50
Dracula, by Bram Stoker
Dracula is mostly known as a horror novel… and a thriller… and an epistolary novel. It’s also a quintessential piece of Gothic fiction, the novel that defined the vampire the way we all know it today, and one of the most influential narratives of all time. Oh, and it’s a mystery, too. Yes, that’s right: Dracula is a detective story in which Professor Abraham Van Helsing tracks down Count Dracula. With everything it’s been called, it’s no surprise that Dracula also kicks off this list, which contains more novels that have traditionally been considered horror.
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My Annihilation, by Fuminori Nakamura
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Literary noir maestro Fuminori Nakamura has always been interested in understanding the psychology of crime, and in My Annihilation, a labyrinthine story that contains a mystery inside another mystery, he allows that obsession to shape the entire narrative. The result is a dark novel that’s the literary equivalent of a puzzle box; an experimental, cerebral story in which questions reign supreme, secret agendas slither under everything, every narrator is unreliable, memory is shaky at best, and reality is a shifting thing that refuses to be pinned down.
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Celadon Books The Silent Patient, by Alex Michaelides
Now 41% Off
This one hooked me on the premise alone. Alicia Berenson had what seemed like a great life. She had a great career as a painter and was married to Gabriel, a fashion photographer who was popular in his field. They lived in a big house in a good area of London and got along well. Then one night, Gabriel came home late from work, and Alicia shot him in the face five times. After that, she refused to speak again. Theo Faber, a criminal psychotherapist, has been eager to work with Alicia, but once he gets the chance, cracking the case becomes an obsession that threatens everything else.
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The Little Death, by Michael Nava
A ground-breaking novel about a gay Latino defense lawyer who becomes a sleuth when his new lover is murdered under strange circumstances, The Little Death did for the Latino community, and especially for LGBTQ+ Latinx folks, what the work of authors like Chester Himes and Eleanor Taylor Bland did for the Black community.
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Berkley Tourist Season, by Carl Hiaasen
Now 27% Off
There’s a lot of darkness on this list, but Hiassen makes up for that with his humor. A zany send-up of Florida, this novel follows reporter-turned-private investigator Skip Wiley as he gets to the bottom of a case the locals want to keep hushed in order to keep the tourist money flowing. Few mysteries contain scenes and dialogue capable of making readers laugh out loud, but Hiaasen has made that his calling card. Tourist Season delivers an entertaining mystery while also perfectly capturing the zeitgeist of the place.
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William Morrow & Company Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier
A mainstay on most lists of best mysteries, Rebecca is also a creepy ghost story and a romantic suspense novel. When a young woman marries a recent widower and moves in with him, she soon realizes that his late wife's shadow is a constant presence threatening to destroy what they’re trying to build. In Rebecca, which is incredibly atmospheric, not knowing is at the center of the story, but there’s much more; the mystery itself is a presence and a threat. Published in 1938, this novel also feels incredibly prescient in terms of mixing genres, as it brought together mystery, romance, and horror.
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Flatiron Books The Dry, by Jane Harper
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Federal agent Aaron Falk is forced to return to his Australia hometown for the first time in years to attend his best friend’s funeral. The friend’s death stirs up Falk’s past, and he suspects that a secret they concealed way back when might have something to do with his friend’s death. Atmospheric and superbly paced, The Dry has won many awards and been turned into a film, but the most impressive thing about it is that it was Harper’s debut.
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Pushkin Vertigo The Decagon House Murders, by Yukito Ayatsuji
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This celebration of traditional whodunits plays with the mystery genre in a wonderfully self-referential way. Originally published in Japan in 1987, The Decagon House Murders follows a group of mystery enthusiasts who are picked off one by one while visiting an island where a murder happened a long time ago. With each new murder, the remaining members of the group must use their knowledge of the genre to find the killer and try to stay alive.
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Penguin Books The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Now 26% Off
A worldwide sensation, The Shadow of the Wind is a great example of a mystery that involves books. It follows Daniel, the son of an antiquarian book dealer, who discovers a mysterious book by Julian Carax. Obsessed with the author and the book, Daniel tries to track down all his other books, but instead discovers a secret that sends him on a wild journey through the streets of post-war Barcelona. At once a murder story, an adventure narrative, and a love story, The Shadow of the Wind remains a superb read from a great talent lost too soon.
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41
Vintage The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon
Now 48% Off
Christopher John Francis Boone has a very logical mind, and he has no trouble solving puzzles and finding patterns everywhere he looks. Unfortunately, understanding people and their emotions is an entirely different thing. When Christopher’s neighbor’s dog is killed, he takes it upon himself to find the killer using Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes—also on this list—as his guide. Unexpectedly funny and tender, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time takes a classic crime and gives it a new, memorable, wildly entertaining spin.
