Five Red Herrings, Murder Must Advertise, and Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers

I've been sick lately, and with a blizzard thrown into the mix, badly in need of some good reading material. I don't how it's taken me so long to discover Dorothy L. Sayers' mysteries, featuring the bon vivant sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey, but I found her wit and affection at just the right time.

Sayers constructs Five Red Herrings (1931) as a puzzle for the reader. There are six suspects and a victim who was so hated in life that there is no moral problem in figuring out "who done it." Full of time-tables and plot twists, it's a mind game you'll enjoy.

Murder Must Advertise (1933) is based in Sayers' own experience from 1922-1931 as a copywriter at S. H. Benson's advertising agency in London. Going undercover as a copywriter himself, Lord Peter investigates a mysterious death and discovers many shocking details about the private lives of ad agency employees, while learning what it's like to work for a living.

Gaudy Night (1935) takes place at a women's college, Shrewbury College, a nod to Sayers' own Somerville College. The dons have invited Harriet Vane back to her alma mater for the annual "Gaudy" celebrations, but a campus vandal soon spoils the mood. Terrified at what such a lunatic might do, Harriet asks her old friend Wimsey to investigate.

All three are perfect snowy-day reads with a cup of tea, some biscuits, and a mind for mysteries.