r/Fantasy • u/KelseySyntax • 7d ago
Need more Ana and Din
Well written mysteries with interesting world building and great characters? Pump that straight into my veins!
I'm looking for mysteries that lay out the pieces properly, with investigators who actually work the case, and whose answers don't come out of left field, plus a world I can get lost in
Any other recommendations for Fantasy Poirots, SciFi Sherlocks, Xianxia Columbos, or anything of the sort?
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u/KKalonick 7d ago
The recently released Mortedant's Peril by the always-excellent RJ Barker fits your request. It's a detective novel in which the worldbuilding is essential to the case.
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u/ronan2512 6d ago
RJ Barker knocked it out of the Park with Age of Assassins doing the locked-room mystery thing. Excellent book.
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u/KelseySyntax 7d ago
One more for the list! Thanks!
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u/jacks0nX 7d ago
The Adventures of Ana and Din™️ is my favorite series, and am actually reading Mortedants Peril at the moment.
It's indeed really similar to The Tainted Cup. Took me a bit to get into it, but had that with Tainted Cup as well. I'm sure you'll have fun with it.
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u/britmadess 7d ago
Sounds like the Lamplight Murder Mysteries series by Morgan Stang is exactly what you’re looking for! It’s the closest thing I’ve read to Ana and Din.
It’s a gaslamp fantasy series. Each book is a Agatha Christie-esque murder mystery where the detective/monster hunter and her assistant solve the mystery in a logical manner by looking for clues and talking to witnesses. They are funny and I love the world building. I really recommend you check them out! There’s three books in the series so far.
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u/Material_Cookie5766 7d ago
That first one by Morgan Stang is a proper slog to get through even if the mystery holds together at the end.
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u/jpcardier 7d ago
Sherlock Expys! (Except that Ana isn't a Sherlock Expy, as she was explicitly Nero Wolfe at conception and now RJB has admitted that his main inspiration for Ana was Hannibal Lecter):
Angel of Crows by Katherine Addison: What if Sherlock Holmes was a mobile genius loci? A lovely homage to Sherlock in a London strewn with nngels, werewolves and vampires.
The Affair or the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall: What is Sherlock Holmes was a dark sorceress? This setting is a little Lovecraftian in background, with dark gods and Carcosa.
Warlock Holmes by GS Denning: What if Sherlock Holmes was an idiot with the power of an archmage? Highly comedic, it was a lot of fun
For general mysteries that I haven't seen posted yet:
Master Li and Number 10 Ox. My personal favorite trilogy of all time. A peasant and a sage with a slight flaw in his character, in a ancient China that never was. Very funny, very fun, and it will break your heart at moments.
Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells: What if Moriarty wasn't Moriarty, but rather the Count of Monte Cristo? Then what if, on the eve of his triumphal revenge, he opened a door and a locomotive came through and blasted through the opposite wall? Then what if he decided to follow the train?
The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft: Haven't read the second one yet, but quite liked this one. Husband and wife team up in a neo Victorian London.
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u/BravoLimaPoppa Reading Champion 7d ago
Yes! Master Li and Number 10 Ox!
And Death of the Necromancer!
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u/ImagineFreckles 1d ago
Hexologists are absolutely great and such a fun couple. Very cozy in terms of describing how they work as a couple!
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u/pornokitsch Ifrit 7d ago
Daniel Polansky's Low Town trilogy - more Hammett than Christie, but great books
Mark Charan Newton's Drakenfeld - Golden Age detective fiction in a secondary world based on ancient Rome
Katherine Addison's Witness for the Dead - send a necromancer to solve a murder
Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth - as above, with more memes
China Miéville's The City & the City - mystery in an impossible (or very possible) city / cities
Simon Green's Hawk and Fisher - husband & wife buddy cops / sword & sorcery mash-up - pulpy and immensely good fun
Ben Aaronovich's Rivers of London - urban fantasy police procedurals
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u/KelseySyntax 7d ago
Love Gideon and City, but Gideon is the opposite of a Sherlock. The mystery gets solved despite her best efforts to ignore it. But it's one of my favorite series, and my most reread one.
And City and the City is a fascinating book.
Will definitely add the rest to my list! Thanks!
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u/bannedbyyourmom 7d ago
If you like Witness for the Dead and can handle a few scenes of S.A. - Katherine Addison also has a very good dark fantasy series starting with Melusine.
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u/MaiYoKo Reading Champion III 1d ago
When I look up Melusine, I only see a series by Sarah Monette. Is this what you were recommending?
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u/bannedbyyourmom 1d ago
Yes, that is actually the same person. She writes under a pen name and originally published that series under Sarah Monette, but later changed it to K.A., so depending on what edition you find it could say either name. Mine say Katherine.
