Cozy mysteries not in English
June 13, 2020 10:49 AM Subscribe
I'm looking for cozy mysteries that were originally written in languages other than English, to read either in the original or in translation, depending on if I know the language ;-)
By "cozy" I'm thinking something like Miss Marple/Poirot, or more recently, the Chief Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny. Nothing that could be desribed as gritty, ideally also nothing too political - I am doing a lot of other heavy reading and this is meant to be something relaxing, please. At the moment I'd be particularly interested in books in German, but am open to anything that I might reasonably be able to get my hands on in Western Europe, from any source language other than English. Thanks!
By "cozy" I'm thinking something like Miss Marple/Poirot, or more recently, the Chief Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny. Nothing that could be desribed as gritty, ideally also nothing too political - I am doing a lot of other heavy reading and this is meant to be something relaxing, please. At the moment I'd be particularly interested in books in German, but am open to anything that I might reasonably be able to get my hands on in Western Europe, from any source language other than English. Thanks!
Also in French: the classic Arsène Lupin (Maurice Leblanc) and Joseph Rouletabille (Gaston Leroux) series, most of them written in the 1900-1920s and available for free at gutenberg.org.
posted by elgilito at 12:16 PM on June 13, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by elgilito at 12:16 PM on June 13, 2020 [3 favorites]
Adding that I think the Bannalec books were originally written in German - the first as Bretonische Verhältnisse: Ein Fall für Kommissar Dupin.
posted by paduasoy at 12:43 PM on June 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by paduasoy at 12:43 PM on June 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
Le mystère Henri Pick by David Foenkinos is definitely cozy and light in tone (the mystery revolves around the author of a manuscript) though it's not quite a cozy mystery in the classic Anglophone sense. I don't believe it has been translated to English.
It's been recently adapted into a movie which I think is fairly reflective of the tone of the original book, if you want to get a sense of what you're getting yourself into.
posted by andrewesque at 1:51 PM on June 13, 2020
It's been recently adapted into a movie which I think is fairly reflective of the tone of the original book, if you want to get a sense of what you're getting yourself into.
posted by andrewesque at 1:51 PM on June 13, 2020
There’s always Three Bags Full / Glenkill about a flock of sheep solving a murder in Ireland. (Yes, seriously.)
I’m blanking at the moment for any other German Krimis that I’d classify as cozies. There seems to be a preference here for Regionalkrimis - ones set in a particular city or area either in Germany, or outside. However, most of the ones I’ve read are a bit too political or too police proceduralish for me to call them a cozy.
posted by scorbet at 2:17 PM on June 13, 2020 [3 favorites]
I’m blanking at the moment for any other German Krimis that I’d classify as cozies. There seems to be a preference here for Regionalkrimis - ones set in a particular city or area either in Germany, or outside. However, most of the ones I’ve read are a bit too political or too police proceduralish for me to call them a cozy.
posted by scorbet at 2:17 PM on June 13, 2020 [3 favorites]
Rita Falk writes German mysteries that I think would be characterized as "cozy".
posted by GuyZero at 3:15 PM on June 13, 2020
posted by GuyZero at 3:15 PM on June 13, 2020
You might enjoy the short stories of Edogawa Ranpo, who took a lot of inspiration from the detective stories of Edgar Allen Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:58 PM on June 13, 2020
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:58 PM on June 13, 2020
Here's two Austrian mysteries that should fit the Regionalkrimi/cozy mystery bill: Tod am Semmering by Beate Maly (part of a historical mystery series) and Walter muss weg by Thomas Raab. (Disclaimer: I have not read either of these yet.)
posted by wavelette at 4:20 AM on June 14, 2020
posted by wavelette at 4:20 AM on June 14, 2020
I realise you're probably looking more for European fiction, but the classic Japanese locked-room mystery The Honjin Murders, the first of Seishi Yokomizo's Kosuke Kindaichi detective novels, would fit the bill.
I imagine the other 76 of them would too, but only one of them has been translated into English so far (The Inugami Clan), and lockdown hit before I could pick up a copy for myself.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 5:54 AM on June 14, 2020
I imagine the other 76 of them would too, but only one of them has been translated into English so far (The Inugami Clan), and lockdown hit before I could pick up a copy for myself.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 5:54 AM on June 14, 2020
As a further note, one of the reasons I think I’ve not read many of the lighter German Krimis is that they seem to rely a bit more on dialects and local sayings/knowledge/jokes than the slightly more serious ones. It makes it a bit harder for me as a non-native speaker to follow. So I’ve been more likely to read books like Nele Neuhaus’s Snow White Must Die.
(I tend to read ebooks which is handy for reading books in languages other than English- I can press a word and get either a dictionary entry or a translation. )
Considering you did say Western European, I would suggest Buille Marfach, but I assume Irish isn’t one of your languages!
posted by scorbet at 12:39 PM on June 14, 2020
(I tend to read ebooks which is handy for reading books in languages other than English- I can press a word and get either a dictionary entry or a translation. )
Considering you did say Western European, I would suggest Buille Marfach, but I assume Irish isn’t one of your languages!
posted by scorbet at 12:39 PM on June 14, 2020
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Likewise The Brittany Mysteries by Jean-Luc Bannalec are each centered on a particular aspect of the Brittany region.
Probably both available in either French or English.
posted by SemiSalt at 12:07 PM on June 13, 2020 [2 favorites]