Fiona Malcolm’s suggested reading lists
Fiona, who is the Librarian at Melbourne Athenaeum Library, is a regular presenter at Nillumbik U3A on various subjects relating to crime and other fiction.
Here are four of her suggested reading lists:
- Children’s books of the 20th century.
- Desert island crime fiction.
- Australian rural crime fiction.
- Railway murders.
Children’s books of the 20th century
| Awdry, Rev. W. | Thomas the Tank Engine | |
| Bemelmans, Ludwig | Madeline | |
| Blyton, Enid | The Adventure Series The Adventurous Four Amelia Jane The Barney Mysteries The Circus Series The Famous Five The Faraway Tree Five Find-Outers Malory Towers The Mistletoe Farm |
Mary Mouse The Naughtiest Girl Noddy Old Thatch series The Secret Series The Secret Seven St. Clare’s The Wishing-Chair The Young Adventurers |
| Brazil, Angela | School Stories | |
| Brent-Dyer, Elinor M | Chalet School | |
| Brisley, Joyce Lancaster | Milly Molly Mandy | |
| Bruce, Dorita Fairlie | Dimsie | Nancy |
| Bruce, Mary Grant | Billabong | |
| Campbell, Julie | Trixie Belden series | |
| Crompton, Richmal | William series | |
| Dixon, Franklin W. | Hardy Boys series | |
| Edwards, Monica | Punchbowl Farm | |
| Estoril, Jean (Mabel Esther Allan) | Drina | |
| Gibbs, May | Snugglepot & Cuddlepie | |
| Grahame, Kenneth | Wind in the Willows | |
| Hill, Lorna | Sadlers Wells | Dancing Peel |
| Hope, Laura Lee | The Bobbsey Twins | |
| Hunter, Norman | Professor Branestawm | |
| Jansson, Tove | Finn family Moomintroll | |
| Kastner, Erich | Emil and the Detectives | |
| Keene, Carolyn | Nancy Drew series | |
| Kipling, Rudyard | The Jungle Book | |
| Lewis, C.S. | Chronicles of Narnia | |
| Lindgren, Astrid | Pippi Longstocking | |
| Lindsay, Norman | The Magic Pudding | |
| Milne, A.A. | Winnie the Pooh | |
| Montgomery, L.M. | Anne of Green Gables | |
| Oxenham. Elsie J. | Abbey Girls | |
| Pullein-Thompson, Josephine | Pony stories | |
| Ransome, Arthur | Swallows and Amazons | |
| Richards, Frank | Billy Bunter | |
| Saville, Malcolm | Lone Pine | |
| Seuss, Dr | Cat in the Hat | |
| Southall, Ivan | Simon Black | |
| Streatfeild, Noel | Ballet Shoes | |
| Tolkien, J.R.R. | The Hobbit | |
| Turner, Ethel | Seven Little Australians | |
| Wall, Dorothy | Blinky Bill | |
| Wilder, Laura Ingalls | Little House series |
Desert island crime fiction
The crime novels that Fiona would want with her is she were stranded on a desert island.
| They ‘select themselves’ | Connelly, Michael | The Poet |
| Christie, Agatha | And Then There Were None OR Murder On The Orient Express | |
| Dostoevsky, Fyodor | Crime And Punishment | |
| Locke, Attica | Bluebird, Bluebird | |
| Tracy, P.J. | Want to Play? (aka Monkeewrench) | |
| Almost made it | Barton, Fiona | The Widow |
| Berna, Paul | A Hundred Million Francs | |
| Blyton, Enid | Five Go To Billycock Hill | |
| Bolton, Sharon | Little Black lies | |
| Clark, Douglas | The Gimmel Flask OR Golden Rain | |
| Flynn, Gillian | Sharp Objects | |
| French, Tana | In The Woods | |
| Griffiths, Elly | The Stranger Diaries | |
| Lippman, Laura | Sunburn | |
| McGown, Jill | Murders Of Mrs Austin & Mrs Beale | |
| McIlvanney, William | Laidlaw | |
| Neel, Janet | Death’s Bright Angel OR Death On Site | |
| Sayers, Dorothy L. | Gaudy Night OR Nine Tailors | |
| The series | Grafton, Sue | The Alphabet series |
| Muller, Marcia | Sharon McCone series | |
| Rankin, Ian | Rebus series | |
| The Aussies | Cleary, Jon | Scobie Malone series |
| Disher, Garry | Dragon Man | |
| Downes, Anna | No Safe Place | |
| Kovacic, Katherine | Portrait Of Molly Dean | |
| Maloney, Shane | Stiff |
