Lord Peter Wimsey, amateur detective, was featured in 11 novels and a number of short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers. Several of these were adapted for film and appeared on Masterpiece Mystery in this country. Also known for her scholarship, and as a translator of Dante, Sayers was employed in an advertising agency for nine years between WWI and WWII. She drew on her experience as a copywriter in Murder Must Advertise, where Lord Peter goes undercover at one such agency, juggling two identities and lives while investigating a suspicious “accidental” death.
 
Based in the early twelfth century at the Benedictine Abbey of Shrewsbury in Shropshire, Brother Cadfael was the creation of Ellis Peters (pseudonym of Edith Pargeter), who popularized the sub-genre of historical mysteries. These novels also were adapted and appeared on Masterpiece Mystery in a series starring Derek Jacobi. A Morbid Taste for Bones introduces the former crusader soldier, now herbalist and monk, whose abilities and Welsh sensibilities are valued by his abbot and despaired of by the prior.
 
In mid-1960s New Jersey, Mrs. Emily Pollifax—a widowed grandmother—decides that she wants to serve her country beyond her contributions to the local hospital auxiliary and garden club. Through an initial error, she becomes a courier for the CIA in The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax—although the supposedly boringly safe and routine trip to Mexico turns out to be quite the opposite. Author Dorothy Gilman is known for her depth of research, displayed in the portrayal of countries and cultures in her Mrs. Pollifax series.
 
Whether revisiting an old friend or discovering a new favorite sleuth, happy reading!