal and committed to each other. I love how Ned consciously cheers Stephen up a little, and I love how Stephen prompts Ned to see the world in a slightly different way. They’re just really cute!
Summary: Stephen Lavender is a famous detective at the infancy of Scotland Yard in Regency era Britain. With his loyal companion, Ned Woods, he travels the entirety of the UK. Seeking out crime, and dispensing justice no matter how difficult.
Why Do I love It?: I just find these books a lot of fun. They’re regency set crime novels, with a sweet central pair and a lot of extremely interesting side characters. I like the mysteries, I like the way everybody interacts and I like the sheer charm of the setting. A fair few dark things happen, but these are quite light and nice reads and I really appreciate that.

Series Name: Frey & McGray - Oscar De Muriel
Length: 7 books, all 400-500 pages
Time Period: 1880s-1890s Edinburgh
Shipping Potential: potential m/m, f/m and f/m/m
What Do I Ship? Frey/McGray to an admittedly slightly frenzied degree. Frey is a prissy English detective, who is ABSOLUTELY a dick on every level but who is still somehow a good human being underneath. McGray is a Scottish detective who is loud, brutish, and with a worryingly intense belief in the supernatural… Which was born from great tragedy in his personal life, and doesn’t stop him from being incredibly kind to people who deserve it. They just have a dynamic that's absolute catnip to me. They're a historical detective duo, they're forced into close proximity to each other while solving cases, they have a certain amount of loyalty to each other... But at the same time they have an interesting amount of hostility between them, a large amount of mistrust and a lot of things to work through. They obviously care about each other a little while still finding each other incredibly difficult, and I LOVE it.

I also ship Frey/McGray/Caroline Ardglass. Frey and McGray remain Frey and McGray. Caroline is the granddaughter of one of the most prominent women in Edinburgh, she’s just as much of a jerk as the other two and also has rather rebellious views on how a woman should behave in society due to her rather complicated family background. I just think they'd be really interesting (and funny) together! Frey is a stuck up jerk with a surprising amount of heart, McGray is an overly impulsive jerk who has a surprising core of kindness and Caroline is a spiky jerk who has a surprising level of loyalty to those she truly loves. I think the combination of all of them together would really piss everybody around them off, and would also lead to all of them having a better time in general!
Summary: Ian Frey, English detective and jerk, loses his fiance and his job on the same day and ends up sent to Edinburgh to help head up a department focused on solving supernatural crimes. There he meets Adolphus “Nine Nails” McGray, Scottish detective (and jerk) with an extremely tragic family history. Together they have to solve potentially supernatural crimes, all while resisting the urge to murder each other.
Why Do I love It?: I just found these books so incredibly gripping. The cases are really interesting, the setting (with its slightest edge of paranormal stuff) is excellent and I just really love all the characters.

Series Name: Inspector George Gently
Length: 8 seasons, 2-4 episodes a season, 90 minutes per episode
Time Period: 1960s Northumberland and Durham
Shipping Potential: canon f/m, potential for m/m and f/m
What Do I Ship? George Gently/John Bacchus. Gently is a grumpy cop in his late fifties/early sixties who is extremely progressive for his time and believes in justice no matter how much it hurts him. Bacchus is a cop in his late twenties/early thirties, who on the surface is a prejudiced dickhead but who secretly has a heart of gold. Together they work out their personal differences and fight crime, and it's GREAT.
Summary: George Gently, one of the few non-corrupt cops on the force, moves up north and takes up a new position when his wife is murdered by his nemesis in a hit and run incident. He initially means it to be one case and done, but when he encounters the young hothead John Bacchus he decides to stick around and see if he can lead him away from the darkside of policing. What follows is 8 series where they deal with various crimes around the Northumberland and Durham area, while also dealing with shifting historical attitudes and their own issues.
Why Do I love It?: It’s just so good! I love the complexity of the plots, I love all the historical flavour and I love the work they put into developing the characters. They’re really engrossing watches, that generally have a really strong sense of what they want to do and how they want to develop both plots and relationships. Just an incredibly fun series all around.

