Armchair Travel Experiences: 10 Mysteries That Take You All Over the World
When we think of crime fiction, it’s easy to default to the classic British village setting as Inspector Plod gathers the suspects in the great hall of Masterpiece Abbey. You can just taste the tea, can’t you? But for as long as there’s been a mystery genre, these books have roamed far afield from the familiar British hamlet of Little Cluesdale.
Want to travel the world without risking your tea getting cold? Join Team W as we race around the globe exploring some of our favorite mysteries set in exotic locales…
When it comes to armchair travel, few top the late Elizabeth Peters. You can take your pick of locations: Denmark in The Copenhagen Connection, Scotland in Legend in Green Velvet, Sweden in Silhouette in Scarlet, Beirut in The Dead Sea Cipher, Egypt in The Night Train to Memphis, among others. The Street of Five Moons takes us to Italy, with much pasta, international art thieves, dissolute noblemen, and counterfeit Cellini saltcellars—and, of course, the first appearance of the notorious Sir John Smythe. (Who you can also find in Cornwall, Germany, Sweden, and Egypt. Just saying.)
Estranged college roommates unexpectedly reunite in Morocco, but when one roommate’s husband disappears, their association takes a sinister turn. As much psychological thriller as mystery, what makes this book stand out are descriptions of Tangier in the 1950s, in an atmosphere so thick you’ll find yourself reaching for an iced drink to cool down.
Discover the Authors
Beatriz Williams is the bestselling author of over a dozen novels, including Husbands and Lovers, The Summer Wives, and The Secret Life of Violet Grant, as well as four other novels cowritten with Lauren Willig and Karen White. A native of Seattle, she graduated from Stanford University and earned an MBA in finance from Columbia University. She lives with her husband and four children near the Connecticut shore, where she divides her time between writing and laundry.
Lauren Willig is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than twenty-five novels, including Band of Sisters and the RITA Award winning Pink Carnation series. An alumna of Yale University, she has a graduate degree in history from Harvard and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. She lives in New York City with her husband, two young children, and vast quantities of coffee.
Karen White is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thirty-four novels, including The Last Night in London and The House on Prytania, as well as the Tradd Street mystery series. She currently writes what she refers to as “grit lit”—Southern women’s fiction. She is a graduate of the American School in London and has a BS in management from Tulane University. When not writing, she spends her time reading, singing, and avoiding cooking. She has two grown children and currently lives near Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and a spoiled Havanese dog.
Agatha Christie meets Murder, She Wrote in this witty locked room mystery and literary satire by New York Times bestselling team of novelists: Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White.
There’s been a sensational murder at historic Castle Kinloch, a gothic fantasy of grey granite on a remote island in the Highlands of Scotland. Literary superstar Brett Saffron Presley has been found dead—under bizarre circumstances—in the castle tower’s book-lined study. Years ago, Presley purchased the castle as a showpiece for his brand and to lure paying guests with a taste for writerly glamour. Now it seems, the castle has done him in…or, possibly, one of the castle’s guests has. Detective Chief Inspector Euan McIntosh, a local with no love for literary Americans, finds himself with the unenviable task of extracting statements from three American lady novelists. The prime suspects are Kat de Noir, a slinky erotica writer; Cassie Pringle, a Southern mom of six juggling multiple cozy mystery series; and Emma Endicott, a New England blue blood and author of critically acclaimed historical fiction. The women claim to be best friends writing a book together, but the authors’ stories about how they know Brett Saffron Presley don’t quite line up, and the detective is getting increasingly suspicious. Why did the authors really come to Castle Kinloch And what really happened the night of the great Kinloch ceilidh, when Brett Saffron Presley skipped the folk dancing for a rendezvous with death.
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