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  1. Genres
  2. ›Mystery

Best Mystery Books

Mystery and detective fiction

2,086 summaries

Showing 889–912 of 2,086

  1. Goldfinger

    Ian Fleming

    ★ 3.8 (22k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    James Bond must outwit the villain Auric Goldfinger and his henchman, Oddjob, to prevent a gold heist that threatens to collapse the global economy and empower SMERSH.

  2. While My Pretty One Sleeps

    Mary Higgins Clark

    ★ 3.9 (22k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A Madison Avenue boutique owner is pulled into a high-society murder investigation that mirrors her own mother's unsolved death, uncovering secrets from penthouses to the Mafia underworld, with the killer dangerously close.

  3. An Officer and a Spy

    Robert Harris

    ★ 4.2 (22k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    In 1895 Paris, a newly appointed intelligence chief uncovers a sinister conspiracy surrounding a Jewish officer's treason conviction, forcing him to risk everything to expose the truth about a spy still lurking within the French military.

  4. Live by Night

    Dennis Lehane

    ★ 3.9 (22k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    During Prohibition, a Boston cop's son abandons his upbringing for organized crime, navigating treacherous loyalties, ruthless ambition, and the constant threat of death, from Jazz Age speakeasies to Cuban rum-running operations.

  5. Delusion in Death

    J.D. Robb

    ★ 4.3 (22k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Lieutenant Eve Dallas races against time to uncover who unleashed an airborne cocktail of drugs and chemicals that turned a happy hour into a hallucinatory massacre, before the invisible terror can strike again.

  6. Strangers in Death

    J.D. Robb

    ★ 4.3 (22k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    In a futuristic New York, Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her billionaire husband Roarke investigate a high-society murder, where black velvet cords and a web of secrets make them question if passion or a planned execution ended a prominent businessman's life.

  7. Surfacing

    Margaret Atwood

    ★ 3.5 (22k) average on GoodreadsLiterary Fiction

    On a remote Quebec island, a woman looking for her missing father finds her relationships breaking down and her identity changing as she faces the wild.

  8. The Chemistry of Death

    Simon Beckett

    ★ 4.1 (22k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A forensic anthropologist, haunted by personal loss, finds peace as a country doctor until a killer's gruesome signature in the quiet Norfolk woods pulls him back into the world of death, forcing him to confront his past and a present danger.

  9. Valhalla Rising

    Clive Cussler

    ★ 3.9 (22k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Dirk Pitt must decode Jules Verne's nautical secrets to stop a ruthless oil baron and his fleet of ancient, advanced ships from rewriting global power.

  10. Kaleidoscope

    Kristen Ashley

    ★ 4.2 (22k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A detective's long-held feelings for his best friend's ex-girlfriend turn into a passionate, risky romance when a cold case forces them to face a dark secret threatening their love in Gnaw Bone.

  11. Variant

    Robison Wells

    ★ 3.9 (22k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Trapped in a deadly, adult-free academy where factions rule and surveillance is constant, Benson Fisher uncovers a horrifying secret that makes escape not just a desire, but a desperate fight for a fate worse than death.

  12. Affinity

    Sarah Waters

    ★ 3.7 (21k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    In Victorian London's most notorious prison, a grieving socialite is drawn to a spiritualist inmate, risking scandal and her sanity to unravel a mystery of séances, betrayal, and forbidden desires.

  13. Kill Me if You Can

    James Patterson

    ★ 4.0 (21k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    An art student's dream of a diamond-fueled future with his girlfriend shatters when he becomes the hunted prey of the world's deadliest assassin and a rival killer, all while navigating the chaotic aftermath of a Grand Central Station heist.

  14. The Compound

    S.A. Bodeen

    ★ 3.9 (21k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Trapped in an underground bunker built by his paranoid father, a restless teenager begins to question the true dangers of the outside world versus the suffocating secrets lurking within his family's 'safe' haven.

  15. The Secret History of the Pink Carnation

    Lauren Willig

    ★ 3.7 (21k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    An American graduate student in Jimmy Choo boots unearths a scandalous 19th-century spy romance, discovering the true identity of England's most elusive savior, the Pink Carnation, and perhaps a hero of her own.

  16. The Constant Gardener

    John le Carré

    ★ 3.8 (21k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A mild-mannered diplomat unearths a conspiracy of pharmaceutical greed and political cover-ups while investigating the murder of his activist wife in Kenya, transforming from a complacent gardener into a relentless seeker of truth.

  17. An Instance of the Fingerpost

    Iain Pears

    ★ 3.9 (21k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    In 1660s Oxford, a suspicious death unravels through the conflicting accounts of four witnesses—a physician, a lord's son, a cryptographer, and an antiquarian—each weaving a tangled web of truth and deception around a young woman accused of murder.

  18. Sparkling Cyanide

    Agatha Christie

    ★ 3.9 (21k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A year after Rosemary Barton's mysterious death, six acquaintances gather, each with secrets, to face the possibility that one of them is a killer.

  19. Secrets to the Grave

    Tami Hoag

    ★ 4.1 (21k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    When a murdered woman's identity unravels into a shocking fabrication, a detective and child advocate must race to uncover the truth before the killer erases all traces of a life that never truly existed.

  20. The Neon Rain

    James Lee Burke

    ★ 3.9 (21k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Haunted by Vietnam and alcohol, New Orleans detective Dave Robicheaux navigates drug lords and arms smugglers to solve a prostitute's murder, confronting the city's dark side and his own fractured self.

  21. Under the Skin

    Michel Faber

    ★ 3.7 (21k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    An alien in human form hunts men in the Scottish Highlands, harvesting their flesh while she slowly becomes more human.

  22. Salvation in Death

    J.D. Robb

    ★ 4.3 (21k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Detective Eve Dallas navigates a treacherous path of identity theft, gang violence, and religious deception when a priest is poisoned during mass, only for a second murder to shatter her investigation.

  23. Fantasy in Death

    J.D. Robb

    ★ 4.3 (21k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    When a gaming mogul is found decapitated in his locked playroom, Eve Dallas must navigate the cutthroat world where virtual fantasy meets real murder.

  24. The Killer Inside Me

    Jim Thompson

    ★ 3.8 (21k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Deputy Sheriff Lou Ford hides a dormant 'sickness' that, once reawakened, shatters his placid facade with brutal consequences in a quiet Texas town.

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