When it comes to fiction, there are a lot of sub-genres that might attract the reader and turn their world upside down. While Fantasy novels provide a certain emotional positivity to the reader, Sci-fi novels provide a cutting edge storyline. In a quite similar way, all genres and sub-genres play a vital role when it comes to books.
Murder mystery books provide a certain thrill to the reader along with a perfect horrifying experience. These books can be butt-clenching due to their storyline and might make the reader jump up from their seats from time to time.
If executed well, the reader may even feel immersed in the book and might not be able to give the book up until they’ve gone through it completely. This explains quite understandably that everything depends upon the narration by the author.
A murder mystery book with a weak storyline can still be engaging if it is framed in the right way. But similarly, a murder mystery book with a very powerful storyline may lose all its readers due to poor narration. It all depends on the author’s power of storytelling.
So here are some extremely interesting murder mystery books that might latch themselves to you and you won’t be able to let them go until you complete them. Try any of these at your own risk because the story might be so appealing that you might fall in love with it.
9 Murder Mystery Books that you just can’t resist
#1. A Death in the Life
This book is written by Dorothy Salisbury Davis. This book is at the top of this list for a reason. No other book can compete with this one at the current point of time.
This book is based on a character named Julie Hayes who is an actress and decides to change her career. She self-learns in reading tarot cards in order to launch a shop to become a fortune-teller in the dicey theater district of Manhattan.
She had a couple of shady clients and she didn’t expect that she’ll form such a connection with them. The group of his clients included a mobster, a pimp and a prostitute who went by the name Rita. And her life falls apart when the body of a murdered man is found inside the apartment of Rita. The tarot card reader finds herself in a situation of chaos and she doesn’t know what to do. Read the book to find out her next step.
#2. A Child’s Garden of Death
This book is written by Richard Forrest. This book is set in small-town Connecticut, where the family secrets and local rivalries mask the secrecy of a triple homicide with a quite smooth slide. When Bea and her husband Lyon, uncover bodies in the field, they get to know that a little girl was murdered while grabbing a doll, who was the youngest victim of the homicide. This takes them back to the death of their own daughter who died pretty young.
The couple then takes an oath to get justice for the killer of this little girl. They try to report the homicide and work secretly along with the chief of police to uncover certain clues that lead to someone back in the town itself. Give the book a read to find out whether they catch the killer or they fail. What if they aren’t able to get justice for the little girl?
#3. Acid Bath
This book is written by Nancy Herndon. This book revolves around a character named Elena Jarvis. She works as an officer in the Department of Crimes Against Persons in Los Santos, Texas. She is appointed to investigate a case filed by an erotic poet against his ex-wife, who’s name is Sarah and claims that she tried to murder him.
As the officer was herself a divorcee, and she also had to face rampant sexism at her workplace, she was quite frustrated as well. She could very easily place that Sarah was being victimized. Although soon she finds the poet’s body in a bath of acid for corroding it. This makes her suspicious if she did the right thing by ruling Sarah out as the suspect.
Would Elena be able to catch the killer? Would she be able to preserve the body as the physical evidence before it is destroyed completely? Will the killer walk around loose? Read the book to find out.
#4. The Secret Place
This book is written by Tana French. This is a great book that contains the best of two different themes. It is a murder mystery book that also accommodates teen boarding school fiction. It is a quite interesting book that keeps the reader latched. This book revolves around the murder of a boy whose body is found on the grounds of a boarding school that is only for girls. And the detective assigned to the case, Detective Stephen Moran, has just one lead which is a note that was found on the bulletin board that read, “I know who killed him”.
This book is narrated by the perspective of two characters in the book. By a teenage girl who is resident at the hostel, months before the murder, and the detective who was assigned the case, after the murder. The storyline of this novel is quite fascinating and the characters are depicted in enough detail required. Check it out to find out what happens.
#5. Bluebird, Bluebird
This book is written by Attica Locke. This book revolves around a character, named Darren Matthews. He is a black Texas ranger and is asked to visit a small town, named Lark, for investigating two murders that might or might not have a certain link to each other. The two victims are; a black lawyer who is from Chicago along with the other murder being of a white woman who lived in that town itself.
This book takes a disturbing turn when we get a deeper view of the racial mess of a contemporary world. The investigation opens gates to the disturbance in the racial relations of the town. The character is realistic as he has shown complicated and mixed feelings about the case, throughout. This makes the book much more interesting and accommodates it in the real world. Take the journey Darren goes through by reading the book and figure out what seems right to you.
#6. The Cuckoo is Calling
This book is written by Robert Galbraith. It is basically written by J. K. Rowling under her pen name as she was always interested in reading murder mystery books which led her in writing this series of books. This book is a part of a series that revolves around Cormoran Strike, who is a detective. In this installment, Detective Strike is investigating the suicide of a famous actress whose name is Lula Landry.
Although we soon figure out that the death of this actress wasn’t a suicide, but a murder. Detective Strike’s involvement in this high profile case is found complicated as he is also latched to this fame due to his estranged father, who was a rock star. Read the book to find out whether Detective Strike and his assistant Robin Ellacott are able to catch the murderer or not.
#7. Night Film
This book is written by Marisha Pessl. This is more of a thriller than a story of an investigation. This is based on a Journalist whose name is Scott McGrath, who investigates the death of the daughter of a film director. Her name is Ashley Cordova. In a quite short while, the male protagonist discovers that his life might also be on stake and it is quite hard for him to make it through.
The author tries to create a pretty realistic experience by providing documents and pictures to the reader. It is a quite fascinating book and is the only one on the list that isn’t based on an official detective. It provides a great experience to the reader and takes them through an experience much different than most.
#8. One of us is lying
This book is written by Karen M. McManus. This is a great book if you are looking for a Young adult murder mystery book. It is based on the murder of Simon, who is the inventor of Bayview High’s own gossip app. This starts as five students are called into detention but just four walks out alive. Here, Simon is victimized and killed.
All the other four students that walked out of detention had a motive to murder Simon. The book starts taking drastic turns from this moment on. Read the novel to find out who killed Simon and be fascinated by the work of Karen M. McManus.
#9. The Dark Lake
This book is written by Sarah Bailey. This book revolves around a character named Gemma Woodstock who is a detective in a small town. It all starts as Gemma finds out of the death of her classmate from high school, named Rosalind Ryan, which shakes her to the core. She was strangled and her body was found floating in the lake.
When she starts investigating the case, she uncovers some secrets along the way related to Rosalind’s death. Then she learns that the life of her former classmate was full of mysteries and was much different than she could expect. Now, she is torn in a state of great confusion. What will she do? Would Gemma be able to find out and catch the killer? Or would the killer be free by the end of the book? Read the novel to find out.
I hope I was able to help you select some great books to read with a murder mystery theme. These books are one of my absolute favorites and require a full-blown dedication as the reader will be engaged in the book to a pretty fascinating extent. If the content was helpful, please like the post or leave a comment on it. Any kind of criticism is kindly welcome.