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  1. Genres
  2. ›Mystery

Best Mystery Books

Mystery and detective fiction

2,086 summaries

Showing 121–144 of 2,086

  1. Bag of Bones

    Stephen King

    ★ 3.9 (173k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Four years after his wife's death, a grieving novelist returns to his haunted Maine summerhouse, only to be pulled into a custody battle and a terrifying supernatural mystery demanding he confront the malevolent secrets lurking within Sara Laughs.

  2. The Rainmaker

    John Grisham

    ★ 4.0 (173k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A broke, unproven law school graduate takes on a monolithic, corrupt insurance giant to expose a billion-dollar scam and fight for a dying boy's denied medical care, risking everything against the nation's most formidable legal defense.

  3. Leviathan Wakes

    James S.A. Corey

    ★ 4.3 (171k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    In a solar system close to war, a jaded detective and an idealistic ice-miner find a derelict ship. This discovery uncovers a conspiracy that threatens to start an interstellar conflict between Earth, Mars, and the Asteroid Belt.

  4. Naked in Death

    J.D. Robb

    ★ 4.1 (167k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    In 2058 New York, a cynical homicide detective investigates the murder of a senator's daughter, uncovering high-society secrets, illicit passions, and a dangerous attraction to her prime suspect, a charismatic billionaire.

  5. Career of Evil

    Robert Galbraith

    ★ 4.2 (167k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A severed leg sent through the mail starts private investigators Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott on a search for a killer from Strike's past before more body parts, and lives, are lost.

  6. Sphere

    Michael Crichton

    ★ 3.8 (167k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Beneath the crushing pressure of the Pacific, a team of scientists unearths a colossal, centuries-old spaceship, only to discover its true terror lies not in its alien origins, but in the dark reflections it casts upon their own minds.

  7. Snow Falling on Cedars

    David Guterson

    ★ 3.8 (166k) average on GoodreadsLiterary Fiction

    On an island shrouded in mist and prejudice, a murder trial unearths a buried wartime secret and the tragic echoes of a forbidden love affair between a white boy and a Japanese girl.

  8. The Westing Game

    Ellen Raskin

    ★ 4.0 (165k) average on GoodreadsChildren's

    Sixteen varied heirs get pulled into a clever game by an unusual millionaire after his death, each a suspect and a piece in his final, confusing puzzle.

  9. State of Wonder

    Ann Patchett

    ★ 3.9 (164k) average on GoodreadsLiterary Fiction

    In the Amazon, Dr. Marina Singh searches for her vanished mentor, confronting scientific marvels and personal demons, uncovering a mystery that blurs groundbreaking medicine with ethical sacrifice.

  10. Plain Truth

    Jodi Picoult

    ★ 4.0 (164k) average on Goodreads

    A big-city lawyer defending an Amish woman accused of infanticide must navigate a clash of cultures, a client who refuses to cooperate, and her own buried desires to uncover the truth in a seemingly peaceful Pennsylvania town.

  11. Shutter Island

    Dennis Lehane

    ★ 4.1 (163k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A U.S. Marshal investigates a vanished patient from a remote asylum for the criminally insane, only to confront a spiraling hurricane, sinister medical secrets, and the terrifying possibility that his own identity is the most dangerous illusion of all.

  12. The Invention of Hugo Cabret

    Brian Selznick

    ★ 4.2 (163k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    In a 1930s Paris train station, an orphaned clockmaker's quest to fix a broken automaton reveals a secret linking his past to a reclusive toymaker and the start of cinema.

  13. Fool Moon

    Jim Butcher

    ★ 4.0 (162k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    When a gruesome murder with animal hallmarks appears under a full moon, Chicago's only professional wizard, Harry Dresden, must hunt a monstrous killer before more victims die from a lycanthropic curse.

  14. The Haunting of Hill House

    Shirley Jackson

    ★ 3.8 (162k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Four strangers seeking proof of the paranormal find themselves ensnared by Hill House, a malevolent entity that hungers for the fragile mind of one lonely woman to claim as its own.

  15. A is for Alibi

    Sue Grafton

    ★ 3.9 (162k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A twice-divorced P.I. with a soft spot for lost causes takes on the cold case of a woman convicted of killing her husband, only to uncover a second corpse and a sharper edge to her own investigation.

  16. Flowers in the Attic

    V.C. Andrews

    ★ 3.8 (161k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Trapped in an attic by their greedy mother and cruel grandmother, four beautiful children fight for survival and sanity as years of isolation twist their innocence into a desperate struggle for freedom and revenge.

  17. The Wide Window

    Lemony Snicket

    ★ 3.9 (160k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    Three resourceful orphans face hungry leeches, a treacherous hurricane, and a villain's disguise while trying to uncover the truth behind their guardian's suspicious 'accident' in a house teetering over a perilous lake.

  18. Congo

    Michael Crichton

    ★ 3.6 (159k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A primatologist and a talking gorilla join a desperate expedition into the heart of the Congo, where a lost city, deadly diamond mines, and a terrifying, intelligent species of ape guard the secrets of a massacred research team.

  19. The Bone Collector

    Jeffery Deaver

    ★ 4.2 (158k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A quadriplegic forensic genius, confined to his bed, guides a young detective through New York's streets to decipher clues left by a serial killer who dismembers victims based on a forgotten historical terror.

  20. Verity

    Colleen Hoover

    ★ 4.3 (158k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A writer ghostwriting for an injured author finds a chilling autobiography that blurs truth and manipulation, forcing a choice between love and a devastating secret.

  21. The Dry

    Jane Harper

    ★ 4.0 (156k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Amidst a devastating drought, a federal agent returns to his isolated hometown to investigate a friend's murder, only to unearth a shared, long-buried secret that threatens to expose the town's darkest truths.

  22. I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer

    Michelle McNamara

    ★ 4.1 (155k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A tenacious true crime journalist's obsessive, posthumously published investigation into the Golden State Killer exposes the chilling details of his reign of terror and the wreckage left in his wake.

  23. The Black Echo

    Michael Connelly

    ★ 4.1 (155k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Haunted by his past as a Vietnam 'tunnel rat,' LAPD detective Harry Bosch navigates departmental corruption and personal demons to find a killer, forcing him to choose between justice and vengeance.

  24. THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD

    Agatha Christie

    ★ 4.2 (153k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    In a village full of secrets, a doctor gets caught in a web of lies and murder, where an unexpected confession shatters trust.

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