The best mystery books

I seem to be addicted to long-running series with British detectives, though not all written by British authors, and A Clubbable Woman is the first book in this twenty-one-book series by Reginald Hill.

When I began to write fiction and worked on creating Corelli and Parker, Hill was one of the authors I looked to for inspiration. Although his Yorkshire detectives, the abrupt and rude Detective Superintendent Andrew "Andy" Dalziel and the educated, calm, and well-mannered Detective Sergeant Peter Pascoe, did not fit my vision for my own characters, I enjoyed their antics and read the entire series. The books are fun and challenging and this is a great beginning.

I admit: Gone Girl was my gateway drug into psychological thrillers, a genre I remain addicted to this day.

Before that, I mostly read literary fiction and Penguin Classics, (which was fine, but a little dull). I consider Gone Girl an absolute masterwork and must have read it at least five times, studying every detail of how she pulled it off!

Flynn turns Amy’s utterly taboo actions into a highly-astute commentary about women’s experiences in modern society, articulating and expressing suppressed aspects of the female psyche in a way that I found incredibly validating. IMO, her “Cool Girl” manifesto ought to be a warning to us all!

I love this character! Anna Pigeon is a self-effacing loner, who struggles with personal issues. Don’t we all? Fleeing New York to escape painful memories, she takes a position as a Park Ranger for the National Park Service in the remote backcountry of Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas. Who hasn’t wanted to run away? But when a fellow ranger is killed and his death chalked up to a mountain lion attack, Anna is convinced the cat is not to blame. The politics and prejudices of the locals endanger the protected cats, and that it’s up to her to protect them. Barr does a brilliant job of making you feel Anna’s pain, anger, and fear, which makes the triumphs all sweeter.

Arkady Renko, a Moscow detective is a true hero, someone regarded as weak and hopeless to all around him, but ultimately redeemed by his principles and by his actions. Martin Cruz Smith is my favourite “cold places” writer, so when I heard that Renko was going to Siberia, I was hooked. (Before he goes, he shoots a bear in Moscow with a tranquilliser dart, but no more plot spoilers…)

He goes to the far, frozen east to record a police confession and to find his lost girlfriend, encountering bullets, corruption, frostbite, and more bears. His boss back in Moscow expects him to fail, as does nearly everyone he meets. But they all underestimate Arkady Renko, a hero underdog.

Gardner's Captain Gabriel Lacey is a darker protagonist than the other books on my list. He returned from the Napoleonic wars with emotional demons and a war injury that has left him with a limp and chronic pain. Despite these drawbacks, he is getting by when he witnesses a man shot during a riot and offers to help. He learns the man's daughter is missing and gets a renewed sense of purpose. Lacey sets out to discover what happened to her, leading him into both the glittering and the seedy parts of London and into the acquaintance of a variety of characters.

Gardner has a true talent with characterization. Many of her minor characters live lifestyles that are removed from most readers' experiences, yet they are so well-drawn they are thought-provoking and understandable.

When my mother died, a friend insisted, “Now you’ll come to know her in ways you never imagined.” I thought the notion was ludicrous. My mother and I were close, our relationship strong. As it turns out my friend was right. In Watch Me Disappear, Janelle Brown explores this idea. When Billie Flanagan disappears, her husband and teenaged daughter Olive find out more than they could have imagined about Billie’s secret life. 

Cass Raines was once a cop, and now is a private investigator. She understands all too well that life is harsh and circumstances can change in an instant, especially in the criminal realms of modern-day Chicago. Smart, savvy, and tenacious, Cass is slow to trust but when she trusts you, you are her people. Dealing with dirty cops, kidnappers, and murderers, Cass walks the fine line between knowing her limits and pushing them to their utmost. Writer Tracy Clark hits every beat and then some, with a unique voice that never plays coy or saccharine, taking a realistic look at the subject of missing children and foster care.

A history of the early 1960s in America, leading up to the assassination of JFK, seen through the eyes of the mobsters and criminals, crooked cops, spies, and sleazos who power the machines of history.

A comprehensive romp through the underbelly of American crime and politics (and you might, after reading this book, wonder what’s the difference), it’s a novel about characters you don’t like—but they’re vivid and fascinating.

Much more than a gritty gangster novel, it’s a tale about the people in history’s shadows, and, ultimately, history and the “never innocent” America itself. 


We’re back in the United States for this choice, whitewater rafting on the Rio Grande with National Park ranger Anna Pigeon. This trip is supposed to be a relaxing vacation, but when a student is swept overboard and murder enters the picture, the journey becomes anything but routine. If you haven’t yet discovered this mystery series, which sets each book in a different National Park, Borderline is a great way to start.

My personal pick not just for the best espionage thriller but for the best thriller period.

Forsyth’s spare, efficient prose is a joy to read and a masterclass in how to keep readers hanging on every word.

In this tale of a shadowy assassin sent to murder the French president, we learn everything we need to know about the Jackal not via clunky exposition or flashbacks but by the precise way he assembles his rifle.

