Mystery and True Crime

This #OwnVoices debut takes the tropes and beats of classic noir and crime and brings them to new life on the South Dakota Rosebud Reservation. Virgil Wounded Horse, with rage in his heart and a teenager at home, metes out brutal justice for crimes the broken system won’t touch. Pulled into an investigation of drugs and conspiracy, this is an engrossing mystery and thriller and a look into the modern-day Sicangu Lakota that is especially vivid for those not of the Nation. — Jocelyn

In this latest offering, Ware employs her winning formula: an isolated setting, a diverse cast of characters, and a narrator with a secret. A company retreat goes horribly awry when an avalanche traps the vacationers in their chalet. Cut off from the rest of the world, their predicament quickly worsens as people start to turn up murdered. It becomes clear that one of the people trapped in the chalet is the killer, and with no clear suspect, the vacationers don’t know who to trust. Ware’s engaging writing and clever plot twists had me on the edge of my seat once again. — Jade

Jo Nesbø knows how to write a good mystery. His reputation as the master of Norwegian crime is upheld in this standalone novel about the reunion of two brothers. What I enjoyed about this book is that each character has a unique weakness—what the Greeks would call hamartia—that defines their fate. While older brother Roy is responsible yet unsociable, younger, more personable Carl is reckless in a way that is both heartrending and endearing. Despite the brothers’ determination to create a promising future for themselves and their town, their flaws and murky past render their dreams all but impossible. The tension is palpable, with secrets and lies in this tale that is both clever and dark. — K.L.

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead is a dark, country-noir eco-thriller, written by a Nobel Prize winner and set in a village on the border between Poland and Czech Republic. The protagonist, a retired teacher and an amateur astrologer, has a theory that the deaths of local hunters are caused by animals keen to enact revenge on those who abuse and murder them. But is her theory too far-fetched to be true? Gorgeous, haunting, and unputdownable, I highly recommend it for fans of quieter, stranger mysteries. — Ksenia

A slow-burning, tense, character-driven thriller from one of the most brilliant writers of our time. French is fantastic at setting the claustrophobic, surveillant atmosphere of rural Ireland, where everyone knows one another and seemingly nothing ever happens. Through her words, we see the world from the perspective of retired cop Cal, who immigrated from Chicago to look for peace only to find trouble knocking on the door of his dilapidated cottage. A must-read for lovers of literary mysteries and small-town secrets. — Ksenia

Sydney Green’s vibrant childhood brownstone Brooklyn neighborhood comes to life, threatened as it is by rising rents, predatory developers, and new white residents threatening to call the cops on neighbors. Sydney begins to realize she’s not just being paranoid as people, and even the bodega, start disappearing overnight, while she herself is threatened at every turn—and not just to sell her mother’s home. Alyssa Cole’s debut mystery is a genuinely bone-chilling thriller with real, relatable characters facing an almost unbelievable conspiracy whose dangers are all too real. — Jocelyn

In January 1969, Harvard graduate student Jane Britton was found murdered in her apartment. Despite several leads, the case was still unsolved when Becky Cooper happened upon it 50 years later. Though she had no training or special connections to speak of, Cooper dedicated the next decade of her life to finding Britton’s killer. Extraordinarily well researched and thoughtfully told, this book has all the thrill and suspense that characterize true crime while managing to steer clear of the sensationalism and insensitivity that often cheapen the genre. — Jade

Thirty years ago, Walter Mosley busted open the LA noir crime novel, taking us to the backroom gin joints that Chandler never could. His laid-off worker turned detective, Easy Rawlins, has to navigate the racist seamier underside of the seamy underside of Los Angeles that most fictional gumshoes tread. It's a smoke-filled, bourbon-soaked, jazz-fueled and intensely atmospheric trek through the Harlem of the West Coast, expanding the idea of what LA noir could mean. Still one of the best detective novels I’ve read. — Dave

A must-read for Agatha Christie fans! Structured as a series of short stories read and discussed by an editor and a writer, The Eighth Detective is one of the most unique mysteries I’ve ever read. The author of the stories, a reclusive mathematician, has written them to prove the existence of four permutations behind all detective fiction—but there are inconsistencies in his creations that may be pointing to a larger, more sinister mystery that has inspired them. —Ksenia

This book is part of our Fall Reading Challenge. Read more here.

A delightful whodunit that features one of the most charming detectives I have come across in the mystery genre, The Honjin Murders is the perfect book to relax with on a chilly fall day. The story begins when a wealthy newlywed couple is murdered on the eve of their wedding. Shortly after their shocking murder, the small town the couple lived in is buzzing with gossip as several characters are exposed for hiding potential grudges and concealing incriminating evidence. The setting of the book is atmospheric due to the honjin, an inn that caters to well to do clientele, which creates an intimate, conspiratorial reading experience. I felt immersed in the world of the honjin as I eagerly anticipated the unveiling of the culprit. —K.L.