Best Mystery Books
Gripping whodunits, detective stories, and puzzling cases that keep you guessing until the last page.
Top Mystery Books
Xmurder on the Orient Express
by Agatha Christie
***While en route from Syria to Paris, in the middle of a freezing winter's night, the Orient Express is stopped dead in its tracks by a snowdrift.*** Passengers awake to find the train still stranded and to discover that a wealthy American has been brutally stabbed to death in his private compartment. Incredibly, that compartment is locked from the inside. With no escape into the wintery landscape the killer must still be on board. ***Fortunately, the brilliant Belgian inspector Hercule Poirot is also on board, having booked the last available berth.*** ***Murder on the Orient Express is one of Agatha Christie’s most famous novels***, owing no doubt to a combination of its romantic setting and the ingeniousness of its plot; its non-exploitative reference to the sensational kidnapping and murder of the infant son of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh only two years prior; and a popular ***1974 film adaptation, starring Albert Finney as Poirot - one of the few cinematic versions of a Christie work that met with the approval, however mild, of the author herself.***
The Name of the Rose
by Umberto Eco
The year is 1327. Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate.When his delicate mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William turns detective. He collects evidence, deciphers secret symbols and coded manuscripts, and digs into the eerie labyrinth of the abbey where extraordinary things are happening under the over of night. A spectacular popular and critical success, <i>The Name of the Rose</i> is not only a narrative of a murder investigation but an astonishing chronicle of the Middle Ages.
The Body Farm
by Patricia Daniels Cornwell
Kriminalroman.
The Last House on Needless Street
by Catriona Ward
In a boarded-up house on a dead-end street at the edge of the wild Washington woods lives a family of three. A teenage girl who isn’t allowed outside, not after last time. A man who drinks alone in front of his TV, trying to ignore the gaps in his memory. And a house cat who loves napping and reading the Bible. An unspeakable secret binds them together, but when a new neighbor moves in next door, what is buried out among the birch trees may come back to haunt them all.
The Snowman
by Jo Nesbø
Beware the falling snows... The first snowfall in Oslo brings a series of gruesome murders, and Harry Hole is pitted against a brutal killer who will drive him to the edge.The night the first snow falls a young boy wakes to find his mother gone. He walks through the silent house, but finds only wet footprints on the stairs. In the garden looms a solitary figure: a snowman bathed in cold moonlight, its black eyes glaring up at the bedroom windows. Round its neck is his mother's pink scarf.Inspector Harry Hole is convinced there is a link between the disappearance and a menacing letter he received some months earlier. As Harry and his team delve into unsolved case files, they discover that an alarming number of wives and mothers have gone missing over the years. When a second woman disappears Harry's suspicions are confirmed: he is a pawn in a deadly game. For the first time in his career Harry finds himself confronted with a serial killer operating on his turf, a killer who will drive him to the brink of insanity. A brilliant thriller with a pace that never lets up, The Snowman confirms Jo Nesbo's position as an international star of crime fiction.
The Secret of the Old Clock
by Carolyn Keene
Nancy Drew's keen mind is tested when she searches for a missing will.
The Perfect Marriage
by Jeneva Rose
Sarah Morgan is one of the best criminal defense attorneys in Washington, DC. With a perfect case record and having made named partner before the age of thirty-five, her life is going exactly as she planned. However, the same cannot be said for her husband, Adam, a failed author, who's grown to resent his wife's meteoric success as he feels it's come at the expense of their relationship. For almost two years, Adam has kept his affair with Kelly Summers a secret, but everything changes when her body is discovered at the couple's lake house and Adam is arrested on suspicion of murder. Sarah now finds herself facing her most challenging case yet when she vows to defend her husband--a man accused of murdering his mistress. While Adam is certainly guilty of sleeping with Kelly, the question remains: Is he guilty of killing her too?
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
by Agatha Christie
Set in the summer of 1917 in an Essex country estate, the story follows the war-wounded Captain Arthur Hastings to the Styles St. Mary manor of his friend John Cavendish. The Cavendish household is wrought with tension due to the marriage of John's widowed old aunt Emily, she of a sizeable fortune, to a suspicious younger man, Alfred Inglethorp, twenty years her junior. Emily's two stepsons, John and Lawrence Cavendish, as well as John's wife Mary and several other people, also live at Styles. Late one night, the residents of Styles wake to find Emily Inglethorp dying. When Emily's sudden heart attack is found to be attributable to strychnine, Hastings, who had runs into his old friend, the Belgian Hercule Poirot, he recruits him to aid in the local investigation. With impeccable timing, Hercule Poirot, the insightful retired detective, makes his dramatic entrance to solve a most baffling case. Who poisoned the wealthy Emily Inglethorpe, and how did the murderer penetrate and escape from her locked bedroom? Suspects abound in the quaint village of Styles St. Mary--from the heiress's fawning new husband to her two stepsons, her volatile housekeeper, and a pretty nurse who works in a hospital dispensary. On the day she was killed, Emily Inglethorp was overheard arguing with someone, most likely her husband, Alfred, or her stepson, John. Afterwards, she seemed quite distressed and, apparently, made a new will--which no one can find. Nobody can explain how or when the strychnine was administered to Mrs. Inglethorp. High on Poirot's list of suspects are: John Cavendish, the elder stepson; Mary Cavendish, his wife; Lawrence Cavendish, the younger stepson; Evelyn Howard, Mrs. Inglethorpe's companion; Cynthia Murdoch, her protegee; and Dr. Bauerstein, a mysterious stranger who lives in Essex. All have motive and opportunity but only Poirot can discover the truth.
