I'm reading a very enjoyable novel called The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. It's hard to describe its genre - partly science fiction, partly fantasy, partly mystery thriller. The heroine is a woman with the unlikely name of Thursday Next. (The names in the novel alone make it worth the read - Thursday's fellow operatives in the literary detection police include a Paige, a Boswell, a Mycroft and a Victor Analogy. It's light-hearted but serious at the same time. Best of all, it was published in 2001 and two sequels, Lost in a Good Book and Well of Lost Plots, have been published.
One of the best things about it is that it takes literature seriously. In this alternate world, disputes about "who really wrote Shakespeare" rage openly; original manuscripts by famous authors are highly prized (and often stolen and then sold for huge sums of money). Quite delightful.
Unfortunately, it might have received the kiss of death - a reviewer has called it "Harry Potter for grown-ups." It's not. It stands in its own right as a witty, literate alternate world mystery and doesn't need to be compared to the overhyped Harry Potter series, with which it has nothing in common.