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The 30 best mystery books of all time.

When you flip open a mystery novel, what do you expect? Probably a thrilling tale that keeps you wondering who the culprit was. The best mystery books are those with ingenious sprinklings of clues along the way that brings out the inner detective in you. Arguably, the best feeling when reading a crime novel is being faced with a sufficiently difficult puzzle and yet still being able to jump up and shout “I knew it!” when the final reveal comes around. 

A good murder case will always rank high on a list of mystery novels, but other stories also have their merits. From true crime books to espionage odysseys (of course, including whodunnit riddles) here are the 30 best mystery books that you cannot miss out on if you’re looking for twisted stories to keep you on the edge of your seat.

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the number of great mystery books to read, you can also take our 30-second quiz below to narrow it down quickly and get a personalized mystery book recommendation 😉

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1. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

It’s impossible to talk about mystery novels without immediately thinking of the legendary Agatha Christie. Amongst all of her works , none has a story quite as impeccably crafted as And Then There Were None , which explains why it is the best selling mystery book of all time. 

The story follows ten people who are brought together, for various reasons, to an empty mansion on an island. The mysterious hosts of this strange party are not present, but left instructions for two of the ten to tend the house as the housekeeper and cook. As the days unfold in accordance with the lyrics of a nursery rhyme, each invitee is forced to face the music (literally) and bear the consequences of their troubling pasts, as death will come for them one by one. 

2. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

Raymond Chandler’s idea of mystery strays from conventions — for him it’s less about the intricate plot and more about the atmosphere and characters. As such, The Big Sleep is no ordinary story: private eye Philip Marlowe gets hired to investigate the blackmailing of Carmen Sternwood, the second daughter of a wealthy general. The further he digs into this messy business, the more complicated the story gets, as Carmen continues to be blackmailed by others in a web of unexpected relations between the characters. 

Chandler’s work is complex: his characters are multi-faceted and his language rich with premonitions of the tragedy about to fall on this family. While the signs he drops are not exactly there to help you find out “who done it”, it will definitely give you a foreboding awareness that makes it hard to put the book down. 

3. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Perhaps better known by its major motion picture adaptation, Gone Girl is the ultimate mystery puzzle for the modern media age. Devoted wife Amy’s sudden disappearance throws Nick Dunne into a hailstorm of suspicion — from her parents to his neighbours to the investigators, everyone leans towards believing that he is somehow responsible. Nick himself becomes aware of how his wife viewed him, as well as how little he knows of her, when stories of her emerge from friends he’s never heard of. 

Even if you’ve failed to keep the media buzz regarding the movie adaptation from spoiling you, the experience of reading the minds of these unreliable narrators is well-worth picking this one up. 

4. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain

The Postman Always Rings Twice is often lauded the most important crime book of the 20th century, and it's not hard to see why. Short, racy, and full of surprises, it will leave you no time to catch your breath. In fact, the language used by Cain was so unprecedentedly explicit, the book was banned in Boston for a while. 

The story follows Frank Chambers and his roadside encounter with diner owner Cora Papadakis. Frank ends up working for Cora and her husband and then falling in love with her, despite her marriage. Frank’s spontaneity gets the better of him when he and Cora decide to sinisterly plot for the breakup of her marriage. Once the plan succeeds, they can stay happily ever after in each other’s arms… or so they think. 

5. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

As it’s based on a real-life case that has already been solved, you might think all the mystery is taken out of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood . Fortunately, that couldn’t be more wrong, because this nonfiction novel is one of the best-selling crime stories of all time. 

Capote had closely followed the investigation of a quadruple murder in Kansas, and was doing a bit of inerviewing himself before the murderers were caught. As a result, his book is filled with twists and turns you would not expect — surely such vile behaviors must be works of fiction?

6. Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

This Wilkie Collins’s late Victorian novel is among the earliest psychological thrillers ever written. It follows what first appears to be a simple story of two star-crossed lovers — Walter Hartright and Laura Fairlie — who weren’t meant to be together. Laura was betrothed to Sir Percival Glyde and yet she was mysteriously warned not to proceed with the marriage. Meanwhile, the city is gripped by the story of a strange woman clad in white who’s roaming its dark street.

As the title suggests, this final character is the key to the mystery that will enshroud these characters. Set in dimly-lit streets, The Woman in White is as much Gothic horror as it is mystery book, and that’s precisely why the clarity you get when the riddle is solved is so incredibly satisfying. 

7. Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver

Before there was How To Get Away With Murder and Suits , lawyer-related entertainment came in the form of criminal cases. Anatomy of a Murder , written by a Supreme Court Justice under the pseudonym Robert Traver, is such a classic. It follows lawyer Paul Biegler and his defense of Frederick Manion, who’s accused of murdering an innkeeper. While the case is overwhelmingly against Manion, his unreliable behavior leaves room for challenges against conviction, and that’s where Biegler and his seemingly laid-back attitude comes in. This thrilling courtroom drama will keep you on the edge of your seat, wondering how this lawyer can argue such an impossible case. 

8. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré

Packed with interesting codenames and stressful covert actions, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is about an ex-spy, George Smiley (codename Beggarman), who is pulled out of retirement, to his relief, to weed out a Soviet mole in the British Intelligence Service. You’ve probably never seen the motto “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer” in better action than this, as Smiley attempts to distinguish the double-agent amidst old partners. There are plenty of clever hints and details about these cryptically named characters that you can pick up on, thus joining Smiley on the race to safeguard his country. 

From deceit to elaborate tricks, le Carré’s espionage masterpiece will not only keep you on your toes because of the constant suspicion, it will also shed some light on the incredible social tension that existed in the 1970s at the height of the Cold War.

9. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Dan Brown knows how to write up a riddle — just read The Da Vinci Code and you’ll see. In this volume, Professor Robert Langdon is brought to Paris on a whirl to shed some light on a bizarre murder in the Louvre. As he and sidekick cryptologist Neveu tries to decode the artistic riddles left at the scene, all of which are related to the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Dan Brown takes readers scrambling through the City of Love, speechless (because of the shrewd puzzles and not Paris’ beauty, of course). 

You can imagine Dan Brown spending hours meandering between paintings and statues in Paris before coming up with this elaborate quest that Langdon embarks on. The story thus produced is shockingly satisfying to read, and it will no doubt leave you wanting to travel to France’s capital just to retrace Langdon’s steps. 

10. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

It appears a mark of a good mystery book is that it has been made into a movie. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is no exception. The first book of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series introduces us to journalist Mikael Blomkvist and freelance hacker Lisbeth Salander. Following two separate strings of events, the characters eventually find themselves both trying to find the person who, forty years ago, supposedly killed Harriet Vanger — niece of one of the wealthiest men in Sweden. Blomkvist is invited to stay over at the wealthy family’s island, where he comes into contact with other family members who were present at the scene years ago, and begins to wonder if any of them were involved. 

As Blomkvist decodes the copious amount of decades-old notes and newspaper clippings, he slowly fills in the missing pieces of the puzzle about this dysfunctional family. Larsson’s story takes classic mystery tropes — family feud, blackmailing sequences — and spices them up with additional developments in the protagonists’ personal lives. 

11. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey

Delve into the past once more as we explore the story of King Richard III in The Daughter of Time . Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant takes time off from modern-day cases to recover from an injury, but still he searches for puzzles to occupy himself. Subsequently, he stumbles upon the mystery of King Richard III, a monarch accused of being a murderer but who Grant can only see as kind and wise. Following his strange physiognomic intuition, Grant rummages historical records to solve a complex case that occurred decades ago. 

Josephine Tey brings to life in this novel the intricacies of the past, and the way history is interpreted to reopen a case that was once done and dusted. The political intrigue and peculiar records make for a good dramatic story that is incredibly informative and intriguing, thereby winning The Daughter of Time tremendous love from the readers and praise from the critics. 

12. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Gothic mystery Rebecca is a classic when it comes to telling bone-chilling stories set in an old, grand mansion. The unnamed protagonist of the tale becomes the wife of a widowed, wealthy man, Mr. de Winter, and moves into the Manderly, his stately home. Rather than promising a peaceful and happy marriage, the grand house holds the shadow of the first Mrs. de Winter over the new lady, and threatens not just her happiness but her life. 

Elegantly crafted and movingly told, Rebecca’s beauty will remind you of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre , only more sinister and enigmatic. 

13. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

Returning to detective stories we have The Maltese Falcon , which follows Sam Spade’s journey to find his client’s sister and her unwelcomed partner. Spade and his business partner, Miles Archer, are on their tail when things go off the track and Archer is found dead. Spade goes on trying to uncover the mystery surrounding the sisters while becoming a suspect for the death of his partner. 

Spade’s sleuthing opens his eyes, and yours, too, to a worldwide system he had never thought he’d walk into. Told without a single paragraph dedicated to the thoughts of any of the characters, this is truly an enigma that keeps you guessing.

14. The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth

“The Jackal” is the codename of the assassin hired to kill French President Charles de Gaulle in this enthralling tale. What’s more thrilling is the fact that this kill order came from within the government and thus must be covered up well. The Jackal’s challenge is thus two-fold — to circumvent the heavy safeguarding reserved for one of the most important men on Earth, and to protect his own identity, even from his employers. 

Inspired by an actual failed assassination attempt on the French President and politcally developments in Europe at the end of the Cold War, The Day of the Jackal is intriguing on many fronts. Prepare for some serious espionage, meticulous planning, and political infighting.

15. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

Single mother Jane sends her son to kindergarten and befriends two mothers — Madeleine and Celeste. Along with their friendships is an array of family dramas, from ex- or abusive husbands to dark pasts. Jane doesn’t know it, but there’s a piece of her past that makes her fit perfectly into this wild puzzle. No one ever displays their domestic problems in their totality to others, not even to friends, and that makes Big Little Lies so much more captivating. 

16. In the Woods by Tana French

In the Woods takes readers to the woody outskirts of Ireland, where a 12-year-old girl is found dead. Two detectives, Rob and Cassie, are assigned the case, and the case forcibly reminds the former of the mystery that haunted his childhood — a mystery which happened in these same woods. As they make their way through the crime scene and interrogate dysfunctional parents and friends, Rob’s past keeps coming back to him, begging the question of whether it is related to this sad event. 

As haunting as it is alluring, In the Woods is more than just a mystery book. It is also a poignant tale of family ties and childhood trauma — a reminder of the importance of growing up in a safe and loving environment. 

17. The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

In this iconic suspense novel, FBI agent Clarice Stirling investigates a serial killer, “Buffalo Bill,” who preys on young women, and who potentially is linked to psychiatrist and cannibalistic murderer Hannibal Lecter. In order to weed a clue out from Lecter about Bill’s whereabouts, Stirling visits the psych ward where Lecter is imprisoned. However, her shuddering exchanges seem to reveal less about the killer on the loose, and more about Lecter’s astounding ability to get into the head of his victims. Follow Clarice Stirling on her bone-chilling mission, juggling two sociopathic criminals, in The Silence of the Lambs .

18. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Hound of the Baskervilles is one of the best mystery books ever written; it’s certainly one of the most-read books of all time. Conan Doyle's legendary detective, Sherlock Holmes , presumed dead, returns to the land of the living to shed light on the petrifying death of his friend, Charles Baskerville. The Baskerville family estate is located on the moors of Devon, where legend has it there’s a demonic beast roaming about. Sinister supernatural forces appear to be the only explanation for this mystery, but the supremely rational Sherlock Holmes is not going to give up on his quest to find the one and only truth. 

19. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

Aristocrat Rachel Verinder receives a beautiful gem, the Moonstone, from her uncle, a soldier returning from India, for her eighteenth birthday. She decides to wear it to the big party celebrating her adulthood, after which the jewel disappears from her room. Distraught, Rachel and her family seek the help of Sergeant Cuff to find the thief and recover the treasure. The case is more complicated than it seems, especially since the Moonstone has a mysterious history Rachel doesn’t yet know of. 

The Moonstone is widely regarded as the first mystery novel ever published, and Wilkie Collins paved the way for subsequent books in this genre by introducing hallmark elements such as the large number of suspects, an incompetent constabulary force, and an exceptionally brilliant detective.

20. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Rachel Watson takes a train from her home into the city center everyday, and to kill the time, she often spends much of it looking at the same houses that pass by her. She makes up stories for the lives she observes, stories that are better than her own, free of divorce and alcoholism. One day, she witnesses something that turns Rachel from a mere observer of the lives of this particular street to an active participant in it. 

The Girl on the Train is yet another suspenseful read that uses unreliable narrators to the full. Its intertwining perspectives will take turns changing your mind as to who is the real threat in this domestic drama. 

21. Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett

Historical fiction novelist Ken Follett’s critical success is set during the turning point of World War II, when D-Day plans were being carried out. German spy Henry Faber, codename “The Needle,” stations himself in London, and is transmitting information back to Berlin. He’s the cream of the crop when it comes to this trade: only him and a few other German agents are still at large in Britain. Faber soon catches on to a crucial operation that the British are about to embark on — one that, if successful, will turn the table against Germany. The problem is the British are coming closer and closer to uncovering him… 

If you’ve read any of Ken Follett’s books, you’ll know he has a talent for vividly reviving the past in his pages. Eye of the Needle is no exception — the tension and secrecy that plagued this tumultuous time is captured skillfully in this volume. 

22. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Journalist Camille Preaker returns to work from her “break” at the hospital with a project that will take her back home: there is a girl who had been murdered, and another missing, in the little town she grew up in. Homecoming proves harder than she thought: Camille had been estranged from her family, and must now reconnect with them. The more she and the detective on the case, Richard Willis, delve into the mysteries, the closer to home Camille appears to be — much closer than she would hope. In probably the most unpleasantly satisfying way possible, Sharp Objects will leave you shivering with wonders about how far the effects of a broken family can reach.  

23. My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

On a similar note, let’s watch as a saucy sibling drama unfurls in My Sister, the Serial Killer . Korede has a sister who has a tendency to date horrible men — men so bad she has to kill them, “in self-defense”. Korede doesn’t report or question this — her sister is family, after all, and Korede goes to great lengths to protect her family. But when her sister starts approaching a coworker that Korede likes, she begins to wonder how far is too far. Braithwaite’s novel is bleakly humorous and as wild as Lagos, the city it’s set in. 

24. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

If you still are in need of a good domestic thriller, Case Histories is your book. Get ready for three gruesome backyard tales: the disappearance of a young child in one home, the slaughter of a husband in another, and the murder of a solicitor’s daughter in the last. Beyond exploring the hurt and loss of each of these unfortunate families, Kate Atkinson also expertly tied all three together — how exactly, you’ll have to read to find out. 

25. The Detective by Roderick Thorp

The Detective is a classic when it comes to mystery novels — Thorp’s work is inspiration for several famous movies, including Die Hard . This story follows private eye Joe Leland as he is asked by a widow to look into the circumstances of her husband’s death. As he delves into the entangling relationships of this man who he happens to have known from his fighting days in World War II, Leland uncovers details about the victim he never would’ve guessed. 

26. The Alienist by Caleb Carr

Maybe you’ve heard of The Alienist before in the form of the Netflix original that takes the audience back in time to 1890s New York. Crime reporter John Moore takes the lead on the grisly and peculiar serial killing of teenage boys. The first victim who is found, and whose case Moore covered in the news, was dressed up like a girl and disturbingly mutilated, so much so that Moore believes there must be someone mentally sick behind it all. Moore turns to his friend and famous psychologist — then known as an alienist — in order to figure out this mystery and catch the murderer. This mystery book has everything from psychological analysis to breath-taking chases through New York’s grimy streets. 

27. Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

When Rachel Solando, a patient at the Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane, disappears from the facility, Marshal Teddy Daniels and his partner are summoned to investigate and recapture her. Upon arriving at the island on which the hospital is located, the two detectives found traces that Solando left behind regarding the ill-boding operations of the institution. The investigation takes several sharp turns before finally unveiling the true conspiracy. In emulating Gothic elements by isolating the case from technology and the outside world, and combining it with modern-age psychology, Shutter Island fosters an eerie yet captivating atmosphere that makes it impossible to put down. 

28. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

Not all of the best mystery books have to leave a heavy sense of dread at the bottom of your stomach, and The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is proof of that. The sleuth who saves the day in this novel is Flavia, an intuitive 11-year-old whose father is accused of murder. A stranger has ended up dead in the family’s yard, one who happened to have been seen arguing with Flavia’s dad days before. Determined that her stamp-loving father, who has been heart-broken since the death of his wife, would never kill anyone, Flavia tours the town to try and prove his innocence. Light-hearted as it may sound, this novel’s puzzle is incredibly well-crafted and its classical mystery style, reminiscent of the works of Agatha Christie and Josephine Tey, makes it easy to finish the volume in one sitting. 

29. The Deep Blue Good-by by John D. MacDonald

The Deep Blue Good-by is the first novel of MacDonald’s series about private investigator Travis McGee. As we are introduced to this tall, charming, and righteous character, he is swept away on a mission to find military man Junior Allen, a serial rapist and murderer. Allen has also discovered a smuggled treasure buried somewhere in Florida, and is using that to fund his malicious exploits. The difficult responsibility of trying to locate this psychopath falls onto McGee’s shoulders, the only person with the methodological patience to pick up Allen’s trace. Too often, the protagonist of detective stories are portrayed as being rational to the point of cold-hearted; it’s probably worth your while to change it up a little with Travis McGee’s quest for goodness.

