--- title: Gaudy Night: The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books description: Find out why 'Gaudy Night' by Dorothy L. Sayers made the list. canonical: https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309164/gaudy-night/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-10-03T11:50:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-03T00:20:27.246Z og:title: Gaudy Night: The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books og:description: Here’s why it made the list og:url: https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309164/gaudy-night/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e8de5786c363443/698a408809208f577841abbe/GaudyNight.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Gaudy Night: The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Gaudy Night: The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books twitter:description: Here’s why it made the list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e8de5786c363443/698a408809208f577841abbe/GaudyNight.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Oct 03, 2023 # Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff  Considered one of the four “Queens of Crime” of the Golden Age of British detective fiction that spanned from 1920 to 1939 (alongside [Agatha Christie](https://time.com/4029315/agatha-christie-best-novels/), [Margery Allingham](https://time.com/collection/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309160/the-crime-at-black-dudley/), and [Ngaio Marsh](https://time.com/collection/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309163/a-man-lay-dead/)), Dorothy L. Sayers was an innovator of the “clue-puzzle” detective story, in which all the clues a detective uncovers and needs to successfully solve a crime are also available to readers. Sayers’ novels were also known for their social commentary, particularly with regard to the roles and expectations of women in early 20th century England. After introducing the character of Harriet Vane in her 1930 novel _Strong Poison_, the fifth book in her perennially popular Lord Peter Wimsey series, Sayers went on to make her semi-autobiographical heroine the star of her own locked-room mystery, _Gaudy Night_. The 1935 novel sees Vane grapple with philosophical questions of life and love while investigating an outbreak of vandalism at her alma mater, the fictional Oxford women’s college of Shrewsbury. It’s widely revered as the most literary of Sayers’ fiction titles and viewed as a [forerunner of works by contemporary mystery masters](https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/an-overlooked-novel-from-1935-by-the-godmother-of-feminist-detective-fiction) like [Gillian Flynn](https://time.com/3429666/gillian-flynns-marriage-plot/) and Tana French. —_Megan McCluskey_ **Buy Now:** _Gaudy Night_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780062648778) | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/47RLG3J) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309164/gaudy-night/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309164/gaudy-night/"},"headline":"Gaudy Night","datePublished":"2023-10-03T11:50:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:20:27.246Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309164/gaudy-night/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e8de5786c363443/698a408809208f577841abbe/GaudyNight.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e8de5786c363443/698a408809208f577841abbe/GaudyNight.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309164/gaudy-night/","name":"Gaudy Night"}}]}] ```