Okay, reading detective fiction is actually not useless. Aside from it engaging brain, it's an exercise in literature. Like... Ana Moncrief's works are unintelligible when you are barraged with indistinguishable characters, spaced out and intercalated.

Compare to Horowitz. Aside from better and more era-appropriate language, his narration is ruthlessly precise, yet never mechanical. Easily followed, but deep and intricate.