100 Best Adult Mystery Books of All Time

We've ranked the best adult mystery books using expert recommendations, sales data, and millions of reader ratings. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.

Where the Crawdads Sing book cover1

Where the Crawdads Sing

Delia Owens

5.0
Preview Summary
A novel about a young woman determined to make her way in the wilds of North Carolina, and the two men that will break her isolation open.

For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. She's barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark.

But
Reese Witherspoon portraitKris Crocker portrait Recommended by Reese Witherspoon and Kris Crocker.
Reese Witherspoon portrait
Reese Witherspoon

Actress, Author, Founder/Hello Sunshine

Great article about the success of Where the Crawdads Sing. Did you read the book? @ReesesBookClub 🤗 https://t.co/w1ZgQLRzsx [source]

Kris Crocker portrait
Kris Crocker

@spokanelibrary I love this book!! [source]

And Then There Were None book cover2

And Then There Were None

Agatha Christie

4.7

The World's Bestselling Mystery

"Ten . . ."
Ten strangers are lured to an isolated island mansion off the Devon coast by a mysterious "U.N. Owen."

"Nine . . ."
At dinner a recorded message accuses each of them in turn of having a guilty secret, and by the end of the night one of the guests is dead.

"Eight . . ."
Stranded by a violent storm, and haunted by a nursery rhyme counting down one by one . . . o

Rian Johnson portrait Recommended by Rian Johnson.
3

The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon, #2)

Dan Brown

4.6
An ingenious code hidden in the works of Leonardo da Vinci.

A desperate race through the cathedrals and castles of Europe.

An astonishing truth concealed for centuries . . . unveiled at last.

While in Paris, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is awakened by a phone call in the dead of the night. The elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum, his body covered in baffling symbol
Ev Williams portraitNeal O'Gorman portrait Recommended by Ev Williams and Neal O'Gorman.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, #1) book cover4

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, #1)

Stieg Larsson and Reg Keelan

4.5
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
5

The Girl on the Train

Paula Hawkins

4.5
An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She’s even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy. And t
Barack Obama portrait Recommended by Barack Obama.
6

Gone Girl

Gillian Flynn

4.5
On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears. As the police begin to investigate, the town golden boy parades a series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he's definitely bitter - but is he re
Kelly Vaughn portrait Recommended by Kelly Vaughn.
Murder on the Orient Express (Hercule Poirot, #10) book cover7

Murder on the Orient Express (Hercule Poirot, #10)

Agatha Christie

4.5
Just after midnight, a snowdrift stops the Orient Express in its tracks. The luxurious train is surprisingly full for the time of the year, but by the morning it is one passenger fewer. An American tycoon lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside.

Isolated and with a killer in their midst, detective Hercule Poirot must identify the murderer—in case he or s
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI book cover8

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

David Grann

4.5
Preview Summary
In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.

Then, one by one, they began to be killed off. One Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, watched as her family was murdered. Her older sister was shot.
Jacqueline Novogratz portrait Recommended by Jacqueline Novogratz.
Then She Was Gone book cover9

Then She Was Gone

Lisa Jewell

4.4
THEN
She was fifteen, her mother's golden girl. She had her whole life ahead of her. And then, in the blink of an eye, Ellie was gone.

NOW
It’s been ten years since Ellie disappeared, but Laurel has never given up hope of finding her daughter.

And then one day a charming and charismatic stranger called Floyd walks into a café and sweeps Laurel off her feet.

Before too long she’s staying the night at
10

The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike, #1)

Robert Galbraith

4.4
A brilliant mystery in a classic vein: Detective Cormoran Strike investigates a supermodel's suicide.

After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office.

Then John Bristow walks through his door
Big Little Lies book cover11

Big Little Lies

Liane Moriarty

4.4
Check out the #1 New York Times bestseller Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty, called “a surefire hit” by Entertainment Weekly.

Soon to be a major HBO® series starring Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon!

"The secrets burrowed in this seemingly placid small town...are so suburban noir they would make David Lynch clap with glee...[Moriarty] is a fantastically nimble writer, so sure-footed that the boo
Sharp Objects book cover12

Sharp Objects

Gillian Flynn

4.4
Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her fa
Jessica Northeyshaw portrait Recommended by Jessica Northeyshaw.
13

The Woman in the Window

A. J Finn

4.3
For readers of Gillian Flynn and Tana French comes one of the decade's most anticipated debuts, to be published in thirty-five languages around the world and already in development as a major film from Fox: a twisty, powerful Hitchcockian thriller about an agoraphobic woman who believes she witnessed a crime in a neighboring house. It isn't paranoia if it's really happening . . .

Anna Fox lives a
14

The Girl Who Played with Fire (Millennium, #2)

Stieg Larsson, Reg Keeland

4.3
Part blistering espionage thriller, part riveting police procedural, and part piercing exposé on social injustice, The Girl Who Played with Fire is a masterful, endlessly satisfying novel.

Mikael Blomkvist, crusading publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation. On the eve of its publication, the two reporters responsible
15

One for the Money (Stephanie Plum, #1)

Janet Evanovich

4.3
You've lost your job as a department store lingerie buyer, your car's been repossessed, and most of your furniture and small appliances have been sold off to pay last month's rent. Now the rent is due again. And you live in New Jersey. What do you do?

