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
Stieg Larsson
Paper Book
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER * The thrilling first book in the Millenium series featuring Lisbeth Salander: "Combine the chilly Swedish backdrop and moody psychodrama of a Bergman movie with the grisly pyrotechnics of a serial-killer thriller, then add an angry punk heroine and a down-on-his-luck...
Storm Front
Jim Butcher
Audiobook
The No. 1 Ladiesʼ Detective Agency
Alexander McCall Smith
Audiobook
This first novel in Alexander McCall Smith's widely acclaimed The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series tells the story of the delightfully cunning and enormously engaging Precious Ramotswe, who is drawn to her profession to "help people with problems in their lives." Immediately upon setting up shop...
The Big Sleep
Raymond Chandler
Audiobook
Phoenix Audio presents Raymond Chandler's 1939 celebrated novel The Big Sleep; the first mystery to feature detective Philip Marlowe. Here, the cynical sleuth takes on a blackmail case for the Sternwood family and ends up being surrounded by lies and bodies.
The Cuckoo's Calling
Robert Galbraith
Paper Book
***The 7th novel in the Strike series, THE RUNNING GRAVE, is coming in September 2023. Pre-order now and be the first to read it*** 'The Cuckoo's Calling reminds me why I fell in love with crime fiction in the first place' VAL...
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Agatha Christie
Paper Book
Case Histories
Kate Atkinson
Ebook
The first Jackson Brodie novel: literary crime from the prizewinning, number-one bestselling author of Big Sky and Transcription. 'An astonishingly complex and moving literary detective story that made me sob but also snort with laughter. It's the sort of...
A Study in Scarlet
Arthur Conan Doyle
Paper Book
A detective's duty is to unravel the scarlet thread of murder... When Dr John Watson takes rooms in Baker Street with amateur detective Sherlock Holmes, he has no idea that he is about to enter a shadowy world of criminality and violence. Accompanying Holmes to an ill-omened...
A is for Alibi
Sue Grafton
Audiobook
Now Available on CD! 3 CDs/ 3 hours Read by Judy Kaye Plenty of people in the picturesque town of Santa Teresa, California, wanted Laurence Fife, a ruthless divorce attorney, dead.  Including, thought the cops, his young and beautiful wife, who was...
The Beekeeper's Apprentice
Laurie R. King
Ebook
In 1915, Sherlock Holmes is retired and quietly engaged in the study of honeybees when a young woman literally stumbles into him on the Sussex Downs. Fifteen years old, gawky, egotistical, and recently orphaned, the young Mary Russell displays an intellect to impress even Sherlock Holmes--and...
Rivers of London
Ben Aaronovitch
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...
Whose Body?
Dorothy L. Sayers
Ebook
Maisie Dobbs
Jacqueline Winspear
Paper Book
The Bat
Jo Nesbø
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...
Knots and Crosses
Ian Rankin
Paper Book
Discover how it all began in the very first Rebus novel from 'Britain's No.1 crime writer' Daily Mirror 'And in Edinburgh of all places. I mean, you never think of that sort of thing happening in Edinburgh, do you...?' 'That sort of thing' is the...
Cover Her Face
P. D. James
Paper Book
Magpie Murders
Anthony Horowitz
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 ***** ...
The Thursday Murder Club
Richard Osman
Paper Book
THE FIRST NOVEL IN THE RECORD-BREAKING, MILLION-COPY BESTSELLING THURSDAY MURDER CLUB SERIES. ---------- 'Smart, compassionate, warm, moving and so VERY funny' Marian Keyes 'So smart and funny. Deplorably good' Ian Rankin 'Thrilling,...
Raven Black
Ann Cleeves
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE CRIME WRITERS' ASSOCIATION DIAMOND DAGGER AWARD 2017NOW A MAJOR BBC DRAMAIt is a cold January morning and Shetland lies buried beneath a deep layer of snow. Trudging home, Fran Hunter's eye is drawn to a vivid splash of colour on the white ground, ravens circling above. It is the...
The Crossing Places
Elly Griffiths
Paper Book
Start right here! Discover the Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries and become obsessed with one of the most popular crime series in Britain. 'Galloway now seems as real as Marple and Morse' The Times 'I've never before read a crime novel in which...
Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death
M. C. Beaton
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...
The Word Is Murder
Anthony Horowitz
Paper Book
She planned her own funeral. But did she arrange her own murder? Buried secrets, murder and a trail of bloody clues lie at the heart of Anthony Horowitz's page-turning detective series. 'EASILY THE GREATEST OF OUR CRIME WRITERS' Sunday Times _______________...
The Stranger Diaries
Elly Griffiths
Paper Book

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