Crocodile on the Sandbank. Elizabeth Peters. (Victorian) One forthright spinster + one rampaging mummy + one irascible archaeologist = A hell of a lot of fun.

Death Comes as Epiphany. Sharan Newman. (Medieval) Agatha nominee, Best First Novel. Muddy novice interacts with Heloise and Abelard, solves murder, falls in love.

The Devil in Music. Kate Ross (Regency). Agatha winner, Best Novel. Dandy Julian Kestrel goes to Italy on the trail of a tenor who has disappeared.

The Face of a Stranger. Anne Perry. (Victorian) Agatha nominee, Best Novel. Inspector loses memory, suspects himself of murder.

The False Inspector Dew. Peter Lovesey. Murder with Crippen overtones on the Mauretania, 1920s. Winner of the British Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger.

The Iron Hand of Mars. Lindsey Davis (ancient Rome). On a mission from the emperor, the informer Marcus Didius Falco drags an iron arm around ancient Britain accompanied by a party of inept recruits. Hilarious.

The Mirror. Marlys Millhiser. (Victorian frontier/present-day Colorado) Intriguing premise on the mystic link between grandmother and granddaughter with solid and interesting details on frontier Colorado.

Miss Lizzie and Wilde West. Walter Satterthwait. (1921; 1882). 1) Lizzie Borden is involved in a new murder nearly 30 years after the murders of her father and stepmother. 2) Oscar Wilde, Doc Holliday, and others pursue a mystery during Wilde's lecture tour of the American West.

Moonraker's Bride and Tregaron's Daughter. Madeleine Brent (aka Peter O'Donnell). (Victorian-era romantic suspense). 1) English girl is caught up in China's Boxer Rebellion 2) Cornish orphan with second sight encounters skullduggery in her family's past. Superb.

Patriot's Dream. Elizabeth Peters. (1776/1976 United States). Intricate double story linking the Revolutionary War and the Bicentennial.

Peril Under the Palms. K.K. Beck. (1920s Hawaii). Comely coed solves murder.

Possession. A.S. Byatt. Literary scholars uncover a clandestine love affair between two Victorian poets.

Time and Again. Jack Finney. (Victorian/present day) Artist Si Morley travels into the past on a government experiment and discovers sinister secrets both past and present.

Other Favorites
Summer of the Dragon. Elizabeth Peters. Featuring a Southwest archaeological dig, a plump heroine, and the immortal line, "There is nothing less sexy than a woman who is vomiting."

Be Buried in the Rain. Barbara Michaels. One of Michaels' best novels. A Virginia excavation unearths many buried secrets.

Green for Danger. Christianna Brand. Mysterious deaths in a WWII British hospital.

Black Narcissus. Rumer Godden. Nuns encounter strange passions in the Himalayas.

The Ivy Tree. Mary Stewart. One of the great plot twists of all time.

Gaudy Night. Dorothy L. Sayers. Classic Oxford novel. Harriet Vane copes with poison pen letters and faces the decision of whether to marry Lord Peter Wimsey.

Daughter of Time. Josephine Tey. Present-day inspector solves the murders of Richard III's nephews from hospital bed.

The Moonstone. Wilkie Collins. A fun tale narrated by several voices about the disappearance of a priceless gem that affects many lives. Don't miss the butler Beveridge who lives his life by Robinson Crusoe.

That Affair Next Door. Anna Katharine Green. Spinster Amelia Butterworth helps solve the case of the unknown corpse in a neighbor's house.

The Man in Lower Ten. Mary Roberts Rinehart. Complacent lawyer is shaken out of his placid life by the appearance of a body in his train berth. (You can read my essay on this book in They Died in Vain (Crum Creek Press), which focuses on neglected mysteries.)

Crime on Her Mind. Superb anthology compiled by Michele Slung with early female detectives.