Getting started with mysteries

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
ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME * #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER * The thrilling first book in the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series featuring Lisbeth Salander: "Combine the chilly Swedish backdrop and moody psychodrama of a Bergman movie with the grisly...
Storm front : book one of the Dresden files
Butcher, Jim
Paper Book
Harry Dresden's investigation of a grisly double murder pulls him into the darkest depths of magical Chicago in the first novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Dresden Files series--now celebrating its 25th anniversary! As a professional wizard, Harry Dresden knows...
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
McCall Smith, Alexander
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Fans around the world adore the bestselling No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series and its proprietor, Precious Ramotswe, Botswana's premier lady detective. In this charming series, Mma  Ramotswe--with help from her loyal associate, Grace Makutsi--navigates her...
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...
The big sleep
Chandler, Raymond
Paper Book
The renowned novel from the crime fiction master, with the "quintessential urban private eye" (Los Angeles Times), Philip Marlowe. * Featuring the iconic character that inspired the film Marlowe, starring Liam Neeson. One of The Atlantic's Great...
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...
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...
The mysterious affair at Styles : a Hercule Poirot mystery
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...
Case histories : a novel
Atkinson, Kate.
Paper Book
The first book in Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie Mysteries series, called "The best mystery of the decade" by Stephen King, finds private investigator Jackson Brodie following three seemingly unconnected family mysteries in Edinburg. Case one: A little girl goes missing in...
The sweetness at the bottom of the pie
Bradley, C. Alan
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE AGATHA * ARTHUR ELLIS * DILYS * DEBUT DAGGER AWARDS  "Wonderfully entertaining . . . sure to be one of the most loved mysteries of the year . . . [Flavia is] a delightful, intrepid, acid-tongued new heroine."--Chicago Sun-Times...
A study in scarlet
Doyle, Arthur Conan
Paper Book
The year is 1881. The city, London. A man lies dead in an empty house, not a mark upon him, and no clues--save for the word "RACHE" scrawled in blood on the wall above. Elsewhere, two men--a former army doctor called John Watson and a brilliant eccentric called Sherlock Holmes--meet...
"A" is for alibi
Grafton, Sue.
Paper Book
A tough-talking former cop, private investigator Kinsey Millhone has set up a modest detective agency in a quiet corner of Santa Teresa, California. A twice-divorced loner with few personal possessions and fewer personal attachments, she's got a soft spot for underdogs and lost causes. Eight years...
Still life
Penny, Louise.
Paper Book
Read the series that inspired Three Pines on Prime Video. In Still Life, bestselling author Louise Penny introduces Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec. Winner of the New Blood Dagger, Arthur Ellis, Barry, Anthony, and Dilys...
The beekeeper's apprentice : or; On the segregation of the queen
King, Laurie R.
Paper Book
In 1915, long since retired from his crime-fighting days, Sherlock Holmes is engaged in a reclusive study of honeybees on the Sussex Downs. Never did the Victorian detective think to meet an intellect matching his own–until his acquaintance with Miss Mary Russell, a young twentieth-century...
The murder at the vicarage
Christie, Agatha
Paper Book
Murder at the Vicarage marks the debut of Agatha Christie’s unflappable and much beloved female detective, Miss Jane Marple. With her gift for sniffing out the malevolent side of human nature, Miss Marple is led on her first case to a crime scene at the local vicarage. Colonel...
Midnight riot
Aaronovitch, Ben
Paper Book
"Midnight Riot is what would happen if Harry Potter grew up and joined the Fuzz. It is a hilarious, keenly imagined caper."--Diana Gabaldon  Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London's Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to...
The black echo
Connelly, Michael
Paper Book
For maverick Lapd homicide detective Harry Bosch, the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal...because the murdered man was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who had fought side by side with him in a hellish underground war. Now Bosch...
Whose body? : a Lord Peter Wimsey novel
Sayers, Dorothy L.
Paper Book
When a body dressed only in a pair of pince-nez glasses is found in the bathtub at 59 Queen Caroline Mansions in Battersea, the only thing that becomes obvious is that it is not the body of the financier, Sir Reuben Levy. But whose body is it, and how did it get into the apartment of middle-aged...
Maisie Dobbs
Winspear, Jacqueline
Paper Book
Hailed by NPR's Fresh Air as part Testament of Youth, part Dorothy Sayers, and part Upstairs, Downstairs, this astonishing debut has already won fans from coast to coast and is poised to add Maisie Dobbs to the ranks of literature's favorite sleuths. Maisie Dobbs isn't just any...
Crocodile on the sandbank
Peters, Elizabeth
Paper Book
From a New York Times bestselling author, a Victorian-era thriller featuring Egyptologist Amelia Peabody, a self-proclaimed spinster and heiress who's unrattled by anyone-including mummies. The unshakeable Amelia Peabody embarks on an Egyptian...
The bone collector
Deaver, Jeffery.
Paper Book
A morbid taste for bones
Peters, Ellis
Paper Book
The ambitious head of Shrewsbury Abbey wants to acquire Saint Winifred's sacred remains for his Benedictine order. And when the ensuing controversy leads to murder, Brother Cadfael investigates.
