Mystery Books

The Edgar Award for Best Novel is one of the most prestigious prizes in the mystery and crime fiction genre, and an excellent starting point if you're looking for a flavour of what kind of books are out there. As we start our list of the best mystery books of 2026, Five Books editor Sophie Roell runs us through this year's shortlist, from Dickensian London to the wilds of the Southern Ocean.

It's an ideal combination: literary ambition and a rollicking good plot packed with intrigue and drama. We asked deputy editor Cal Flyn to pull together a list of five Booker Prize-nominated mystery novels, from an astrologically-inspired murder mystery set in goldrush-era New Zealand to an unusually intellectual noir starring a jaded reporter in rustbelt America.

With their built-in suspense, mystery and crime novels are ideal for audiobooks. To help identify standout listens this year, we turned to the audiobook experts at AudioFile magazine for their recommendations. Here are their top mystery and suspense audiobooks of 2025.

The appeal of the country house mystery book is as much about the society you'll encounter as the setting itself, says Gareth Rubin—author of a festive, choose-you-own-adventure-style murder mystery. Here, he recommends five of the best examples, from a clever time-slip whodunnit to Agatha Christie's most brutal novel.

Welcome to our running list of the best mystery books of 2025, which we'll continue to update through the end of the year. 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. 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.  

The 'everyman' quality of an amateur sleuths makes for a particularly readable subgenre of mystery book, says Jess Kidd—the author of a new series starring a crime-solving former nun. Here, she recommends five brilliant amateur detective novels with finely calibrated puzzles at their hearts.

Many well-loved American detective novels feature cynical private investigator protagonists facing down hardened criminals and deep-set corruption. We asked Dave Zeltserman, author of Small Crimes, to recommend five brilliant books from this popular genre, from a 1920s small town murder mystery to a 1980s postmodern trilogy.

When it comes to whodunnits, the latest ones aren't always the best. Veteran crime writer Simon Brett talks us through some of his all-time favourites, of which the most recent was published nearly four decades ago.

2024 was a solid year for mystery books, with books out from some of the best contemporary writers in the genre, including Tana French, S.A. Cosby, and Ruth Ware. The range of mood was also broad, with some wistful and nostalgic tales, and other books that are laugh-out-loud funny. Our best mystery books of 2025 list is now up and running. 

Mysteries and crime novels make for great listening as audiobooks, as suspense about what's going to happen next keeps you completely engaged. For advice on which ones to listen to, we turned to the audiobook experts at AudioFile magazine. Here's their list of the best audiobooks of 2024 in mystery and suspense, great choices if you're looking for a good whodunnit to listen to in early 2025.