Maybe the writers were, in fact, so super-literate that they decided to do part of their script in ancient French, reinserting the 's' where the circumflex is nowadays ...... but somehow I doubt it. Here is a link that might be useful: circumflex accent

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.

Yeah - I finally can post again. Yesterday I could not even get the "Like" mark turn green and this morning I had to leave at 5 am. The Helen Hunt Jackson quotes are just a delight to read. The Logan Pearsall Smith quotes are good and yes, Lilo, the quote you mention and a couple of others could be from Leonard Cohen.

Lawrence Sanders has a series of books featuring his gad-fly detective Archie McNally, they are dated now, Sanders died in 1998, but they are funny and easy reading, def fall into the "pre-cell phones" genre. Bonus: many are available at thrift shops and other cheap places to get good reads. J.A. Jance, her series is set in Arizona and pretty good as well (definitely not as funny as Sanders tho). Some are pre-cell, some newer. Ditto on the thrift shop option. Carl Hiaasen, his novels aren't a series per se, but contain some recurring characters, as a bonus, he skewers South Florida and its denizens, capturing it perfectly (I traveled there quite often in the day, and know it well). TBH his earlier book are the funniest, but I read everything he writes, I appreciate his wit and humor. Some pre-cell, some newer. Joseph Wambaugh, a retired cop, who has written some really good, and funny, crime books (yeah, humor is very important to me), all pre-cell, I think. David Simon and Ed Burns, the creative duo who brought us the Earth's best TV show, The Wire, are both authors of true crime books, tho not necessarily whodunits, more like sprawling, sad, true-to-life stories, just like their TV shows.