30. Killing Floor by Lee Child

In another first book to a detective series we have Killing Floor , a novel full of action and secrets. Former policeman Jack Reacher gets arrested the moment he comes into the town of Margrave, for a murder he is sure he did not commit. As he tries to convince the detectives in charge of his innocence, Reacher initially only wants to get out of this mess and go on with his travels. The stakes, however, are raised when he found out that his own brother is somehow involved in the mystery, and the murder he is falssely accused of is nowhere near as simple as he thought. 

If you’re looking for more books to send chills down your spine, check out this list of best suspense books of all time ! Or have a look at our guide to Kindle Unlimited if you want to boost your reading game.

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The Best Mystery Novels of 2021

Our crime fiction columnist picks the books that wowed her this year.

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By Sarah Weinman

• Published Dec. 7, 2021 Updated Dec. 9, 2021

Here is a secret worth sharing: Every year is a good year for crime fiction. I’ve known this for as long as I’ve been a serious reader of the genre, but was reminded anew as my first calendar year writing the Crime column nears its end. It’s been a pleasure to reconnect with old favorites and to acquaint myself with new ones, and to tour the ways in which crime writing opens a window onto society, revealing frayed and newly forged strands. Whittling down the list to a thieves’ dozen of standouts was difficult, as it should and must be.

History is the common thread for most of my selections, partly because the distance of several decades allows for welcome escape from contemporary concerns, and also because new context illuminates both past and present. Nekesa Afia’s debut, DEAD DEAD GIRLS (Berkley Prime Crime, 336 pp., paper, $16) , evokes women’s lives, circa 1920s Harlem Renaissance, in all their wayward and beautiful glory, as well as the abruptness with which their hopes and dreams can be violently snuffed out.

Stephen Spotswood’s second outing, MURDER UNDER HER SKIN (Doubleday, 368 pp., $23.99) , furthers the adventures of my favorite new sleuthing duo, Lillian Pentecost and Will Parker, as they solve mysteries in a 1940s milieu evoking Nero Wolfe and film noir. And though it is clearly set in the present day, Richard Osman’s joyous THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE (Pamela Dorman/Viking, 352 pp., $26) evokes classic crime tropes with a mix of sparkling humor and emotion.

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The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time

With a panel of celebrated authors—Megan Abbott, Harlan Coben, S.A. Cosby, Gillian Flynn, Tana French, Rachel Howzell Hall, and Sujata Massey—TIME presents the most gripping, twist-filled, satisfying, and influential mystery and thriller books, in chronological order beginning in the 1800s

Why Mystery Books Are So Satisfying

By tana french.

The Woman in White

By wilkie collins.

Crime and Punishment

By fyodor dostoevsky.

The Leavenworth Case

By anna katharine green.

The Turn of the Screw

By henry james.

The Hound of the Baskervilles

By arthur conan doyle.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

By agatha christie.

The Crime at Black Dudley

By margery allingham.

The Patient in Room 18

By mignon g. eberhart.

The Maltese Falcon

By dashiell hammett.

The Conjure-Man Dies

By rudolph fisher.

A Man Lay Dead

By ngaio marsh.

Gaudy Night

By dorothy l. sayers.

The Three Coffins

By john dickson carr.

by Daphne du Maurier

A Coffin for Dimitrios

By eric ambler, the rich, underappreciated history of mystery writers of color, by rachel howzell hall.

Double Indemnity

By james m. cain.

If He Hollers Let Him Go

By chester b. himes.

In a Lonely Place

By dorothy b. hughes.

The Daughter of Time

By josephine tey.

Beat Not the Bones

By charlotte jay.

Casino Royale

By ian fleming.

A Kiss Before Dying

By ira levin.

The Long Goodbye

By raymond chandler.

Beast in View

By margaret millar.

The Quiet American

By graham greene.

The Talented Mr. Ripley

By patricia highsmith.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

By shirley jackson.

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

By john le carré.

The Honjin Murders

By seishi yokomizo.

Where Are the Children?

By mary higgins clark.

The Shining

By stephen king.

The Last Good Kiss

By james crumley.

The Name of the Rose

By umberto eco.

The Hunt for Red October

By tom clancy.

A Dark-Adapted Eye

By barbara vine.

The Decagon House Murders

By yukito ayatsuji.

The Silence of the Lambs

By thomas harris.

Devil in a Blue Dress

By walter mosley.

Mean Spirit

By linda hogan.

by Patricia Daniels Cornwell

Faceless Killers

By henning mankell.

by Eleanor Taylor Bland

The Secret History

By donna tartt.

Smilla’s Sense of Snow

By peter høeg.

When Death Comes Stealing

By valerie wilson wesley.

by Harlan Coben

Killing Floor

By lee child.

by Kaoru Takamura

by Yasmina Khadra

by Natsuo Kirino

Inner City Blues

By paula l. woods.

A Place of Execution

By val mcdermid.

Those Bones Are Not My Child

By toni cade bambara.

Blanche Passes Go

By barbara neely.

Death of a Red Heroine

By qiu xiaolong.

The Redbreast

By jo nesbø.

Mystic River

By dennis lehane.

The Shadow of the Wind

By carlos ruiz zafón.

The Surgeon

By tess gerritsen.

The Emperor of Ocean Park

By stephen l. carter.

Fingersmith

By sarah waters.

The Ice Princess

By camilla läckberg.

by Roberto Bolaño

Case Histories

By kate atkinson.

The Devotion of Suspect X

By keigo higashino.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

By stieg larsson.

The Lincoln Lawyer

By michael connelly.

Snakeskin Shamisen

By naomi hirahara.

by Megan Abbott

What the Dead Know

By laura lippman.