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Bitter Lemon Press Havana Red, by Leonardo Padura
Now 15% Off
The first in the Havana quartet, a great series featuring Cuban Inspector Mario Conde, Havana Red follows Conde as he investigates the death of a cross-dresser whose body was found in a park in Havana. Full of social and political commentary, this Hammett Prize-winning novel is a dark slice of international mystery with a distinct Cuban flavor.
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Random House Trade Paperbacks The Deep Blue Good-by, by John D. MacDonald
Now 26% Off
The Deep Blue Good-by is the first novel in MacDonald’s Travis McGee series, which spans 21 books. McGee is a righteous man tasked with finding a serial sex predator and killer who’s bankrolling his crimes with money from the buried treasure he discovered in Florida. There are many broken, hard-drinking, depressed investigators in the genre, but McGee is a good guy worried about doing the right thing.
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38
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson
Now 17% Off
This Swedish mystery/crime novel, translated into English in 2008, became an international bestselling phenomenon. The trilogy was translated in more than 50 countries and turned into a series of popular films. In this, the first book of the Millennium trilogy, which Larsson planned to stretch for ten books before his untimely death in 2004, journalist Mikael Blomkvist teams up with hacker Lisbeth Salander to solve a mystery, leading them to uncover a deep web of corruption. It had been done before and would be done after, but this novel brought mysteries into the future, adding not only a subculture element, but also giving computers and the internet a central role in the narrative.
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William Morrow & Company Maximum Bob, by Elmore Leonard
No crime fiction list is complete without an Elmore Leonard, regardless of the sub-genre being discussed. More than plots, which were all wildly entertaining, Leonard excelled at creating unique characters and writing some of the best dialogue in fiction. In Maximum Bob, someone is trying to kill Judge Bob Gibbs, known as Maximum Bob, but when one has as many enemies as he does, finding the one aiming for his life proves to be extremely difficult.
36
Pocket Books Postmortem, by Patricia Cornwell
Originally titled Postmortem: A Mystery Introducing Dr. Kay Scarpetta, this novel kicked off a great series that now contains 27 books and is still going strong. In Richmond, Virginia, someone is strangling women and leaving no clues behind. Scarpetta, a medical examiner, engages the latest technology in forensic research to find the killer. It’s a relatively simple premise, done very well. Cornwell also tackled a real mystery in Ripper: The Secret Life of Walter Sickert, where she used the same technology Scarpetta uses in her novels to offer an answer to the mystery of Jack the Ripper’s identity.
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35
Whose Body?, by Dorothy L. Sayers
Sayers was one of the original queens of the mystery genre. In this, her debut novel, she introduces readers to Lord Peter Wimsey, a man who collects old books and solves mysteries for fun in his free time. Originally published in 1923, Whose Body? has stood the test of time and shows that Sayers understood what the genre was all about.
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Penguin Classics The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins
Now 24% Off
Collins walked a fine line between mystery and the supernatural, and this novel is a perfect example of that. It follows a star-crossed couple. The woman, Laura Fairlie, married someone else, but not before being warned not to do so. Meanwhile, there are rumors of a strange woman dressed in white roaming the city’s dark streets, who might have something to do with the warning. Atmospheric and dark, this is a mystery that’s also a Gothic horror novel. It shows just how blurry the line between the two can be.
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Vintage Crime/Black Lizard The Snowman, by Jo Nesbo
Now 35% Off
There are a few first novels in a detective series on this list, but this one isn’t one of them. The Snowman is the seventh book in Nesbo’s Harry Hole series, but it’s widely regarded as his best. In this one, Inspector Harry Hole suspects a link between a woman who went missing from his home in the middle of the night and a strange letter he received. As he investigates the disappearance, he realizes that over the past decade, eleven women have vanished after the first snow of the year. An entertaining take on the serial killer trope, this one shows Nesbo as a master of complex, surprising storytelling.
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32
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard The Last Good Kiss, by James Crumley
Now 21% Off
Mysteries and noir make for great dancing partners, and that’s exactly what Crumley delivers in this influential novel. C.W. Sughrue is a private investigator who also works at a topless bar to make ends meet. He gets hired to find a broken-down author, and in the process, he ends up on the trail of a girl who’s been missing in Haight-Ashbury for a decade. Dark, sleazy, full of broken characters, and beautifully written, The Last Good Kiss is a perfect example of the grittier side of the mystery genre.
31
Berkley Killing Floor, by Lee Child
Now 25% Off
The first novel in Child’s Jack Reacher series introduces readers to Reacher, an ex-military policeman who’s arrested for murder while passing through Margrave, Georgia. Reacher is a drifter with a shady past, which doesn’t make him the most unique character in crime fiction, but the way Child filled the novel with tension and twists made this an incredibly popular and undoubtedly influential book, leading it to become a best-selling series and eventually a successful television show.
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