The Best Mystery Books of 2024
Last updated: December 07, 2024
Welcome to our running list of the best mystery books of 2024. Our definition of mystery is broad, and can include any novel that has a crime at its heart with (ideally) an unexpected plot twist. Throughout the year, we'll be looking out for new mystery books as they're published and adding them whenever we think they're worth reading. On this list, we also include books that have been nominated for prestigious awards, like the Edgars in the US and the Dagger Awards in the UK. The shortlist for the Edgars was announced back in January, the Dagger shortlist in May. Bear in mind that these are the best books of the previous year, rather than the very latest—with the advantage that they're already likely to be in paperback.
See all our best novels of 2024 recommendations
The River We Remember
by William Kent Krueger
☆ Shortlisted for the 2024 Edgar Allan Poe Awards
The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger is a rather beautiful and somewhat sad book set in 1958, in a fictional town (Jewel) in a fictional county (Black Earth) in Minnesota. The story opens on Memorial Day with one of the town's leading men found in the Alabaster River, half-eaten by catfish after being killed by a shotgun. The investigation is led by the local sheriff, Brody Dern, but this is about the dynamics in a small town, so a variety of other characters feature as the plot unfolds.
The Hunter
by Tana French
The Hunter by Tana French is the second book featuring Cal Hooper, a Chicago cop who has retired to the Irish countryside (the first book was The Searcher, which you will need to read first). This is an extremely slow-burn mystery, as much about the relationships between various characters in a small Irish village as it is about the crime that gets committed. The audiobook, narrated by Roger Clarke, is superb. The plot of The Hunter revolves around an Englishman who comes to the village, apparently on a quest for gold he heard about from an elderly relation.
Bright Young Women
by Jessica Knoll
☆ Shortlisted for the 2024 Edgar Allan Poe Awards
Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll is a fictional account of the lives of the young women targeted by a real-life serial killer (Ted Bundy, though he is not named in the book) in the 1970s. The plot revolves around two main events: a vicious attack on a sorority at Florida State University, and the disappearance of a woman from Lake Sammamish State Park near Seattle. The story is grippingly told and, for non-American readers, has the added benefit of learning what exactly a sorority is.
Small Mercies
by Dennis Lehane
☆ Shortlisted for the 2024 CWA Gold Dagger
Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane is the heart-breaking story of Mary Pat Fennessy, a tough 42-year-old from Southie in Boston. The book is set in 1974, after a Massachusetts court ruled that Boston's public schools should integrate segregated communities through busing, and violence broke out. Lehane's writing makes you feel like you're there, experiencing that hot summer half a century ago, as Mary Pat searches for her missing daughter.
Black River
by Nilanjana Roy
☆ Shortlisted for the 2024 CWA Gold Dagger
The Black River by Nilanjana Roy is set in a village near Delhi, where a young girl is murdered after she witnesses something she shouldn't. It's a beautiful story of her father, a widower, and the friends he made before she was born, as well as how he copes after she's murdered.
Missing White Woman
by Kellye Garrett
Missing White Woman is the latest crime novel from American writer Kellye Garrett. This one is set in Jersey City, where a romantic weekend in an Airbnb overlooking Manhattan goes horribly wrong. What's fun about Garrett's books is that she uses social media as an integral part of her plots, which feels appropriate in this day and age.
All the Sinners Bleed
by S.A. Cosby
☆ Shortlisted for the 2024 Edgar Allan Poe Awards
🏆 An AudioFile Best Mystery/Suspense Audiobook of 2023
All the Sinners Bleed (2023) is the latest book by S.A. Cosby, a writer of crime novels set in the Southern United States. In this book, thankfully, the main character is on the right side of the law: he's a former FBI agent, now a sheriff in Virginia. The plot revolves around unspeakable crimes and a serial killer, with all the anguish of race relations at the forefront as the action unfolds.
One Perfect Couple
by Ruth Ware
One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware is a pageturner set on an island in Indonesia, where contestants from the UK have been brought to vie for the title of 'perfect couple' in a reality TV show. Ruth Ware is great at writing thrillers where you feel like you're there, participating in the experience alongside the main protagonist. In One Perfect Couple, her name is Lyla, a researcher on viruses, and you can't help but feel for her and her choices as she agrees to go in for the toe-curling reality TV format to support her actor boyfriend.
