For the most part, I will freely admit to choosing mysteries for their quality of Escape. Escape literature gets a lot of criticism, but as has been remarked elsewhere, think about it: who in the world besides prison guards tries to prevent escape? Anyway, escape from the mundane is the goal, not escape from loftier themes or challenging writing.

Escape comes in more than one type of package. An exotic locale is one way to do it, although clearly what may be an exotic locale for me is clearly another reader's backyard, and vice-versa. In any case, mysteries have been written about the city that neighbors mine, but you won't see me reading it, not unless it's exotic in the other way, that is exotic by time. Travel to another time is probably even more fun than skipping to another locale and I personally don't mind if it's via a modern writer detailing the past or a contemporary describing the settings with which he or she is intimate. The alert reader will notice that mysteries set in Ancient Rome skip both time and place.

Exotic by Time

• B.C.: Ancient, Roman
• First Century AD: Roman
• Second Century: Roman
• Third Century: Roman
• Fourth Century: Roman
• Fifth Century: Roman
• Sixth Century: Roman
• Seventh Century: Asian medieval, European medieval
• Eighth Century
• Ninth Century
• Tenth Century
• Eleventh Century
• Twelfth Century: European medieval
• Thirteenth Century: European medieval Asian medieval
• Fourteenth Century: European medieval
• Fifteenth Century: European medieval
• Sixteenth Century
• Seventeenth Century: Colonial New York
• Eighteenth Century: Colonial Boston
• Nineteenth Century: French 19th century, English Victorian
• Twentieth Century: English Victorian, Early American, American hard-boiled

• Americas
  • Alaska
• Asia
  • China
  • Japan
  • Mongolia
• Europe
  • England

• Ancient

  Agatha Christie - Death Comes as the End.
  I tried reading this one, which is set in Ancient Egypt, three times before finally managing to finish it. The last time I did it by creating a complete dramatis personæ as well as genealogical tree for all the characters, i.e. the twenty-two suspects, in the book. I found myself wanting more from the setting and was disappointed by the eventual resolution. This book probably isn't representative Christie (I have seen some of the films).

  Kathleen Freeman - "Scandal in Athens".
  Revolves around Athenian inheritance law. Nice exposition of Athenian daily life.

  Bréni James - "Socrates Solves a Murder" in The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits. and "The Gateway to Death" in Classical Whodunnits.
  Both starring Socrates as the detective.

  Theodore Mathieson - "The Death of the King" in Classical Whodunnits.
  Alexander the Great investigates his own poisoning in the arch manner which must be his alone. Hilarious.

  Amy Myers - "Aphrodite's Trojan Horse" in Classical Whodunnits.
  The Trojan War from Aphrodite's point of view. This is exactly how a goddess of love might write it.

  Keith Taylor - "The Favor of a Tyrant" in Classical Whodunnits.
  Archimedes needs to find out why some of his engines are being sabotaged.

• Asian medieval

  Robert Van Gulik - The Monkey and the Tiger, The Monastery Murders and others including two stories from Judge Dee at Work: "The Coffins of the Emperor" and "Murder on New Year's Eve".
  Judge Dee, the T'ang Dynasty magistrate, comes alive as a human we can relate to in Van Gulik's hands. The only complaint might be that the stories become too similar after a while.
  "The Coffins of the Emperor" is set in the west of China, in a mythical Silk Road town called Lan-Fang. In the story, the newly-assigned Dee attempts to assist a Uighur courtesan with a case of false accusation on the night before an invasion of China by 300,000 Mongols. The setting is dramatic and the story well-told, ultimately quite satisfying. The only quibbles one might offer is how a differently-appearing Uighur girl might pass for the sister of a Chinese man, but this objection is of no consequence to the plot and how Dee arrives so certainly at his conclusion, although a careful re-reading helps to clarify this.
  "Murder on New Year's Eve" is also set in the west of China, during the fourth year of Dee's service there and concerns the Judge's helping of a small boy who reports a murder in his own home.
  The Chinese Maze Murders
  Author van Gulik claims that Judge Dee (more properly, Ti) here solves three cases, but in reality it is more like six (all interconnected in a single narrative) as the Judge arrives to restore order to a town gone almost as wild as Personville in Hammett's Red Harvest. This tale is also set in Lan-Fang and the fact that it borders Uighur tribes who may at any moment attack is an important dimension. Although set in the late T'ang Dynasty period, van Gulik admits that the depiction of life is based on the later Ming Dynasty era.
  Index of other pages on van Gulik's work.

