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Getting started with mysteries
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Looking for a mystery series to get lost in? This list has the first book in some popular series to get you started!
Updated September 19, 2022
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The girl with the dragon tattoo
Larsson, Stieg
Paper Book
A sensation across Europe--millions of copies sold A spellbinding amalgam of murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue. It's about the disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden . . . and...
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Storm front
Butcher, Jim
Paper Book
In the first novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Dresden Files series, Harry Dresden's investigation of a grisly double murder pulls him into the darkest depths of magical Chicago... As a professional wizard, Harry Dresden knows firsthand that the "everyday" world...
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The no. 1 ladies' detective agency
McCall Smith, Alexander
Paper Book
The first book in the multi-million copy bestselling No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series The one where it all begins Mma Ramotswe is the proud proprietor of the finest ladies' detective agency in all Botswana (also the only one). She spends her...
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One for the money
Evanovich, Janet
Paper Book
The dynamite blockbusterfrom Janet Evanovichthat started it all--now a major motion picture starring Katherine Heigl as Stephanie Plum! ONE FINE MESS Welcome to Trenton, New Jersey, home to wiseguys, average Joes, and Stephanie Plum, who sports a big...
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The big sleep
Chandler, Raymond, 1888-1959.
Paper Book
Published in 1939, this is Raymond Chandler's first novel and features Philip Marlowe, the neat, clean, shaved and sober man who was everything the well-dressed detective should be. Raymond Chandler wrote three other classic novels- Farewell my Lovely, The Lady in the Lakeand The Long...
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In the woods
French, Tana
Paper Book
The bestselling debut, with over a million copies sold, that launched Tana French, author of the forthcoming novel The Hunter and "the most important crime novelist to emerge in the past 10 years" (The Washington Post). "Required reading for anyone who...
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The cuckoo's calling
Galbraith, Robert
Paper Book
Published under a pseudonym, J. K. Rowling's brilliant debut mystery introduces Detective Cormoran Strike as he investigates a supermodel's suicide in "one of the best books of the year" (USA Today), the first novel in the brilliant series that inspired the acclaimed HBO Max...
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The mysterious affair at Styles
Christie, Agatha
Paper Book
In her first published mystery, Agatha Christie introduces readers to the heroic detective, Hercule Poirot. This is a classic murder mystery set in the outskirts of Essex. The victim is the wealthy mistress of Styles Court. The list of suspects is long and includes her gold-digging new spouse...
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Case histories
Atkinson, Kate
Paper Book
The first Jackson Brodie novel- literary crime from the prizewinning, number-one bestselling author of Big Sky andTranscription. 'An astonishingly complex and moving literary detective story that made me sob but also snort with laughter. It's the sort of novel...
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A study in scarlet
Doyle, Arthur Conan Sir
Paper Book
Convalescing in London after a disastrous experience of war in Afghanistan, Dr John Watson finds himself sharing rooms with his enigmatic new acquaintance, Sherlock Holmes. But their quiet bachelor life at 221B Baker Street is soon interrupted by the grisly discovery of a dead man in a grimy 'ill...
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A is for alibi
Grafton, Sue
Paper Book
READ THE SENSATIONAL BLOCKBUSTER THAT STARTED IT ALL! Take it from the top in #1 New York Times bestselling author Sue Grafton's knockout thriller that introduced detective Kinsey Millhone--and a hot new attitude--to crime fiction... A IS FOR...
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Still life
Penny, Louise.
Paper Book
A New York Times Bestselling Author -- Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his team are called to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal and yet a world away. Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet of Three Pines, has been found dead in the woods on Thanksgiving...
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Murder at the vicarage a Miss Marple mystery
Christie, Agatha
Paper Book
The tranquility of St Mary Mead has been shattered when the local magistrate, Colonel Lucious Protheroe, is found with a bullet through the head. He was a thoroughly despicable character and it seems that nearly everyone in town had a reason to want the Colonel dead. Nobody heard the shot, and there...
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Rivers of London
Aaronovitch, Ben
Paper Book
Book 1 in the Rivers of London series, from Sunday Times Number One bestselling author Ben Aaronovitch. My name is Peter Grant, and I used to be a probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police...
