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  1. Genres
  2. ›Mystery

Best Mystery Books

Mystery and detective fiction

2,086 summaries

Showing 985–1,008 of 2,086

  1. Scat

    Carl Hiaasen

    ★ 4.0 (18k) average on GoodreadsChildren's

    When their terrifying biology teacher vanishes after a swamp field trip, two students uncover a wild Everglades mystery involving a delinquent classmate, an eco-avenger, a stuffed rat, and a ticked-off panther.

  2. The Pale Horse

    Agatha Christie

    ★ 3.8 (18k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A dying confession, a murdered priest, and a cryptic list of names plunge Mark Easterbrook into a sinister world where an ancient evil may be orchestrating modern-day murders.

  3. The Dead of Night

    John Marsden

    ★ 4.2 (18k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    During an alien invasion that turned their world into a warzone, Ellie and her friends must become resourceful fighters, risking everything to rescue captured comrades and defy an unseen enemy.

  4. The Cradle Will Fall

    Mary Higgins Clark

    ★ 3.9 (18k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    In a hospital where healing and horror blur, a young prosecutor uncovers an abduction and a research project so twisted it threatens medicine.

  5. The 19th Christmas

    James Patterson

    ★ 3.9 (18k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    As Christmas nears, Detective Lindsay Boxer and the Women's Murder Club race to unmask "Loman," a criminal planning a deadly holiday surprise for San Francisco during a city-wide crime wave.

  6. The Escape Room

    Megan Goldin

    ★ 3.8 (18k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    In a Wall Street escape room where ambition is currency and betrayal the game, four cutthroat financiers must outwit a deadly puzzle designed to expose the dark truth behind a former colleague's disappearance, or become the next victims.

  7. One of Our Thursdays Is Missing

    Jasper Fforde

    ★ 4.0 (18k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    When the real Thursday Next retires, her fictional counterpart must navigate a looming genre war and a treacherous journey up the Metaphoric River to save the BookWorld from a fiendish plot.

  8. Memories of Midnight

    Sidney Sheldon

    ★ 3.7 (18k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Haunted by amnesia, Catherine Douglas must recall her past to escape a powerful tycoon who murdered her husband and now wants her silenced.

  9. Black List

    Brad Thor

    ★ 4.2 (18k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Framed and hunted by his own government, counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath must outrun an elite kill squad and expose a clandestine 'black list' to prevent the most devastating terrorist attack in U.S. history.

  10. The Monstrumologist

    Rick Yancey

    ★ 3.9 (18k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    In a gaslit 19th-century world, an orphaned assistant to a monstrumologist must confront the horrifying line between man and monster when a grave robber's find unleashes their most deadly and morally ambiguous case yet.

  11. The Dogs of Babel

    Carolyn Parkhurst

    ★ 3.6 (18k) average on GoodreadsLiterary Fiction

    Grief-stricken and desperate, a linguist attempts the impossible task of teaching his dog to speak in order to unlock the mysterious circumstances surrounding his beloved wife's sudden death.

  12. The High Window

    Raymond Chandler

    ★ 4.1 (18k) average on Goodreads

    In sun-drenched, noir-tinged Pasadena, Philip Marlowe unravels a web of greed, exploitation, and murder beneath a wealthy widow's veneer, all sparked by a missing daughter-in-law and a coveted gold coin.

  13. Forgotten

    Cat Patrick

    ★ 3.8 (18k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    A girl whose memory resets each night, leaving her with only glimpses of the future, must piece together a forgotten past to save herself from a looming threat she can't remember.

  14. Tropic of Capricorn

    Henry Miller

    ★ 3.8 (18k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    This book tells the story of a man adrift in 1920s Brooklyn, where explicit desires and the gritty pulse of New York's underbelly clash in a literary work that defied the nation.

  15. The Scent of Rain and Lightning

    Nancy Pickard

    ★ 3.8 (18k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    When the man convicted of murdering her father is released, a young woman in small-town Kansas must confront the secrets of her family's past and the connection she shares with her enemy's son.

  16. The Mask

    Owen West

    ★ 3.8 (18k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A childless couple adopts a mysterious, amnesiac teenager, only to find her past is more dangerous than they imagined, turning their dream of parenthood into a nightmare.

  17. Murder Is Easy

    Agatha Christie

    ★ 3.8 (18k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    When a seemingly eccentric old woman on a train warns of a serial killer in her quaint village before dying herself, ex-policeman Luke Fitzwilliam is drawn into a web of 'accidental' deaths, only to discover that in Wychwood, murder is terrifyingly easy to disguise.

  18. The Reef

    Nora Roberts

    ★ 3.9 (18k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A marine archaeologist and a salvager dive into the Caribbean, battling deception and desire to find a cursed amulet and solve a mysterious death.

  19. The Sound of Glass

    Karen White

    ★ 4.0 (18k) average on GoodreadsRomance

    A widow dealing with guilt inherits her reclusive husband's ancestral Lowcountry home. She unearths a buried history, forcing her to confront family secrets and her own path to healing amidst the pluff mud and jasmine.

  20. Dark Rivers of the Heart

    Dean Koontz

    ★ 3.9 (17k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    After stepping through a mysterious red door, Spencer Grant is plunged into a relentless chase, hunted by a shadowy agency and an 'Angel of Death,' all while battling a fragmented memory and the terrifying resurgence of his own buried inner demons.

  21. The Bronze Key

    Cassandra Clare, Holly Black

    ★ 4.1 (17k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    At the Magisterium, Call, Tamara, and Aaron must unmask a killer whose dark magic threatens their school, forcing them to confront the terrifying duality of power.

  22. The Prestige

    Christopher Priest

    ★ 3.9 (17k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    In a Victorian world of gaslight and illusion, two rival magicians begin a century-spanning feud, blurring the lines between stagecraft and terrifying science, leaving a legacy of obsession and dark secrets for their descendants to unravel.

  23. The Secret Scripture

    Sebastian Barry

    ★ 3.8 (17k) average on GoodreadsLiterary Fiction

    Confined for decades, an elderly woman’s secret memoir, intertwined with her psychiatrist's journal, unearths a harrowing, passionate history of love, loss, and the hidden brutalities of 20th-century Ireland.

  24. The Voice of the Night

    Dean Koontz

    ★ 3.9 (17k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A timid teenager's fascination with his charismatic, death-obsessed best friend drags him into a escalating game of terror where the line between observer and participant blurs with every chilling act.

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