If you're Stephanie Plum, you become a bounty hunter. But not just a nickel-and-dime bounty hunter; you go after the big money. That means a cop gone
If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood book cover16

If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood

Gregg Olsen

4.3
Preview Summary
A shocking and empowering true-crime story of three sisters determined to survive their mother’s house of horrors.

After more than a decade, when sisters Nikki, Sami, and Tori Knotek hear the word mom, it claws like an eagle’s talons, triggering memories that have been their secret since childhood. Until now.

For years, behind the closed doors of their farmhouse in Raymond, Washington, their sadisti
The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1) book cover17

The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1)

Carlos Ruiz Zafon and Lucia Grave

4.3
Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals from its war wounds, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer's son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julian Carax. But when he sets out to find the author's other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. I
Emma Watson portrait Recommended by Emma Watson.
Angels & Demons (Robert Langdon, #1) book cover18

Angels & Demons (Robert Langdon, #1)

Dan Brown

4.3
World-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a cryptic symbol seared into the chest of a murdered physicist. What he discovers is unimaginable: a deadly vendetta against the Catholic Church by a centuries-old underground organization -- the Illuminati. In a desperate race to save the Vatican from a powerful time bomb, Langdon joins forces in
Still Life (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #1) book cover19

Still Life (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #1)

Louise Penny

4.3
As the early morning mist clears on Thanksgiving Sunday, the homes of Three Pines come to life - all except one…

To locals, the village is a safe haven. So they are bewildered when a well-loved member of the community is found lying dead in the maple woods. Surely it was an accident - a hunter's arrow gone astray. Who could want Jane Neal dead?

In a long and distinguished career with the Sûreté du Q
The Secret History book cover20

The Secret History

Donna Tartt

4.3
Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal, and at last - inexorably - into evil.
Dave Child portraitJess Brammar portraitKelly Ellis portrait Recommended by Dave Child, Jess Brammar, Kelly Ellis, and 1 others.
Dave Child portrait
Dave Child

In my 20s, it would have been The Secret History by Donna Tartt. It's a shame you can only read a book for the first time once, because this doesn't fare so well the second time around, when you already know what happens. I'm not sure I've found another book quite like it since, but then I'm not really sure what sort of book it is. It isn't a murder mystery, except when it is. It isn't a crime thriller, except when it is. It isn't a love story, except ... you get the idea. [source]

Kelly Ellis portrait
Kelly Ellis

@elanpin @Nicole_Cliffe Like a favorite song, just thinking about this book immediately takes me back to the point in my life when I first read it. I really enjoyed The Goldfinch, as well. [source]

How the Light Gets In (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #9) book cover21

How the Light Gets In (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #9)

Louise Penny

4.3
Christmas is approaching, and in Québec it's a time of dazzling snowfalls, bright lights, and gatherings with friends in front of blazing hearths. But shadows are falling on the usually festive season for Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté de Québec. Most of his best agents have left or been transferred out of the Homicide Department; his old friend and lieutenant Jean-Guy Beauvoir hasn'
Glass Houses (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #13) book cover22

Glass Houses (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #13)

Louise Penny

4.2
When a mysterious figure appears in Three Pines one cold November day, Armand Gamache and the rest of the villagers are at first curious. Then wary. Through rain and sleet, the figure stands unmoving, staring ahead.

From the moment the creature's shadow falls over the village, Gamache, now Chief Superintendent of the Sûreté du Quebec, suspects it has deep roots and a dark purpose. Yet he does nothi
A Great Reckoning (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #12) book cover23

A Great Reckoning (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #12)

Louise Penny

4.2
When an intricate old map is found stuffed into the walls of the bistro in Three Pines, it at first seems no more than a curiosity. But the closer the villagers look, the stranger it becomes.

Given to Armand Gamache as a gift the first day of his new job, the map eventually leads him to shattering secrets. To an old friend and older adversary. It leads the former Chief of Homicide for the Sûreté d
24

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Millennium, #3)

Stieg Larsson, Reg Keeland

4.2
The stunning third and final novel in Stieg Larsson's internationally best-selling trilogy.

Lisbeth Salander - the heart of Larsson's two previous novels - lies in critical condition, a bullet wound to her head, in the intensive care unit of a Swedish city hospital. She's fighting for her life in more ways than one: if and when she recovers, she'll be taken back to Stockholm to stand trial for thre
25

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce, #1)

Alan Bradley

4.2
It is the summer of 1950–and at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, young Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is intrigued by a series of inexplicable events: A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Then, hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath.

For Flavia, who is
26

I Am Watching You

Teresa Driscoll

4.2
What would it take to make you intervene?

When Ella Longfield overhears two attractive young men flirting with teenage girls on a train, she thinks nothing of it—until she realises they are fresh out of prison and her maternal instinct is put on high alert. But just as she’s decided to call for help, something stops her. The next day, she wakes up to the news that one of the girls—beautiful, green-
27

Career of Evil (Cormoran Strike, #3)

Robert Galbraith, Robert Glenister, et al

4.2
Cormoran Strike is back, with his assistant Robin Ellacott, in a mystery based around soldiers returning from war.

When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman’s severed leg.

Her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised but no less alarmed. There are four people from his past who he thinks could be responsible – and
28

The Silkworm (Cormoran Strike, #2)

Robert Galbraith

4.2
Private investigator Cormoran Strike returns in a new mystery from Robert Galbraith, author of the #1 international bestseller The Cuckoo's Calling.