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The Black Echo: 30th Anniversary Edition
Connelly, Michael.
Paper Book
Celebrating 30 years of Michael Connelly, a special edition of the book that introduced the now legendary Harry Bosch to the world.
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Whose Body?: Lord Peter Wimsey Book 1
Sayers, Dorothy L.
Paper Book
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Maisie Dobbs : a novel
Winspear, Jacqueline
Paper Book
"A female investigator every bit as brainy and battle-hardened as Lisbeth Salander." --Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air, on Maisie Dobbs Maisie Dobbs got her start as a maid in an aristocratic London household when she was thirteen. Her employer, suffragette Lady Rowan...
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The bone collector
Deaver, Jeffery.
Paper Book
In his most gripping thriller yet, Jeffery Deaver takes readers on a terrifying ride into two ingenious minds...that of a physically challenged detective and the scheming killer he must stop. The detective was the former head of forensics at the NYPD, but is now a quadriplegic who can...
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A morbid taste for bones
Peters, Ellis
Paper Book
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The bat
Nesbo, Jo
Paper Book
Discover the addictive first book in the bestselling Harry Hole series 'A stunning opening to the series' Sunday Times Harry is out of his depth. Detective Harry Hole is meant to keep out of trouble. A young Norwegian...
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Knots & crosses
Rankin, Ian
Paper Book
Knots and Crosses introduces gifted mystery novelist Ian Rankin, a fascinating locale and the most compellingly complex detective hero at work today. Inspector John Rebus: His city is being terrorized by a baffling series of murders...and he's tied to a maniac by an...
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Death at La Fenice
Leon, Donna
Paper Book
'A splendid series . . . with a backdrop of the city so vivid you can almost smell it.' The Sunday Telegraph Winner of the Suntory Mystery Fiction Grand Prize __________________________________ The twisted maze of Venice's canals has always...
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Magpie murders
Horowitz, Anthony
Paper Book
'Want to read a great whodunnit? Anthony Horowitz has one for you: MAGPIE MURDERS. It's as good as an Agatha Christie. Better, in some ways. Cleverer.' Stephen King 'The finest crime novel of the year' Daily Mail ***** ...
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Deal breaker
Coben, Harlan
Paper Book
Sports agent Myron Bolitar is poised on the edge of the big time. So is Christian Steele, a rookie quarterback and Myron's prized client. But when Christian gets a phone call from a former girlfriend, a woman who everyone, including the police, believes is dead, the deal starts to go sour. Trying to...
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The Thursday Murder Club
Osman, Richard
Paper Book
In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders. But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. Elizabeth, Joyce,...
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Raven black: the shetland series #1
Cleeves, Ann
Paper Book
Raven Black is the first book in Ann Cleeves' bestselling Shetland series, also a BBC One and Netflix drama starring Douglas Henshall as Jimmy Perez.Now reissued with a new cover look.A remote community, touched by evil - would you know who to trust?It is a cold January morning and...
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Her Royal Spyness
Bowen, Rhys.
Paper Book
THE FIRST ROYAL SPYNESS MYSTERY! The New York Times bestselling author of the Molly Murphy and Constable Evan Evans mysteries turns her attentions to "a feisty new heroine to delight a legion of Anglophile readers."* London, 1932. Lady Victoria...
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Agatha Raisin and the quiche of death
Beaton, M. C.
Paper Book
'Every new Agatha Raisin escapade is a total joy' ASHLEY JENSEN 'No wonder she's been crowned Queen of Cosy Crime' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'A Beaton novel is like The Archers on speed' DAILY MAIL The first...
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The word is murder
Horowitz, Anthony
Paper Book
A woman is strangled six hours after organising her own funeral. Did she know she was going to die? Did she recognise her killer? Enter Daniel Hawthorne, a detective with a genius for solving crimes and an ability to hold secrets very close. With...
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The distant echo
McDermid, Val
Paper Book
Bestselling, award-winning author Val McDermid delivers her most stunning story yet in The Distant Echo---an intricate, thought-provoking tale of murder and revenge It was a winter morning in 1978, that the body of a young barmaid was discovered in the snow banks of a...
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The stranger diaries
Griffiths, Elly
Paper Book
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