Australian rural crime fiction
| Bailey, Sarah | The Dark Lake (Gemma Woodstock 1) | |
| Bergmoser, Gabriel | The Hunted | |
| Brandi, Mark | Wimmera | |
| Brown, Honey | Dark Horse | |
| Cook, Kenneth | Wake in fright | |
| Disher, Garry | Bitter wash road (Hirsch 1) Peace (Hirsch 2) Consolation (Hirsch 3) The Dragon Man (Peninsula crimes 1) Kittyhawk Down (Peninsula crimes 2) |
Snapshot (Peninsula crimes 3) Chain of Evidence (Peninsula crimes 4) Blood Moon (Peninsula crimes 5) Whispering Death (Peninsula crimes 6) Signal Loss (Peninsula crimes 7) |
| Hammer, Chris | Scrublands | |
| Harper, Jane | The Dry (Aaron Falk 1) Force Of Nature (Aaron Falk 2) |
The Lost Man The Survivors |
| Jinks, Catherine | Shelter | |
| Maguire, Emily | An Isolated Incident | |
| Serong, Jock | Quota | |
| Thornton, Sarah | Lapse | White Throat |
| Upfield, Arthur Inspector Bonaparte series |
The Barrakee Mystery / The Lure Of The Bush The Sands of Windee Wings Above The Diamantina Mr. Jelly’s Business / Murder Down Under Winds Of Evil The Bone Is Pointed The Mystery Of Swordfish Reef Bushranger Of The Skies / No Footprints In The Bush Death Of A Swagman The Devil’s Steps An Author Bites The Dust The Mountains Have A Secret The Bachelors Of Broken Hill The Widows Of Broome The New Shoe / The Clue Of The New Shoe |
Venom House Murder Must Wait Death Of A Lake Sinister Stones / Cake In The Hat Box The Battling Prophet Man Of Two Tribes Bony Buys A Woman / The Bushman Who Came Back Bony And The Mouse / Journey To The Hangman Bony And The Black Virgin / The Torn Branch Bony And The Kelly Gang / Valley Of Smugglers Bony And The White Savage The Will Of The Tribe Madman’s Bend / The Body At Madman’s Bend The Lake Frome Monster |
| Wallace, Sandi | Tell Me Why (Georgie Harvey & John Franklin 1) Dead Again (Georgie Harvey & John Franklin 2) |
Into The Fog (Georgie Harvey & John Franklin 3) Black Cloud (Georgie Harvey & John Franklin 4) |
| Williams, Sue | Murder With The Lot (Rusty Bore 1) Dead Men Don’t Order Flake (Rusty Bore 2) |
Live And Let Fry (Rusty Bore 3) |
Railway murders
A suggested reading list for mysteries set on and around trains (all 140 of them!).
| Aaronovitch, Ben | Whispers Under Ground | |
| Aoi, Yu | The Tragedy of Funatomi | |
| Barker, Clive | The Midnight Meat Train | |
| Barr, Emily | The Sleeper | |
| Bellairs, George | Death on the Last Train | |
| Braun, Lilian Jackson | The Cat who Blew the Whistle | |
| Brody, Frances | The Body on the Train | |
| Buchan, John | The 39 Steps | |
| Burton, Miles | Death in the Tunnel | |
| Christie, Agatha | Murder on the Orient Express The 4.50 from Paddington The ABC Murders |
The Mystery of the Blue Train The Plymouth Express in Hercule Poirot – the Complete Short Stories |
| Cleeves, Anne | Harbour Street | |
| Creasey, John | Murder on the Line | |
| Crichton, Michael | The Great Train Robbery | |
| Croft, Freeman Wills | The Mystery of the Sleeping Car Express and Other Stories | The 9:50 Up Express and Other Mysteries |
| Cross, Mason | What She Saw Last Night | |
| Dawson, Janet | California Zephyr series : Death Rides the Zephyr Death Deals a Hand |
The Ghost in Roomette Four Death Above the Line |
| Dent, Lester | Lady to Kill | |
| Done, Stephen | Inspector Vignoles series: Smoke Gets in your Eyes The Murder of Crows The Torn Curtain The Marylebone Murders The Last Train to Brackley Central New Brighton Rock |
Blood and Custard The Mountsorrel Mystery Cold Steel Rail Murder in Broadway This Transient Life |
| Doyle, Arthur Conan | The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans (short story) | |
| Driscoll, Teresa | I am Watching You | |