Over My Dead Body
by Maz Evans
☆ Shortlisted for the 2024 CWA Gold Dagger
Over My Dead Body by Maz Evans is a great mystery book to pick up if you're in the mood for laughter. According to the preface, this is Evans's first book for adults and it is very, very funny. The chief protagonist, Miriam Price, is a doctor who has been murdered after going on a bender and tries to arrange her own murder investigation from beyond the grave. The humour is tightly packed and possibly quite British, so it might be worth trying out a sample to see if you like it before buying the book.
Hunted
by Abir Mukherjee
Hunted by Abir Mukherjee is a standalone thriller that manages to be both a dramatic chase story and quite homely, celebrating family relationships. The book opens with an apparent suicide bombing at a mall in California and takes us to Washington State and across the United States to Florida. There's a dysfunctional FBI agent, uninspiring presidential candidates and a deep state conspiracy, all served up with Mukherjee's trademark humour. The book is nearly 500 pages but it's very more-ish so easy to read in a day or two (especially if you ignore your family and other domestic commitments).
An Honest Man
by Michael Koryta
☆ Shortlisted for the 2024 Edgar Allan Poe Awards
An Honest Man by Michael Koryta is the story of a man, Israel Pike, who returns to his home off the coast of Maine after spending 15 years in prison for killing his father. The book opens with him discovering a yacht in the water near his home, where a killing spree has taken place, with two politicians and a number of others dead. As the first on the scene, Pike falls under suspicion and the goings-on on the small island start to unravel.
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers
by Jesse Q. Sutanto and narrated by Eunice Wong
☆ Shortlisted for the 2024 CWA Gold Dagger
🏆 An AudioFile Best Mystery/Suspense Audiobook of 2023
“This is about a very fun character. She’s called Vera Wong and she runs Vera Wang’s Tea House in San Francisco. That’s on purpose: she wants to ghost off the name Vera Wang—but her teahouse is not very successful. She comes down one morning and there is a dead body. She sets out to figure out who the murderer is. She works through four different suspects—you’ve got the journalists, the brother of the dead man, his widow—and she gets to know each of them. She’s really trying to figure out who did it by inserting herself in their lives, which is a unique way to approach solving a mystery.” Read more...
Best Audiobooks of 2023 (so far)
Michele Cobb, Publisher
The Secret Hours
☆ Shortlisted for the 2024 CWA Gold Dagger
The Secret Hours is a standalone spy novel by Mick Herron, author of the very popular Slough House series. These are slow-burn reads, featuring dysfunctional bureaucracy and people—somewhat reminiscent of The Office—but in a spy setting. In this book, the action opens deep in the British countryside but is mainly set in contemporary London and Berlin after the end of the Cold War.
Tell Me What I Am
by Una Mannion
🏆 Winner of the 2024 CWA Gold Dagger
Tell Me What I Am by Una Mannion tells the story of Ruby, whose mother goes missing when she's little, and her aunt Nessa, who fights to get her back from her violent father. This is a story about domestic violence and the lives of the women affected by it, told with compassion.
Flags on the Bayou
by James Lee Burke
🏆 Winner of the 2024 Edgar Allan Poe Awards
Flags on the Bayou by James Lee Burke is a historical novel set in Louisiana during the American Civil War. A lot of crimes take place and the narrative is fast-moving, though there is no mystery as such. It's more about an eclectic crew of characters and how they cope on the run from justice. In the acknowledgments at the back of the book James Lee Burke—author of the Dave Robicheaux series, about a Louisana deputy sheriff—writes, "I consider Flags on the Bayou my best work." The judges of the Edgar Awards clearly liked it too, awarding it best novel.
Crook Manifesto
by Colson Whitehead
☆ Shortlisted for the 2024 Edgar Allan Poe Awards
Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead is the follow-up to his 2021 heist novel Harlem Shuffle. It's now the 1970s and Harlem furniture shop owner Ray Carney is determined to stay on the straight and narrow. Unfortunately, he risks it all to get some tickets to see the Jackson 5 for his daughter. This is a story that brings 1970s New York alive but does require you to care about the characters, so it may be worth starting with Harlem Shuffle before embarking on Crook Manifesto. A third book in what has been billed as a trilogy is also expected.