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days—as he has done before—and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

Bu
29

The Hound of the Baskervilles

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Anne Perry

4.2
We owe The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) to Arthur Conan Doyle's good friend Fletcher "Bobbles" Robinson, who took him to visit some scary English moors and prehistoric ruins, and told him marvelous local legends about escaped prisoners and a 17th-century aristocrat who fell afoul of the family dog. Doyle transmogrified the legend: generations ago, a hound of hell tore out the throat of devilis
Michael Dirda portraitPeter James portrait Recommended by Michael Dirda and Peter James.
Michael Dirda portrait
Michael Dirda

Holmes turns to Mortimer and says, A man’s or a woman’s? and Mortimer delivers the greatest reply in 20th century literature, Mr Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound! I shivered with pleasure and realised that life didn’t get much better than that. [source]

Peter James portrait
Peter James

It actually scared me the first time I read it as a kid. And I have always liked it. It is my favourite of all his books and it has a very clever ending. [source]

30

Lethal White (Cormoran Strike, #4)

Robert Galbraith

4.2
"Rowling's wizardry as a writer is on fulsome display" (USA Today) in this #1 New York Times bestseller from the international bestselling author Robert Galbraith.

When Billy, a troubled young man, comes to private eye Cormoran Strike's office to ask for his help investigating a crime he thinks he witnessed as a child, Strike is left deeply unsettled. While Billy is obviously mentally distressed, a
31

Two for the Dough (Stephanie Plum, #2)

Janet Evanovich

4.2
This one's double the fun!

Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is still learning the ropes at her cousin Vinnie's bail bond office, so when she sets out on the trail of Kenny Mancuso - a suspiciously weatlhy, working class Trenton boy who has just shot his best friend - the stakes are higher than ever. That Mancuso is distantly related to vice cop Joe Morelli - who is trying to beat Stephanie to the punch
32

Three to Get Deadly (Stephanie Plum, #3)

Janet Evanovich

4.2
Stephanie Plum, the brassy babe in the powder blue Buick is back and she's having a bad hair day -- for the whole month of January. She's been given the unpopular task of finding Mo Bedemier, Trenton's most beloved citizen, arrested for carrying concealed, gone no-show for his court appearance.

And to make matters worse, she's got Lula, a former hooker turned file clerk -- now a wannabe bounty hunt
A Fatal Grace (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #2) book cover33

A Fatal Grace (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #2)

Louise Penny

4.2
Welcome to winter in Three Pines, a picturesque village in Quebec, where the villagers are preparing for a traditional country Christmas, and someone is preparing for murder.

No one liked CC de Poitiers. Not her quiet husband, not her spineless lover, not her pathetic daughter—and certainly none of the residents of Three Pines. CC de Poitiers managed to alienate everyone, right up until the moment
The Brutal Telling (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #5) book cover34

The Brutal Telling (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #5)

Louise Penny

4.2

Chaos is coming, old son.

With those words the peace of Three Pines is shattered. As families prepare to head back to the city and children say goodbye to summer, a stranger is found murdered in the village bistro and antiques store. Once again, Chief Inspector Gamache and his team are called in to strip back layers of lies, exposing both treasures and rancid secrets buried in the wilderness.

35

Maisie Dobbs (Maisie Dobbs, #1)

Jacqueline Winspear

4.2
Maisie Dobbs isn’t just any young housemaid. Through her own natural intelligence—and the patronage of her benevolent employers—she works her way into college at Cambridge. When World War I breaks out, Maisie goes to the front as a nurse. It is there that she learns that coincidences are meaningful and the truth elusive. After the War, Maisie sets up on her own as a private investigator. But her v
The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #8) book cover36

The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #8)

Louise Penny

4.2
No outsiders are ever admitted to the monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups, hidden deep in the wilderness of Québec, where two dozen cloistered monks live in peace and prayer. Ironically, for a community that has taken a vow of silence, the monks have become world-famous for their glorious voices, raised in ancient chants whose effect on both singer and listener is so profound it is known as
37

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #1)

Alexander McCall Smith

4.2
Precious Ramotswe has only just set up shop as Botswana's No.1 (and only) lady detective when she is hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. However, the case that tugs at her heart, and lands her in danger, is a missing eleven-year-old boy, who may have been snatched by witch doctors.
38

The Couple Next Door

Shari Lapena

4.2
It all started at a dinner party. . .

A domestic suspense debut about a young couple and their apparently friendly neighbors--a twisty, rollercoaster ride of lies, betrayal, and the secrets between husbands and wives. . .

Anne and Marco Conti seem to have it all--a loving relationship, a wonderful home, and their beautiful baby, Cora. But one night when they are at a dinner party next door, a terrib
Gary Bury portraitRichard Osman portrait Recommended by Gary Bury and Richard Osman.
Gary Bury portrait
Gary Bury

The book at the side of my bed is The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena. Unusually for me I choose it from a book store based on the current charts. I just wanted a book that was neither Children's, work or current affairs related, something to switch off to, bedtime reading. [source]

Richard Osman portrait
Richard Osman

Just finished this wonderful book by the brilliant @sharilapena. So full of twists, yet so utterly believable. Loved it! https://t.co/af4xSjwXT1 [source]

Rebecca book cover39

Rebecca

Daphne du Maurier, Anna Massey, et al

4.2
Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again . . .

