Good Crime Mystery Novels?
The expectations are high when you pick up a crime mystery. You want to be excited, lost and finding clues that lead you down the wrong path that seems like the only way. To then have the plot turn upside down through the puzzle.
That’s part of the fun!
These reads won’t disappoint your hunger for the crime mystery genre.
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Table of Contents
Here Are 13 Crime Mystery Books:
1 And Then There Were None By Agatha Christie
£0.99 Kindle Edition, £0 Audiobook, £7.05 Paperback (click the image for an up-close look on amazon)
First, there were ten—a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a little private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unknown to all of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they’re unwilling to reveal—and a secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder. A famous nursery rhyme is framed and hung in every room of the mansion:
“Ten little boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine. Nine little boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight. Eight little boys traveling in Devon; One said he’d stay there then there were seven. Seven little boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in half and then there were six. Six little boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five. Five little boys going in for law; One got in Chancery and then there were four. Four little boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three. Three little boys walking in the zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two. Two little boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was one. One little boy left all alone; He went out and hanged himself and then there were none.”
When they realize that murders are occurring as described in the rhyme, terror mounts. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, there will be none. Who has choreographed this dastardly scheme? And who will be left to tell the tale? Only the dead are above suspicion.
2 The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
£0.99 Kindle Edition, £0 Audiobook, £7.05 Paperback (click the image for an up-close look on amazon)
Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid….He is the hero; he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man.
This is the Code of the Private Eye as defined by Raymond Chandler in his 1944 essay ‘The Simple Act of Murder.’ Such a man was Philip Marlowe, private eye, an educated, heroic, streetwise, rugged individualist and the hero of Chandler’s first novel, The Big Sleep. This work established Chandler as the master of the ‘hard-boiled’ detective novel, and his articulate and literary style of writing won him a large audience, which ranged from the man in the street to the most sophisticated intellectual.
3 The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain
£4.99 Kindle Edition, £0 Audiobook, £6.37 Paperback (click the image for an up-close look on amazon)
Cain’s first novel – the subject of an obscenity trial in Boston and the inspiration for Camus’s The Stranger – is the fever-pitched tale of a drifter who stumbles into a job, into an erotic obsession, and into a murder
4 The Darkest Evening By Ann Cleeves
£4.99 Kindle Edition, £0 Audiobook, £4.99 Paperback (click the image for an up-close look on amazon)
DCI Vera Stanhope returns in The Darkest Evening, the ninth novel in Sunday Times best seller Ann Cleeves’ enduringly popular series.
Driving home during a swirling blizzard, Vera Stanhope’s only thought is to get there quickly.
But the snow is so heavy that she becomes disorientated and loses her way. Ploughing on, she sees a car slewed off the road ahead of her. With the driver’s door open, Vera assumes the driver has sought shelter, but when she inspects the car she is shocked to find a young toddler strapped in the back seat.
Afraid they will freeze, Vera takes the child and drives on, arriving at Brockburn, a run-down stately home she immediately recognises as the house her father, Hector, grew up in.
Inside Brockburn a party is in full swing, with music and laughter to herald the coming Christmas. But outside in the snow, a young woman lies dead, and Vera knows immediately she has a new case. Could this woman be the child’s mother, and if so, what happened to her?
5 The Hiding Place By Jenny Quintana
£0.99 Kindle Edition, £0 Audiobook, £7.37 Paperback (click the image for an up-close look on amazon)
Some houses have their secrets. But so do some people . . .
From the bestselling author of The Missing Girl and Our Dark Secret, comes The Hiding Place: a story about identity, love, long-buried secrets and lies.
Abandoned as a baby in the hallway of a shared house in London, Marina has never known her parents, and the circumstances of her birth still remain a mystery.
Now an adult, Marina has returned to the house where it all started, determined to find out who she really is. But the walls of this house hold more than memories, and Marina’s reappearance hasn’t gone unnoticed by the other tenants.
Someone is watching Marina. Someone who knows the truth . . .
6 The Sicilian Method By Andrea Camilleri
£0.99 Kindle Edition, £0 Audiobook, £7.37 Paperback (click the image for an up-close look on amazon)
In the new novel in the transporting New York Times bestselling Inspector Montalbano mystery series, Montalbano finds his answers to a murder in a theatrical play.