  Martin Limón - Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, "Princess of the Red Silk" (February 2001)
  The story seems to be vaguely set during the Sung Dynasty (1127-1279 AD) of southern China, but is actually posited in the north, at the Great Wall and the steppes north of it, where the Northern Chin held sway. The detective is the apparently mythical poet, Meng Li, who is on a mission to visit Princess Liao who has been married off to an Orkhan, leader of a tribe of Mongolian nomads. An atypical example in that the nature of the mystery itself is in considerable doubt until quite late. The historical details feel vague, but more competency than mine is needed to judge their accuracy.

• European medieval

  Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose.
  14th-century Italy.
  This classic by a "slumming" Eco is much more than "just" a mystery. Very satisfying. Probably the prototype for the intellectual historical mystery, a mystery which also comes equipped with all the themes necessary in a modern novel. Also, The Postscript to the Name of the Rose.

  Alan Gordon - Thirteenth Night
  13th century Italy and Illyria.
  It must have been noticed that in some ways the fool, Feste, of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (my favorite of his plays) tends to act at the author's behest to move the plot along, or perhaps stands in for the author, so wise and wide is his perspective. This must have inspired the idea that Feste may have been more than he seemed; thus, the conceit of this one is that there existed a highly organized international fools guild, and not only that, that they are secretly spies, detectives and all around do-gooders. OK, put that together with beloved characters from the play and one would seem to have a great idea for a book, full of fun, jokes and that special brand of wry profundity which Feste is so truly wonderful at. Sadly, this is not that book. One of the most important characters is killed off practically on page one. Then the rest of them are hardly recognizeable, mostly being rendered as degenerate, two-dimensional ciphers. Maybe the author hates the play? But then why choose this setting, which after all does depend on the readers knowing the play (an important reference to yellow cross-gartered stockings, for example). The jokes aren't really there either, though there is a lot of tiresome, endless detail which never goes anywhere, such as all the business about the horse. And it all ends up with that oh-so-clichéd drawing room resolution where the detective (Feste) reveals whodunit all and how and why. A solution which is quite preposterous by the way and shows little to no understanding of the personalities of Shakespeare's characters. As to historicity, the boring, researchy kind is there, recounting this or that historical fact, but in terms of the medieval point of view, when they start worrying about things like obesity and alcoholism (another thread that goes nowhere), they sound just like 20th-century yuppies. There's forensic work which is totally anachronistic and no bothering to make an excuse for it. The ending seems more interested in setting things up for a sequel than in bringing the reader to a satisfying cadence. It does deserve credit for moving right along and not getting overly murky, but overall this was a great idea sadly squandered.

  Sheri Holman - A Stolen Tongue
  15th-century journey from Italy to Jerusalem and the Sinai.
  I'm not entirely sure that this fictional recounting of a pilgrimage led by the German monk Felix Fabri really counts as a mystery. There is suspense and uncertainty, but certainly no conscious "detection". The depiction of the period works well, although some may feel it veers unnecessarily to a modern vogue for the grotesque. Some of the characters and therefore the resolution may leave something to be desired for some readers.

  Ellis Peters (Edith Pargeter) - A Morbid Taste for Bones and others.
  12th-century Britain. Wonderfully-detailed.

  Peter Tremayne - "The Poisoned Chalice" in Classical Whodunnits.
  Continuing character Sister Fidelma investigates murder in Rome in 664. A clever story, but is there a glitch? Hint: who is the first to drink wine normally in a Catholic mass?

• Colonial New York

  Maan Meyers - The Dutchman and The Dutchman's Dilemma.
  Setting, characters and history in these are all extremely well done. I haven't yet read their books The High Constable and The Knightsbridge Plot.