| Dunn, Carola | Murder on the Flying Scotsman | |
| Edwards, Hazel | Wed, then Dead on the Ghan | |
| Edwards, Martin (ed.) | Blood on the Tracks: Railway Mysteries (short stories) | |
| Farjeon, J. Jefferson | Mystery in White | The Z Murders |
| Fellowes, Jessica | The Mitford Murders | |
| Finch, Charles | The Last Passenger | |
| Fleming, Ian | From Russia with Love | |
| Fowler, Christopher | Bryant & May Off the Tails: a Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery | |
| Francis, Dick | The Edge | |
| Gash, Jonathan | Spend Game | |
| Godey, John | The Taking of Pelham One, Two, Three | |
| Green, Simon R. | Night Train to Murder | |
| Greene, Graham | Stamboul Train | |
| Greenwood, Kerry | Murder on the Ballarat Train | |
| Haining, Peter (ed) | Murder on the Railways (anthology) | |
| Harman, Dianne | Murder on the Train | |
| Hawkins, Paula | The girl on the Train | |
| Hay, Mavis Doriel | Murder Underground | |
| Highsmith, Patricia | Strangers on a Train | |
| Hill, Tobias | Underground | |
| Holliday, S.J.I. | Violet | |
| Holt, Anne | 1222 | |
| Hughes, Dorothy B. | Dread Journey | |
| Isaka, Kotaro | The bullet train | |
| Japrisot, Sebastien | The 10:30 from Marseilles (aka The Sleeping Car Murders) | |
| Kaminsky, Stuart | Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express | |
| Kepler, Lars | The Sandman | |
| Kinnings, Max | Baptism | |
| Koning, Hans | The Petersburg-Cannes Express | |
| Lehrer, Jim | Super | |
| Lowe, Keith | Tunnel Vision | |
| Marston, Edward | Inspector Robert Colbeck series: The Railway Detective The Excursion Train The Railway Viaduct The Iron Horse Murder on the Brighton Express The Silver Locomotive Mystery Railway to the Grave Blood on the Line The Stationmaster’s Farewell Peril on the Royal Train |
A Ticket to Oblivion Timetable of Death Signal for Vengeance The Circus Train Conspiracy A Christmas Railway Mystery Points of Danger Fear on the Phantom Special Slaughter in the Sapperton Tunnel Tragedy on the Branch Line Inspector Colbeck’s casebook |
| Martin, Andrew | Jim Stringer series: The Necropolis Railway The Blackpool Highflyer The Lost Luggage Porter Murder at Deviation Junction Death on a Branch Line |
The Last Train to Scarborough The Somme Stations The Baghdad Railway Club Night Train to Jamalpur Powder Smoke |
| Matsumoto, Seicho | Point and lines | |
| McVeigh, Sue | Grand Central murder | |
| Morgan, Bryan (ed) | Crime on the lines (anthology) | |
| Nebel, Frederick | Sleepers rast | |
| Postgate, Raymond | Somebody at the door | |
| Pronko, Michael | The Last Train | |
| Rinehart, Mary Roberts | The man in Lower 10 | |
| Rowland, John | Calamity in Kent | |
| Rowse, Sharon | The Silk Train Murder: a Mystery of the Klondike | |
| Russell, Sheldon | The Hook Runyon series: The Yard Dog The Insane Train Dead Man’s Tunnel |
The Hanging of Samuel Ash The bridge Troll Murders Justice Rode the Train |
| Sayers, Dorothy L. | Five Red Herrings (inspired the film The Silent Passenger) | |
| Simenon, George | The Man who Watched the Trains go by The Train The Venice Train |
Maigret and the Hundred Gibbets The Madman of Bergerac |
| Staincliffe, Cath | The Silence Between Breaths | |
| Strauss, Lee | Murder Aboard the Flying Scotsman | |
| Unger, Lisa | Confessions on the 7.45 | |
| Vega, Danielle | Survive the Night | |
| Walsh, Thomas | Nightmare in Manhattan (filmed as Union Station) | |
| Weaver, Tim | Vanished | |
| White, Ethel Lina | The Wheel Spins (basis for the film The Lady Vanishes) | |
| Whitechurch, V.L. | Stories of the Railway | |
| Wood, H. Freeman | The Passenger from Scotland Yard | |
| Zola, Emile | La Bete Humaine |