Many of us love a good mystery.
But there are times when we crave a good whodunit, but the intensity and graphicness of the books we choose in that genre largely depend on our moods and how fragile/strong we are feeling at the moment.
Luckily, entertaining and mesmerizing mysteries have many subgenres to match our equally-ranging emotions! Here are a few examples:
Thriller: This mystery subgenre usually features a professional or amateur detective who solves the murder by asking questions and finding clues. A “Thriller” mystery often translates to an emotionally gripping wild ride of a read with many twists and turns. Thrillers are also often dark and foreboding, with many graphic scenes of violence, sex, and foul language. According to Wikipedia, “Thriller is a fiction genre with numerous, often overlapping, subgenres, including crime, horror and detective fiction. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving their audiences heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation, and anxiety.”
Cozy mystery: Cozy mysteries occur around a small or closed setting and often involve a specific set of people like crafters, bakers, knitters or even bloggers. The mystery is gently revealed with little to no violence, sex scenes, swearing, or gory details. In the end, the perpetrator is caught at the end of the story. Cozy mysteries are defined by a tone that can be serious but often lighthearted, playful, or humorous.
Capers: Usually light and even humorous of colorful and misfit characters who attempt to solve a mystery without harming themselves or others.
Other subgenres include Police procedural, Detective fiction, Historical Fiction, Horror fiction, Gothic, and Crime fiction.
With this in mind, we’ve compiled a list of quality mystery reads that should be added to your TBR pile!
From Cozy to Edgy | Mystery Titles You Should Scoop Up ASAP
Historical Fiction Mystery
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
If you are on the hunt for a book that draws you in from the very first, this award-winning book is just what you’ve been looking for. A New York Times Best Seller and winner of the 2014 Edgar Award for Best Novel, Ordinary Grace shares the story of thirteen-year-old thirteen-year-old Frank Drum’ s grim summer in which death visited frequently and assumed many forms.
Frank begins the season preoccupied with the concerns of any teenage boy, but when tragedy unexpectedly strikes his family—which includes his Methodist minister father; his passionate, artistic mother; Juilliard-bound older sister; and wise-beyond-his-years kid brother—he finds himself thrust into an adult world full of secrets, lies, adultery, and betrayal, suddenly called upon to demonstrate a maturity and gumption beyond his years.
Told from Frank’s perspective forty years after that fateful summer, Ordinary Grace is a brilliantly moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to understand a world that seems to be falling apart around him. It is an unforgettable novel about discovering the terrible price of wisdom and the enduring grace of God.
Krueger is also the New York Times bestselling author of The River We Remember, the original audio novella The Levee, and nineteen acclaimed books in the Cork O’Connor mystery series, including Lightning Strike and Fox Creek
Blind Eye by Martha Burns
At the Bounty Canyon Ranch in Southeastern New Mexico, the bodies of Luke and Deona Pruitt are buried in a manure pit and their 14-year-old son Leeland Pruitt is missing.
Deputy Sheriff Greenwood is called out to investigate the missing Pruitt family and discovers the grim scene. Leeland’s brutal upbringing was an open secret overlooked by neighbors and teachers for years. The community turned a blind eye as Leeland was moved by his cruel father from one remote ranch to another. And so, Deputy Greenwood begins a twenty-four-hour hunt to find and save the boy suspected of murdering his parents.
Blind Eye is both a tragedy and a dilemma of moral conscience. In this tale of cultural complicity, the community, at best, looked the other way and, at worst, enabled abuse, leaving us all to ask, ‘What is too much to ask of a boy?’Blind Eye is a Spur Award Finalist being recognized at the Western Writers of America Convention in Rapid City.
Detective/Crime Thriller
The Haunted House of Hillman: (H2OH) by Frank Weber
Veteran author and real-life forensic psychologist Frank Weber weaves together yet another twisted tale of mystery, small town secrets, and murder. Maddie Dehler demonstrated one of the most remarkable survival escapes in history. Still horror returns again and again to the same county in rural Minnesota, and eventually to the home Julia Adams built. The cases go cold until BCA Investigator, Jon Frederick, is called in to find a common thread to a series of crimes that appear unrelated. Jon’s relationship with Serena is put to the test by an old “friend.” Serena makes a mistake with profound costs. Jon, despite his aversion to hauntings, and strains on his personal life, finds his way through the fog to solve the case. Based on a true case that eluded resolution for years.
Thriller
The Dragonfly Necklace by TV Scribner
In BOOK TWO of the Paisley and Boone Murder Mystery / Thriller Series, Detective Paisley Ingles and her partner investigate a brutal murder until the investigation turns personal when she discovers a second body. Now dealing with a double homicide, she looks to others for help while struggling to make sense of treacherous clues from the mysterious twists and turns in this bizarre case. Danger stalks Ingles as she battles the weather, the murderer, and her own emotions. Will Detective Ingles be able to solve this strange and mysterious case in time to save her own life?
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
Some houses just don’t want to be sold…
When Louise finds out her parents have died, she dreads going home. She doesn’t want to leave her daughter with her ex and fly to Charleston. She doesn’t want to deal with her family home, stuffed to the rafters with the remnants of her father’s academic career and her mother’s lifelong obsession with puppets and dolls. She doesn’t want to learn how to live without the two people who knew and loved her best.
Most of all, she doesn’t want to deal with her brother, Mark, who never left their hometown, gets fired from one job after another, and resents her success. Unfortunately, she’ll need his help to get the house ready for sale because it’ll take more than some new paint on the walls and clearing out a lifetime of memories to get this place on the market.
But some houses don’t want to be sold, and their home has other plans for both of them…
Cozy
Vine Street Mysteries (A 4-book series) by Nova DuBois (Author) , Ilya Dudarau (Illustrator)
Fans of old Nancy Drew and Hardy Boy Mysteries will love the Vine Street Mysteries Series. Not only does the author pen intriguing stories with wildly entertaining characters (including kitties), but these books also explore the internal and external challenges of growing up. The Vine Street series includes The Kitten Who Cured A Grump, The Kitten Who Scared a Ghost, The Kitten Who Was Stolen, and The Kitten Who Saved Christmas.
Consigned to Death (Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries Book 1) by Jane K. Cleland
Josie Prescott’s friends thought she was nuts when she left her high-paying New York auction house job and her boyfriend to live on the rugged and beautiful New Hampshire coast. Truth is, Josie wondered a little herself—never mind that her peripheral involvement in a well-publicized price-fixing scandal made the possibility of a new start incredibly enticing.
Things are looking better, though, now that she’s got her own auction business up and running and has made something of a success of her new life. That is, until she gets mixed up in murder, and the supremely eligible but emotionally distant local police chief seems to think she’s the prime suspect.
Josie has suddenly got a lot to lose and no desire to leave her new life—or the possibility of a little romance—behind. So she sets her mind on identifying the killer and making the best out of her unfortunate circumstances. After all, Josie is grateful for her second chance in life and knows a third is just too much to ask…especially with a vicious killer on the loose.
Consigned to Death is the first novel in Jake K. Cleland’s delightful series of mystery and antiques on the New Hampshire coast.
Pop over to your local bookstore ASAP and scoop these awesome books up!
Happy Reading!
