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The 10 Greatest Mystery Books That You Haven’t Read
When handled right, mystery fiction is one of the most satisfying genres. Who doesn’t love a suspenseful setup and a twisty plot? Not for nothing, mystery novels have long been fixtures on the bestseller lists and have produced some of the most famous characters in literature, from Sherlock Holmes to Hercule Poirot.
However, there are also some slightly lesser-known mystery books that many of the genre’s die-hard fans may not have checked out yet. This list gathers a few of the best of them, from unsung classics to metafictional whodunnits. All of them are worthy of your time, and you’ll likely be a much better mystery appreciator after experiencing them.
‘Distant Sons’ (2023)
“Sometimes a man gets stuck in a place he never meant to stay.” Distant Sons begins with a familiar crime-fiction setup and then steadily becomes something a little stranger, not to mention sadder. The main character is Sean Courtland, a young man drifting across the Midwest whose truck breaks down near the small Wisconsin town of Ice River. Needing money for repairs, he takes a job doing construction work for an elderly local man.
Sean also befriends another drifter, Dan Young (a character from another one of the author’s novels), and the two gradually become entangled in questions surrounding children who disappeared from the area decades earlier. From here, the novel plays out as an organic, character-driven thriller; very much a slow-burn. It’s also cleverly structured, with the main storyline, set in 2018, juxtaposed with italicised flashback chapters from 1977.
‘Into the Darkest Corner’ (2011)
“Four years ago, I became very good at pretending everything was normal.” Like Distant Sons, Into the Darkest Corner moves between two periods, contrasting the outgoing young woman Catherine Bailey once was with the isolated, hypervigilant person she becomes after an abusive relationship with Lee Brightman. We slowly learn how a relationship that initially appeared exciting became coercive and terrifying, while the later timeline follows Catherine attempting to rebuild her life. It also features a hopeful new romance.
Crucially, the depiction of Lee’s darkness is more realistic than you usually find in this subgenre. In writing those sections, author Elizabeth Haynes draws on her real-world background as a police intelligence analyst. Instead of being over-the-top monstrous, Lee’s manipulation is subtle at least at first, relentlessly intensifying from mind games to isolating Catherine to, eventually, much worse.
‘Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead’ (2009)
“I must always wash my feet thoroughly before going to bed, just in case an ambulance has to take me away in the night.” This book was written by the Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk, winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature. The eccentric narrator of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead lives in a remote Polish village near the Czech border, studies astrology, translates William Blake, cares deeply about animals, and has very little patience for the hunters and authority figures surrounding her.
When local men begin dying under peculiar circumstances, Janina develops a theory: perhaps the animals are taking revenge. This is a novel of ideas disguised as noir, confidently mixing elements of murder mystery, black comedy, philosophy, and ecological fable. It simultaneously serves up a tense plot as well as hard-hitting commentary on everything from animal rights and loneliness to the ways society decides who matters.
‘The Inugami Curse’ (1951)
“Death had already entered the Inugami family.” The Inugami Curse is a cornerstone of Japanese crime writing, having been adapted twice for the screen in its home country (and once into a Nintendo game, believe it or not). In it, detective Kosuke Kindaichi is drawn into the affairs of the enormously wealthy Inugami family following the death of patriarch Sahei Inugami. His will creates an explosive struggle among his descendants, and it isn’t long before the prospective beneficiaries begin dying in increasingly elaborate ways.
While some of those plot devices are familiar, author Seishi Yokomizo gives them a darker treatment than most of his contemporaries did. For example, the murders themselves are memorably macabre, giving the book an almost Gothic quality as the inheritance dispute spirals into something resembling a family curse. Indeed, the Inugamis are a nest of lies, resentments, romantic rivalry, wartime trauma, and financial ambition, meaning practically everybody has a plausible motive.
‘The Red House Mystery’ (1922)
“Mark Ablett’s sudden return was the one topic of conversation in the village.” Long before Winnie-the-Pooh made him immortal, A.A. Milne wrote a detective novel, and it’s actually pretty solid. Mark Ablett is entertaining guests at his country manor when his estranged brother Robert unexpectedly arrives from Australia. Soon afterward, a gunshot is heard, Robert is found dead, and Mark has vanished. Into this conveniently mysterious situation wanders Antony Gillingham, who decides to investigate with the assistance of his friend Bill Beverley.
