“There is nothing more stimulating than a case where everything goes against you.”

~ The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Hello, friends! Welcome to day two of the Five Fall Favorites event! I was about to go for a bike ride — it’s a beautiful morning, and I found the perfect trail! Why don’t you join me? Great! Let’s get started!

Today, I want to tell you about five of my favorite books in one of my favorite categories — mysteries! I have loved mystery stories ever since I read my first Nancy Drew book at about age six or seven. You won’t find any Nancy Drew on this list, though — my tastes have matured as I have, and the mysteries I enjoy now are maybe a bit more sophisticated!

Here comes a hill — hold on while I catch my breath. Phew! I’m going to tell you a secret — it’s been a very long time since I rode a bike. But I guess what they say is true — it really does come back to you!

So first on my list holds a special place in my heart because it was the book that introduced me to my very favorite detective — Sherlock Holmes! That book is The Hound of the Baskervilles. It showed up in my school reading when I was maybe twelve years old, and I’m not going to lie, I was not excited about it. I thought the title sounded boring, and the opening with two Victorian guys talking about a cane somebody left in their apartment didn’t make it seem any more promising. But it didn’t take many chapters before I was hooked, not only on the story but on the detective himself! The Hound of the Baskervilles is the perfect mystery — it’s spooky, intriguing, complicated, and — well, mysterious! Honestly, it’s hard to choose a favorite Sherlock Holmes story, but like I said — this was my introduction, so I had to include it on my list!

I think I need to stop for a quick drink, everybody okay with that? Thank you! I remembered to bring a water bottle with me, and I’m glad — it feels good to hydrate! Okay — let’s get started again.

The next book I want to mention symbolizes more of a favorite author than a favorite book, exactly — Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie. I didn’t read Christie until I was in my twenties, but again I was hooked from the get-go. There’s a reason she’s one of the most famous in her genre — she’s an expert at weaving together complex mysteries with lots of characters and many twists and turns. Reading one of her books (I’m reading one right now) is like getting on a roller coaster in the dark — you can’t see what’s coming next, and you can’t be prepared for all the ups and downs and twists and turns that get thrown your way! Murder on the Orient Express is just one of my favorites of hers. It’s one of her most famous, and again with good reason. It’s full of plausible suspects and strange circumstances and things that just don’t quite seem to add up until the very end. It’s been made into multiple movies, including one recently (though I saw the recent adaptation and it didn’t do the book justice). If you haven’t read her writing, this is a good one to jump in on!

Ooh, look over there! To the left, those trees around the bend. Such beautiful colors. We don’t usually see that many fall colors here in Texas, but look at all the shades of red and orange. So beautiful. I would love to visit somewhere with more vibrant fall colors someday!

Where was I? Oh, yes. The Beekeeper’s Apprentice. Like I said, I’m a huge Sherlock Holmes fan, and this is a Sherlock Holmes book — sort of. It’s not part of the Holmes canon, and to be honest it’s kind of a silly series. But I still really enjoy this book. It’s about a teenage girl whose mind is just as brilliant and logical as Holmes’s and she becomes his apprentice — and his friend. I’m not a huge fan of the direction the rest of the series goes, although I still enjoy reading them and I need to pick up the next book sometime soon. But in the meantime, I have to say that even as a Holmes purist I really enjoyed this book. It allows us to see an older, retired Holmes, through the eyes of someone who can understand his mind like few ever have. It’s a really fun read!

Speaking of mysteries — I’m beginning to think it’s a mystery whether I’ll have the energy to finish this ride! The trail loops back around, I know, but I’m not sure how much farther we have to go. Everyone else doing okay? Good. Clearly I need to ride more often — it really is a workout!

Next, let’s talk about Winnie the Pooh. Wait, what? You don’t think Winnie the Pooh can be categorized as a mystery? You’re right, unless it’s a mystery about where Pooh’s next pot of honey is going to come from. But Pooh’s author, A. A. Milne, did write a mystery story. It’s called The Red House Mystery, and he wrote it for his father, who was a huge fan of murder mysteries. I discovered it on a site with public domain audiobooks, and have reread it a couple of times over the years. It’s a pretty typical locked-room type mystery, very British, with an amateur detective who is found to have photographic memory. And it has a really surprising twist at the end that I won’t spoil for you!

Oh look, we are almost back! I see the spot where we started. I’m glad — even in this cooler weather I’m starting to get a bit warm with all the activity! Can you tell I’m much more the type to curl up at home and read than be out and about getting exercise?

So last, I’m going to cheat a bit. When thinking over my favorite mysteries, one of my main thoughts was how they have affected my own writing. In fact, the first semi-serious writing I did was a mystery series I wrote in my early teens called The Tucker Twins. Those were of course terrible, but ever since then my stories have always featured some sort of intrigue, some puzzle to solve, some suspicious circumstances to sort through. But none more so than my novel Never. Never is a western mystery about two brothers — one who wants to be a teacher but ends up getting blamed for murder and whisked off to the mines outside town to serve out a crushing sentence. The other is a rancher who isn’t used to solving mysteries but would do anything to save his brother’s reputation — and his life. I was heavily inspired by Agatha Christie on this one — there are lots of suspects and strange happenings. And while it seems vain to list something I created among my favorites, isn’t that part of why we become authors in the first place? To create the things that fascinate us and to write the things we want to read?

Well, here we are back where we started. Let’s lean our bikes over here for a minute and just sit among the leaves, soak in this beautiful, crisp air, and rest. I think autumn itself is a kind of mystery — we make it through the heat of summer and watch as the death of the leaves reveals the true shape of trees that have always been there underneath — and teach us in the process that death is truly a transition. A change to winter, and from there, to life anew in spring.

For now, I’m ready to head home, make some tea, and curl up with my Agatha Christie book, and dig into another fascinating mystery.

Be sure to visit all the other Five Fall Favorites posts up today, and come back tomorrow for another category!

Also be sure to enter our giveaway — my book Implant is just one of many great prizes included!

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