CRITERIA

In my humble opinion the cut off date should be 1950. It's got nothing to do with my age, it's just that history is a very far sighted field of study. The closer you are, the fuzzier the details.
However, I've been reminded that, for some, the post War world is ancient history and so I'm starting to include post War titles. I'm not going to make a study of it, though. I'll post them as they come to my attention, but I'm not going to seek them out. If you know of titles I've missed, then please feel free to send them along.

I'm trying to avoid these. To give you an example of what I mean, Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth is certainly a Historical Novel, but it's not a Mystery Novel. There are many fine sites devoted to the Historical Novel but not many on the Historical Mystery. I'm interested in Mystery Novels that just happen to have the past as their setting. Granted, I can't read everything, and so I may have inadvertently included a title or two that are not strictly mysteries. If you know of any such errors in the list, please, let me know.

Another category that has to be approached with caution. My rule of thumb in this category is the Mystery element must be stronger and more of the plot than the Romance element. Let's put it this way, if any of the characters cannot speak a complete sentence without several dramatic pauses it will not appear on this list.

Again, unless it's primarily a Mystery Novel, it won't be included. You will notice that there are a few Vampire Novels included, but that's because they are primarily Mystery Novels in which the detective just happens to be a vampire.
On the other hand I have included a couple of titles by Science Fiction authors who have made brief forays into the world of the Mystery Novel. - See entries under Robert Silverberg, Andre Norton, and Ron Goulart.

This was another tough choice. There are tons of quality Sherlockian sites foating about the internet and I just really didn't see any need to duplicate their efforts.
On the other hand, most do qualify for inclusion on this list. So, I compromised. I have excluded titles that are clearly Sherlock stories but included those where the main character may or may not be from the Canon. In other words the Mary Russell books by Linda King are included as Himself is only a side character. I have also included the Mrs. Hudson books by S. Hosier and the Inspector Lestrade series by Trow.

Time Travel books I try to avoid although some would qualify. Simon Hawke wrote an excellent series that I have not included because at heart they were not Mystery Novels. Connie Willis too is an excellent author and I highly recommend her Doomsday Book and the sequel To Say Nothing Of The Dog, but again, they are at heart not Mystery Novels.
As far as Books Split Between the Past and the Present, I approach this category with caution. There are plenty of Mystery Novels that deal with crimes that were committed in the past - near or distant. My rule of thumb is that in order to be included 1) the majority of the action has to take place in the past and 2) the past just cannot be discussed it has to be witnessed. In other words, the author cannot just talk about what happened, he or she must take the reader there.

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