Their dynamic is one of the book’s greatest pleasures. Rather than presenting Antony as another grim professional detective, Milne embraces the sheer fun of amateur sleuthing, with the pair openly enjoying the opportunity to play Holmes and Watson. In this regard, The Red House Mystery warmly pokes fun at many crime fiction tropes, giving this mystery a refreshingly playful tone, especially for its time.
‘A Man’ (2018)
“Who was the man who had lived as my husband?” This stylish novel centers on divorce attorney Akira Kido, who is given an unusual assignment from one of his clients: finding out who her deceased husband really was. After Rie’s husband Daisuke died in an accident, she learned that he had been living under another person’s identity. As Akira digs deeper, he finds himself increasingly ensnared by a web of exchanged identities and concealed histories.
Identity is the main theme here, which writer Keiichiro Hirano explores more thoughtfully than your average crime writer. In particular, he writes an unusually three-dimensional protagonist in Akira. He’s dealing with a midlife crisis and a strained marriage, as well as continued struggles to belong, since he’s a third-generation ethnic Korean living in Japan. His investigation reveals the ways that a person’s origins can be weaponized against them.
‘Crocodile on the Sandbank’ (1975)
“I am convinced that many of the difficulties of life would be eliminated if one could remain comfortably at home.” This one was a big bestseller back in the ’70s, but many mystery fans may not have read it yet. Crocodile on the Sandbank introduces us to the wealthy, intelligent, practical, and magnificently self-assured Amelia Peabody, a woman with a passion for history and archaeology. She travels to an excavation site in Egypt, where strange events begin occurring. Most memorably, a mummy appears to be wandering around after dark.
Crocodile on the Sandbank ultimately launched a lengthy series, and it’s easy to understand why. A mystery can only be as enjoyable as the detective investigating it, and Amelia Peabody is tremendous company. Her no-nonsense attitude ensures that the book is cheeky and humorous, occasionally bordering on parody without ever becoming absurd. It melds adventure, comedy, romance, and suspense, alongside meticulously researched historical elements. Indeed, the author herself had a PhD in Egyptology.
‘Pressure’ (2006)
“Three people went into the house. Only two came out.” Not to be confused with the recent movie about World War II weather forecasting, Pressure follows Alex Fletcher, who reunites with childhood friend Darren in college. The charismatic, intelligent Darren has since become a cunning killer. The core suspense stems from Darren’s absolute conviction that Alex possesses the exact same violent darkness inside of him… and he will go to any lengths to force Alex to acknowledge it.
Darren is a monster, but author Jeffrey Strand writes him with enough depth and complexity that he feels believable and entirely plausible. Alex is drawn in shades of gray, too, to the point that we sometimes wonder how much of what Darren sees in him may actually be there, just beneath the surface. The prose is fast and accessible, which makes the increasingly ugly material hit with surprising force: part mystery, part thriller, part horror.
‘Death in Her Hands’ (2020)
“Her name was Magda.” Death in Her Hands is a mystery by author Ottessa Moshfegh, most famous for her 2018 breakout hit My Year of Rest and Relaxation. It revolves around elderly widow Vesta Gul, who discovers a note in the woods reading: “Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn’t me. Here is her dead body.” However, there’s no body in sight. Vesta doesn’t know who Magda is, who wrote the note, or whether a murder has actually occurred.
Rather than simply reporting the discovery and moving on, Vesta begins constructing an investigation around almost no evidence whatsoever. Moshfegh uses that setup to subvert the standard whodunnit blueprint, turning a murder investigation into a metafictional puzzle about the human mind’s propensity for drawing connections, even where none really exist. The elaborate case Vesta concocts is really an emotional proxy, a way of processing trauma from her life while also speaking to the current obsession with true crime.
‘Night Film’ (2013)
“Everyone has a Cordova story, whether they like it or not.” In Night Film, Stanislas Cordova is a reclusive filmmaker whose disturbing movies have long courted controversy. When Cordova’s 24-year-old daughter Ashley is found dead in an apparent suicide, disgraced investigative journalist Scott McGrath becomes convinced that there is considerably more to the story. Writer Marisha Pessl spins this into a Gothic techno-thriller that pays homage to horror cinema.
Plot aside, a big part of what makes Night Film stand out is its postmodern, interactive format. The text is interspersed with screenshots and printouts, and is meant to be read in conjunction with an app that can unlock video and audio files. This singular reading experience will certainly not be for everyone, but it’s part of what makes Night Film a cult novel for those willing to openly engage with it. At the time, it was pretty forward-thinking stuff.
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