The crime genre has grown huge lately, with plenty of true crime books, documentaries, podcasts, and whodunits popping up daily. Quite a few explanations are floating around online about why people are obsessed with crime and true crime stories. Some are trying to solve the mystery, and others enjoy the adrenaline rush and like being scared. But in a controlled way while staying in their secure environment, aka, the bedroom. However, the story doesn’t need to be “true” to be compelling.
True crime stories are not for the weak-gutted. Many, wishing to have a similar experience, opt for fictional crime tales instead. Does it make the experience of indulging in the crime story a little easier if we know it’s fictional? Arguably, yes. Although fictional tales take that uneasy feeling off the chest, it doesn’t change the fact that horrific things happen in the world. After all, many movies and the best crime novels are inspired and sourced by real-life events. Further down, we will explore this topic in the “traditional” medium – crime books.
Perhaps there’s no better way to indulge in that detective, CSI-worthy experience than by reading mystery books. Generally, books are superior in the sense that we are allowed space for imagination. Watching movies, we are constricted by visual boundaries – we’re given all the visual cues, leaving us with no room for interpretation. However, in murder mystery books, we have the freedom to visualize the scene, the location, and the characters. It all adds to the investigator/detective experience we are looking for when reading crime novels.
And luckily for all you head-scratcher fanatics, there are plenty of good mystery books to discover. Below, you will find our selection of the best crime books, and let us know if you’ve read any of these. Also, tell us what book is next on your “to-read” list!
#1 Dirt Town By Hayley Scrivenor
In the slow-burning mystery Dirt Town, a 12-year-old girl from a small Australian community goes missing. The small town of Durton, also known as Dirt Creek, is full of mysteries. On the surface, it appears to be the perfect place to raise a family. Still, when 12-year-old Esther doesn’t come home after school, the town and its residents come under scrutiny. What appears to be a good town is actually full of unsavory secrets. Secrets come to light throughout the police investigation, leading to a startling revelation regarding Esther’s disappearance. The writing is excellent, the characters are believable, and the storyline is gripping and evocative enough that you will not want to put it down.
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#2 The Sleeping And The Dead By Ann Cleeves
A diving instructor makes a horrifying find in Cranwell Lake – a teenager’s body that had obviously been submerged for a very long time. Upon arriving on the scene, detective Peter Porteous determines that the body is that of Michael Grey, a mysterious and reclusive young man who was reported missing by his foster parents in 1972. This solid detective narrative avoids crime fiction’s typical hard-drinking, hard-living protagonist. The characterization is outstanding, and the plot is well-placed. It’s a real page-turner in our books!
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#3 The Murders At Fleat House By Lucinda Riley
A female detective who left her position earlier that year returns to work as the plot centers on the murder of a seventeen-year-old teenager at Fleat House, a small private boarding school in rural Norfolk. The Murders At Fleat House is another exquisite book by Lucinda Riley. She undoubtedly had a knack for writing murder mysteries. You are immediately drawn into the plot due to the beautiful world and character-building she does.
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#4 Daisy Darker By Alice Feeney
Daisy Darker makes her way to her grandmother’s home to celebrate her 80th birthday. Nana has invited her family to her house on a small, isolated island to celebrate. Since the Darker family hasn’t been together in one location for more than ten years, they will be blocked off from the outside world for eight hours when the tide comes in. When the tide subsides, and one family member is found dead, nothing will be the same again. A deliciously dark and sinister read. And guess what, you are warmly invited to the Darker family reunion! Will you accept the invitation?
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#5 Date With Betrayal By Julia Chapman
In the seventh novel in Julia Chapman’s Dales Detective series, Samson O’Brien, the black sheep of Bruncliffe, has been pursued by danger ever since he returned from London. A hitman has Samson O’Brien, the owner of the Dales Detective Agency, in his sights. Delilah Metcalfe tries to solicit help from the locals to protect O’Brien. However, the locals require convincing, as they have long recollections of the problems O’Brien has caused in the past. It’s a cruel pen that makes the reader suffer alongside characters they have grown to love. This book raises your hopes, then dashes them, and has you holding your breath more often than is considered healthy. It’s a pure escape from reality, but if you read one book, you’ll want to read them all, so beware!
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#6 Dream Town By David Baldacci
It’s 1952, and PI and WWII veteran Aloysius Archer is out to dinner with his friend and wannabe actress, Liberty Callahan. Eleanor Lamb, a screenwriter, interrupts their dinner to hire Archer as she worries about her safety and is looking for protection from an attacker. Eleanor first discovers a dead body inside her house and then vanishes herself. Archer is looking to find both Eleanor and the murderer. This book has a lot going on. The turns, hints, and clues keep you guessing and scratching your head until the very end. The plot is a fantastic rollercoaster ride with some heart-stopping free-falls. An absolute must-read for fans of the whodunit genre.
