One thing to watch out for - after Allingham died, her husband (I think it was) tried to continue the Albert Campion series. I didn't like those, although I did enjoy most of the others.

And there's Dorothy Sayers, who wrote the Lord Peter Wimsey books, which I liked. One of them - The Nine Tailors - explained change ringing, which was a help when listening to the bells in the cathedral.

I was very excited a few years ago when I was in the UK and heard change-ringing on a Sunday morning.

I was obsessed with Wimsey for a while in high school, fortunately the public library where I regularly waited for rides after soccer practice had all the novels so it was easy enough for me to feed the obsession. I have in the back of my mind that it would not be a good idea to reread but I have no idea where that came from...

Allingham is the only one of the Queens of Crime that I have not read at all and it's a curious omission, although I don't think there's an actual reason for it.

It's the same with me. I own pretty much everything by Sayers, Christie, and Marsh.

I tweeted this question but asking here also: are there any stories in which magic exists sort of like technology does IRL and becomes obsolescent due to new and better magic, social changes, etc?

I will try the Chanur series. I think I tried to read something by Cherryh before and it was a little too alien because I just couldn't keep track of what was going on. I may have picked up a book in a series but not the first book.

I didn get An Empire called Memory today. It came in the same time as the first book in Daniel Abraham's fantasy series. I'm not as into fantasy as sci fi but since I liked The Expanse and he co wrote it I wanted to try it

I just couldn't keep track of what was going on

I remember having this trouble too. I finally realized that what I wanted was some sort of a little visual hint, like a a line of asterisks, between the paragraphs where scenes/locations/viewpoints changed.

I tweeted this question but asking here also: are there any stories in which magic exists sort of like technology does IRL and becomes obsolescent due to new and better magic, social changes, etc?

In the Borderlands shared story universe they engineered magic to work like technology so they could make motorcycles run etc. I don't know if they lasted long enough to have a Cartesian shift to Magic Based Information Technology.

Wen Spencer's Tinker books have something kind of like that, in that as Tinker learns more about magic, the things she makes/invents get more sophisticated.

And in Tanya Huff's The Silvering, the main character didn't do well at the magic university (magic being understood, teachable and highly desirable) but figures out how to use her supposedly minor abilities to achieve remarkable effects (she never does get the hang of healing, though).

I feel like that kind of happens in Rivers of London but maybe only for Peter, or for the Folly - definitely doesn't apply to the non-humans although social change is reflected in their magic so maybe. Hm.

I feel like most of the magic systems I can think of are more in the "we used to have more/better magic" vein rather than things are improving.

My personal preference is for systems where no one really understands how magic works and thhere may be big improvements as somebody figures something out but I am not htinking of good examples right now. Will ponder some more.