The Auction (Deluxe Limited Edition) A Novel
by Sadie Kincaid
The Auction (Deluxe Limited Edition) by Sadie Kincaid will be available Apr 14, 2026. Preorder your copy today!
The Ending Writes Itself A Novel
by Evelyn Clarke
<p>A PROPULSIVE DEBUT MYSTERY FROM EVELYN CLARKE, THE BRILLIANT AND DIABOLICAL CREATION OF CAT CLARKE AND V.E. SCHWAB</p> <p>Six authors.</p> <p>One private island.</p> <p>Seventy-two hours to write the ending that will change their lives.</p> <p>"Smart, original and completely addictive. . . . The Ending Writes Itself is both a great locked-room thriller and a brilliant satire on the publishing industry. An absolute must-read."--Karin Slaughter</p> <p>Arthur Fletch, one of the world's bestselling novelists, is a reclusive genius known for his iconic protagonists and fiendish twists. When six struggling authors are invited to spend a weekend on his private Scottish island, they arrive to discover a shocking secret: Arthur Fletch is dead . . . and his last book is unfinished.</p> <p>Desperate to publish the novel, Fletch's agent and editor have summoned these writers in the hope that one of them will imagine a worthy ending for this final book. To sweeten the deal, they are offering an irresistible prize: in addition to ghost-writing the last chapter--for a mind-boggling sum--they will also help the lucky writer successfully re-launch their own career, guaranteeing future bestsellers. The catch: the writers have just seventy-two hours to finish Fletch's magnum opus.</p> <p>Starting is often the hardest part. But getting to the end could be murder.</p>
The Tenant
by Anne Brontë
**There's no place like home…** Blake Porter is riding high, until he's not.
What Kind of Paradise
by Janelle Brown
*The first thing you have to understand is that my father was my entire world.
Last One Out A Novel
by Jane Harper
<p><b>From the<i> New York Times</i> bestselling author of <i>Exiles </i>and <i>The Dry</i> comes a captivating new novel set in a modern ghost town.<br><br></b>Carralon Ridge, a once vibrant village in rural New South Wales, has become a shell of itself, its houses and buildings bought up and left to rot by the mining company operating at its borders. A decade into its slow death, surrounded by industrial noise and swathed in thick layers of dust, the skeletal town is all but abandoned, with just a handful of residents clinging onto what remains.<br><br>After years of scorning those who left the Ridge behind as it fell into ruin, Ro never imagined she'd become one of them. But everything changed when she lost her son. Five years ago, Sam vanished while visiting during a break from college, leaving behind a rental car with his belongings inside. Sam had loved Carralon Ridge, and had been working on an oral history of the town to preserve its legacy before it vanished altogether. It wasn't long after his disappearance that the rest of the family began to crumble away too.<br><br>But when Ro returns to Carralon Ridge to be with her husband and daughter on the anniversary of Sam's disappearance, she begins to suspect that something important was overlooked in his case. Because while nothing can stop Carralon Ridge from dying, someone seems to want to make sure that its secrets die with it.</p>
The A.B.C. Murders
by Agatha Christie
There's a serial killer on the loose, bent on working his way though the alphabet.
The Client
by John Grisham
In a weedy lot on the outskirts of Memphis, two boys watch a shiny Lincoln pull up to the curb...Eleven-year-old Mark Sway and his younger brother were sharing a forbidden cigarette when a chance encounter with a suicidal lawyer left Mark knowing a bloody and explosive secret: the whereabouts of the most sought-after dead body in America. Now Mark is caught between a legal system gone mad and a mob killer desperate to cover up his crime. And his only ally is a woman named Reggie Love, who has been a lawyer for all of four years. Prosecutors are willing to break all the rules to make Mark talk. The mob will stop at nothing to keep him quiet. And Reggie will do anything to protect her client -- even take a last, desperate gamble that could win Mark his freedom... or cost them both their lives. ([source][1]) [1]: http://www.jgrisham.com/books/the-client/ ---------- Also contained in: - [Novels: The Client / The Firm](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL17766481W) - [Reader's Digest Condensed Books. Volume 4 1993](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL15150385W)
The Pelican Brief
by John Grisham
The Pelican Brief is a legal-suspense thriller by John Grisham, published in 1992 by Doubleday. It is his third novel after A Time to Kill and The Firm. ---------- Also contained in: - [Best Sellers](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL15134121W/Best_Sellers) - [Novels (Firm / Pelican Brief)](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL76969W) - [The Pelican Brief / A Time to Kill](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL24697402W) - [Reader's Digest Condensed Books. Volume 5 1992](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL15165175W)
The Runaway Jury
by John Grisham
An anonymous woman tips officials that the jury for a multimillion dollar trial surrounding the tobacco industry may be tampered with.
L.A. requiem
by Robert Crais
A compelling work by Robert Crais.
The Housemaid
by Freida McFadden
Every day I clean the Winchesters' beautiful house top to bottom.
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Frequently Asked Questions
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