Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Wintringham Mystery: Cicely Disappears | 1926 | Anthony Berkeley | Buy |
| 2 | Mr Priestley’s Problem | 1927 | Anthony Berkeley | Buy |
| 3 | The Piccadilly Murder | 1929 | Anthony Berkeley | Buy |
| 4 | Malice Aforethought | 1931 | Anthony Berkeley | Buy |
| 5 | Before the Fact | 1932 | Anthony Berkeley | Buy |
| 6 | Jumping Jenny | 1933 | Anthony Berkeley | Buy |
| 7 | Not to Be Taken | 1937 | Anthony Berkeley | Buy |
| 8 | Trial and Error | 1937 | Anthony Berkeley | Buy |
| 9 | Death in the House | 1939 | Anthony Berkeley | Buy |
Berkeley’s standalone novels divide into two categories. The lighter fare, such as The Wintringham Mystery (1926) and Mr Priestley’s Problem (1927), are comic mystery novels closer in spirit to the Roger Sheringham books. The Piccadilly Murder (1929) sits between the two modes.
The Francis Iles novels, Malice Aforethought (1931) and Before the Fact (1932), are a different proposition entirely. Malice Aforethought opens by telling the reader that Dr Edmund Bickleigh has decided to kill his wife, and then watches him try. The tension is not whodunit but how, and whether he will succeed and escape punishment. Before the Fact is narrated by a woman who slowly understands that the man she married is dangerous. Both books were far outside the mainstream of Golden Age detective fiction when published and are credited with helping establish the psychological crime novel as a distinct form.
Trial and Error (1937) and Death in the House (1939) are later entries that show Berkeley experimenting further with the crime novel’s conventions. Not to Be Taken (1937), also published as Francis Iles, is another poisoning story with moral complexity at its centre.