The Yiddish Policemen's Union

By michael chabon.

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

By olga tokarczuk.

Wife of the Gods

By kwei quartey.

Bury Your Dead

By louise penny.

Faithful Place

The Plotters

By un-su kim.

The Sound of Things Falling

By juan gabriel vásquez.

by Gillian Flynn

The Round House

By louise erdrich.

by Hideo Yokoyama

Ordinary Grace

By william kent krueger.

Big Little Lies

By liane moriarty.

Everything I Never Told You

By celeste ng.

Land of Shadows

The Sympathizer

By viet thanh nguyen.

Bluebird, Bluebird

By attica locke.

Hollywood Homicide

By kellye garrett.

My Sister, the Serial Killer

By oyinkan braithwaite.

The Widows of Malabar Hill

By sujata massey.

Miracle Creek

By angie kim.

by Helen Phillips

The Other Americans

By laila lalami.

The Turn of the Key

By ruth ware.

Your House Will Pay

By steph cha.

Blacktop Wasteland

By s.a. cosby.

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line

By deepa anappara.

Mexican Gothic

By silvia moreno-garcia.

When No One Is Watching

By alyssa cole.

Winter Counts

By david heska wanbli weiden.

Survivor’s Guilt

By robyn gigl.

This project is led by Lucy Feldman, Annabel Gutterman, Megan McCluskey, and Meg Zukin, with writing, reporting, and additional editing by Eliza Berman, Tessa Berenson Rogers, Kelly Conniff, Leslie Dickstein, Eliana Dockterman, Mahita Gajanan, Cady Lang, Lily Rothman, Rachel Sonis, Armani Syed, Karl Vick, Elijah Wolfson, Lucas Wittmann, and Laura Zornosa; photography editing by Whitney Matewe; art direction by Katie Kalupson and Victor Williams; video by Brian Braganza, Andrew Johnson, Jeannie Kopstein, and Sam McPeak; production by  Nadia Suleman ; illustrations by Michelle Urra for TIME.

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The Best Reviewed Mystery and Crime Books of 2022

Featuring fernanda melchor, robert harris, john darnielle, don winslow, and more.

We’ve come to the end of another bountiful literary year, and for all of us review rabbits here at Book Marks, that can mean only one thing: basic math, and lots of it.

Yes, using reviews drawn from more than 150 publications, over the next two weeks we’ll be calculating and revealing the most critically-acclaimed books of 2022, in the categories of (deep breath): Fiction ; Nonfiction ; Memoir and Biography ; Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror ; Short Story Collections ; Essay Collections; Poetry; Mystery and Crime; Graphic Literature ; and Literature in Translation .

Today’s installment: Mystery and Crime .

Brought to you by Book Marks , Lit Hub’s “Rotten Tomatoes for books.”

1. Paradais by Fernanda Melchor, trans. by Sophie Hughes (New Directions)

18 Rave • 6 Positive

“ Paradais is both more compact and more cogent [than Hurricane Season ]. Rhythm and lexis work in tandem to produce a savage lyricism. The translator Sophie Hughes marvellously matches the author in her pursuit of a new cadence … From its first sentence, in fact, Paradais feels rhythmically propelled towards a violent climax. Full stops occur rarely enough to seem meaningful, Melchor using long lines of unbroken narrative to reel in her terrible ending … The author wants to understand the violence, not merely condemn it … The novel’s language, meanwhile, is both high-flown and street-smart, strewn with Veracruzian slang, the odd made-up word and many eye-watering expletives … Pressure builds remorselessly to a dreadful climax. It is an extraordinary feat of control, making Fernanda Melchor’s exceptional novel into a contemporary masterpiece.”

–Miranda France ( Times Literary Supplement )

2. Devil House by John Darnielle (MCD)

14 Rave • 8 Positive • 2 Mixed Listen to a conversation with John Darnielle here

“… terrific: confident, creepy, a powerful and soulful page-turner. I had no idea where it was going, in the best possible sense … The thing about Darnielle’s writing, in all its forms, is this: If you’re that dorky outcast kid drawing a pentagram on the back page of your three-ring binder in algebra class, not because you want to drink anyone’s blood but because you think it’s cool, he sees you. His novels are in close contact with the alternative cultural universes of fantasy and the occult and science fiction, yet they don’t resemble genre fiction. They’re earthy and fly low to the ground. They are plain-spoken and in no hurry … Devil House …[is] never quite the book you think it is. It’s better.”

–Dwight Garner ( The New York Times )

3. Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris (Harper)

14 Rave • 5 Positive

“Gripping … A belter of a thriller. It will be compulsive reading for those who loved An Officer and a Spy , Harris’s book about the Dreyfus affair. Like that novel, the research is immaculate. A chewy, morally murky slice of history is made into a tale that twists and surprises. The characters are strong and we care about their predicament. The story stretches over continents and years, but the suspense feels as taut as if the three main characters were locked in a room with a gun.”

–Antonia Senior ( AirMail )

4. City on Fire by Don Winslow (William Morrow)

14 Rave • 4 Positive Read an interview with Don Winslow here

“Winslow…brings his sharp interpretive skills to Virgil’s Aeneid, and makes the events at Troy and the founding of Rome into a riveting gangster tale. He makes me wonder why I had never before seen the Trojan War as the obvious fight between rival criminal gangs … In City of Fire, he returns to his New England roots for this new classic he says took him decades to write … Winslow is a master of pacing. Action and erotic sequences fire the adrenaline, while tender scenes feel languid and warm. He shades the relationship between men and women in noir tones. Tough guys don’t always get their way. Noir women are wicked smart, and press their advantages against how men’s low assumptions of women make them weak … Winslow has been lauded for the ways that his previous crime novels confront social issues. He has interrogated the ways that borders work between us, that we’re weak at the border when we build insurmountable walls to shore them up. One that runs under the surface of Winslow’s novel is that it’s not just the faults of individuals that cause these men to fail. But here, rigid definitions of who gets to belong in ‘our thing’ create fatal weaknesses among them. The refusal to think outside their constricted notions of masculinity and honor hobbles them.”