The novel begins in Monte Carlo, where our heroine is swept off her feet by the dashing widower Maxim de Winter and his sudden proposal of marriage. Orphaned and working as a lady's maid, she can barely believe her luck. It is only when they arrive at his massive country estate that she realizes how large a shadow his late wife will cast over thei
Katie Kitamura portraitLucy Atkins portraitTess Gerritsen portrait Recommended by Katie Kitamura, Lucy Atkins, and Tess Gerritsen.
Katie Kitamura portrait
Katie Kitamura

It’s a novel that uses the narrative form of the psychological thriller, but in the service of exploring a single emotion: jealousy. [source]

Lucy Atkins portrait
Lucy Atkins

The main thing about Rebecca that I find completely compelling is the way that you, the reader, become complicit in a situation which, eventually, turns into a crime. [source]

Tess Gerritsen portrait
Tess Gerritsen

Throughout the story, she feels the first wife haunt the house, and she can never quite measure up to her. And then the heroine begins to wonder: What if Rebecca was murdered? What if my husband did it? [source]

1st to Die (Women's Murder Club, #1) book cover40

1st to Die (Women's Murder Club, #1)

James Patterson

4.2
James Patterson, bestselling author of the Alex Cross novels Along Came a Spider, Kiss the Girls, and Pop Goes the Weasel, offers the first of a new series dubbed The Women's Murder Club, featuring a four-woman team that occasionally works outside the system. None of the gritty darkness or frenzied action is lost in 1st to Die, although the female protagonists offer an even deeper emotional contex
A Better Man: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel #15 book cover41

A Better Man: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel #15

Louise Penny

4.2
Catastrophic spring flooding, blistering attacks in the media, and a mysterious disappearance greet Chief Inspector Armand Gamache as he returns to the Surete du Quebec in the latest novel by #1 New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny.

It's Gamache's first day back as head of the homicide department, a job he temporarily shares with his previous second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir. Flood w
The Silent Patient book cover42

The Silent Patient

Alex Michaelides

4.2
Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give a
43

Four to Score (Stephanie Plum, #4)

Janet Evanovich

4.1
Nabbing Maxine Nowicki, thief and extortionist, would be the answer to Stephanie’s prayers and monetary woes. The only trouble is that Maxine is no where to be found, and her friends have been mysteriously turning up dead. To make matters worse, Stephanie’s arch nemesis since grade school is also looking for Nowicki, hoping to cash in first.

Stephanie’s mentor and tormentor, Ranger, needs her. Vice
44

Eleven on Top (Stephanie Plum, #11)

Janet Evanovich

4.1
Stephanie Plum is thinking her career as a fugitive apprehension agent has run its course. She's been shot at, spat at, cussed at, fire-bombed, mooned, and attacked by dogs. Stephanie thinks it's time for a change. So she quits. She wants something safe and normal. But the kind of trouble she had at the bail bonds office can't compare to the kind of trouble she finds herself facing now...


Stephanie

The Cruelest Month (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #3) book cover45

The Cruelest Month (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #3)

Louise Penny

4.1
Welcome to Three Pines, where the cruelest month is about to deliver on its threat.

It's spring in the tiny, forgotten village; buds are on the trees and the first flowers are struggling through the newly thawed earth. But not everything is meant to return to life. . .

When some villagers decide to celebrate Easter with a séance at the Old Hadley House, they are hoping to rid the town of its evil—u
46

Seven Up (Stephanie Plum, #7)

Janet Evanovich

4.1
Also see: Alternate Cover Editions for this ISBN [ACE]
ACE #1

BLOWN UP

All New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum has to do is bring in semi-retired bail jumper Eddie DeChooch. For an old man he's still got a knack for slipping out of sight--and raising hell. How else can Stephanie explain the bullet-riddled corpse in Eddie's garden? Who else would have a clue as to why two of Stephanie's friends
47

The Broken Girls

Simone St. James

4.1
A suspense novel from the award-winning author of The Haunting of Maddy Clare...

Vermont, 1950. There's a place for the girls whom no one wants--the troublemakers, the illegitimate, the too smart for their own good. It's called Idlewild Hall. And in the small town where it's located, there are rumors that the boarding school is haunted. Four roommates bond over their whispered fears, their budding
48

To the Nines (Stephanie Plum, #9)

Janet Evanovich

4.1
Stephanie Plum's got rent to pay, people shooting at her, and psychos wanting her dead every day of the week (much to the dismay of her mother, her family, the men in her life, the guy who slices meat at the deli...oh, the list goes on). An ordinary person would cave under the pressure.
But hey, she's from Jersey.

Stephanie Plum may not be the best bounty hunter in beautiful downtown Trenton, but sh
49

A Trick of the Light (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #7)

Louise Penny

4.1
"Hearts are broken," Lillian Dyson carefully underlined in a book. "Sweet relationships are dead."

But now Lillian herself is dead. Found among the bleeding hearts and lilacs of Clara Morrow's garden in Three Pines, shattering the celebrations of Clara's solo show at the famed Musée in Montréal. Chief Inspector Gamache, the head of homicide at the Sûreté du Québec, is called to the tiny Québec vill
50

Twelve Sharp (Stephanie Plum, #12)

Janet Evanovich

4.1
Welcome to Trenton, New Jersey, where bounty hunter Stephanie Plum's life is about to implode in Janet Evanovich's wildest, hottest novel yet!

