There isn’t much good to be said about World War I, the War to End All Wars or the Great War, as it was alternately known. It wasn’t really all that great and, as we have come to know, it did not end war. It does, however, bear the distinction of directly costing the lives of more soldiers than any other war in the history of the world.

Perhaps the one point that may be said in its favor is that it inspired many distinguished works of literature, from the beautiful, poignant poetry of Rupert Brooke (“If I should die, think only this of me; / That there’s some corner of a foreign field / That is for ever England”) to such memorable novels as Erich Maria Remarque’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” and Ernest Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms.”

While it would be an exaggeration to suggest that the mystery novels availing themselves of WWI as a background have attained quite those exalted levels, the richness of the historic and emotional elements of that singularly tragic event have served to enrich more than a few works in the detective genre.

Among the foremost are Anne Perry’s superb series about Joseph Reavley, a chaplain who works as a detective and as the moral center of British soldiers on the front lines. This wise and heroic figure first appeared in the Edgar-winning short story, “Heroes,” and then in five novels of unusual power and richness of texture, the most recent being “We Shall Not Sleep.” He shares the pages of the series with his brother Joseph, a British secret service agent, and his sister Judith, a courageous ambulance driver.

Joseph Reavley was based on Ms. Perry’s grandfather, and he must have had some stories to tell! The fear, mud, violence, mustard gas, bravery, open wounds, and other accoutrements of life on the battlefield are described with such clarity and vividness that the books linger in the memory, as the best books do.

No less powerful evocations of WWI are a major element of the Inspector Ian Rutledge novels of Charles Todd. Although the books are set in postwar England, a time of relative calm and peace, as well as sadness and bleakness, the ghost of the war never leaves the brilliant and sensitive Scotland Yard policeman.

In the 10th addition to the series, “A Pale Horse” (Morrow, 361 pages, $23.95), Rutledge once again finds himself in an isolated region of England, far away from London, sent to search for a missing member of the War Office.

With him is his constant companion, Hamish MacLeod, who died in the war. Corporal MacLeod was the next highest ranking soldier in the company led by Rutledge, all the rest having been killed. Ordered to lead his men into battle, into no-man’s-land, MacLeod refused — not because he was a coward, but because he knew it was useless. Rutledge felt he had no choice but to shoot him, and the young man haunts him relentlessly. They have conversations whenever Rutledge pauses to think, or when he does anything even slightly untoward.

Unable to find the man he was sent to locate, he returns to London, only to be sent back to investigate a murder. And then another murder. It will be no surprise, nor a spoiler, to note that the two assignments have a point of convergence.

In the book’s particularly charming opening, a group of boys steal their teacher’s book on alchemy. Heading off in the night to an old ruined abbey, they attempt to conjure up the devil, only to meet a figure face-to-face that appears to meet their expectations. Convulsed with fear, they race away, leaving the book behind. Their unexpected bogeyman turns out to be a corpse dressed in a hooded cloak and wearing a gas mask — a murder victim who causes no end of difficulty for the instructor whose bookplate was affixed to the book.

Charles Todd is the joint byline of Charles and his mother Caroline, who live in the American Southeast but produce leisurely mysteries set in England, with very British characters, much in the way the American Elizabeth George does (and Martha Grimes, too, though not as well). This delightful series offers pure detection and rich ambience, without excessive violence or explorations of sexual eccentricities.

The spirit of Agatha Christie lives. Note: Dame Agatha also wrote a novel titled “The Pale Horse.” Homage.

Mr. Penzler is the proprietor of the Mysterious Bookshop in Manhattan, and the series editor of the annual “Best American Mystery Stories.” He can be reached at ottopenzler@mysteriousbookshop.com.