Polite Paradise

I know what you mean! Genre mashups are *the* thing, it seems. Straight-up mystery, no chaser, is not always easy to find.

Sayers, much as I love her, can be a bit dense with literary allusions. Her plots are very much in the classic whodunnit style, but her voice strikes some people as affected.

I'd recommend Ngaio Marsh and Margery Allingham as well, if you want to dabble in Golden Age crime.

Robert Barnard came a bit later and is a bit darker without being too twisty/serial-killer-y. Dick Francis sets all his books in and around horse racing, and there's always some adventure and fisticuffs. Not one for deep thought, is our Mr Francis, but he tells a good, fast yarn.

I liked Martha Grimes' earlier stuff, but the later books got a bit too brooding for me.

Do you like historical fiction? There's a whole nother world of hist. mystery.