–Lorraine Berry ( The Boston Globe )

5. Bad Actors by Mick Herron (Soho Crime)

9 Rave • 4 Positive Listen to an excerpt from Bad Actors here

“Herron’s plots are masterpieces of convolution and elegant wrong-footing. Beyond that, his action scenes are fast-paced and thrilling—there are a couple of high-octane doozies in this installment. But the real draw of the series is its dark, dark humor. Much of it is interpersonal, but the most biting of all concerns the state of Britain, a country beset by Brexit, COVID and incompetent, if mercenary, leadership … If there is bad news, it is that you really should have read some of the previous Slough House novels in order to get a handle on this party of rejects, their histories and capabilities. Further, if you are a veteran of the series, you may have become a little weary of Jackson Lamb’s extravagant foulness and his habit of magicking cigarettes and even himself out of nowhere. That said, this is still one of the most enjoyable series I have ever read.”

–Katherine A. Powers ( The Star Tribune )

6. The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman (Pamela Dorman Books)

9 Rave • 5 Positive • 1 Pan

“Osman concocts a satisfyingly complex whodunit full of neat twists and wrong turns. But unlike most crime novelists, he ensures his book’s strength and momentum stem not from its plot or its thrills but rather its perfectly formed characters. Once again, the quartet of friends makes for delightful company … If there is fault to be found it is a recurring one throughout the series—namely that Osman’s two men have less to do than his two women, and as a result feel like extras around the main double-act. But what a double-act … What could have been twee and uninvolving is in fact heartwarming and enthralling. ‘They carried a kind of magic, the four of them,’ a policeman muses. That magic is still there in abundance.”

–Malcolm Forbes ( The Washington Post )

7. Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan (Pegasus)

9 Rave • 2 Positive • 1 Mixed • 1 Pan

“. deliciously weird … Fagan once again examines the way people are affected by unhealthy spaces … she writes about placement and displacement with an arresting mix of insight and passion … Fagan tests each floor of No. 10 Luckenbooth as though she’s playing a literary version of Jenga, drawing out one block after another from this unstable structure … a muffled scream—with a feral melody and a thundering bass line. Her prose has never been more cinematic. This story’s inexorable acceleration and its crafty use of suggestion and elision demonstrate the special effects that the best writers can brew up without a single line of Hollywood software—just paper, ink and ghosts.”

–Ron Charles ( The Washington Post )

8. The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont (St. Martin’s Press)

7 Rave • 2 Positive • 3 Mixed

“An ingenious new psychological suspense novel that concocts an elaborate backstory behind Christie’s disappearance … Here’s the neatest narrative trick of all: As Christie characteristically did, de Gramont hides the solution to the mystery of The Christie Affair in plain sight … The Christie Affair is richly imagined; inventive and, occasionally, poignant; and about as true-to-life as Christie’s own tales of quaint villages with their staggering murder rates. But when fabrications are this marvelous, why demand realism?”

–Maureen Corrigan ( The Washington Post )

9. Heat 2 by Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner (William Morrow)

7 Rave • 2 Positive • 2 Mixed

“It’s a pulpy, expansive crime novel that feels of a piece with Mann’s filmography, from its hypercompetent, ambitious characters to the richly detailed underworlds they operate in … At times, Mann and Gardiner use the prequel portion of the book to directly explain the origins of iconic moments from the film, but even those instances tend to feel motivated by the story rather than like cheap ploys to get readers to do the Leo pointing meme … part of the fun of Heat 2 lies in watching its authors pull ideas and tiny details from across Mann’s entire filmography … Heat 2 , though, paints complete enough portraits of its characters to allow you to imagine them separately from the stars who played them, making a film adaptation with new actors easier to imagine.”

–Chris Stanton ( Vulture )

10. An Honest Living by Dwyer Murphy (Viking)

6 Rave • 3 Positive • 2 Mixed Listen to an interview with Dwyer Murphy here

“Like the best noir practitioners, Murphy uses the mystery as scaffolding to assemble a world of fallen dreams and doom-bitten characters … Murphy’s hard-boiled rendering of the city is nothing short of exquisite. It’s a landscape of reeking garbage, of salty rain sweeping off the ocean, of Midtown towers that look ‘ghostly like a mountain range,’ … For anyone who wants a portrait of this New York, few recent books have conjured it so vividly. For those who demand a straightforward mystery without any humor, romance and ambience, well, forget it, Jake, it’s literature.”

–Christopher Bollen ( The New York Times Book Review )

Our System:

RAVE = 5 points • POSITIVE = 3 points • MIXED = 1 point • PAN = -5 points

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What a great list! It’s really hard to keep up with so many good books to read :)

haha I KNOW!! I can never seem to get ahead of my TBR, but ahh well. there are worse problems to have!

I do love a good mystery. I’m going to try to get my hands on a copy of Findlay Donovan is Killing it. It sounds like fun. Thanks for the heads up on these.

Included on this 2021 list should be Debbie Babitt’s debut novel Saving Grace. This book of psychological suspense has received 5 star praise from several NYT best selling authors and was named by shereads as one of the most anticipated thrillers of 2021. Pub date March 16, 2021 by Scarlet books.

Thumbs up to this list, has me looking forward to 2021! I think I am most excited for The Lost Village by Camilla Sten or The Burning Girls by CJ Tudor. I like a lot of Tudor’s works but was quite disappointed by her most recent release, The Other People and am eager to see if this new release has the same spice and intrigue as The Taking of Annie Thorne. Yikes, love me some mysteries!

This is an amazing list! I am glad I found this post, really looking forward to reading Paula Hawkin’s ‘A Slow Fire Burning’.

thanks! I’m looking forward to reading that book, too! :)

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5 mysteries to read this summer -- and their authors reveal their reading lists

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Dying to Know

Mystery Writers Answer Burning Questions

If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org , whose fees support independent bookstores.

