Rural British Mysteries

by Martin Edwards
|
6 books
‘It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.’ So said Sherlock Holmes, and he knew a thing or two. Rural Britain, with its extraordinarily diverse landscape – everything from Stonehenge to the Scottish Highlands, Dartmoor to Derwent Water - provides an evocative backdrop for some of the finest mysteries ever written, ranging from classics of yesteryear to cutting edge contemporary crime. I love the British countryside, as a place to wander round and as a setting for many of my books. Here are some favourites, past and present, by fellow authors.
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The Hound of the Baskervilles

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 2008
‘Mr Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!’ Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson head to south west England, to investigate a puzzle about an old legend concerning a spectral hound and a family curse. The lonely moors of Devon, with the fictional – but utterly believable – Grimpen Mire at the heart of the mystery. And there’s an escaped convict on the loose…This wonderful mystery is by far the best of the four long Sherlock Holmes stories, an all-time classic.

The Murder at the Vicarage

A Miss Marple Mystery
Agatha Christie, 2009
The village of St Mary Mead is one of those pretty, tranquil spots where nothing terrible could possibly happen – could it? Except that the rural idyll is disrupted by murder at the home of the narrator, the local vicar. There’s an obvious suspect, but it soon becomes clear that the case is much more complex than first appeared. Enter Miss Jane Marple, in her first full-length investigation, to solve an ingenious crime – and confound the police for good measure – by applying to the mystery her intimate knowledge of human nature.

The Nine Tailors

Dorothy Leigh Sayers, 1962
Lord Peter Wimsey’s car breaks down on a snowy New Year’s Eve in the Lincolnshire Fens. He takes refuge in the nearby village of Fenchurch St Paul, notable for its splendid church, and takes part in a bell-ringing session. This introduces him to the pleasures of campanology, which plays a central part in the story. Some time later, a mutilated body is discovered in the church tower and the rector asks Lord Peter to investigate. The flat, eerie fenland setting is a key ingredient of the story and the truth is not revealed until the aftermath of a terrible flood which drowns the low-lying landscape.

The Long Divorce

Edmund Crispin, 2023
The calm of picturesque Cotton Abbas is disrupted by a sequence of cruel poison pen letters. The recipients include a female doctor and a Yorkshire businessman, and things take a dark turn when a woman kills herself after receiving one of the letters. The local police are baffled, and so is the chief constable. A mysterious stranger calling himself Datchery arrives at the local inn and soon starts poking his nose into other people’s lives. For he is actually the amateur detective Gervase Fen, and his sleuthing talents are seen at full stretch in this entertaining mystery.

Raven Black

Ann Cleeves, 2010
Shetland, an island group off the north coast of Scotland, lies buried beneath a deep layer of snow. Trudging home, Fran Hunter's eye is drawn to a vivid splash of colour on the white ground, ravens circling above. It is the strangled body of her teenage neighbour. As Fran opens her mouth to scream, the ravens continue their deadly dance…This is the case which introduced Inspector Jimmy Perez and marked Ann Cleeves’ breakthrough, earning a Gold Dagger from the Crime Writers’ Association and launching a globally successful TV series.

Standing in the Shadows

Peter Robinson, 2023
A dig near Scotch Corner in the north east of England unearths a skeleton that turns out to be far more recent than the Roman remains the archaeologist is looking for. Detective Superintendent Alan Banks and his team are called in and, as an investigation into the find begins, the past and the present meet with devastating consequences. There’s a bittersweet taste to this novel, the 28th and last Banks novel by the late, great Peter Robinson, whose intimate knowledge of the Yorkshire countryside coupled with his storytelling gifts made the series one of the major contributions to modern day crime fiction.