Profesorowa Szczupaczyńska Books in Order

The Profesorowa Szczupaczyńska series is a historical mystery set in Cracow during the 1890s, when the city was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Its heroine is Zofia Szczupaczyńska, the wife of a university professor. In the English translations, she is called Zofia Turbotyńska, a change made for the translated editions.

Zofia is a proper middle-class hostess, a determined social climber, and a person with very firm opinions about how a household should run. She is also bored by the limits placed on a professor's wife. When a suspicious death or disappearance crosses her path, that boredom turns into curiosity, then into a full investigation. She is not a police officer, and she doesn't always behave with perfect tact, but she notices things other people overlook.

Her world matters as much as the crimes. Cracow offers drawing rooms, charity events, churchgoing, busy streets, cramped institutions, and a strict social ladder. Zofia knows how to move through respectable society, but each case pushes her toward people and places she has been taught to dismiss. The series uses that contrast to show the gap between public respectability and what is happening behind closed doors.

Zofia simply cannot leave a puzzle alone.

In Mrs. Mohr Goes Missing, a charity errand leads Zofia to Helcel House, a nursing home run by nuns, where a resident has disappeared. As the case grows more troubling, she begins to test her instincts as a detective, with help from the capable Franciszka. Karolina and the Torn Curtain raises the stakes when a young woman from Zofia's own household is found dead. Looking for answers forces Zofia beyond familiar circles and into the city's criminal underworld.

The ongoing appeal is Zofia herself. She can be vain, nosy, stubborn, and blind to her own privilege, yet she has real courage when someone vulnerable has been ignored or wronged. Her household allies, especially Franciszka, keep her investigations grounded and often challenge her assumptions. The mysteries work as individual cases, while the books also show Zofia gradually seeing more of the world beyond her comfortable routines.

Expect witty, detail-rich mysteries with a serious edge. The tone has the pleasures of a classic amateur-sleuth story, including clues, secrets, and social comedy, but the novels also deal with class, gender, exploitation, and the limits imposed on women. Start with Mrs. Mohr Goes Missing to meet Zofia at the beginning of her detective career, then continue with Karolina and the Torn Curtain for a more personal and unsettling case.