Mimi Augello is visiting his lover when the woman’s husband unexpectedly returns to the apartment; he climbs out the window and into the downstairs apartment, but one danger leads to another. In the dark he sees a body lying on the bed. Shortly after, another body is found, and the victim is Carmelo Catalanotti, a director of bourgeois dramas with a harsh reputation for the acting method he developed for his actors.
Are the two deaths connected? Catalanotti scrupulously kept notes and comments on all the actors he worked with, as well as strange notebooks full of figures and dates and names. Inspector Montalbano finds all of Catalanotti’s dossiers and plays, the notes on the characters, and the notes on his last drama, Dangerous Turn–the theatre is where he’ll find the answer.
7 Hidden in Plain Sight By Jeffrey Archer
£4.99 Kindle Edition, £0 Audiobook, £6.29 Paperback (click the image for an up-close look on amazon)
William Warwick has been promoted to Detective Sergeant, but his promotion means that he, along with the rest of his team, have been reassigned to the Drugs Squad. They are immediately tasked with apprehending Khalil Rashidi, a notorious drug dealer, who operates his extensive network out of South London.
As the investigation progresses, William runs into enemies old and new: Adrian Heath, from his school days, now a street dealer who he convinces to turn informer; and financier Miles Faulkner, who makes a mistake that could finally see him put behind bars. Meanwhile, William and his fiancée Beth enjoy making preparations for their upcoming wedding, though an unpleasant surprise awaits them at the altar.
As William’s team closes the net around a criminal network like none they have ever faced before, he devises a trap they would never expect, one that is hidden in plain sight . . .
8 The Secret Life of Mr Roos By Håkan Nesser
£9.99 Kindle Edition, £0 Audiobook, £8.19 Paperback (click the image for an up-close look on amazon)
A secluded hut in the middle of the woods. A double life that could be his downfall. The Secret Life of Mr Roos is the third Inspector Barbarotti novel from the ‘Godfather of Swedish crime’ (Metro), Håkan Nesser.
At 59 years old, Valdemar Roos is tired of life. Working a job he hates, with a wife he barely talks to and two step-daughters he doesn’t get on with, he doesn’t have a lot to look forward to. Then, one day, a winning lottery ticket gives him an opportunity to start afresh.
Without telling a soul, he quits his job and buys a hut in the remote Swedish countryside. Every day he travels down to this man-made oasis, returning each evening to his unsuspecting wife. Life couldn’t be better, until a young woman arrives in paradise.
Anna Gambowska is a 21-year-old recovering drug addict. On the run from the rehab centre she hated and an abusive relationship she can’t go back to, all Anna’s prayers are answered when she comes across a seemingly vacant hut in the Swedish woodland. But it’s not long before Anna’s ex discovers her location and an incident occurs that will mar the lives of both Anna and Valdemar forever.
Inspector Barbarotti doesn’t take much interest when a woman reports her husband as missing. That is, until a dead body is found near the missing man’s newly bought hut, and Mr Roos becomes the number one murder suspect….
The Secret Life of Mr Roos is the third novel in Håkan Nesser’s Inspector Barbarotti quintet.
9 Find Them Dead By Peter James
£4.99 Kindle Edition, £0 Audiobook, £4.99 Paperback (click the image for an up-close look on amazon)
Roy Grace, creation of the award-winning Author Peter James, unearths a powerful criminal network in Find Them Dead.
Ending his secondment to London’s Met Police, Roy Grace gets a tip-off about a county lines drugs mastermind operating out of Brighton. On his first day back in his old job in Sussex, he is called to a seemingly senseless murder.
Separately, Meg Magellan finally has her life back together, five years after the car crash that killed her husband and their son. Her daughter, Laura, now eighteen, is on her gap year travelling in South America with a friend, and Meg misses her badly. Laura is all she has in the world.
In between jobs, Meg receives a summons for jury service. She’s excited – it might be interesting and will help distract her from constantly worrying about Laura. But when she is selected for the trial of a major Brighton drugs overlord, everything changes.
Gradually, Grace’s investigation draws him increasingly into the sinister sphere of influence of the drug dealer on trial. A man utterly ruthless and evil, prepared to order the death of anyone it takes to enable him to walk free.
Just a few days into jury service, Meg arrives home to find a photograph of Laura, in Ecuador, lying on her kitchen table. Then her phone rings.