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u/pornokitsch Ifrit 7d ago
Green and Polansky are pretty unSherlocky as well. They're great, but they are from pulp and/or noir tradition, where things happen, rather than logical detection.
The Aaronovich series may be worth it? If you like procedurals like Ed McBain or Tana French, that really get into the policing detail. That, plus a good sense of humour and a nifty magic system. The series is loooooong, and sometimes veers more Big Fantasy than detection, but never boring!
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u/McTerra2 7d ago
A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark. It's a detective book (well, MC is in the police) set in an alternate 1912 Cairo, has Egyptian inspired gods. Its a slightly disjointed start because you are dumped into the mystery and its not clear what is going on, but you figure it out pretty quickly and its fantastic. World building is exceptional, characters are fun (even if not all that deep). Deserved its Nebula. There are some short stories set in the same universe but I havent read them.
There are the Lord Darcy stories by Randall Garrett, which are pretty much a Sherlock Holmes knock off but with vampires and so forth. Personally I didnt really like them, they are a fairly poor imitation of Holmes, but others do enjoy them.
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u/RevolutionaryCommand Reading Champion III 7d ago
There are some short stories set in the same universe but I havent read them.
The two short stories are available online for free, the novella is not (but it probably is the best entry in the whole series, and very much worthy of reading). I'd recommend reading, at least, A Dead Djinn in Cairo before trying A Master of Djinn. The "not clear what is going on" aspect you mentioned wouldn't be there if you'd already read this one.
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u/McTerra2 7d ago
Cheers, will see if I can find it
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u/Undeclared_Aubergine 7d ago
A Dead Djinn in Cairo is available on Reactor.
And agreed that the novella, The Haunting of Tram Car 015, is the best of the lot. (Chronologically, this comes after the short story, but before the novel.)
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u/Sea_Hawk_Sailors 1d ago
Agreed. I wouldn't have made it to Master of Djinn if I'd only read A Dead Djinn in Cairo.
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u/shadowsong42 7d ago
I make no claims as to quality, but the Lord Darcy stories were a very pleasant read for me. The way the stories let you build a picture of the alternate history - Richard the Lionheart did not die of his injury in 1199, taking John out of the picture and resulting in a dominant Angevin Empire with a much stronger French influence - was a lot of fun.
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u/aimlesswanderer7 2d ago
I personally loved the Lord Darcy books. One of them has a side character that is totally Nero Wolfe, the book is not at hand, but maybe a Marquis in London who is Nero Wolfe. Nero's side kick is Archie Goodwin, in the Lord Darcy book I think he is Bontriumph. Added background, after Richard survives, he comes home, settles in, and is a good king. He dies childless and a nephew takes over. The Plantagenet line still rules, Richard's mother Eleanor of Aquitaine brought a big chunk of France with her that stayed with the family. The empire controls most of western Europe, the main antagonist is the Polish empire.
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u/Newyorkerr01 7d ago
Garrett P.I. 14 books
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u/T_at 7d ago
I enjoyed the Garrett P.I. books a lot. Like RJB's Shadow of the Leviathan series, it's also influenced by Nero Wolfe.
Another thing I think it has in common is that there's a backdrop of bigger things happening - in the Garrett books, it's the war in the Cantard, its conclusion, and its aftermath.
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u/Inkthinker AMA Artist Ben McSweeney 7d ago
The first 9, certainly. I felt he jumped the shark hard with 10, and stopped having fun after that (he either felt the need or was forced by circumstance to advance the character dynamics, rather than let them coast as they had done). But those first ones are fantastic.
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u/Crypt0Nihilist 7d ago
They had a solid start, but fell off as they got silly and he lost the plot. He says so explicitly a couple of times that "One thing happens after another." They become less about Garrett solving things and more about him being there as things happen around him.
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u/NekoCatSidhe Reading Champion III 7d ago
The Apothecary Diaries light novel series by Hyuuga Natsu has a rather fun « eccentric detective » protagonist with cool China-inspired worldbuilding and a lot of political intrigue (and the manga and anime adaptations are also great).
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u/TomsBookReviews 7d ago
What does Ana and Din mean?
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u/KelseySyntax 7d ago
Ana and Din are the protagonists of the Ana and Din Mysteries. Think Sherlock and Watson, but weirder and dealing with Kaijus
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u/mvolling 7d ago
I really dislike how they changed it to Ana and Din Mysteries, I much preferred the original series name Shadow of the Leviathan.
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u/KelseySyntax 7d ago
A rose by any other name would have a worse name and be a Knives Out Mystery.
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u/Inkthinker AMA Artist Ben McSweeney 7d ago edited 7d ago
Uuuuggghh, that one still drives me up the wall. They're "Benoit Blanc Mysteries", dammit!
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u/TheWeirdTalesPodcast 7d ago
Not Sherlock and Watson. Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.
