Nothing keeps a reader turning pages like a well-crafted mystery. You pledge to yourself you’ll go to sleep after just one more chapter—a promise you break as the mystery becomes even more thrilling as it goes on. Before you know it, it’s light outside and you have finished the entire book. The best mysteries will leave you feeling both shocked and satisfied by their conclusions.
Mystery is one of my favorite genres to read, and I worked elements of mystery into both my sci-fi and fantasy books. It’s a genre to enjoy for readers and one to study for writers. Here are ten addictive mystery novels that will keep you guessing till the very end.
1) The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
When rationalist Sherlock Holmes hears that a ghostly hound has killed Sir Charles Baskerville who has been said to haunt the family for generations, he dismisses it as nonsense. Immersed in another case, Holmes sends Dr. Watson to investigate and protect the Baskerville heir. Supernatural forces seem to be the only explanation for this mystery, but Holmes becomes determined to find the logical truth behind it.
No round-up of great mystery stories would be complete without the work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. After all, he created literature’s greatest and most well-known detective with Sherlock Holmes. This novel pits the supernatural against rationality, and good against evil, all against the backdrop of the wild moors.
2) And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Ten people—each hiding a shameful secret—are invited to an isolated mansion on Indian Island where their mysterious host fails to appear. The guests are cut off from everything but each other. As they share their darkest secrets, the guests are killed off one by one. The remaining guests must scramble to figure out the identity of the killer, or else they could be next.
Like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, any list of fantastic mystery novels just has to include a book by the Queen of Crime herself. This perfectly crafted closed-room mystery is the bestselling mystery novel of all time, and it’s not hard to see why. The book is full of tension that will keep you trying to figure out which of the guests is the killer.
3) The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
On a Christmas Eve night, guests at a party swap ghost stories. One guest tells a particularly frightening tale of a young girl and boy who lose both their parents and move to a large estate under the care of their uncle. The uncle hires a young governess to take care of the children who discovers that supernatural forces connect the children to their dead former governess and her lover. The young governess must scramble to regain control of the children before they slip from her grasp.
This sinister novella is a haunting story that blurs the lines between sanity and insanity. It’s a classic horror tale that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up as you race alongside the young governess to uncover the mystery of her possessed charges. After you read, you can enjoy watching The Haunting of Bly Manor, which is based on the story.
4) Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
It’s the night of perfect couple Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth anniversary when Nick’s beautiful and clever wife disappears. Under pressure from the authorities and Amy’s doting parents to find her, Nick starts to look more and more like he could be her killer. As new details come to light, it becomes clear that Amy isn’t who everyone thought she was, but neither is Nick.
This novel was a huge international bestseller and was adapted into a critically acclaimed film starring Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck and directed by David Fincher. The book’s unreliable narrators keep you guessing throughout the book, and a shocking twist is so well-executed that you’ll find yourself flipping back through the book to read the pages with new eyes.
5) Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight
Kate’s in the middle of a business meeting when she gets a call from her daughter’s private school. Kate is told that her daughter Amelia has been suspended for cheating on a test and she must pick her up right away. When Kate arrives at the school, she finds that Amelia has seemingly jumped off the roof and killed herself. Convinced that her daughter was murdered, Kate sifts through her emails, texts, and social media to uncover the truth.
Like Gone Girl, Reconstructing Amelia is part crime story, part relationship drama. You feel for Kate and her grief, and it’s fascinating to see half the story through Amelia’s eyes as Kate combs through her various forms of communication in the days leading up to her death. This is a mystery that will appeal to both young adult and adult audiences.
6) The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
Clarice Starling, a young trainee at the FBI Academy, is assigned to help catch a serial killer— known only as Buffalo Bill—who is stalking women. Clarice goes to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, known as Hannibal the Cannibal, who is imprisoned in the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. He is a former psychiatrist who has an intimate understanding of Buffalo Bill and Clarice herself. Clarice needs his help to catch the killer but must avoid getting caught up in Hannibal’s web.
You’ve probably seen or at least heard of the film The Silence of the Lambs starring Jodi Foster and Sir Anthony Hopkins. While the film is excellent and well-deserving of the many Academy Awards it won, the novel is also fantastic and well worth a read. It’s fascinating to watch Clarice juggle two sociopathic criminals as she works to investigate the novel’s central mystery. If you enjoy this book, you should pick up Red Dragon in which the intriguing, menacing Hannibal Lecter first appears.
7) The Secret History by Donna Tartt
When Richard Papen starts out as a student at small, elite Hampden College, he becomes entranced by a group of tight-knit classics students—particularly by the beautiful Camilla. As he’s drawn into this crowd, their charismatic classics professor shows them a way of thinking that is far superior to that of their banal contemporaries. But then something unthinkable happens, and Richard must decide how loyal he truly is to this band of eccentric misfits.
The Secret History is not a traditional mystery—the reader learns the identity of the killers right away. Instead, the novel traces back and slowly reveals how the murder happened and the circumstances behind it. With fantastic character development and beautiful writing, this is a great book to read whether you’re a mystery fan or not.
8) The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Susie Salmon was fourteen when she was murdered on December 6, 1973. Now she’s adjusting to her new life in heaven and watching the members of her family move on after her death from above. She watches her friends swap rumors about Susie’s disappearance, her killer working to cover his tracks, and her grief-stricken family unraveling.
Like The Secret History, this is a mystery that reveals who the killer is almost immediately. We watch as Susie’s family grapples with her murder and tries to solve the mystery that for us, the readers, has already been solved. This is a quieter sort of mystery with a great deal of focus on developing the characters and adding hope and humor to a tragic situation.
9) No One Will Miss Her by Kat Rosenfield
On a lovely October morning in rural Maine, a homicide investigator for the state police arrives in the hardscrabble town of Copper Falls. The local junkyard is burning, the local pariah Lizzie Oullette is dead, and her husband Duane has disappeared. Detective Ian Bird’s inquiries direct him several hours south to a swank city townhouse. Adrienne Richards is a blonde social media influencer and wife of a disgraced billionaire who had been renting Lizzie’s lake house as a country getaway. As Adrienne’s connection to the case becomes clear, so does her connection to Lizzie, who narrates the story from beyond the grave.
This character-driven mystery received starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Booklist. The book is sharply written and full of satirical wit. Twist after twist will keep you turning pages. You will work to uncover the mystery but Rosenfield will always be one step ahead.
10) Summer of Regret by Mark Weaver
Pete Whiticker returns to Lake Johnson in 1986. His head is full of both joyful and tragic boyhood memories of this town during the summer of 1967. There was a murder that still haunts the town and he and his friends are pushed to search for the real killer.
This story’s wonderful writing encapsulates what it’s like to return to your hometown after a long absence. The setting is well-drawn and the characters feel real and relatable. One fantastic bonus of this story is that you can read it for free right here on Fictionate!
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