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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0101817762814
LAR MILLE V.01
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...
0101816072884
FAN BUT DRESD V.01
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...
0101817612654
M MCC NO. V.01
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...
0101816264184
M EVA PLUM V.01
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...
0101815405788
M CHA MARLO V.01
Paper Book
One of the most acclaimed works of crime fiction ever written, The Big Sleep is the first novel featuring Raymond Chandler's iconic creation Philip Marlowe, hailed as the "quintessential urban private eye" (Los Angeles Times). One of The Atlantic's Great...
0101817846435
M FRE DUBLI V.01
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...
0101813729098
CH 895.13 G1315D
Paper Book
0101813752884
M CHR POIRO V.01
Paper Book
0101817900364
M BRA DELUC V.01
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...
0101812506505
M DOY HOLME V.01
Paper Book
A tired and battle scarred surgeon returns to London after being wounded in the third Afghan war. After his money starts to run low, a chance encounter leads him to take a flat with an eccentric man at 221B Baker Street. Thus begins the famous crime-solving partnership of the Holmes and Watson duo.
0101817372176
M GRA MILLH V.01
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...
0101818246825
M PEN THREE V.01
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
Paper Book
Miss Jane Marple's passion for gossip leads to the investigation of a local man's murder. The victim was not liked in the least, and his death isn't raising eyebrows. But his recently revealed secrets are.
0101817790807
M CON BOSCH V.01
Paper Book
A Vietnam veteran-turned-detective, Hieronymus Harry Bosch discovers the body of a former comrade-in-arms during an investigation and, with the help of an attractive FBI agent, hunts for the murderers on a trail leading back to Saigon.
0101814047573
M WIN DOBBS V.01
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...
0101812956122
M DEA RHYME V.01
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...
A Morbid Taste for Bones
Ellis Peters
Paper Book
0101817367978
M NES HOLE V.01
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...
0101816061143
M LEO BRUNE V.01
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...
0101817363928
M JAM DALGL V.01
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...
0101817846336
M HOR RYELA V.01
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...
0101817904077
M OSM THURS V.01
Paper Book
Now a Netflix Film The first installment in the beloved and New York Times bestselling series from Richard Osman, also author of We Solve Murders Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves A female cop with her first...
0101811228333
M BRA CAT V.01
Paper Book
THE FIRST COZY MYSTERY IN THE BELOVED NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING CAT WHO SERIES! The world of modern art is a mystery to many. But for Jim Qwilleran, it turns into a mystery of another sort when his assignment for The Daily Fluxion leads down the path to murder.<...
0101815842907
M CLE SHETL V.01
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...
0101817847961
M GRI GALLO V.01
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...
The Godwulf Manuscript
Robert B. Parker
Paper Book
A New York Times Bestselling Author -- Spenser earned his degree in the school of hard knocks, so he's ready when a Boston university hires him to recover a stolen rare manuscript. His only clue is a radical student with four bullets in his chest. The cops are ready to throw the book at the pretty...
0101817372283
M HOR HAWTH V.01
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
Val McDermid
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...
0101816137661
M TOD CRAWF V.01
Paper Book
"Another winner....Todd again excels at vivid atmosphere and the effects of war in this specific time and place. Grade: A." --
0101806371395
M BLA LEDUC V.01
Paper Book
The first in a series of new crime fiction set in Paris, this standout first novel introduces the dauntless private investigator Aimee Leduc. Hired to investigate the grisly murder of an old Jewish woman in the Marais district of Paris, her undercover search requires that she plays a dangerous game...

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