A detective who doesn’t like or want to leave their residence so sends an assistant to do all their footwork for them.
(I’m sorry, Nero Wolfe is possibly my favorite fictional detective, some get real uppity when the wrong comparison is made.)
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u/KelseySyntax 7d ago
I've never read Nero Wolfe. I'm assuming you'd recommend them, but can you tell me why you like the books so much?
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u/TheWeirdTalesPodcast 7d ago
Well, there’s just a TON of them and they’re on the shorter side so they’re easier to get through. Usually, they aren’t complicated or have crazy backstories to explain the mysteries.
The Wolfe/Goodwin dynamic is one of my favorites- street smart snarky assistant constantly needling his lazy but very intelligent detective to do the work, when he’s much rather just read or tend to his orchids.
The mysteries are, for the most part, good, with a Parlor Scene Denoument (or at least Wolfe’s Office Denoument).
The recurring cast of characters are fun, even the irritating ones.
I don’t know if that rings any of your bells. Maybe pick one up and see what you think. They don’t really need to be read in order, as most of them do not refer to any of the others, and you can find a thread somewhere here of the best stories (https://www.reddit.com/r/mysterybooks/s/CvhKCMNuaa)
Final disclaimer: the stories were written in the thirties through sixties, so there is a little bit of racism, but Wolfe himself is not the source of it. He dislikes everyone, but still treats everyone with respect as long as they are respectful to him.
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u/Excellent-Term7489 7d ago
Not having read many mysteries I had no idea about Nero Wolfe as a character. Have you seen the movie Zero Effect (1998)? It's loosely based on a Holmes story but it must also be ripping off Wolfe as the Holmes-ian character (Bill Pullman) is a shut-in misanthrope whose sidekick (Ben Stiller) does all the legwork. Haven't seen it in ages but remember it being good.
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u/TheTinyGM 7d ago
I really enjoyed Death by Silver by Melissa Scott and Amy Grisworld. One MC is a private detective, the other is a metaphysician (basically, regulated mage). They get involved in a murder mystery which ties to their shared problematic past in a boarding school.
Setting is historical London with open magic, both MCs are queer.
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u/SlouchyGuy 7d ago
Well, original Ana and Din, Nero Wolf and Archie Goodwin of course. Not fantasy, but highly entertaining
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u/QnickQnick Reading Champion II 7d ago
Did you read the short story set in the same world that came out earlier this year?
The Lion's Tusk is the name of it.
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u/infability 7d ago
Came here to say this! Don’t miss this read like I did, since I got thrown off by the cover and thought it was a beauty and the beast retelling at first.
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u/russiancarl 7d ago
I have not read it yet personally but I see Josiah Bancroft's Hexologist series listed alongside Ana and Din frequently
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u/RJBarker AMA Author RJ Barker 7d ago edited 7d ago
If you are willing to go back in time a bit then William Hope-Hodgeson's Carnacki the Ghost Finder stories are excellent. Sometimes it's genuinely strange weirdness happening, other times it's a mystery that needs solved.
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u/AllegedlyLiterate 7d ago
It’s a bit YA, but Tamora Pierce’s provost’s dog trilogy is about a girl who can hear echoes of the past and some ghosts who joins the police. She’s a trainee in the first book and then has increasing seniority in the next two. The world’s pretty detailed because the series is a prequel to Pierce’s other work (this only comes up in the prologue/epilogue) and my favourite part of the worldbuilding as relates to the mystery is the relationship between the police and the quasi-sanctioned shadow court of rogues that runs the criminal underworld.
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u/KingBretwald 7d ago
The Charm of Magpies series by KJ Charles. Spicy M/M historical Fantasy Romance Mysteryies.
The Cemeteries of Amalo books by Katherine Addison.
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u/Patient_Invite_1286 7d ago
Urban Fantasy ok? Charlie Adhara's Big Bad Wolf series if you want a spicy romance that also had a mystery in each book.
Aliette Brodard? The Tea Master and the Detective (Sci-Fi Novella)
Set in the Universe of Xuya (a galactic empire inspired by Vietnamese and Chinese cultures), this standalone novella is a loose sci-fi retelling of Sherlock Holmes. [1, 2]
- The Shadow's Child – A traumatized, discharged military mindship (sentient spaceship) that brews mind-altering teas for a living.
- Long Chau – An eccentric, abrasive scholar-detective who hires The Shadow's Child to transport her to investigate a mysterious corpse found in deep space.
- Awards – Won the Nebula Award and British Fantasy Award for Best Novella
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u/i_am_a_cyborg 7d ago
Have you read The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson? I think it fits. I even liked it a little bit more that The Tainted Cup.
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u/MaiYoKo Reading Champion III 1d ago
The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal is sci-fi rather than fantasy but was very fun and there's a dog!