FIRST A STRANGER APPEARS
While chasing down the usual cast of miscreants and weirdos Stephanie discovers that a crazed woman is stalking her.

THEN THE STRANGER REVEALS HER SECRETS
The woman dresses in black, carries a 9mm Glock, and has a bad attitude and a mys
51

Ten Big Ones (Stephanie Plum, #10)

Janet Evanovich

4.1
"I'm Stephanie Plum. My mother says that I'm famous and have to set a good example. She's right, but I'm from Jersey and truth is, I have a hard time getting a grip on the good example thing."

Swing off the Jersey Turnpike and you'll be in bounty hunter Stephanie Plum's neighborhood. You'll know it because all hell will be breaking loose. Not that she looks for trouble - it just seems to follow her
Magic Hour book cover52

Magic Hour

Kristin Hannah

4.1

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone comes an incandescent story about the resilience of the human spirit, the triumph of hope, and the meaning of home.In the rugged Pacific Northwest lies the Olympic National Forest - nearly a million acres of impenetrable darkness and impossible beauty. From deep within this old growth forest, a six-year-old girl a

Fury in Death book cover53

Fury in Death

J. D. Robb

4.1

In the new crime thriller from the #1 New York Times-bestselling author, Lt. Eve Dallas journeys into the darkness where murder is born...NYSPD lieutenant Eve Dallas never knows what to expect when she gets word of a body. It could be an elderly man who made the mistake of climbing a ladder in slippery footwear. And the next call could be a wealthy biotech executive beaten to death in his home off

54

Hot Six (Stephanie Plum, #6)

Janet Evanovich

4.1
Low-rent bounty hunter Stephanie Plum reaches depths of personal experience that other women detectives never quite do. In Hot Six, for example, a sequence of new and hideous cars bite the dust; she finds herself lumbered with a policeman's multiply incontinent dog; and she has several bad skin days. All this when she is trying to prove her distinctly more competent colleague and occasional boyfri
55

A Rule Against Murder (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #4)

Louise Penny

4.1
"What happened here last night isn't allowed," said Madame Dubois.
It was such an extraordinary thing to say it stopped the ravenous Inspector Beauvoir from taking another bite of his roast beef on baguette.
"You have a rule against murder?" he asked.
"I do. When my husband and I bought the Bellechasse we made a pact....Everything that stepped foot on this land would be safe."

It is the height of summ
56

Hard Eight (Stephanie Plum, #8)

Janet Evanovich

4.1
Fugitive Apprehension Agent Stephanie Plum has a big problem on her hands: Seven-year-old Annie Soder and her mother, Evelyn, have disappeared.

Evelyn's estranged husband, Steven, a shady owner of a seedy bar, is not at all happy. During the divorce proceedings, he and Evelyn signed a child custody bond, and Steven is demanding the money guaranteed by the bond to find Annie. The money was secured b
57

Origin (Robert Langdon, #5)

Dan Brown

4.1
Robert Langdon, Harvard professor of symbology and religious iconology, arrives at the ultramodern Guggenheim Museum Bilbao to attend a major announcement—the unveiling of a discovery that “will change the face of science forever.” The evening’s host is Edmond Kirsch, a forty-year-old billionaire and futurist whose dazzling high-tech inventions and audacious predictions have made him a renowned gl
Mukesh Ambani portrait Recommended by Mukesh Ambani.
58

High Five (Stephanie Plum, #5)

Janet Evanovich

4.1
Stephanie Plum has a whole lot of trouble on her doorstep.

Her Uncle Fred has disappeared and Grandma Mazur is convinced he's been abducted by aliens.

Meanwhile, Cousin Vinnie has asked her to bring in the vertically challenged Randy Briggs who's jumped bail. But instead of coming quietly, he has taken up residence in Stephanie's closet. The mysterious man called Bunchy is trailing Stephanie in the
59

Dark Places

Gillian Flynn

4.1
From The #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Of Gone Girl

Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice" of Kinnakee, Kansas. She survived—and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, the Kill Club—a secret secret society obsessed with notorious crimes—locates Libby and pumps her for details. The
60

When We Believed in Mermaids

Barbara O'Neal

4.1
From the author of The Art of Inheriting Secrets comes an emotional new tale of two sisters, an ocean of lies, and a search for the truth.

Her sister has been dead for fifteen years when she sees her on the TV news…

Josie Bianci was killed years ago on a train during a terrorist attack. Gone forever. It’s what her sister, Kit, an ER doctor in Santa Cruz, has always believed. Yet all it takes is a fe
The President Is Missing book cover61

The President Is Missing

James Patterson, Bill Clinton

4.1
The President Is Missing confronts a threat so huge that it jeopardizes not just Pennsylvania Avenue and Wall Street, but all of America. Uncertainty and fear grip the nation. There are whispers of cyberterror and espionage and a traitor in the Cabinet. Even the President himself becomes a suspect, and then he disappears from public view...

