20 Must Read Mystery Books as Recommended by Mystery Writers

Set in post-war England and featuring Miss Marple as the lead detective, Christie said, “I thought all the characters interesting to write about and felt I knew them quite well by the time the book was finished.” The case begins when the villagers of Chipping Cleghorn find a notice that a murder will take place at 6:30 p.m. on October 29th. From there, Christie weaves a tale of terror, redemption, and the messiness of the post-war era.

When Christie responded to the fan, she called Endless Night her “own favourite at present.” When penniless Michael Rogers discovers a beautiful estate, complete with an heiress, he thinks his dreams have come true. But Michael ignores the warnings of a curse from the elders in the village and finds himself trapped in a nightmare.

In 2022, Locke said this book was one of her most enjoyable recent reads. Set in a small Irish town, the novel features retired Chicago detective Cal Hooper, whose plans for a peaceful respite after years of work are upended when he is drawn into the case of a missing boy.

This murder mystery takes us to the posh Brooklyn neighborhood of Imani Banks, where a famous director has just been murdered, and his wife, Imani’s best friend, has gone missing. The neighbors suspect the wife killed her husband and fled, but Imani doesn’t believe them. Locke blurbed this book as “a deftly plotted, smartly observed page-turner.”

Cosby listed this story of an elite assassin as one of his favorites of 2021. Nena Knight is working for an elite business syndicate called the Tribe after being captured and kidnapped as a young girl. But when a mission goes wrong, and she ends up saving a life rather than ending one, Nena decides she wants out of the Tribe. Further complicating matters is the new Tribe executive, who had a hand in destroying Nena’s village and is now facing down her quest for vengeance.

Seventeen-year-old Sarabeth is rebelling against her parents, their fundamentalist religion, and life in rural Arkansas. One terrifying night, she is captured by a masked man and found by the side of the highway, bloodstained but alive. Though Sarabeth survived, her family treats her as tainted, and she eventually flees in search of a new life. Five years later, investigator Nick Farrow tracks Sarabeth down and asks for her help in the case of a missing girl, which bears striking similarities to her own ordeal.

When Yara Gibson returns to her hometown of Palmdale, California, she’s looking to celebrate her parents’ anniversary and then get out of town. But a text message that reads, “I have information that will change your life.” comes to her from her estranged friend Felicia Campbell. By the next day, Felicia has been found dead in the lake, and Yara is in possession of files relating to a past tragedy that may reveal earth-shattering secrets. Cosby blurbed this book, saying that the author “continues to shatter the boundaries of crime fiction.”

Edwards also listed this novel, about a British barrister from a Caribbean background, as a favorite. Perfect for fans of legal mysteries and thrillers, it features barrister Lee Mitchell who is sucked into the debauched world of her rich client as she navigates race and innocence in modern England.

A web of spies, traitors, and detectives forms a web in this book set in England during World War II. When a paratrooper falls to his death on the Farleigh Place estate, Ben Creswell is tasked with finding out if the man might have been a clandestine German operative. Meanwhile, Ben is wrestling with his own romantic entanglement with Pamela, one of the daughters living on the estate, who herself is employed in a secret part of the war effort. Penny praised the book saying, “the plotting is razor sharp and ingenious.”

Like Penny, William Kent Krueger is known for the strong sense of place in his Cork O’Connor mysteries. Set in Minnesota, the novel follows retired cop O’Connor as he deals with a marital breakdown, a murdered judge, and a missing Eagle Scout. Penny said that “with this novel, Kent Krueger elevated the crime fiction genre into something very special.”

“I LOVE this book,” says Penny of this mystery set in 1700s China. Featuring an exiled imperial librarian trying to solve the murder of a Jesuit astronomer, Penny praised the book as “atmospheric.”

Set on Shetland Island, this novel opens with the discovery of the body of local teenager Catherine Ross. The townspeople point toward loner Magnus Tait as the likely suspect, but Detective Jimmy Perez and his officers from the mainland suspect there are deeper, darker secrets at work on the island. Penny praised this as a “wonderful book.”

According to Goodreads, Howzell Hall gave this five stars. The first in a series, Cha’s novel introduces us to Juniper Song, an amateur sleuth in Los Angeles who is asked by her friend to look into an alleged affair between his father and an employee. Inspired by the noir novels she loved as a young kid, Juniper dives into the dark underbelly of the city to solve the mystery.

This mystery/thriller, first published in Brazil, got another five-star ranking from Howzell Hall. Perfect Days is a thriller about a young medical student, Teo, who becomes dangerously obsessed with aspiring screenwriter Clarice. Teo stalks Clarice and kidnaps her with the belief that he can convince her they’re meant to be together. But as Teo becomes increasingly desperate, Clarice is drawn further into her nightmares in this fast-paced and twisted read.