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#7 Into The Dark By Fiona Cummins
A horrible crime has been discovered in a beautiful family home in Midtown-on-Sea. The entire family – Piper, Gray, and their two teenage children – have all disappeared. A brilliant detective with a troubled history, DS Saul Anguish, must confront his own problems as he starts to piece together the traumatic story of the disappearance. This multi-layered thriller has intersecting lives and pasts and incredibly complex characters with twisted backgrounds. You get a sense of being on a rollercoaster that carries you with incredible momentum toward an outcome you cannot predict as the anxiety, fear, tension, and suspense mount.
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#8 The Darkest Sin By D. V. Bishop
When Cesare Aldo looks into a report of intruders at a convent in the northern section of the Renaissance city, he enters a neighborhood torn apart by savage rivalries and sinister secrets. His case becomes much more difficult when a naked man’s stabbed body is discovered. Despite how absurd it may appear, all the evidence points to one of the nuns being the murderer. In this sequel to City of Vengeance, the author D. V. Bishop produces a terrific historical thriller designed to keep you guessing, complete with gallows humor, hilarious one-liners, and a brilliant protagonist. You’ll never want to put down this gripping and engrossing thriller.
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#9 Die Twice By Andrew Grant
David Trevellyan is called to the British Consulate in Chicago after being forced to depart New York City in the aftermath of his prior assignment. To the same office where a rogue agent had attacked and killed his new handler a week earlier. When given the task of locating the agent and putting a halt to his cunning plan, Trevellyan quickly realizes that his only chance of rescuing many innocent lives rests in his own intuition. Excellent depth, a wonderful tale, and a great pace. When you’re done reading it, you’ll be genuinely sad. Still, it has a wonderfully gratifying ending and is a well-written novel.
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#10 The Interview By C. M. Ewan
It’s Friday at 5:00 p.m. You are in a building thirteen storeys above the city. You are attending an interview for the job you have always desired. You and the interviewer are the only ones present, and the interviewer’s questions are becoming more bizarre and unnerving. The only way to overcome your growing fear is to provide a solution to an apparently impossible question. The book is a thrilling, suspenseful thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. There is also twist after twist; some are so unexpected that they will leave you in disbelief. And it’s incredible how subtle elements that initially seem unimportant wind up being crucial to the plot. The Interview is terrifying and provides the reader with a constant adrenaline rush.
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#11 The Christie Affair By Nina De Gramont
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#12 The Streets By Jacqui Rose
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#13 The Heron’s Cry By Ann Cleeves
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#14 Daughters Of Night By Laura Shepherd-Robinson
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#15 Sixteen Horses By Greg Buchanan
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#16 Left You Dead By Peter James
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#17 A Gambling Man By David Baldacci
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#18 Sunset Swing By Ray Celestin
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#19 Riccardino By Andrea Camilleri
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#20 The Killing Tide By Lin Anderson
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#21 The Hound Of The Baskervilles By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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#22 Murder On The Orient Express By Agatha Christie
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#23 61 Hours By Lee Child
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#24 The Silence Of The Lambs By Thomas Harris
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#25 The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo By Stieg Larsson
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#26 The Surgeon By Tess Gerritsen
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#27 Death Comes As The End By Agatha Christie
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#28 To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee
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#29 The Mousetrap And Other Plays By Agatha Christie
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#30 The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd By Agatha Christie
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#31 The Black Echo By Michael Connelly
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#32 Cover Her Face By P. D. James
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#33 And Then There Were None By Agatha Christie
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#34 The Poet By Michael Connelly
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#35 Kiss The Girls By James Patterson
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#36 Cross Bones By Kathy Reichs
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#37 Big Little Lies By Liane Moriarty
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#38 The Thursday Murder Club By Richard Osman
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#39 The Broker By John Grisham
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#40 Origin By Dan Brown
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#41 It By Stephen King
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#42 The Wych Elm By Tana French
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#43 The Woman In The Window By A. J. Finn
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#44 The Killings At Badger’s Drift By Caroline Graham
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#45 The Hunt For Red October By Tom Clancy
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#46 Red Dragon By Thomas Harris
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#47 Scarpetta By Patricia Cornwell
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#48 Strangers On A Train By Patricia Highsmith
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#49 Triptych By Karin Slaughter
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#50 A Judgement In Stone By Ruth Rendell
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