The Bat
Nesb,̜ Jo
Paper Book
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER * In the electrifying first installment of the New York Times bestselling series, Harry Hole of the Oslo Crime Squad is dispatched to Sydney to observe a murder case. As he circles closer to the killer, Harry begins to fear that no one is safe, least of all those...
Knots and crosses
Rankin, Ian
Paper Book
Detective John Rebus: His city is being terrorized by a baffling series of murders...and he's tied to a maniac by an invisible knot of blood. Once John Rebus served in Britain's elite SAS. Now he's an Edinburgh cop who hides from his memories, misses promotions and ignores a series of crank letters....
Death at La Fenice
Leon, Donna.
Paper Book
"A gripping first mystery, as beguiling and secretly sinister as Venice herself. Sparkling and irresistible." -- Rita Mae Brown The first book in the internationally bestselling Guido Brunetti detective series in which a high society murder leads Guido to investigate the darker side...
Cover her face
James, P. D.
Paper Book
The first in the series of scintillating mysteries to feature cunning Scotland Yard detective, Adam Dalgliesh from P.D. James, the bestselling author hailed by People magazine as "the greatest living mystery writer." Dalgliesh is also a streaming series starring Bertie Carvel--now...
Magpie murders
Horowitz, Anthony
Paper Book
"Magpie Murders is a double puzzle for puzzle fans, who don't often get the classicism they want from contemporary thrillers." --Janet Maslin, The New York Times New York Times bestseller | Winner of the Macavity Award for Best Novel | NPR best book of the Year | Washington...
Deal breaker
Coben, Harlan
Paper Book
From the "New York Times" bestselling author of "Promise Me" comes the first novel featuring Myron Bolitar--a haunting tale of betrayal and family secrets that explodes into a riveting powerhouse of suspense. Reissue.
The Thursday murder club
Osman, Richard
Paper Book
A New York Times bestseller | Soon to be a major motion picture from Steven Spielberg at Amblin Entertainment "Witty, endearing and greatly entertaining." --Wall Street Journal   "Don't trust anyone, including the four septuagenarian...
The cat who could read backwards
Braun, Lilian Jackson.
Paper Book
Prize-winning reporter Jim Qwilleran's latest assignment is to cover the art beat for the Daily Fluxion. Sounds easy enough--unless your art beat includes a stabbing in an art gallery, vandalized paintings, and a fatal fall from a scaffolding! Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
Raven black
Cleeves, Ann
Paper Book
The basis for the hit series "Shetland" now airing on PBS. Winner of Britain's coveted Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award, Ann Cleeves's Raven Black introduces a dazzling suspense series to U.S. mystery readers. It is a cold January morning and Shetland lies...
The crossing places
Griffiths, Elly.
Paper Book
When she's not digging up bones or other ancient objects, quirky, tart-tongued archaeologist Ruth Galloway lives happily alone in anbsp;remote area called Saltmarshnbsp;near Norfolk, land that was sacred to itsnbsp;Iron Agenbsp;inhabitants - not quite earth, not quite sea. When a child's bones are...
Chocolate chip cookie murder : a Hannah Swensen mystery
Fluke, Joanne
Paper Book
With allusions to the movie Fargo, Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder stars a red-haired cook called Hannah Swensen and a very eccentric assortment of Minnesota locals whose lives are disturbed by a killer in their midst.
Her royal spyness
Bowen, Rhys.
Paper Book
The Agatha Award winner debuts a 1930s London mystery series, featuring a penniless twenty-something member of the extended royal family. Her ridiculously long name is Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie, daughter to the Duke of Atholt and Rannoch. And she is flat broke. As the thirty-fourth...
The Godwulf manuscript
Parker, Robert B.
Paper Book
"Robert B. Parker has taken his place beside Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Ross MacDonald".--The Boston Globe. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
The word is murder
Horowitz, Anthony
Paper Book
SHE PLANNED HER OWN FUNERAL. BUT DID SHE ARRANGE HER OWN MURDER? New York Times bestselling author of Magpie Murders and Moriarty, Anthony Horowitz has yet again brilliantly reinvented the classic crime novel, this time writing a fictional version of himself as the Watson to a modern-day...
The distant echo
McDermid, Val.
Paper Book
Four in the morning, mid-December, and snow blankets St. Andrews School. Student Alex Gilbery and his three best friends are staggering home from a party when they stumble upon the body of a young woman. Rosie Duff has been raped, stabbed and left for dead in the ancient Pictish cemetery. The...
A share in death
Crombie, Deborah.
Paper Book
In this delightful new series, Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid of Scotland Yard takes a holiday at his lovely Yorkshire time share. But before the stress of crime-solving begins to disappear, a body washes up in the whirlpool bath. Kincaid won't be able to relax until the killer is sent...
A duty to the dead
Todd, Charles.
Paper Book
"Another winner....Todd again excels at vivid atmosphere and the effects of war in this specific time and place. Grade: A." --
Murder in the Marais
Black, Cara
Paper Book
Aimée Leduc, a Parisian private investigator, has always sworn she would stick to tech investigation—no criminal cases for her. Especially since her father, the late police detective, was killed in the line of duty. But when an old Jewish man approaches Aimée with a top-secret decoding job on...
The stranger diaries
Griffiths, Elly
Paper Book
International Bestseller Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel "This lively whodunit keeps you guessing until the end." --People "Utterly bewitching...As unforgettable as it is original." --A.J. Finn ...

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