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  1. Genres
  2. ›Mystery

Best Mystery Books

Mystery and detective fiction

2,086 summaries

Showing 1,921–1,944 of 2,086

  1. Science Fair

    Dave Barry

    ★ 3.9 (2k) average on GoodreadsChildren's

    When a middle school science fair becomes the battleground for a cash-strapped kid with Discount Warehouse shoes and his friends against an international dictator's plot to infiltrate the U.S. government with corrupting software, a laser-eyed owl, and disgruntled eBay buyers, levitating frogs are the least of their worries.

  2. Dreadful Sorry

    Kathryn Reiss

    ★ 4.1 (2k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    After a near-drowning, seventeen-year-old Molly finds her nightmares manifesting as vivid visions, pulling her into the century-old mystery of a girl who once inhabited her own house.

  3. Extreme Measures

    Vince Flynn

    ★ 3.9 (2k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    When a dedicated counterterrorism operative is betrayed by the very government he swore to protect, he must fight to clear his name while uncovering a conspiracy that threatens the nation he loves.

  4. The Wanderers

    Richard Price

    ★ 3.9 (2k) average on Goodreads

    In the Bronx of the early '60s, the Wanderers navigate rival gangs, indifferent adults, and their own urges, all to a doo-wop beat.

  5. Executive

    Leslie Wolfe

    ★ 4.1 (2k) average on GoodreadsPolitics

    When a rogue drone turns a Florida highway into a kill zone, an executive uncovers a conspiracy of corporate greed and poor leadership behind the very technology designed to protect, threatening to expose a deadly secret that reaches the highest levels of power.

  6. The Resurrectionist

    James Bradley

    ★ 2.8 (2k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    In 1826 London, a young anatomist's ambition to study cadavers pulls him into a corrupt world of body snatchers and murder, where the line between life and death blurs with every stolen corpse.

  7. Death by Denim

    Linda Gerber

    ★ 4.0 (2k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    In Paris, a teen girl trying to outrun assassins and follow her mother's survival rules struggles with her feelings for her boyfriend, leading her to a deadly confrontation in Italy that puts them both in danger.

  8. Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things

    Wendelin Van Draanen

    ★ 4.2 (2k) average on GoodreadsChildren's

    During a disastrous summer camping trip, reluctant camper Sammy finds an injured condor and a dangerous poacher, pulling her into a wilderness mystery with unexpected romantic turns.

  9. The Dark Side of Nowhere

    Neal Shusterman

    ★ 3.7 (2k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    In the seemingly idyllic town of Billington, Jason's ordinary bad day spirals into a terrifying mystery as he realizes his own identity, and everyone else's, is a meticulously constructed lie.

  10. The Dead Man in Indian Creek

    Mary Downing Hahn

    ★ 3.9 (2k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    When two boys discover a corpse by Indian Creek, their summer camping trip transforms into a chilling detective hunt as they spy on a suspicious new boyfriend and uncover dark secrets lurking within an antique store.

  11. Picture the Dead

    Adele Griffin

    ★ 3.5 (2k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    In 1860s New York, a grieving orphan haunted by her dead fiancé's doppelgänger must decipher spectral clues to unravel the mystery of his true fate and reclaim her future.

  12. Passion

    Lauren Kate

    ★ 3.9 (2k) average on GoodreadsRomance

    To break a cursed cycle of reincarnation and tragic loss, Luce explores her past lives, reliving centuries of forbidden romance with Daniel while he desperately pursues her, fearing she might unravel their very existence.

  13. Velocity

    Dean Koontz

    ★ 3.9 (2k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A bartender's ordinary life shatters into a high-speed nightmare when he's forced to choose which innocent person dies next, making him the unwilling puppet in a psychopath's deadly game.

  14. Layer Cake

    J.J. Connolly

    ★ 4.0 (2k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A smooth-talking London cocaine dealer, aiming for early retirement, finds his exit from the criminal underworld unraveling into a deadly 'layer cake' of double-crosses, neo-Nazis, and a missing socialite, forcing him to become a hitman just to survive.

  15. Never Go Back

    Lee Child

    ★ 3.7 (2k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    An ex-military drifter returns to his old unit's headquarters to meet a captivating voice, only to be charged with a 16-year-old murder and forcibly reinstated into the army. His nostalgic visit quickly becomes a fight for freedom and survival.

  16. Contagion

    Erin Bowman

    ★ 3.8 (1k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A routine rescue mission to a desolate mining planet turns into a horrifying fight for survival when a skeleton crew unearths a parasitic alien horror that can reanimate the dead and rewrite human minds.

  17. The Lifeguard

    Richie Tankersley Cusick

    ★ 3.6 (1k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    On a glamorous island where sunny beaches hide a dark secret, a teenager’s summer dream turns into a nightmare of suspicious drownings and the chilling realization that the lifeguards meant to save lives might be the ones taking them.

  18. Love Among the Walnuts

    Jean Ferris

    ★ 4.0 (1k) average on GoodreadsChildren's

    When his bumbling, greedy uncles accidentally put his parents and a chicken into a mysterious coma with a poisoned birthday cake, Sandy, with the help of his loyal butler and a quirky nurse, must unravel the mystery to save his family and their fortune.

  19. Jude

    Kate Morgenroth

    ★ 4.2 (1k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    After seeing his father murdered, fifteen-year-old Jude navigates silence, political schemes, and family secrets in a desperate bid for his DA mother's approval, only to find his quest for acceptance turning into a burning desire for revenge.

  20. The Haunted House

    Charles Dickens

    ★ 3.1 (1k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    In a Victorian country house known for local legends, a determined narrator and his literary friends face the supernatural, each sharing their chilling encounters on Twelfth Night in a collection of ghost stories compiled by Charles Dickens.

  21. Belladonna

    Fiona Paul

    ★ 4.0 (1k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    In Renaissance Italy, where vampires and secret societies thrive, Cassandra must navigate intrigue, forbidden love, and deadly truths to save her fiancé, only to find her artist love tangled in the very Order she fights.

  22. The Prize

    Julie Garwood

    ★ 3.9 (1k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    After a forced marriage in post-conquest England, a Saxon captive and a Norman baron navigate treachery and a growing passion, their love a fragile prize amidst clashing cultures.

  23. The Halo Effect

    M.J. Rose

    ★ 3.6 (1k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A Manhattan sex therapist enters the dangerous world of high-class escorts and ritualistic murders when her patient, a call girl with an explosive memoir, vanishes, forcing her to go undercover to expose the powerful men who might be involved.

  24. In the Forest

    Edna O'Brien

    ★ 3.6 (1k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A young, isolated boy's idyllic forest life shatters when a charismatic but dangerous stranger, haunted by his own past, invades their remote Irish home, blurring the lines between protector and predator.

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