'If The Dead Rise Not: A Novel' by Philip Kerr

Whether it's last year's "Black Water Rising," Attica Locke's legal thriller set in 1980s Houston, or Dan Fesperman's Vlado Petric mysteries, a little history with my mystery makes the pages fly. Popular of late have been mysteries set between World Wars I and II -- Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series and Charles Todd's Ian Rutledge mysteries have been particularly satisfying in their portraits of England in those years and the cost that war exacts from their protagonists.

By Paula L. Woods

March 20, 2010