In parallel with the assassin’s meticulous preparations, we see the French security services desperately striving to intercept him before it’s too late. This is the book that made me want to write thrillers. 

I like all of Maria Savva’s books because she has great insight into how people think and why they act as they do. She creates worlds that are ‘normal’ and yet pitches her characters into unusual situations, which make the worlds strange and eerie; especially in The Spider stories.

I found this mystery unusual because there are two protagonists, the fledgling detective Truman and his reluctant friend Celeste. I grew up with a canny mother and sisters, and seeing Celeste tacitly guide Truman in his new career, using her broader understanding of the world, feels familiar. The pair confront a blackmailing bully and try to shut down his operation. Their hedonistic approach to life, even in the most intense moments, is lighthearted and fun, and any woman who’s had a gay best friend or vice versa will recognize the humor in the pair of them chasing the same guys.

Who thought the devastation of the environment in the interest of mining and development would be a funny, lyrical love story? For Flora Smith, scientist and head of a small environmental NGO, her native Jamaica is filled with family, lovers, friends, and enemies. She is deeply connected to her surroundings and finds ways to immerse herself in the landscape, wildlife, human relationships, and embodied pleasure when all else fails. 

This book is so cool because it takes place in a timeless version of New York City where 12-year-old John is an orphan, hiding out and living alone in the crawlspace of a museum. With zero formal education, he still has all the smarts he needs to take care of himself until he gets mixed up in a seemingly impossible jewel heist where he is the only suspect. John’s mind isn’t enough to get him out of the mess. Instead, it’s his budding friendship and apprenticeship with the world’s greatest detective, Toadius McGee, that lets him deal with the crime, and his own emotions about feeling alone in the world. Oh, and this book has everything from root beer bars to Broadway shows to terrifying reformatory schools.  

Easy Rawlins is an African American private detective in 1960s Los Angeles. Easy gets a visit from a troubled Vietnam veteran at his office. The vet tells an implausible story of him and his lover being attacked in a citrus grove outside the city. He may have killed the man. The woman and his dog are missing. Rawlins’ gut tells him the case is nothing but trouble. He takes the case anyway. The bond between veterans overriding all other concerns. Blood Grove is an exhilarating, mystery soup involving moguls, sociopaths, cops, hippies, extremists, and swindlers. Requiring Easy to call upon help from his friends. Friends who range from genius to lethal. I loved going along with Easy on this case. Admiring his resolve and intelligence in solving the mystery.

Miranda Sinclair is a latchkey kid who lives with her single mom on the Upper West Side of New York City in the late 1970s. I love the way Miranda navigates her dirty, dangerous, yet enchanting city – her street smarts, her fears, her relationships with the adults in the neighborhood who keep a watchful eye over her. And the book, while totally gritty and real, also has a lovely, melancholy element of magical realism that makes the story mysterious and poignant. 

The first thing I noticed when I started reading Jasper Fforde was how funny and clever he was. This is what I’m looking for, I thought, smiling broadly. The heroine of the series of which this book is a part is a literary detective named Thursday Next. Need I say more? You know immediately the kind of humor you are getting into.

I am not easily entertained by stories with average complexity and imagination. When I find a writer like Fforde who can push my boundaries, I am so grateful. In this book, he creates a delightful alternate world in which real and imaginary figures interact and sometimes exchange places. And always a good crime to solve here.

This book is hilarious! Arnie the Doughnut is at the bowling alley cheering on his friend, Mr. Bing, in a bowling tournament when Mr. Bing starts throwing gutter balls and his team is about to lose. Arnie figures out that Mr. Bing’s bowling ball is being disguised as his new bowling ball and saves the team’s score. There are tons of funny side comments and the story is told with lots of energy. Kids will love this early chapter book.

Mattie and Robo (a German Shepard) are part of a K9-Police Unit. Although they don’t bicker on stakeouts, in every other way, they live and work as a team. I  learned about the nitty gritty details (Kevlar protection for dogs!) that these teams need. And how much risk and what a critical role police dogs play when hunting a dangerous fugitive or searching for lost persons.

Also intriguing is that while not an amateur sleuth, Mattie is not a “detective” in the traditional sense of the word. Her primary responsibility is Robo.  And while Robo is a super-star in the K-9 Police world, even he had limitations. This is a great series about working dogs and their relationships with their handlers. 

Hardboiled specialist Horace McCoy made his mark as an unsparing chronicler of Depression-era despair with his 1935 masterpiece They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?. His 1938 novel isn't nearly as good, but it feels so lived-in and sordid that it tells major truths about the dreamers, users, and big talents who populated '30s Hollywood. In it, Ralph and Mona, two modestly talented beautiful losers, hit Tinseltown hungering for stardom. But Ralph, 18 years before the doomed screenwriter hero of Sunset Boulevard, winds up providing stud service to a wealthy older woman and Mona finds her own private hell. The novel is a bleak meditation on exploitation, failure, and corruption in a town where, as one character observes, “Morality never crosses the city limits.”