Series Name: Mycroft Holmes Series - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar & Anna Waterhouse
Length: 3 books, between 300-400 pages each (according to goodreads each one is exactly 336 pages. I doubt this, but hey!)
Time Period: 1870s Trinidad and London, primarily
Shipping Potential: canon f/m, Potential m/m
What Do I Ship? Mycroft Holmes/Cyrus Douglas is my OTP in this series. Mycroft will one day grow into the man behind the entire British government, but in the time period of the books he's an ambitious young man working his way up and unfortunately having the stuffing knocked out of him as he does so. Douglas is his black, Trinidadian best friend who has a huge amount of personal tragedy in his backstory but is still determined to make the world around him better. They're so loyal to each other and so invested in each other, and quite obviously care about each other so much. They're so very different, and yet seem to see and understand each other in a way nobody else can.
Summary: 20 years before the events of ACD's Sherlock Holmes Mycroft is a young man working his way up the ranks. When his fiance runs off to Trinidad out of nowhere, Mycroft recruits the help of his best friend - also from Trinidad - and sets off after her. Along the way he discovers unpleasant new things about himself and the world around him, and suffers unspeakable tragedy as a result.

Those are the events of the first book. After this you think he'd be a little more restrained, but he just keeps getting dragged into impossible crimes - still alongside Douglas - and his sense of justice won't let him back down from them. That, and his younger brother - Sherlock - keeps getting deeply involved no matter how hard Mycroft tries to keep him out. Will Mycroft ever get the peace he claims he craves, or will his inability to look away continue to lead him down an ever darker path?
Why Do I love It?: It is SO GOOD?! I was not expecting it to be so good, being both written by a basketball great and yet another Sherlock Holmes spin-off, but it is absolutely amazing. Really gripping plots, really tightly written mysteries, an excellent grasp of character… I absolutely adored these books!

Series Name: The Restoration Series - Edward Marston
Length: 6 books, mostly 200-300 pages
Time Period: 1660s (Restoration), England
Shipping Potential: Canon f/m, potential m/m and f/f
What Do I Ship? Christopher Redmayne/Jonathan Bale. Christopher is a Cavalier leaning architect who is absurdly cheerful and strangely good at solving crime, Bale is a puritan constable who is described as an absolute giant and who is a genuinely good guy underneath his spikiness. They start off a little tense with each other, one being a Cavalier leaning dude and the other being fairly Puritan, but quickly grow into a really strong and lasting partnership. I think the fifth book calls them "unlikely soulmates", and that's basically the only way I can see them now. I love how supportive they are of each other, how well they compliment each other and how much they just GET each other despite all their differences.

Henry Redmayne/Jonathan Bale. Bale still being, well, Bale. Henry is Christopher’s older brother, and while Christopher is lightly cavalier leaning Henry is a full on libertine who is utterly incapable of making a single good decision. These two really interest me because they have probably the most antagonistic relationship in the books. They disagree on pretty much every point possible (Jonathan is a Puritan while Henry is a libertine, Jonathan seems quite outwardly conservative while Henry is as liberal as fuck, Jonathan is very religious while Henry mainly seems to believe in himself), would never socialise with each other by choice... And yet keep being forced together on a regular basis! I'd love to see the edge between them explored in more detail, and maybe to see how much further it could lead.

Susan Cheever/Sarah Bale. Susan is Christopher’s girlfriend, a highly spirited spinster who is dedicated to caring for her father (the most Purintanical cavalier you’ll ever meet). Sarah is Jonathan’s wife, and is an absolute sweetheart on every level. They both know what it's like to be the slightly exasperated wife/girlfriend, they're both very kind, both very smart and both surprisingly open minded for women of their time. Basically I just think they’d be really cute together, and want them to have a fun time.
Summary: Christopher Redmayne, Cavalier leaning architect, is given a commission to build a house after the great fire of London. When he finds a body in the cellar of the house, he decides that he might as well solve the crime with the help of constable Jonathan Bale. This keeps happening.
Why Do I love It?: I like the little period details, I like the intricacies of the mysteries and I really like how the two come together in a lot of interestingly tense ways. The ways that Puritans and Cavaliers (and even Puritan and Cavalier leaning people!) interact in this series is fascinating to me, and a big part of the reason as to why I keep coming back.

