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  1. Genres
  2. ›Mystery

Best Mystery Books

Mystery and detective fiction

2,086 summaries

Showing 1,513–1,536 of 2,086

  1. Cooking for Picasso

    Camille Aubray

    ★ 3.9 (6k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    In 1936, a young chef on the French Riviera cooks for a disguised Pablo Picasso, starting a mystery and a legacy that connects art, love, and family secrets across generations, from the Côte d'Azur to present-day New York.

  2. Island

    Aldous Huxley

    ★ 3.8 (6k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Shipwrecked on a utopian island, a cynical journalist sent to orchestrate its downfall finds his own values transformed by the society he was sent to destroy.

  3. Shades of Gray

    Brooke McKinley

    ★ 4.0 (6k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    An FBI agent's rigid view of good and bad breaks down when he falls for the drug runner he's trying to flip, leading them to flee a cartel boss and navigate their forbidden attraction.

  4. The Body in the Woods

    April Henry

    ★ 3.9 (6k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Three teen rescuers, each dealing with personal issues, find a murdered girl in the Oregon wilderness, forcing them to work together and unmask a killer before they become the next victims.

  5. Once Was Lost

    Sara Zarr

    ★ 3.7 (6k) average on GoodreadsSpirituality

    A pastor's daughter's faith is tested when her mother enters rehab and a local girl is kidnapped, forcing her to confront the fragile line between belief and despair.

  6. Double or Die

    Charlie Higson

    ★ 4.1 (6k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Before he was 007, a young James Bond deciphers cryptic clues to save a kidnapped professor and the world from a global threat.

  7. The Clue of the Leaning Chimney

    Carolyn Keene

    ★ 3.9 (6k) average on GoodreadsChildren's

    Nancy Drew must unravel a perplexing trail of stolen Chinese vases, missing persons, and a cryptic leaning chimney to save a pottery shop owner from financial ruin, only to discover it leads to even deeper mysteries.

  8. The Christmas Thief

    Mary Higgins Clark

    ★ 3.6 (6k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A former scam artist, newly out of prison, races against time and an unwitting public to reclaim a flask of priceless diamonds hidden in the branches of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, all while an amateur sleuth and her PI friend, along with a newly-missing victim of his past scheme, unknowingly close in.

  9. Nobody

    Jennifer Lynn Barnes

    ★ 3.4 (6k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    In a world where forgotten 'Nobodies' are trained as assassins, a teenage girl who slipped through the cracks finds her only connection to existence in the boy sent to eliminate her.

  10. The Ghost of Blackwood Hall

    Carolyn Keene

    ★ 3.9 (6k) average on GoodreadsChildren's

    Nancy Drew investigates stolen jewels, strange warnings, and a haunted mansion, all while fighting a hoax that convinces victims to avoid her help, leading her from River Heights to the French Quarter.

  11. The Assignment

    Evangeline Anderson

    ★ 3.6 (6k) average on GoodreadsRomance

    A stoic detective secretly loves his straight partner. When they go undercover as a gay couple at a resort, their friendship turns into forbidden passion.

  12. The Mark of the Dragonfly

    Jaleigh Johnson

    ★ 4.1 (6k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    An orphan salvager finds a girl with a king's mark, sending them on a dangerous train journey. They are pursued by a green-eyed boy and a looming threat, all while uncovering the girl's mysterious past.

  13. The Body of Christopher Creed

    Carol Plum-Ucci

    ★ 3.9 (6k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Christopher Creed, the town outcast, vanishes, uncovering a web of secrets and shifting suspicion to unexpected people, changing the lives of those left behind.

  14. Paradise Lost

    John Milton

    ★ 4.1 (6k) average on GoodreadsYoung Adult

    Lucifer, a rebel angel, orchestrates humanity's fall in the Garden of Eden, starting a long conflict between divine justice and human choice.

  15. Treasure Hunters

    James Patterson

    ★ 4.2 (6k) average on GoodreadsChildren's

    The Kidd siblings, experienced shipwreck divers, go on their most dangerous treasure hunt yet. They fight pirates and rivals to learn why their parents vanished and find them before it is too late.

  16. The Tenth Gift

    Jane Johnson

    ★ 3.8 (6k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    A 17th-century embroidery book, revealing a Cornish woman's enslavement by Barbary pirates, leads a modern Londoner to Morocco, where she uncovers ancient secrets and finds her heart entangled by history.

  17. Walking Dead

    C.E. Murphy

    ★ 4.1 (6k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    On a chaotic Halloween, Seattle detective and reluctant shaman Joanne Walker must wrangle a city overrun by talkative zombies, the Wild Hunt, and a host of other undead party crashers, all while her mentor is missing and there's no magical manual for this particular apocalypse.

  18. Deadly Little Voices

    Laurie Faria Stolarz

    ★ 4.2 (6k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A high school junior with psychometric powers hears terrifying, berating voices and has chilling premonitions of danger, all while navigating a complex love triangle and her mentally unstable aunt's unsettling presence.

  19. The Good Son

    You-Jeong Jeong

    ★ 3.7 (6k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A young man with fractured memories must piece together the bloody fragments of the night his mother was murdered, only to discover the most terrifying suspect might be himself.

  20. Cop Hater

    Ed McBain

    ★ 3.8 (6k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    An unknown assassin targets detectives of the 87th Precinct, forcing Detective Steve Carella through underworld secrets and danger to unmask the killer.

  21. The Janissary Tree

    Jason Goodwin

    ★ 3.5 (6k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    In 1836 Istanbul, as the Ottoman Empire faces modernization, a clever eunuch detective must solve a series of brutal murders that threaten to revive the Janissaries' power and throw the sultan's court into chaos.

  22. Monkey Beach

    Eden Robinson

    ★ 4.0 (6k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    In the Haisla territory, a young woman with premonitions and ancestral spirits searches for her drowned brother, navigating a world where ancient traditions meet modern grief along the Pacific coast.

  23. Descendant of the Crane

    Joan He

    ★ 3.7 (6k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    In a kingdom where magic is illegal and emotions are traded, a princess risks her throne and life, hiring a forbidden soothsayer and a criminal to find her father's killer amid court deceptions.

  24. A Judgement in Stone

    Ruth Rendell

    ★ 3.9 (6k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A housekeeper's secret illiteracy leads to a Valentine's Day massacre, showing how shame and desperation can drive extreme violence.

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