• Colonial Boston

  Anthony Rotondi - Wolf in the Fold.
  What I like best about this setting in general are its confident optimism and the strength of its ideas coming from luminaries like Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Hamilton and the like. I also like the sort of blissful naiveté as seen in Disney's Johnny Tremain film. This is a different kettle of fish, however. What we find are ritual, serial killings, secret societies and plots within plots, Although we meet some luminaries like General Gage and Paul Revere, people like the Adamses and others are out of town. Although there are also romantic relationships, they do not play a huge role in the story. There are also plenty of threads left hanging, presumably for later installments of a series, which never happened. What's best here is that it is generally moving all the time and keeps excitement going. What's worst is that some events are rather hard to buy, that and the frequent misspellings and grammatical errors. The story is set against the conflicting goals and beliefs of soon-to-be rebels and Tories, but there does not really seem to be any overarching theme or idea beyond presentation of a pure adventure story.

• French 19th century

  Edgar Allan Poe - "Murders in the Rue Morgue" in The Murders in the Rue Morgue: And Other Stories.
  Amazing story to found the genre. Practically all the features of the genre show up in its first outing!

• Early American

  Edward D. Hoch - "The Problem of the Leather Man" from Once Upon a Crime (St. Martin's, 1995, Janet Hutchings, ed.)

  Fifteen very entertaining locked-room style mysteries about the same detective, the amateur Dr. Sam Hawthorne, set in quaint, small-town, Connecticut during the 1920's and '30's appear in Diagnosis Impossible: The Problems of Dr. Sam Hawthorne, published by Crippen and Landru.

  Other entertaining entries in this series show up in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine: "The Problem of Crowded Cemetery" (May 1995), "The Problem of the Enormous Owl" (January 1996), "The Problem of the Miraculous Jar" (August 1996), "The Problem of the Enchanted Terrace" (April 1997), "The Second Problem of the Covered Bridge" (December 1998), "The Problem of Annabel's Ark" (March 2000).

  The "fake" country accent used by the doctor in the earlier episodes is thankfully absent from the later ones.

• English Victorian

  Arthur Conan Doyle Doyle - The Complete Sherlock Holmes : All 4 Novels and 56 Short Stories
  A very early favorite. I haven't really strayed outside the canon except for Sherlock in Love (which presented a Sherlock I didn't recognize).

  Nicholas Meyer - The Seven-Per-Cent Solution.
  Sort of a deconstruction purporting to tell us Holmes' secret history. A bit too much the first time around, might deserve a second reading.

• American hard-boiled

  Raymond Chandler - all the novels, including The Big Sleep, Farewell, My Lovely, The High Window, The Lady in the Lake, The Little Sister, The Long Goodbye, as well as Trouble Is My Business, the screenplay for Playback, the Poodle Springs completion by Robert B. Parker as many of the short stories as I have been able to find and The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler.
  Chandler is so well chronicled that it's hard to add anything.

  Dashiell Hammett - all the novels and as many of the short stories as I can find including The Adventures of Sam Spade, The Big Knockover, The Continental Op, The Dain Curse, The Glass Key, The Maltese Falcon, Red Harvest and Woman in the Dark. See the new (1999) collection of little-published material: Nightmare Town.
  Same comment as for Chandler except to wonder why neither of these two giants of the genre were ever given the Mystery Writers of American Grand Master award. See my Checklist of Dashiell Hammett Fiction.

  William F. Nolan - The Black Mask Murders.
  The setting is California 1935 and the detectives are Dashiell Hammett (narrator), Raymond Chandler and Erle Stanley Gardner (of Perry Mason fame), all working together to solve a case on behalf of their boss, Black Mask publisher Joseph Shaw. The premise is preposterous -- since wouldn't these renowned writers simply hire a real detective to do this dirty work? -- and one wants to read the book in the style of Hammett, but I have to admit it is still great fun to imagine what each thought of the other and how they might interact. Enhancing it all are visits by other luminaries like Ernest Hemingway and Ben Hecht as well as tie-ins with The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep and other works which can only be spotted by the alert and informed reader.
  The Marble Orchards
  The three writer-detectives reunite in 1936 in a story as told by Raymond Chandler revolving around the death of his wife's ex-husband. It is a bit strange to have the 52-year old Dashiell Hammett and the 48-year old Raymond Chandler jumping through windows and generally chasing about like this (the question of age is carefully swept under the rug by the way), but still great fun. The legendary Hollywood Vampire Queen, Carmilla Blastok, plays a large role in this one.
  Sharks Never Sleep
  Erle Stanley Gardner of Perry Mason fame is responsible for the narration of this one, set in 1937. A character similar to Bing Crosby appears to be a heavy while the story takes the Black Mask Boys to spectacular movie sets, Spanish-era estates, sleepy Baja villages, Santa Barbara, Carmel and Palm Springs. There are cameos by race car driver Barney Oldfield, actor John Barrymore, John Weismueller, Black Mask editor Joseph Shaw and others.

