Yoyo, has your friend worked her way through all of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple books? She was also a great knitter. ;-)

The Bess Crawford series (Charles Todd) is not as good as Maisie Dobbs (my opinion), but similar in tone and also set in WWI.

My particularly favorite series is Margaret Frazer's Sister Frevisse books. Someone here recommended them several years back (thank you, whoever it was!) as a good historical mystery series. The books cover about 20 years, 1430-1450. Where they are similar to the Maisie Dobbs series is that the characters grow and change as the books progress; the series becomes a portrait of Frevisse.

If you're looking for the British style of cozy, and aren't as interested in the character portraits, the series' from Ngaio Marsh, Patricia Moyes and Elizabeth Lemarchand are all enjoyable reading. They each have their continuing series detective whom you come to know and love, with more characterization than Christie, but a little less introspection than either Maisie Dobbs or Sister Frevisse.

Here is a link that might be useful: Margaret Frazer website

Victoria Thompson has a series set in New York City during Tammany Hall days. The heroine is a midwife who "married beneath" her a doctor who was murdered. She can't become a doctor, so uses his medical bag and delivers babies while she discovers murders with the help of another "lowlife" who is a policeman.

Kerry Greenwood has two series with women sleuths. The Phrynie Fisher one is set in the 1920's in Australia, I think. The other one, the Corinna Chapman series is set in modern day Australia. Both series should be read in order as each book is built on the one before it.

Sue Grafton has a great series with a very strong female PI.

I'll name some:

Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series

Robert Crais's Elvis Cole

John Lescroart's San Francisco books

Lynda LaPlante's books, especially Anna Travis

I have enjoyed the British police procedural series written by Deborah Crombie. She is an American but her books are really well researched and I was surprised that she was not English. Her main characters are Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his DS Gemma. There is good character development and interesting sidelines on their personal lives and the friends that they make. I think so far there are 14 books in the series and I am waiting for her next one!

Both Kathy Reichs and Tess Gerritson write series books with strong women as lead characters. Reichs writes about Dr. Temperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist, and Gerritson writes about Jane Rizzoli, a policewoman, and Maura Isles, a medical examiner. The books can sometimes be a little gruesome, as books about crime tend to be.

These are other authors I enjoy whose main characters are female.

Susan Wittig Albert, Texas herb shop owner
Laura Childs, teashop owner in Charleston, SC
Jeanne M. Dams, middle aged American transplanted to England
Carola Dunn, 20s upper class girl married to Scotland Yard detective
Elly Griffiths, forensic archaeologist
Veronica Heley, widow learning to be herself
Hazel Holt, another widow
Laurie R. King, young woman who married older Sherlock Holmes
Margaret Maron, NC judge with a great extended southern family
Ann Purser, English housecleaning business owner
Cynthia Riggs, older woman on Martha's Vineyard
Kathryn R. Wall, Hilton Head setting

I loved the Nevada Barr books about Anna Pigeon, national parks ranger. I'm also reading the Inspector Banks series, by Peter Robinson.

I like Peter Robinson, too. He has a new book out that is not available in the U.S.

Two British authors that write a series that I enjoy are Stephen Booth who writes about Derbyshire & the local area in his Diane Frye & Ben Cooper series. I am from Nottingham the next county over and Booth lives there. He is very approachable and very involved in the areas libraries & bookstores promoting all reading.

I also enjoy a series by Sophie Hannah-another police procedural with Zailer & Waterhouse. Her plots are really good with some really interesting twists that you never see coming.

Oh, goody! Two more English mystery series.

Alan Bradley's Flavia De Luce mystery series are definitely engaging. Set in the English countryside after WWII, Flavia lives in a crumbling manor with her father and sisters. She has a keen interest in chemistry and her knowledge helps her solve crime cases. These books are more like charming gentle reads but also witty and sharp--Flavia is a girl, maybe 12 or so at the start of the series, which initially turned me off but once I read one, I was hooked. Rita Mae Brown sets hers in small town Virginia horse country; Mary "Harry" Haristeen is both farmer and postal employee and tackles the mysteries with the help of her dog and cat. These are not as "sweet" as they sound, and very character driven, but not graphic, either. Tess Monaghan, private detective, is written by Baltimore's own Laura Lippman and include lots of local flavor.

Moving away from gentle, Becky Masterman's books, set in the Arizona desert, feature retired FBI agent Brigid Quinn, and Taylor Stevens' protagonist is Michael Munroe who is a female language savant mercenary/problem solver with a particular interest in human trafficking crimes. Definitely more intense--these women take no quarter.

I loved the Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters.

I have listened to The Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency and Tears of the Giraffe , by Alexander McCall Smith. They were read by a French woman, Lisette Lecat, who has an exquisite voice.

I second both the Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency and the Flavia De Luce books. I also have enjoyed the Kate Atkinson books.

Edna Buchanan, one of the best crime reporters ever -- a Pulitzer winner for the Miami Herald -- has a series of books featuring the character Britt Montero and the Cold Case Squad (and one other, I believe). She also wrote some nonfiction books, which I will never relinquish!

Also, regarding the Phrynie Fisher books: I never knew there were actually a series of books! I have watched the TV versions, tho, on Netflix, and have enjoyed them.

I love the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters and the Mrs. Pollifax books by Dorothy Gilman. Sadly both writers are deceased, although I did hear that there is a new Peabody book, The Painted Queen, that was just published. Bonus : the writer is actually a degreed Egyptologist who has nonfiction books published as well.

I also enjoy Karen Harper's Elizabeth I series, Rhys Bowen's Royal Spyness series, Carola Dunn's Daisy Dalrymple, Sharan Newman's Catherine LeVendeur series, Fiona Buckley's Ursula Blanchard series and Elliot Roosevelt did a series with his mother - Eleanor Roosevelt - solving crimes in addition to her First Lady duties. If you aren't overwhelmed yet I can check my notebooks for more crime solving women books.....I got the idea from Louis L'Amour's autobiography - he took books everywhere, read in lines etc, and kept a list of what he read. I thought that would be a good idea, especially since I read a lot of different series and it is so frustrating to accidentally get one I had already read instead of the new one I was looking forward to.

Robert Crais has a good series going, set in L. A. Deborah Crombie has a wonderful series set in the U.K. John Sandford has three series -- the Prey series, the Kidd series and the Virgil Flowers series. All of them are good.

I don't know if these can be found in book form, but I have become totally addicted to "Foyle's War". (set in Hastings, England, a widower detective solves mysteries against the backdrop of World War II).

Foyle's War is wonderful -- not sure if there is a book or not. All the seasons are on Acorn now.

Amanda Cross wrote a series about a professor. It's very good, if you like literary connections. Very feminist.

I've started reading the Miss Fisher series. I love the TV series, so thought I'd give it a try. Good, but more intense.