The best mystery novels with the most interesting and entertaining detectives, from wacky to dark and deadly

In One for the Money, Evanovich sets the stage for a mystery novel series filled with wacky fun. Stephanie Plum goes to work for her cousin Vinnie as a bounty hunter with no experience in law enforcement. Her first case involves a Trenton cop and old flame, Joe Morelli, accused of shooting an unarmed man. On the face of it, she has no chance. With helpful mentoring from fellow bounty hunter and overall hottie Ranger, a series of disasters, and an impressive amount of determination, Stephanie pursues Morelli while he tries to charm the pants off her. Then there’s Stephanie’s parents, her Grandma Mazur, and a new hooker friend, Lula, characters you enjoy getting to know better with each book. The adventure is great fun, the characters are interesting, flawed, full of surprises, and generally wonderful.

In A Dance at the Slaughterhouse, Lawrence Block’s alcoholic and unlicensed PI, Matthew Scudder, investigates two cases. Scudder is introduced to the first when shown a copy of the movie The Dirty Dozen, over which someone has taped a gruesome crime involving a child. The second involves sex games and a potential murder for hire. Scudder is a PI who often skirts the law, and sometimes strays into brutality. His friend Mick Ballou, churchgoing butcher and Irish mobster, and his lover call-girl Elaine, help him sort things out. This book includes superb characterizations, interesting insight into the world of alcoholism, and a very dark nature. The book also delves into the world of vigilante justice. In this arena, the worse the bad guy, the more satisfying the justice, and in this case, Block is spot on.”   

In The Black Echo, the first book in his Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch series, Connelly introduces his epic detective. Bosch is a Vietnam vet who served as a tunnel rat, crawling through a massive series of tunnels to ferret out and kill Vietnamese soldiers. His traumatic war experience proves useful as he investigates a dead body found in a drainpipe. The case leads to the water conduits underneath LA, the body of fellow tunnel rat, and ultimately an unsolved bank robbery. He battles the FBI, constant trouble with Internal Affairs, and he must overcome Vietnamese gangsters and his war trauma to solve this one. The characterization is superb, the plot unique, and the twists and turns fascinating. This book sets the stage for an excellent Bosch book series in which Connelly expertly weaves characters from his Lincoln Lawyer and the Renee Ballard series in and out to make for one big, happy family of interesting crime fighters with uniquely flawed personalities. 

Robert B. Parker’s Cold Service is one of my favorite Spenser novels because it provides more insight into the character Hawk. Hawk is in the hospital, three bullets in his back from trying to protect a bookie from the Ukrainian mob. The Ukrainians are spreading their turf from NYC to the Boston area (a town called Marshport). Spenser comes to the rescue, and the two men take on the impossible task of defeating the Ukrainian mob and their Afghani heroine-dealing overlords while avenging Hawks shooting. Alone, Hawk can’t deal with the thought of showing weakness and Spencer ponders his mortality. Together Spenser and Hawk appear to be invincible. Their code allows them to engage in brutality and come out as likable characters. The way in which Parker spins a tale using simple dialogue is ingenious. His main characters Spenser, Hawk, and Susan Silverman are a joy to get to know and follow, book after book.

Patricia Cornwell’s book series with medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta never disappoints, with clever plots, lots of action. In Flesh and Blood, Scarpetta receives a bizarre Mother’s Day poem and finds seven shiny 1981 pennies on the old brick wall behind her house. A sniper kills several seemingly unrelated people with a new rifle capable of incredible accuracy up to one thousand yards. One of the victims, a man involved in a lawsuit against the city, was being followed by the same sketchy insurance investigator as Scarpetta. All clues point to Scarpetta’s techno-genius millionaire daughter, Lucy. Scarpetta, her FBI husband Benton, and her ex-head of security Morino work to find out what’s really going on. The answer turns out to be Scarpetta’s worst nightmare. This book in the Scarpetta series includes a clever plot and the twists and turns that bring out the best in Cornwell’s characters.