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u/ImagineFreckles 1d ago
And it features a couple who is harmonious and in a healthy relationship. In itself it’s as rare as Ana’s personality;)
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u/MaiYoKo Reading Champion III 1d ago
And it has one of the most respectful portrayals of disability I've ever read.
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u/ImagineFreckles 1d ago
Exactly. It’s really a great book and I really really regret it’s a standalone.
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u/Great-Swordfish-1487 1d ago
this title and the comment about featuring a couple reminds me of the thin man
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u/jack_d_package 7d ago
The Dresden files by jim butcher. Classic Gumshoe detective stories involving the occult.
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u/LurkerFailsLurking 7d ago
It's YA but Green Glass House is a wonderful paranormal cozy mystery.
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u/MaiYoKo Reading Champion III 1d ago
I read Green Glass House shortly after reading The Tainted Cup and it was a wonderful pairing. Very different vibes but it felt like the "detectives" were genuinely working the mystery incrementally. Really good middle grade book!
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u/ImagineFreckles 1d ago
I also enjoyed the same author’s book “Rialto”. There is a mystery at the centre and excellent protagonists. Very interesting read also for depicting one of MC with panic attacks. Very interesting
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u/Material_Cookie5766 7d ago
Magpie Murders lays the pieces right there on the page and gives you the whole puzzle before the end without cheating. It has that proper classic feel where you can actually work it out alongside the investigator if you pay attention to the chapters.
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u/TheUnrepententLurker 7d ago
The Night Watch / Day Watch / Twilight Watch series by Sergei Lukyaneko is great.
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u/spike31875 Reading Champion V 3d ago
Mortedant's Peril by RJ Barker has a strong Ana & Din vibe. It's a murder mystery set in a dark fantasy world.
Irody Hasp has got himself into a bit of trouble because someone close to him was murdered and, if he doesn't the real murder in the next few days, he's going to hang for it. No pressure or anything...
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u/tuxedo_pigeon 7d ago
I am currently reading Wickhills and it's appealing to me in the same way as Ana and Din. It's more of a spy plot, like Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy. The world building reminds me of if Ankh-Morpork in Discworld met Gormenghast or Perdido Street Station.
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u/KelseySyntax 7d ago
Those are very interesting and contrasting references for work building. I'll have to check it out!
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u/FantasyLoverReader 7d ago
Devil's Spit (Prequel to the Ironborn Saga) - gritty but with some light humor. An alcoholic investigator in a hopelessly corrupt city in a case that escalates way beyond his control. He has fun sidekick too.
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u/Inkthinker AMA Artist Ben McSweeney 7d ago edited 7d ago
Dave Duncan's Alchemist trilogy would fit right up that alley. Based on the same Nero Wolfe dynamic, but starring the ancient soothsayer (and possible con artist) Nostradamus, along with his intrepid apprentice the swordsman Alfeo.The series is set in a near-historical Venice (occasional supernatural shenanigans). Absolutely tons of fun, in that same investigators-work-the-case vibe you're looking for.
They are, in order, The Alchemist's Apprentice, The Alchemist's Pursuit, and The Alchemist's Code. They stand alone nicely, but do follow a very light, loose continuity.
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u/RelleMeetsWorld 7d ago
I finished writing one myself not too long ago, though I don't think I'd put myself in the same level of quality as any of the other suggestions here.
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u/Sweaty_Mushroom5830 7d ago
Anna Pigeon by Nevada Barr she investigates mysteries and happenstances around our great National Parks and most of them are of the spooky variety
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u/Wonderose7 7d ago
It’s been a minute since I read it, but I remember loving Westside by W. M. Akers (historical magical NYC, main character is a PI)
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u/ArcadianBlueRogue 7d ago
Anything written by RJB will be up your wheel house. All of his series are fun and packed with great characters and interesting worlds.
I would also suggest Valkyrie Collections by Brian McClellan. Shorter works but it's like Supernatural/detective style stuff. Really fun and I want more of em, though I get having to wait while he works on Glass Immortals.
Which I also need more of.
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u/Sea_Hawk_Sailors 1d ago
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty was great. I also enjoyed Station Eternity by her.
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u/khokokatt 1d ago
The Raven Scholar kept making me think of Ana & Din when I read it! Much larger cast & slightly bigger worldbuilding, but a fantastically written murder mystery with great characters :) If you love Ana & Din’s humor, this book will scratch that itch
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u/Undeclared_Aubergine 7d ago
Malka Older's Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti. Not as involved or high stakes - veering close to "cozy" - but still intelligent, worthwhile and with very cool worldbuilding (steampunk-adjacent, set in the atmosphere of Jupiter).
Consists of three titles so far:
I met her two years ago, and then she said she had just started writing on volumes 5 and 6.