Set over the course of three days, The President Is Missin
Doris Kearns Goodwin portrait Recommended by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
62

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag (Flavia de Luce, #2)

Alan Bradley

4.1
Flavia de Luce, a dangerously smart eleven-year-old with a passion for chemistry and a genius for solving murders, thinks that her days of crime-solving in the bucolic English hamlet of Bishop’s Lacey are over—until beloved puppeteer Rupert Porson has his own strings sizzled in an unfortunate rendezvous with electricity. But who’d do such a thing, and why? Does the madwoman who lives in Gibbet Woo
63

Bury Your Dead (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #6)

Louise Penny

4.1
It is Winter Carnival in Quebec City, bitterly cold and surpassingly beautiful. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache has come not to join the revels but to recover from an investigation gone hauntingly wrong. But violent death is inescapable, even in the apparent sanctuary of the Literary and Historical Society - where an obsessive historian's quest for the remains of the founder of Quebec, Samuel de Ch
64

The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches (Flavia de Luce, #6)

Alan Bradle

4.1
On a spring morning in 1951, eleven-year-old chemist and aspiring detective Flavia de Luce gathers with her family at the railway station, awaiting the return of her long-lost mother, Harriet. Yet upon the train’s arrival in the English village of Bishop’s Lacey, Flavia is approached by a tall stranger who whispers a cryptic message into her ear. Moments later, he is dead, mysteriously pushed unde
65

Lean Mean Thirteen (Stephanie Plum, #13)

Janet Evanovich

4.1
New secrets, old flames, and hidden agendas are about to send bounty hunter Stephanie Plum on her most outrageous adventure yet!

MISTAKE #1

Dickie Orr. Stephanie was married to him for about fifteen minutes before she caught him cheating on her with her arch-nemesis Joyce Barnhardt. Another fifteen minutes after that Stephanie filed for divorce, hoping to never see either one of them again.

MISTAKE #
66

A Time to Kill (Jake Brigance, #1)

John Grisham, Michael Beck, et al

4.1
Librarian's Note: Alternate-cover edition for ISBN 0385338600 / 9780385338608

Before The Firm and The Pelican Brief made him a superstar, John Grisham wrote this riveting story of retribution and justice. In this searing courtroom drama, best-selling author John Grisham probes the savage depths of racial violence...as he delivers a compelling tale of uncertain justice in a small southern town...Cla
The Secret Barrister portrait Recommended by The Secret Barrister.
67

Fearless Fourteen (Stephanie Plum, #14)

Janet Evanovich

4.1
Personal vendettas, hidden treasure, and a monkey named Carl will send bounty hunter Stephanie Plum on her most explosive adventure yet.

The Crime: Armed robbery to the tune of nine million dollars

Dom Rizzi robbed a bank, stashed the money, and did the time. His family couldn't be more proud. He always was the smart one.

The Cousin: Joe Morelli

Joe Morelli, Dom Rizzi, and Dom's sister, Loretta, are c
68

Ordinary Grace

William Kent Krueger

4.1
From "New York Times "bestselling author William Kent Krueger comes a brilliant new novel about a young man, a small town, and murder in the summer of 1961.New Bremen, Minnesota, 1961. The Twins were playing their debut season, ice-cold root beers were at the ready at Halderson's Drug Store soda counter, and "Hot Stuff "comic books were a mainstay on every barbershop magazine rack. It was a time o
Carl Bass portrait Recommended by Carl Bass.
69

Kingdom of the Blind: A Chief Inspector Gamache Mystery, Book 14

Louise Penny

4.1

The entrancing new crime thriller featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, from number one New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny

When Armand Gamache receives a letter inviting him to an abandoned farmhouse outside of Three Pines, the former head of the Sûreté du Québec discovers that a complete stranger has named him as an executor of her will.

Armand never knew the elderly woman, and th

70

Caught

Harlan Coben

4.1
Master of suspense Harlan Coben delivers a twisted #1 New York Times bestseller about a man who--with the best of intentions--opens the wrong door...

Reporter Wendy Tynes is making a name for herself, bringing down sexual offenders on nationally televised sting operations. But when social worker Dan Mercer walks into her trap, Wendy gets thrown into a story more complicated than she could ever ima
71

The Nature of the Beast (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #11)

Louise Penny

4.1
Hardly a day goes by when nine-year-old Laurent Lepage doesn't cry wolf. From alien invasions, to walking trees, to winged beasts in the woods, to dinosaurs spotted in the village of Three Pines, his tales are so extraordinary no one can possibly believe him. But when the boy disappears, the villagers are faced with the possibility that one of his tall tales might have been true. And so begins a f
72

The Woman in Cabin 10

Ruth Ware

4.0
Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea. At first, Lo's stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, t
73

A is for Alibi (Kinsey Millhone, #1)

Sue Grafton

4.0
A IS FOR AVENGER
A tough-talking former cop, private investigator Kinsey Millhone has set up a modest detective agency in a quiet corner of Santa Teresa, California. A twice-divorced loner with few personal possessions and fewer personal attachments, she's got a soft spot for underdogs and lost causes.

A IS FOR ACCUSED
That's why she draws desperate clients like Nikki Fife. Eight years ago, she was c
74

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Boxed Set

Rick Riordan and John Rocco

4.0
5 Book Paperback Boxed Set (new covers with poster)
The Lightning Thief
The Sea of Monsters
The Titan's Curse
The Battle of the Labyrinth
The Last Olympian
75

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

Stuart Turton

4.0
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER.