Series Name: Sam Wyndham - Abir Mukherjee
Length: 5 books, all 300-500 pages
Time Period: 1920s India
Shipping Potential: Canon f/m, potential m/n
What Do I Ship? Sam Wyndham/Surendranath Banerjee. Sam is a jaded British policeman who lost absolutely everything in the first world war and only gained an opium addiction in return, Surendranath is his fresh faced sergeant who is fairly sweet but who definitely is aware of the injustices of his world. They shouldn't be close, they shouldn't really like each other at all, but they just have this really firm bond that's stood up against so many things. I love the loyalty between them, I love the fact that they're able to laugh with each other and I love that they have each other's backs even when the situation is fraught. I also, trying to avoid spoilers, love all the complexity that enters their relationship in book 4 and the way they both react to that.
Summary: Sam Wyndham, hot mess of a human being, is posted to India after the end of the first world war. On his first working day there he’s thrown head first into an incredibly complex crime, and has to solve it with the help of the extremely intelligent - but held back due to the attitudes of his time - Sergeant Surendranath Banerjee. They keep solving crimes together after they’ve solved that one, as their relationship gets ever more complex.
Why Do I love It?: I love the sense of atmosphere, I love the interesting mystery plots and I absolutely love the characters. This is just really gripping from start to finish, really well done and compelling in many ways. It is so good, and it breaks my heart afresh with every new instalment.

Series Name: Stanton & Barling - EM Powell
Length: 3 books (the 4th releasing later this year!), all 200-300 pages
Time Period: late 1100s (Henry II), England
Shipping Potential: Canon (if brief) m/m and f/m, m/m potential
What Do I Ship? Hugo Stanton/Aelred Barling. Barling is a stuffy clerk who is a bit of a snob all things considered, but has a heart of gold underneath and a really strong commitment to justice (and is also canonically gay, which is nice for detective fiction). Stanton is ten years his junior, a bit irresponsible and reckless... but is super loyal to those he loves and super understanding in so many ways. Together they're absolutely wonderful and I adore them. I love how they banter with each other, I love the quickly growing trust between them and I especially love how they're so very loyal to each other. They truly care about each other, truly regard each other as important and aren't shy about showing it, and I'd absolutely love to see more of their dynamic.
Summary: After fucking up mightily on his last job Hugo Stanton, talented rider, is given the job of messenger to the courts to keep him out of the way. There he meets Aelred Barling, stuffy clerk with many secrets of his own, and the two of them end up assigned to solve a case together. They start off enemies, but as they solve the case they grow increasingly closer and keep working with each other afterwards.
Why Do I love It?: The writing is excellent, the mysteries are really interesting (especially the one in book 2) and I just absolutely ADORE the characters. It's a really interesting, really fun, really diverse series that I absolutely love. And, rarely for detective series, it contains a canonically gay character!

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And not quite detectives, but in the same spirit…:

Series Name: Raffles - EW Hornung
Length: 3 short story collections, 1 novel
Time Period: 1890s, England
Shipping Potential: m/m potential.
What Do I Ship? Raffles/Bunny! Raffles is the mastermind of the situation, charming and urbane and generally completely immoral. Bunny is his loyal sidekick, slightly bumbling and extremely prone to making bad decisions but also basically the sweetest man alive (and canonically prone to a spot of cross-dressing). I absolutely adore these two, and the incredibly intense relationship they have. I love how Bunny hero worships Raffles, how he's so loyal and innocent and utterly adoring of everything Raffles does. I love how Raffles is obviously fond of him in return, and takes pleasure in his company and wants him around constantly and obviously cares for him more than anybody else. and I love their relationship, the teasing and the intensity and just how much they need each other.
Summary: Bunny Manders, human disaster, gets into huge trouble while gambling and ends up visiting his old school friend Raffles in a last ditch attempt to stave off disaster. What he’s not expecting is that his old school friend Raffles has since become a gentleman thief, who quite cheerfully proceeds to drag him into a life of crime.
Why Do I love It?: They're so much fun. A loving take off of Sherlock Holmes, but also very much their own thing. I love how funny they are, I love what a loose view of morality they take and I love how they never seem to take themselves too seriously. They're just gloriously enjoyable, and such a good comfort read.