The Val & Arbie Mysteries Books in Order

The Val and Arbie mysteries move Faith Martin into a more openly golden-age direction. These books are set in the 1920s and pair Val with Arbuthnot Swift, known as Arbie, a gentleman ghost-hunter whose cases have a habit of sliding from the uncanny into the criminal. If that sounds like a mix of country-house mystery and lightly spooky puzzle, that is more or less the promise of the series.

The mood is a big part of the fun.

Arbie is the sort of character who naturally attracts strange stories, haunted reputations, nervous households, and people who are not saying everything they know. Val acts as an excellent counterweight, steadier, more practical, and less likely to be carried away by appearances. Together they make a strong duo for this kind of story. One brings flair and a taste for the unusual, the other keeps the investigation grounded when the atmosphere starts doing its best to mislead everyone.

So far the books use that balance well. In Murder by Candlelight, The Last Word is Death, and A Dangerous Train of Thought, Martin leans into old houses, strained families, altered wills, buried love affairs, and the unsettling feeling that something is wrong long before the body appears. The cases may begin with whispers of the supernatural, but the real interest lies in the human motives underneath, jealousy, money, grief, vanity, fear, and old resentment doing what they always do in a good murder mystery.

The 1920s setting helps too. It gives the books a little more formality, a little more social performance, and a little more room for secrets to hide behind manners. Country houses, rail journeys, and big family properties all fit naturally into that world. Martin does not overload the books with period detail, but she uses enough to make them feel comfortably placed in their time.

If you like classic-style mysteries with a touch of theatricality, but you still want clear clues and human explanations, this series is an easy one to enjoy. The supernatural edge is there for flavor and tension, not to replace the puzzle. What keeps the books moving is the partnership between Val and Arbie, and the way each case asks them to see past performance, gossip, and eerie suggestion to the plain, dangerous truth underneath.

Start with Murder by Candlelight if you want the clearest sense of the series, then keep going for the mix of wit, atmosphere, and well-contained murder that Martin handles so smoothly here.