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What was your thought process in writing the novel’s prologue, which introduced the novel’s theme so beautifully?

Oh my goodness, I don’t think I had a “thought process” — it was more of a “heart process.” I knew how each of the characters described was haunted by their very different experience of war, and my heart went out to them. I had to get inside their pain to introduce the themes I wanted to explore in “The Comfort of Ghosts,” and in doing that I was preparing the ground for what would come next.

Speaking of which, what’s next for you?

I’m always a bit cagey when I’m asked that question, but here are a few hints. I’m going to Berlin in October — a research trip. And I want to break out of my lane a bit more and tackle a couple of longer-form nonfiction projects I have in mind. Next year, I’m joining an expedition of scientists, artists and other creatives to witness climate change in the high Arctic Circle. I know I will return bursting with ideas! Finally, I’ve been wanting to write a more lighthearted series, focusing on a protagonist who is almost the opposite of Maisie Dobbs — in fact, I’ve already started with a character who had a walk-on part in one of the series’ novels!

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Talk about the thinking behind the novel’s evocative first chapter, which deftly encapsulates Easy’s past, present and future.

More and more, I like to come at my fiction from an oblique angle so I can get into the world of the story and its moods without being too heavy handed. In “Farewell, Amethystine,” I wanted to show characters that readers have known for a while [including Easy] existing in the trendsetting 1970s, when the rules are loosening and relationships are therefore realigning. Mouse [Raymond Alexander] is becoming some kind of intellectual but he’s just as deadly as he’s always been — maybe even more so. Easy is comfortable in his 50th year, but for a man like him, this is just the calm before the storm.

What’s on your summer reading list?

I’ve been rereading some golden oldies most recently: “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” “The Three Pillars of Zen” and I’m making my way through “The Complete Sherlock Holmes.”

The Night of Baba Yaga By Akira Otani. Translated by Sam Bett Soho Crime: 216 pages, $28 Out July 2

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Otani’s responses were translated from Japanese by Bett.

Your novel, as translated by Sam Bett, has a leanness in its language and imagery that is reminiscent of a great manga or a movie script. How has your background influenced your writing?

Writing for video games is how I started my career, but I’d been writing fiction as an amateur for quite some time. If my work comes across as lean, I suppose that it’s because I’m in a hurry. My job is to grab readers by the scruff of the neck and pull them into the story.

Can you share why the myth of the Baba Yaga was so important in the novel? Beyond the myth, was there other fiction or films that influenced you?

For a while now, I’ve been interested in Baba Yaga as an example of this female trickster that pops up in folklore and mythology. She’s a free spirit. Who knows what she’ll do next? Even in folklore, this kind of woman is a rarity. Throughout the novel, the myth of Baba Yaga offers hints at Shindo’s roots, something the story never specifies. While writing the book, I drew the greatest inspiration from John Wagner’s graphic novel “A History of Violence.”

Hall of Mirrors By John Copenhaver Pegasus Crime: 336 pages, $28 Out now

Roger Raymond, a recent casualty of the anti-gay Lavender Scare of the 1950s, dies in a suspicious apartment fire. Lionel Kane, Raymond’s Black roommate, secret lover and collaborator on a popular mystery series penned under the name Ray Kane, is bereft and suspicious about the circumstances of the fire, even questioning whether the corpse is really Roger’s. Comforting Lionel are new friends Philippa Watson and Judy Nightingale, a closeted couple who met Roger at a book signing and had previously reached out to Ray Kane regarding a series of unsolved murders linked to a notorious spy. While not essential to unraveling the mystery of Roger’s death or the intrigue that unfolds, readers of the first mystery featuring Philippa and Judy, “The Savage Kind,” will be thankful that Copenhaver wasn’t finished with their tempestuous love story or their sleuthing inclinations. Set in 1954, “Hall of Mirrors” is a stunner and something rare for a historical mystery. Copenhaver has alchemized the intimacies and pain of midcentury queer characters into something more universal and timeless, reflecting back to us the closets in which marginalized people have been forced to live, and their righteous struggles to break free.

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Speaking at a book signing, Roger Raymond says of crime fiction: “The story, at first glance, might be about a legal transgression — the breaking of law — but any crime novelist worth his salt should be writing about morals, not laws.” Why include that line in the novel?

The story of marginalized people — queer people and people of color — is the story of not just cultural marginalization but legal and political oppression. The popular phrase “Be gay, do crime” is a reminder that being openly yourself during specific historical periods, especially in the 1950s, was a criminal act. (Decriminalization of same-sex activity on the state level didn’t begin until 1962.) That’s a paradox crime fiction has a unique opportunity to explore by posing questions through storytelling about the contrast between written law and ethical justice.

You recommended another queer crime novel reviewed here. Why is “The Night of Baba Yaga” on your summer reading list?

Although new mysteries by Robyn Gigl and Wanda Morris are also on my list, I loved this novel’s propulsive energy, its grit and especially the tenderness of the queer love story at its heart. I teach undergrads at Virginia Commonwealth University, and I want them to discover the joy of reading mysteries and thrillers. Otani’s book is a great “gateway drug” to the world of crime fiction!

Highway Thirteen By Fiona McFarlane FSG: 272 pages, $27 Out Aug. 13

For too long a subset of thrillers have glorified the serial killer — his (for it was often a man) diabolical techniques, tragic family history and the twisted workings of his minds. The serial killer’s victims, often young women, are reduced to plot points whose purpose is to advance the story or — as I’ve thought in my more cynical moments — amass the largest audience, and revenues, possible. Luckily that’s changed as literary and film criticism have challenged both the serial killer and the dead girl tropes . New fiction that advances that conversation is “Highway Thirteen,” Fiona McFarlane’s smart, deeply moving collection of interconnected stories that ping-pong across three generations and a continent to examine a serial killer’s impact on a small Australian community. Readers may be tempted to hazard an opinion of who and what the killer is from the perspectives his ancestors, neighbors, the media, groupies, even the tangentially involved, offer, but in the end it is their stories — of loss, obsession and brokenness — that linger.

