The five best mystery novels to curl up with this season

With fall’s arrival comes the promise of longer evenings - the perfect time to curl up with a mystery novel. This season’s offerings bring us quirky characters, puzzling murders and far-flung settings, including an English country village (naturally) and Iceland. Each book pairs well with your favorite pumpkin-spiced beverage - and perhaps a scone.

‘The Murders in Great Diddling,’ by Katarina Bivald

Bivald’s entertaining first mystery novel is the epitome of English village “cozy,” complete with eccentric characters, a dash of humor and plenty of red herrings. At the center of the story is best-selling novelist Berit Gardner, who has moved to the English village of Great Diddling to overcome a stubborn case of writer’s block. She’s sure she can find inspiration her next book in Great Diddling, but she isn’t expecting something as dramatic as murder. When the much-reviled Reginald Trent is blown up in the library of his aunt’s manor house during a tea party, Gardner jettisons her writing efforts and uses her author’s eye and interviewing skills to try to pinpoint the killer among the many suspects.

‘Wordhunter,’ by Stella Sands

Maggie Moore is an idiosyncratic character who drinks beer for breakfast, smokes heavily and loves to diagram sentences to calm herself. She’s also the top student in her graduate school forensic linguistics course. Given her unusual skill set, Moore is asked by local police near her home of Cypress Havens, Fla., to help interpret chilling notes written by a stalker turned rapist. Moore’s success in helping police find the culprit leads them to request her help again when the mayor’s teenage daughter is abducted. Moore pores over texts and emails sent by the abductor - and what she learns put her in grave danger.

‘Death at the Sanatorium,’ by Ragnar Jonasson

In his latest novel, Jonasson - a best-selling Icelandic mystery writer who also translates Agatha Christie’s novels - echoes the mystery queen’s tight pacing while adding his own of touch of Icelandic noir. The setting is 2012 Reykjavik, and Helgi Reykdal is working hard to complete his graduate thesis in criminology before taking a job in the city police homicide unit. Reykdal has focused his thesis on how police handled a case involving two deaths at a former sanatorium in the north of Iceland in 1983. As he interviews the police and other people who were there at the time, Reykdal uncovers long-buried secrets, including that both deaths may have been murders and that the killer might still be at large.

‘Agnes Sharp and the Trip of a Lifetime’ by Leonie Swann, translated by Amy Bojang

It’s winter and a broken furnace means chilly temperatures inside Sunset Hall, the house owned by elderly but intrepid Agnes Sharp and shared with a motley crew of fellow retirees. The plumber can’t fix the furnace right away, but luckily one of Agnes’s friends wins a free stay at a luxury hotel in Cornwall, and they all decide to go. When a murder is committed at the hotel, however, Sharp, a long-retired cop, goes into detecting mode, pulling her gang of elderly friends along with her. The result is a hilariously madcap adventure as Swann - a German writer who now lives in England - details how the offbeat band of detectives tracks down a killer while coping with the indignities of aging. Fans of the first book, “The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp,” will revel in this sequel, but the book also works for newcomers to the series.

‘What Time the Sexton’s Spade Doth Rust,’ by Alan Bradley

After a five-year hiatus, Bradley returns with another ingeniously entertaining mystery featuring his irrepressible 11-year-old sleuth, Flavia de Luce. A savant with a particular genius for chemistry, Flavia - who lives in the English countryside in the 1950s - must use her scientific skills to keep the family’s cook, Mrs. Mullet, from being charged with the death of a reclusive local man, Major Greyleigh. Mrs. Mullet was the last to see the major as she cooked the breakfast that apparently poisoned him, but Flavia is convinced she is innocent. As Flavia works through the case with her partner in detection, family gardener Arthur Dogger, she also must contend with her obnoxious yet brilliant younger cousin Undine as well as her own confused feelings at the approaching onset of adolescence. In solving the case, Flavia uncovers a shocking family secret that upends her world but provides plenty of scope for future investigations.

- - -

Karen MacPherson, the former children’s and teen coordinator at the Takoma Park Maryland Library, is a lifelong mysteries aficionado.