Exotic by Locale

• Americas

  • Alaska

    John Straley - The Woman Who Married a Bear and The Curious Eat Themselves.
    Well-realized novels in the hard-boiled P.I. tradition.

• Asia

  • China

    Jonathan Gash - Jade Woman.
    Lovejoy goes to Hong Kong for this one and it is a realistic portrait based on the author's year spent there. See more about Gash below.

    Stefanie Matteson - Murder on the Silk Road.
    This cozy is sort of a special case of China, being set in the Silk Road town of Dun-huang in the far west of the country, a place steeped in history, pre-history and art.

    Roger L. Simon - Peking Duck.
    Kind of a fun story about tourists to Peking, but getting somewhat dated in terms of its politics.

  • Japan

    Seicho Matsumoto - Inspector Imanishi Investigates, Points and Lines, The Voice and Other Stories and "The Cooperative Defendant" in Ellery Queen's Japanese Golden Dozen / The Detective Story World in Japan.
    Wonderful writing, even in translation. I can't think of anyone more in control of their material. The only objection might be that sometimes these police procedurals are not quite up to date with modern methods. The only regret is that more Matsumoto has not been translated into English.

    James Melville - The Chrysanthemum Chain.
    More of a look inside Japanese life from a foreigner's eyes than a mystery, but interesting and well-done from the former perspective.

    Roger L. Simon - California Roll.
    Kind of a fun story about Silicon Valley, Japan and geopolitics. Strains credibility in places, especially vis-à-vis technology.

  • Mongolia

    Mary Reed and Eric Mayer - "The Obo Mystery" (June 1995), "The Lady Fish Mystery" (September/October 1996), and "Death on the Trans-Mongolian Railway" (March 2000), in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.
    Mysteries in modern Mongolia featuring their character Inspector Dorj. Dorj is an interesting character, especially in the second tale, and Reed and Mayer seem to do an especially good job with female characters whether it is the mysterious Chinese woman in "The Lady Fish Mystery" or the Empress Theodora in their Byzantine mysteries.

• Europe

  • England

    Jonathan Gash - The Judas Pair, Gold by Gemini, The Grail Tree, Spend Game, The Vatican Rip, Firefly Gadroon, The Sleepers of Erin, The Gondola Scam, Pearlhanger, The Tartan Sell, Moonspender, The Very Last Gambado, The Great California Game, Lies of Fair Ladies, Paid and Loving Eyes.
    Endlessly entertaining, a bit like Chandler in its own way. Few books read as real as these. Gash has chosen his narrator well and can therefore get away with wonderful examples of lingo, including many new terms which I understand even most in England do not grok. It would be an interesting exercise to create a slang dictionary of these terms such as "nerk", "narked", "yobbos", "boyos", "to peg out" and the like. The narrator's lack of education permits wonderful constructions as well, for example "unless bribe bend law", but the effect falls down a little when he uses medical jargon flawlessly, e.g. "oscilloscope". (Jonathan Gash is the pseudonym of John Grant, M.D. -- is this a case of his real life medical degree peeking through?)

    Gash's treatment of the narrative is unorthodox. Again, the unlettered narrator permits his descriptions to believably wander abruptly, much like the proverbial rooster on the manure pile. In Gash's very capable hands, this keeps the reader hopping, always a bit puzzled, but engrossed. It can also serve as fuel for humor when one subject is taken for another, for example when we think Lovejoy is lusting after his latest conquest and we find out it's really the antique over her shoulder that's the actual source of his passion.

    Some of the books seem more successful than others, perhaps the author lost interest in some of them or perhaps it's simply very difficult to keep repeating oneself so many times.

    Ruth Rendell - Speaker of Mandarin.
    Fairly ordinary.

W. Scott Turow - Presumed Innocent and The Burden of Proof.
So famous that there's probably little I can add. I found the former slightly better. The opening chapter is excellently done. And the way that the reader follows the protagonist into uncertain and unhappy depths only to later triumph is classic.

The Three Junior Investigators.
Enjoyable youthful adventures.