10 Greatest Murder Mystery Books Ever

If you’re a fan of a good whodunnit, there’s no shortage of fantastic options for you to choose from. 

I’ve read my fair share of mysteries over the years, and I’ve always been impressed by how versatile the genre can be. Sure, someone always dies, and someone always investigates, but mystery novels can transport you to alternate timelines, take you into the minds of frightening killers, and keep you up for hours with intensely compelling plots.

In no particular order, here are the best murder mysteries that you should consider adding to your reading list. 

Murder on the Orient Express

When it comes to mystery novels, Agatha Christie is the undisputed champion. It’d be perfectly fair to put any of her novels on this list (I’ve got a personal soft spot for Death in the Clouds), but there’s really no better starting place than Murder on the Orient Express. The novel is a great introduction to Christie’s famous character detective Hercules Poirot, and it’s got an ingenious mystery plot. There’s a reason this one has been adapted into film multiple times. 

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Here’s another novel that, for very good reasons, has gotten multiple film adaptations. Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo kicks off a spectacular mystery series, introducing characters like investigative reporter Mikael Blomkvist and the reclusive Lisbeth Salander. The two make unlikely allies as they investigate a cold case, and the book really digs into the procedural aspect of cracking an unsolved murder. It can be a bit slow at times, but the characters and plotting are absolutely excellent. 

A Study in Scarlet

Arthur Conan Doyle walked so Agatha Christie could run. Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Dr. Watson are the most recognizable detectives in the world today, but their story began with the 1887 novel A Study in Scarlet. The book sees the pair solving two revenge-fueled murders, and along the way, it establishes just how brilliant and unorthodox Holmes’ methods are. A Study in Scarlet helped establish the murder mystery formula and reading it now, it’s easy to see why Doyle’s approach has been imitated for over a hundred years. 

The Girl on the Train

The best murder mysteries don’t just keep you guessing throughout the plot but also get you engaged in the personal stakes of all the characters involved. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins is a particularly personal story, and from the earliest pages, it’s impossible not to feel for the book’s main character, Rachel Watson. The story starts as an examination of Rachel’s alcoholism and obsession with her ex-husband, Tom, but slowly, she starts uncovering lost memories and stumbles into a dark secret. 

Sharp Objects

You probably know Gillian Flynn from her novel Gone Girl, which was adapted into a film by director David Fincher, but Flynn’s debut novel Sharp Objects is an equally well-thought-out murder mystery. The novel tells the story of journalist Camille Preaker returning to her hometown, Wind Gap, Minnesota, to report on a series of young girls who’ve been kidnapped and murdered. Being back home brings up some traumatic childhood experiences, and as Camille tries to deal with her past, she discovers that she has a personal connection to the grisly crimes playing out in the town. 

Magic for Liars

Murder mysteries tend to be wrapped up in gritty realism, but this novel by Sarah Gailey imagines what a murder investigation looks like at a school for young magic users. Magic for Liars is set at the Osthorne Academy for Young Mages, and when a faculty member gets killed, the school tasks a non-magical private investigator named Ivy Gamble to solve the bizarre case. Ivy dives into the mystery while navigating her strained relationship with her sister Tabitha, who teaches at the Academy. 

The Big Sleep

The Big Sleep is a classic hard-boiled detective novel by Raymond Chandler, and over 80 years after its first publication, the book still stands out because of its great characters and unequaled atmosphere. Philip Marlowe is a private detective who gets asked to investigate a blackmail case, but before long, the blackmail escalates to murder. Marlowe finds himself in a tangled web of mysteries, and the complex plot is entirely satisfying, even though it doesn’t answer every last question it raises. 

The Lovely Bones

Written by Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones changes up the typical murder mystery plot by telling the story from the victim’s point of view. Susie Salmon is just 14 years old when she’s brutally murdered by her next-door neighbor, George Harvey. Instead of passing on, Susie’s spirit remains on Earth to witness her family and friends become devastated by her loss, but she also sees them become deeply invested in solving her murder. Their investigation doesn’t work out as they hope, but by subverting the tropes of the genre, The Lovely Bones carves out a unique place for itself. 

The Yiddish Policemen’s Union 

The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon is a spectacularly imaginative alternate-history novel and one of my personal favorite books. The novel is set in a fictionalized version of Sitka, Alaska, where Jewish refugees from World War II established a sprawling city. Meyer Landsman is a detective working on a strange murder case that takes him down a rabbit hole, which eventually unearths a global political conspiracy. Chabon is a master of genre fiction, and all his skills are on display in this one. 

Along Came a Spider

I’ve got to be honest here: I’m not really a James Patterson fan. That said, Along Came a Spider has inspired a whole series of films and more than two dozen sequels, so clearly, I’m in the minority here. This book is utterly over the top but also brilliantly plotted. Detective Alex Cross is stuck between two seemingly unrelated cases – a grisly family murder and the kidnapping of two children – but he has no idea just how deep the mysteries go.