Frances Brody's series about WWI widow and former nurse Kate Shackleton reaches 1930 in its 12th instalment, Death and the Brewery Queen (Piatkus, £8-99). Leeds's premier private investigator is looking into business irregularities at a family-run North Riding brewery, when a violent death makes the matter more urgent.

This is an example of what are sometimes called "traditional" mystery stories. But what is too often forgotten about the traditional mystery, is that, since its earliest days, it has included social observation and comment. Brody's charming, atmospheric books are no exception, being set in interwar Yorkshire, where relationships between the classes and the sexes are changing, while austerity devours whole families.

Retired cop John Rebus isn't entirely estranged from his daughter Samantha, but they're not exactly close. All the same, in A Song for the Dark Times by Ian Rankin (Orion, £20), when she phones to tell him that her husband has vanished he doesn't hesitate to drive north to be with her. He knows from his years in Edinburgh CID that she will be the main suspect if foul play has taken place. Rebus may never have been much use as a father, but perhaps what Samantha needs right now is a detective.