It’s hard not to read a book on Bruce Willis’ legacy as a valediction of sorts, though it’s also a celebration

There’s something very sad about referring to Bruce Willis in the past tense, or the arrival of a book that serves as a career retrospective.

June 11, 2024

You’ve lived in Australia and now in the San Francisco Bay Area. Knowing both cultures, would you say Australians are as obsessed with serial killers as we are in the U.S.?

Yes, Australians share the U.S.’ fascination with serial crime, and there are also some similarities in the crime themselves. For example, Australia and the U.S. are both enormous countries full of highways and lonely roads, and many of Australia’s most infamous serial killers have operated along highways.

William Roughead’s 19th century true crime stories, anthologized by New York Review Books Classics in “Classic Crimes,” and “Liliana’s Invincible Summer” by Cristina Rivera Garza.

More to Read

10 books to add to your reading list in June

June 1, 2024

Opinion: The ideal beach read? It’s not what you’d expect

May 27, 2024

10 books to add to your reading list in May

May 1, 2024

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• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/need-a-summer-read-here-are-17-books-from-our-experts

Need a summer read? Here are 17 books from our experts

If you’re lucky enough to have a quiet place to retreat from the heat this summer, we’ve got a symphony of suggestions for novels and nonfiction to keep you entertained.

WATCH: Amy Tan turns her literary gaze on the world of birds in ‘The Backyard Bird Chronicles’

Ann Patchett, acclaimed writer and owner of Parnassus Books in Nashville, and Gilbert Cruz, editor of The New York Times Book Review, recently joined PBS News Hour’s Jeffrey Brown to share their picks for summer reading.

”Sandwich” by Katherine Newman

“If you want a book that has you from ‘hello,’ this is the one. Family goes to the Cape every summer for two weeks. They have kids in their 20s, they have elderly parents and they eat sandwiches, they are very near Sandwich and they are the sandwich generation.” – Ann Patchett

“Sipsworth” by Simon Van Booy

“This is an elderly woman who’s very isolated. She meets a mouse, and the mouse brings all of these wonderful people into her life. It sounds hokey. It’s not.” – Ann Patchett

“Bear” by Julia Phillips

“Two young sisters working so hard in a very tough existence on an island off the coast of Washington. It all changes when a bear comes to their neighborhood and it drives the sisters apart.” – Ann Patchett

WATCH: How Raina Telgemeier’s graphic novels teach kids it’s OK to have ‘big feelings’

”Crook Manifesto” by Colson Whitehead

“If you want some mystery, some cops and robbers, some corruption, some great writing.” – Ann Patchett

“Swan Song” by Elin Hilderbrand

“I’ve only been to Nantucket for two hours on, like, the coldest day that I can recall, so I have no idea what it’s like to be there in the summer. But I sort of do, because I’ve read a dozen Elin Hilderbrand books.” – Gilbert Cruz

“Horror Movie” by Paul Tremblay

“This is about, essentially, an independent horror movie that was made years and years ago. A bunch of tragedies happened. It’s become a cult film. And the only person left from the production has started to encounter some weird things.” – Gilbert Cruz

“The Bright Sword” by Lev Grossman

“There have been many retellings of the King Arthur legend – books, movies, musicals. This one is sort of a sequel.” – Gilbert Cruz

“There’s Always This Year” by Hanif Abdurraqib

“This is a collection of essays about family and love and grief and fathers. But most importantly, it’s all woven together through the lens of basketball.” – Ann Patchett

“My Black Country” by Alice Randall

“Alice is a fiction writer and a scholar, but she is also the only Black woman to have written a No. 1 country song. This is a story of all the people who have been erased in country music’s past, and she is restoring them into the landscape.” – Ann Patchett

WATCH: Beyoncé brings new audience to country music and highlights the genre’s Black roots

”Consent” by Jill Ciment

“Jill Ciment was 16 years old when she first kissed her art teacher, who was 46. They got married and they stayed together until he died at 86. And it is her looking back on her life and thinking, ‘It was a happy marriage, but knowing what I know now, maybe there was something a little wrong about that?’”

And a bonus…

“Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma” by Claire Dederer

“…a great book that just came out in paperback that could be read as a companion piece.” – Ann Patchett

”The Future Was Now” by Chris Nashawaty

“The summer of 1982 – if you care about science fiction, fantasy, stuff like that – was one of the biggest summers of all time. So it had “E.T.”, “Poltergeist,” “Blade Runner,” “Tron,” a “Mad Max” sequel, a “Star Trek” sequel. And this is essentially a history of that summer, a history of those movies.” – Gilbert Cruz

“Cue The Sun! The Invention of Reality TV” by Emily Nussbaum

“Emily Nussbaum does an amazing job of sort of sketching that whole history and what they’re billing as sort of the first comprehensive history of this very important genre.” – Gilbert Cruz

And a few for the youngest readers…

• “The Old Boat” by Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey (board book)
• “The Old Truck” by Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey (board book)
• “Ahoy” by Sophie Blackall
• “Ferris” by Kate DiCamillo

In his more than 30-year career with the News Hour, Brown has served as co-anchor, studio moderator, and field reporter on a wide range of national and international issues, with work taking him around the country and to many parts of the globe. As arts correspondent he has profiled many of the world's leading writers, musicians, actors and other artists. Among his signature works at the News Hour: a multi-year series, “Culture at Risk,” about threatened cultural heritage in the United States and abroad; the creation of the NewsHour’s online “Art Beat”; and hosting the monthly book club, “Now Read This,” a collaboration with The New York Times.

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