"Gosford Park" meets "Groundhog Day" by way of Agatha Christie – the most inventive story you'll read this year.

Tonight, Evelyn Hardcastle will be killed... again.

It is meant to be a celebration but it ends in tragedy. As fireworks explode overhead, Evelyn Hardcastle, the young and beautiful daughter of the house, is killed.

But Evelyn will not die just once. Until Aiden
76

Little Fires Everywhere

Celeste Ng

4.0
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned – from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren – an enigmatic artist and single mother – who arrives in this id
Reese Witherspoon portrait Recommended by Reese Witherspoon.
77

You (You #1)

Caroline Kepnes

4.0
When a beautiful, aspiring writer strides into the East Village bookstore where Joe Goldberg works, he does what anyone would do: he Googles the name on her credit card.

There is only one Guinevere Beck in New York City. She has a public Facebook account and Tweets incessantly, telling Joe everything he needs to know: she is simply Beck to her friends, she went to Brown University, she lives on Ban
Richard Osman portrait Recommended by Richard Osman.
78

Before I Go to Sleep

S. J. Watson

4.0
Christine wakes up every morning in an unfamiliar bed with an unfamiliar man. She looks in the mirror and sees an unfamiliar, middle-aged face. And every morning, the man she has woken up with must explain that he is Ben, he is her husband, she is forty-seven years old, and a terrible accident two decades earlier decimated her ability to form new memories.

Every day, Christine must begin again the
Tess Gerritsen portrait Recommended by Tess Gerritsen.
Kiss the Girls (Alex Cross, #2) book cover79

Kiss the Girls (Alex Cross, #2)

James Patterson

4.0
In Los Angeles, a reporter investigating a series of murders is killed. In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a beautiful medical intern suddenly disappears. In Washington D.C. Alex Cross is back to solve the most baffling and terrifying murder case ever. Two clever pattern killers are collaborating, cooperating, competing - and they are working coast to coast.
80

The A.B.C. Murders (Hercule Poirot, #13)

Agatha Christie

4.0
When Alice Asher is murdered in Andover, Hercule Poirot is already on to the clues. Alphabetically speaking, it's one down, twenty-five to go.

There's a serial killer on the loose. His macabre calling card is to leave the ABC Railway guide beside each victim's body. But if A is for Alice Asher, bludgeoned to death in Andover; and B is for Betty Bernard, strangled with her belt on the beach at Bexhi
Mathew Prichard portrait Recommended by Mathew Prichard.
Killing Floor (Jack Reacher, #1) book cover81

Killing Floor (Jack Reacher, #1)

Lee Child

4.0
Ex-military policeman Jack Reacher is a drifter. He's just passing through Margrave, Georgia, and in less than an hour, he's arrested for murder. Not much of a welcome. All Jack knows is that he didn't kill anybody. At least not here. Not lately. But he doesn't stand a chance of convincing anyone. not in Margrave, Georgia. Not a chance in hell.
82

I Let You Go

Clare Mackintosh

4.0
A tragic accident. It all happened so quickly. She couldn't have prevented it. Could she?

In a split second, Jenna Gray's world descends into a nightmare. Her only hope of moving on is to walk away from everything she knows to start afresh. Desperate to escape, Jenna moves to a remote cottage on the Welsh coast, but she is haunted by her fears, her grief and her memories of a cruel November night t
Along Came a Spider (Alex Cross, #1) book cover83

Along Came a Spider (Alex Cross, #1)

James Patterson

4.0
A missing little girl named Maggie Rose . . . a family of three brutally murdered in the projects of Washington, D.C. . . . the thrill-killing of a beautiful elementary school teacher . . . a psychopathic serial kidnapper/murderer who is so terrifying that the FBI, the Secret Service, and the police cannot outsmart him - even after he's been captured.

Gary Soneji wants to commit the crime of the ce
Cristian-Dragos Baciu portrait Recommended by Cristian-Dragos Baciu.
84

A Red Herring Without Mustard (Flavia de Luce, #3)

Alan Bradley

4.0
Award-winning author Alan Bradley returns with another beguiling novel starring the insidiously clever and unflappable eleven-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce. The precocious chemist with a passion for poisons uncovers a fresh slew of misdeeds in the hamlet of Bishop's Lacey--mysteries involving a missing tot, a fortune-teller, and a corpse in Flavia's own backyard.

Flavia had asked the old Gypsy wom
85

The Long Way Home (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #10)

Louise Penny

4.0
Happily retired in the village of Three Pines, Armand Gamache, former Chief Inspector of Homicide with the Sûreté du Québec, has found a peace he’d only imagined possible. On warm summer mornings he sits on a bench holding a small book, The Balm in Gilead, in his large hands. "There is a balm in Gilead," his neighbor Clara Morrow reads from the dust jacket, "to make the wounded whole."

While Gamach
86

Defending Jacob

William Landay

4.0
Award-winning author William Landay has written the consummate novel of an embattled family in crisis - a suspenseful, character-driven mystery that is also a spellbinding tale of guilt, betrayal, and the terrifying speed at which our lives can spin out of control.

Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than twenty years. He is respected in
The Black Echo (Harry Bosch, #1; Harry Bosch Universe, #1) book cover87

The Black Echo (Harry Bosch, #1; Harry Bosch Universe, #1)

Michael Connelly

4.0
For maverick LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal...because the murdered man was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who had fought side by side with him in a hellish underground war. Now Bosch is about to relive the horror of Nam. From a dangerous maze of blind alleys to a daring criminal heist be
88

Save Your Breath (Morgan Dane, #6)

Melinda Leigh

4.0
Morgan Dane and PI Lance Kruger investigate the mysterious disappearance of a true-crime writer.

When true-crime writer Olivia Cruz disappears with no signs of foul play, her new boyfriend, Lincoln Sharp, suspects the worst. He knows she didn’t leave willingly and turns to attorney Morgan Dane and PI Lance Kruger to find her before it’s too late.

As they dig through Olivia’s life, they are shocked t
Magpie Murders book cover89

Magpie Murders

Anthony Horowitz

4.0
When editor Susan Ryeland is given the manuscript of Alan Conway’s latest novel, she has no reason to think it will be much different from any of his others. After working with the bestselling crime writer for years, she's intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pünd, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages. An homage to queens of classic British crime such as Agatha Christ
90

Speaking from Among the Bones (Flavia de Luce, #5)

Alan Bradley

4.0
Eleven-year-old amateur detective and ardent chemist Flavia de Luce is used to digging up clues, whether they’re found among the potions in her laboratory or between the pages of her insufferable sisters’ diaries. What she is not accustomed to is digging up bodies. Upon the five-hundredth anniversary of St. Tancred’s death, the English hamlet of Bishop’s Lacey is busily preparing to open its patro
Walk the Wire (Amos Decker #6) book cover91

Walk the Wire (Amos Decker #6)

David Baldacci

4.0
The Forgotten Garden book cover92

The Forgotten Garden

Kate Morton

4.0
A foundling, an old book of dark fairy tales, a secret garden, an aristocratic family, a love denied, and a mystery. The Forgotten Garden is a captivating, atmospheric and compulsively readable story of the past, secrets, family and memory from the international best-selling author Kate Morton.

Cassandra is lost, alone and grieving. Her much loved grandmother, Nell, has just died and Cassandra, her
93

Find Me (Inland Empire Book 1)

Anne Frasier

4.0
94

The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Hercule Poirot, #1)

Agatha Christie

4.0
Agatha Christie’s debut novel was the first to feature Hercule Poirot, her famously eccentric Belgian detective. A refugee of the Great War, Poirot is settling in England near Styles Court, the country estate of his wealthy benefactress, the elderly Emily Inglethorp. When Emily is poisoned and the authorities are baffled, Poirot puts his prodigious sleuthing skills to work. Suspects are plentiful,
The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World book cover95

The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World

A. J. Baime

4.0
“[A] well-judged and hugely readable book . . . few are as entertaining.”—Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times

“A. J. Baime is a master. His reporting and storytelling are woven to hypnotic effect. This is history and humanity in lush, vivid color.”—Doug Stanton, author of The Odyssey of Echo Company

Heroes are often defined as ordinary characters who get pushed into extraordinary circumstances, and th
96

Witches Just Want to Have Fun: A Moonstone Bay Cozy Mystery Books 1-3

Amanda M. Lee

4.0
Moonstone Bay is a place of magic, mystery … and a whole lot of mayhem.
Hadley Hunter is about to find out the island’s biggest secrets … if she can stay alive long enough to dig deep and absorb a bevy of different answers.
Come along for the ride with Hadley, hunky sheriff Galen, mysterious Booker, and congenial Lilac – along with a multitude of other colorful characters – as they engage in one a
97

Notorious Nineteen (Stephanie Plum, #19)

Janet Evanovich

4.0
New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is certain of three truths: People don’t just vanish into thin air. Never anger old people. And don’t do what Tiki tells you to do.

After a slow summer of chasing low-level skips for her cousin Vinnie’s bail bonds agency, Stephanie Plum finally lands an assignment that could put her checkbook back in the black. Geoffrey Cubbin, facing trial for embezzling mi
98

The Surgeon (Rizzoli & Isles, #1)

Tess Gerritsen

4.0
IN BOSTON, THERE'S A KILLER ON THE LOOSE...

A killer who targets lone women, who breaks into their apartments and performs terrifying ritualistic acts of torture on them before finishing them off. His surgical skills lead police to suspect he is a physician - a physician who, instead of saving lives, takes them.

But as homicide detective Thomas Moore and his partner Jane Rizzoli begin their investig
99

The Drop

Michael Connelly

4.0
In his fierce search for a new case, Detective Harry Bosch discovers a killer hiding behind suspicious DNA evidence -- and a political conspiracy that could destroy the Los Angeles Police Department.

DNA from a 1989 rape and murder matches a 29-year-old convicted rapist. Was he an eight-year-old killer or has something gone terribly wrong in the new Regional Crime Lab? The latter possibility could
100

Thin Air (Jessica Shaw, #1)

Lisa Gray

4.0
She investigates missing persons—now she is one.

Private investigator Jessica Shaw is used to getting anonymous tips. But after receiving a photo of a three-year-old kidnapped from Los Angeles twenty-five years ago, Jessica is stunned to recognize the little girl as herself.

Eager for answers, Jessica heads to LA’s dark underbelly. When she learns that her biological mother was killed the night she