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  1. Genres
  2. ›Mystery

Best Mystery Books

Mystery and detective fiction

2,086 summaries

Showing 361–384 of 2,086

  1. The Last Mile

    David Baldacci

    ★ 4.2 (70k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A convicted murderer's last-minute reprieve for a crime strikingly similar to the FBI agent investigating it unravels a sinister conspiracy threatening to execute an innocent man and ensnare the agent's own team.

  2. Casino Royale

    Ian Fleming

    ★ 3.7 (70k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    James Bond's first mission: bankrupting a Soviet operative in a high-stakes baccarat game. But a beautiful agent and a brutal betrayal threaten to end his career before it even begins.

  3. Red Storm Rising

    Tom Clancy

    ★ 4.2 (70k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    After a terrorist attack cripples Soviet oil production, the Kremlin plans to seize the Persian Gulf, starting a global war that pushes humanity to the brink.

  4. Explosive Eighteen

    Janet Evanovich

    ★ 4.0 (70k) average on GoodreadsRomance

    Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum's 'dream vacation' to Hawaii explodes into a deadly international murder mystery on her flight home, forcing her to outwit assassins, navigate bizarre agency antics, and keep her own life from ending up in a garbage can, all while dodging questions about what really happened in paradise.

  5. Every Heart a Doorway

    Seanan McGuire

    ★ 3.8 (69k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    At a peculiar boarding school for children who've returned from fantastical worlds, a new arrival and a string of mysterious deaths force the students to confront whether the darkness they escaped has followed them home.

  6. The Book of Lost Things

    John Connolly

    ★ 4.0 (69k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    Grieving the loss of his mother, young David tumbles through the whispering pages of his books into a warped fairy-tale land where familiar stories twist into dark, perilous quests for a mysterious tome holding the secrets of his own lost reality.

  7. Six Years

    Harlan Coben

    ★ 3.8 (68k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Six years after the love of his life married another, a college professor attends her husband's funeral only to discover the widow isn't her, shattering his past and plunging him into a dangerous quest for the truth behind his carefully constructed memories.

  8. The Luxe

    Anna Godbersen

    ★ 3.6 (68k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    In 1899 Manhattan, two socialite sisters face hidden debts, affairs, and a mysterious death that threatens their privileged lives.

  9. Magpie Murders

    Anthony Horowitz

    ★ 3.9 (68k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    An editor reads a beloved author's manuscript and finds a real murder mystery hidden in the fictional tale of a sleepy English village.

  10. The Summons

    John Grisham

    ★ 3.7 (68k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A judge's deathbed summons reveals a hidden secret, forcing his estranged law professor son to navigate small-town deceit and family betrayal before the truth, and the inheritance, disappear.

  11. Body of Evidence

    Patricia Cornwell

    ★ 4.0 (68k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A reclusive writer is nearly decapitated in her home, and Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta must uncover literary jealousy and personal secrets to learn why the victim let her killer in, as Scarpetta's own life becomes a nightmare.

  12. My Lovely Wife

    Samantha Downing

    ★ 3.9 (67k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A suburban couple, bored with their fifteen-year marriage, finds a shared secret involving murder to be a twisted aphrodisiac.

  13. Next

    Michael Crichton

    ★ 3.5 (67k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    In a future where genetic manipulation is common, 'Next' is a thriller about stolen genes, chimp-human hybrids, and a collapsing sense of reality, showing humanity's dangerous relationship with its own genetic future.

  14. The Body Farm

    Patricia Cornwell

    ★ 4.0 (67k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta investigates a secluded 'body farm' to solve the murder of an 11-year-old girl, uncovering a truth that shatters a small North Carolina town.

  15. The Prisoner of Heaven

    Carlos Ruiz Zafón

    ★ 4.0 (67k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    In 1957 Barcelona, a mysterious visitor to a bookshop uncovers a two-decade-old secret, making Daniel Sempere and Fermín Romero de Torres face the dangers of Franco's dictatorship and the truths hidden in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books.

  16. The Body in the Library

    Agatha Christie

    ★ 3.9 (67k) average on Goodreads

    When a glamorous, unknown corpse appears in their library, the respectable Bantry couple must rely on Miss Marple's sharp wit to unravel a web of deceit and prevent village gossip from unraveling their lives.

  17. The Chalk Man

    C.J. Tudor

    ★ 3.7 (67k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Thirty years after a game of chalk figures led them to a dismembered body, a new chalk man resurfaces, forcing Eddie and his childhood friends to confront the dark secrets of their past before a killer erases them all.

  18. The Distant Hours

    Kate Morton

    ★ 3.9 (67k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    A mysterious letter draws a young woman to a crumbling English castle, where wartime secrets, a jilted bride, and three eccentric sisters force her to confront her own mother's hidden past.

  19. The Atlantis Gene

    A.G. Riddle

    ★ 3.7 (66k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    An ancient Antarctic discovery and a modern genetic breakthrough spark a global conspiracy, forcing a geneticist and an agent to race against a powerful enemy intent on unleashing the next, deadly stage of human evolution.

  20. The Wonder

    Emma Donoghue

    ★ 3.6 (66k) average on GoodreadsLiterary Fiction

    In a remote 1859 Irish village, an English nurse must determine if an eleven-year-old girl's months-long fast is a divine miracle, a cruel hoax, or a desperate act of faith, forcing her to confront the dark heart of belief and the lengths one will go to save a life.

  21. The Luminaries

    Eleanor Catton

    ★ 3.7 (66k) average on GoodreadsLiterary Fiction

    In 1866 New Zealand, a young prospector uncovers a mystery involving twelve men, a missing fortune, and strange events, all tied to fate and the stars.

  22. The Perfect Couple

    Elin Hilderbrand

    ★ 4.0 (66k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A lavish Nantucket wedding turns into a murder investigation when a body is found in the harbor, exposing the dark secrets and imperfect lives of everyone in the bridal party.

  23. Bring Me Back

    B.A. Paris

    ★ 3.5 (66k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A man who built a new life with his missing fiancée's sister is plunged back into his past when a mysterious phone call suggests Layla has returned, threatening to unravel the carefully constructed lies surrounding her disappearance.

  24. Perfect Match

    Jodi Picoult

    ★ 4.0 (65k) average on Goodreads

    A prosecutor dedicated to jailing child molesters faces the ultimate ethical dilemma when her own son is abused, forcing her to choose between the justice system she upholds and a mother's primal urge for vengeance.

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