A sinister, threatening stranger is on the line. He tells her that if she ever wants to see Laura alive again, it is very simple. At the end of the trial, all she has to do is make sure the jury says just two words…. Not guilty.
10 One Good Deed By David Baldacci
£4.99 Kindle Edition, £0 Audiobook, £4.50 Paperback (click the image for an up-close look on amazon)
The #1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci introduces an unforgettable new character: Archer, a straight-talking former World War II soldier fresh out of prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
It’s 1949. When war veteran Aloysius Archer is released from Carderock Prison, he is sent to Poca City on parole with a short list of do’s and a much longer list of don’ts: do report regularly to his parole officer, don’t go to bars, certainly don’t drink alcohol, do get a job–and don’t ever associate with loose women.
The small town quickly proves more complicated and dangerous than Archer’s years serving in the war or his time in jail. Within a single night, his search for gainful employment–and a stiff drink–leads him to a local bar, where he is hired for what seems like a simple job: to collect a debt owed to a powerful local businessman, Hank Pittleman.
Soon Archer discovers that recovering the debt won’t be so easy. The indebted man has a furious grudge against Hank and refuses to pay; Hank’s clever mistress has her own designs on Archer; and both Hank and Archer’s stern parole officer, Miss Crabtree, are keeping a sharp eye on him.
When a murder takes place right under Archer’s nose, police suspicions rise against the ex-convict, and Archer realizes that the crime could send him right back to prison . . . if he doesn’t use every skill in his arsenal to track down the real killer.
11 Woman in White By Wilkie Collins
£0.49 Kindle Edition, £0 Audiobook, £2.50 Paperback (click the image for an up-close look on amazon)
The Woman in White, considered one of the first mystery novels and is the best known work of English novelist Wilkie Collins.
Late one night, a drawing teacher meets a mysterious woman dressed in white. Who is she, and what is her connection to the teacher’s new pupil, a beautiful heiress?
Serialized in 1859 – 1860, and first published in book form in 1860 it is still regarded still as one of the best plots in English literature. Told from multiple perspectives, the story is brought to life by its marvellous villains and complex, spirited and believable female characters.
William Wilkie Collins (1824 – 1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories.
12 Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver
£7.83 Kindle Edition, £0 Audiobook, £27.95 Paperback (click the image for an up-close look on amazon)
First published by St. Martin’s in 1958, Robert Traver’s Anatomy of a Murder immediately became the number-one bestseller in America, and was subsequently turned into the successful and now classic Otto Preminger film. It is not only the most popular courtroom drama in American fiction, but one of the most popular novels of our time.
A gripping tale of deceit, murder, and a sensational trial, Anatomy of a Murder is unmatched in the authenticity of its settings, events, and characters. This new edition should delight both loyal fans of the past and an entire new generation of readers.
13 The Da Vinci Code By Dan Brown
£6.99 Kindle Edition, £0 Audiobook, £7.99 Paperback (click the image for an up-close look on amazon)
Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code is a hugely successful novel currently being translated into forty different languages and earning Brown many millions of dollars. It is a book that captivates its readers’ attention and leads them on a thrilling story of history, murder, intrigue and religion.
Many have found that the way the story hangs together speaks to them in a new way and has changed how they think about Christianity. Television programmes have been aired with people speaking passionately for, and against, the central themes of the book.
Prior to his appointment as the Director of the John Owen Centre at London Theological Seminary, Garry Williams taught Church History and Doctrine at Oak Hill Theological College in London, England. Here he answers seven of the key claims raised by Dan Brown’s book and points you towards a story even more intriguing – and more firmly based on fact.
14 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo By Stieg Larsson
£4.99 Kindle Edition, £0 Audiobook, £6.49 Paperback (click the image for an up-close look on amazon)
Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pierced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.
An international publishing sensation, Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.
15 The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
£3 Kindle Edition, £0 Audiobook, £6.99 Paperback (click the image for an up-close look on amazon)
‘Truth is the Daughter of Time’ is an old proverb. And The Daughter of Time is Josephine Tey’s search for the truth about the murder of the Princes in the Tower. Was the hunchback, Richard III, the monster that Shakespeare and the history books have made him out to be? With real brilliance she conducts her search in the form of a crime novel, and her investigator is none other than her famous detective, Inspector Alan Grant, who starts to examine the centuries-old scandal.
What have you read from this list and what are you excited to read? Let me know. Until then.