Charlotte, Oscar & Co.

Where better for a writer to turn for inspiration than to reality? This is especially true of the mystery fiction micro-trend in which authors fashion real-life figures into detectives. It's tricky territory because the margin of error is so tiny. For every "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution," the 1974 novel in which author Nicholas Meyer brought Sigmund Freud into the orbit of Sherlock Holmes, there is "Dead, Mr. Mozart," Bernard Bastable's less-than-stellar 1995 book in which the famed composer becomes a detective, or the perplexingly popular Queen Elizabeth I crime novels by Karen Harper.

By Sarah Weinman

May 11, 2008