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
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Stieg Larsson
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...
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Alexander McCall Smith
Paper Book
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
One for the Money
Janet Evanovich
Paper Book
Meet Stephanie Plum, a bounty hunter with attitude. In Stephanie's opinion, toxic waste, rabid drivers, armed schizophrenics, and August heat, humidity, and hydrocarbons are all part of the great adventure of living in Jersey. She's a product of the "burg," a blue-collar pocket of...
The Big Sleep
Raymond Chandler
Ebook
In the Woods
Tana French
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
Robert Galbraith
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 series...
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Agatha Christie
Paper Book
Hercule Poirot solves his first case in the Agatha Christie novel that started it all, now in a fully restored edition that features a "missing chapter" along with commentary from Christie expert John Curran. Who poisoned the wealthy Emily Inglethorp and how did the murderer penetrate and...
Case Histories
Kate Atkinson
Paper Book
A triumphant new novel from award-winner Kate Atkinson: a breathtaking story of families divided, love lost and found, and the mysteries of fate. Case One: Olivia Land, youngest and most beloved of the Land girls, goes missing in the night and is never seen again. Thirty years later, two of her...
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Alan Bradley
Paper Book
Flavia, an 11-year-old with a chemistry lab, finds a corpse in a cucumber patch and applies the detective skills she learned plotting against her older sisters. This debut mystery by a Canadian author won the 2007 Crime Writer Association's Debut Dagger Award.
A Study in Scarlet
Arthur Conan Doyle
Paper Book
The hit BBC series Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, offers a fresh, contemporary take on the classic Arthur Conan Doyle stories, and has helped introduce a whole new generation of fans to the legendary detective. The debut episode took as its inspiration the very first Sherlock Holmes...
A is for Alibi
Sue Grafton
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...
Still Life
Louise Penny
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 Murder at the Vicarage
Agatha Christie
Audiobook
Rivers of London
Ben Aaronovitch
Ebook
The Black Echo
Michael Connelly
Paper Book
An LAPD homicide detective must choose between justice and vengeance as he teams up with the FBI in this "thrilling" novel filled with mystery and adventure (New York Times Book Review). For maverick LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, the body in...
Whose Body?
Dorothy L. Sayers
Paper Book
The stark naked body was lying in the tub. Not unusual for a proper bath, but highly irregular for murder -- especially witha pair of gold pince-nez deliberately perched before the sightless eyes. What's more, the face appeared to have been shaved after death. The police assumed that the victim was...
Maisie Dobbs
Jacqueline Winspear
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...
Crocodile on the Sandbank
Elizabeth Peters
Ebook
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 adventure armed...
The Bone Collector
Jeffery Deaver
Paper Book
DON'T MISS THE NBC TELEVISION SERIES LINCOLN RHYME: HUNT FOR THE BONE COLLECTOR The first novel in the New York Times bestselling series featuring forensic detective Lincoln Rhyme--from the author of The Never Game. "Lightning-paced...a breakneck...
A Morbid Taste for Bones
Ellis Peters
Audiobook
In 1137 the ambitious head of Shrewsbury Abbey has decided to acquire the remains of Saint Winifred for his Benedictine order. Brother Cadfael is part of the expedition sent to her final resting place in Wales, where they find the villagers passionately divided by the Benedictins' offer.
The Bat
Jo Nesbø
Paper Book
Knots and Crosses
Ian Rankin
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....
Cover Her Face
P. D. James
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
Anthony Horowitz
Paper Book
Don't miss Magpie Murders on PBS's MASTERPIECE Mystery! "A double puzzle for puzzle fans, who don't often get the classicism they want from contemporary thrillers." --Janet Maslin, New York Times New York Times Bestseller | Winner of...
Deal Breaker
Harlan Coben
Ebook
The debut of Myron Bolitar, a hotheaded, tenderhearted sports agent and one of the most fascinating and complex heroes in suspense fiction--a page-turning classic from Edgar Award-winner and master storyteller Harlan Coben. "One of the most engaging heroes in mystery fiction."...
The Thursday Murder Club
Richard Osman
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...
Raven Black
Ann Cleeves
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
Elly Griffiths
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
Joanne Fluke
Paper Book
Discover The Delicious Mystery That Started It All! No one cooks up a delectable, suspense-filled mystery quite like Hannah Swensen, Joanne Fluke's dessert-baking, red-haired heroine whose gingersnaps are as tart as her comebacks, and whose penchant for solving crimes--one...
Her Royal Spyness
Rhys Bowen
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...
Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death
M.C. Beaton
Ebook
The first book in M. C. Beaton's New York Times bestselling Agatha Raisin series--now a hit show on Acorn TV and public television. Putting all her eggs in one basket, Agatha Raisin gives up her successful PR firm, sells her London flat, and settles in for an early...
The Godwulf Manuscript
Robert B. Parker
Paper Book
New York Times bestselling author of the Spenser series of crime thrillers--Book 1 in the series "The toughest, funniest, wisest, private eye in the field these days."--Houston Chronicle Spenser earned his degree in the school of hard...
The Word Is Murder
Anthony Horowitz
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...
A Share in Death
Deborah Crombie
Paper Book
A Duty to the Dead
Charles Todd
CD
The daughter of a distinguished soldier, Bess Crawford follows in his patriotic footsteps, volunteering to serve her country as a nurse during the Great War. In 1916, she promises Lieutenant Arthur Graham that she will carry his dying request to a brother. When the hospital ship is sunk by a mine...
Murder in the Marais
Cara Black
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
Elly Griffiths
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 "Goose-bump spooky, smart, and haunting.....

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.