Crime & Mystery Novels

Looking for some murder and mayhem (fictional, of course)? Here are the best crime novels of 2024 so far.

In Francis Spufford’s new novel, “Cahokia Jazz,” a detective must solve the mystery of a staged killing before its repercussions destroy his city’s social and political order.

In these novels, detectives — some real, others self-appointed — investigate deaths in a small town, on board a train, in a haunted French chateau.

Need a little diversion? Our crime columnist has plenty of books to recommend.

Our crime columnist recommends four newly published books.

Our crime columnist, Sarah Weinman, on four buzzy October releases.

Our crime columnist recommends four September books.

In Angie Kim’s new novel, “Happiness Falls,” Adam Parson’s wife and children question everything they thought they knew about him.

In Halley Sutton’s “The Hurricane Blonde,” a young woman struggles with the decades-old, still unsolved murder of her sister.

“The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store” opens with the discovery of a skeleton in a well, and then flashes back to explore its connection to a town’s Black, Jewish and immigrant history.

Scott Von Doviak’s novel “Lowdown Road” evokes “The Dukes of Hazzard” — in a good way.

In new crime novels from Victoria Kielland, James Wolff, Katie Siegel and Michael McGarrity, the past is hard to shake.

Our columnist looks at a clutch of summer crime novels, including “I Didn’t Do It,” set at a mystery writers’ conference.

New crime novels from Susan Isaacs, Peter Robinson and Arnaldur Indridason all feature indelible characters.

In Joyce Carol Oates’s “48 Clues Into the Disappearance of My Sister,” a troubled, resentful younger sibling describes the long-ago events.

In the novel “Scorched Grace,” a tattooed, chain-smoking, swearing-prone nun turns out to be a crack detective.

In Jane Harper’s new book, “Exiles,” set in a small Australian town, a 39-year-old woman disappears from a wine festival — but her infant daughter is found in her stroller, unharmed.

In “Blaze Me a Sun,” by Christoffer Carlsson, murders and disappearances pile up in a small Swedish town.

Our columnist, who’s read dozens of books this year, selects her favorites.

In Stephen Spotswood’s new novel, “Secrets Typed in Blood” — set in 1940s New York City — a pulp magazine writer claims that a killer is copying crimes from her stories.

The plucky, trash-talking detective in “Viviana Valentine Gets Her Man,” by Emily Edwards, is a throwback to fictional characters from decades past.

In “Blackwater Falls,” Ausma Zehanat Khan introduces a Muslim police detective bent on bringing justice to marginalized communities.

The mystery driving “The Maze” is a fascinating one, but the main character? He’s an insufferable jerk.

In Alaina Urquhart’s serial-killer thriller “The Butcher and the Wren,” a Louisiana forensic pathologist matches wits with a murderer.

In “The Rising Tide,” old school chums who meet on an island off the Northumberland coast become murder suspects.

William Kent Krueger’s “Fox Creek,” the 19th book starring the detective Cork O’Connor, will delight fans — and it’s a good entry point for those new to the series, too.

Johanna Mo’s new novel, “The Shadow Lily,” is a solid police procedural that brims with twists, turns and surprising revelations.

The rot runs deep in George Dawes Green’s long-awaited fourth novel.

In Tom Mead’s “Death and the Conjuror,” a man is found dead in his study, his throat cut. There is no weapon in the room, and the doors are locked — from the inside.

In “Vera Kelly Lost and Found,” the final volume of Rosalie Knecht’s 1960s-era private detective trilogy, Vera searches for her missing girlfriend.

In “Last Call at the Nightingale,” a fizzy detective novel set in Prohibition-era Manhattan, a champagne-soaked evening at a speakeasy ends in murder.

Robin Peguero’s novel, “With Prejudice,” features a tough-talking prosecutor who says, “The jury is a crew of misfits. The scraps that neither side particularly wanted.”

In “Bad Actors,” Mick Herron’s latest Slough House novel, a group of maladroit agents confronts a scandal in their own office.

Harini Nagendra’s new novel, “The Bangalore Detectives Club,” stars a bookish, Sherlock-Holmes-loving young bride.

Grace D. Li’s debut, “Portrait of a Thief,” is both a heist novel and a reckoning.

The note — found at a murder scene in Simone St. James’s spine-tingling new novel, “The Book of Cold Cases” — seemed to implicate one woman. Or did it?

Eli Cranor’s top-shelf debut, “Don’t Know Tough,” is Southern noir at its finest, a cauldron of terrible choices and even more terrible outcomes.

In Valerie Wilson Wesley’s new novel, “A Fatal Glow,” a Realtor-turned-caterer investigates the death of an exceedingly unpleasant businessman.

In Paul Vidich’s elegant new spy novel, “The Matchmaker,” an American translator living in Berlin grapples with some difficult truths.

Stephen Hunter’s new novel, “Targeted,” features the retired Marine sniper Bob Lee Swagger — who’s still a crack shot — in his 12th adventure.

In “Something to Hide,” Elizabeth George delivers another intelligent, intricate mystery starring Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley of New Scotland Yard.

In “The Replacement Wife,” Darby Kane’s mile-a-minute novel, a young wife tries to get someone — anyone — to take her suspicions seriously.

Our crime fiction columnist picks the books that wowed her this year.

Rachel Kapelke-Dale’s debut novel, “The Ballerinas,” set in the hothouse world of a Paris ballet academy, follows three dancers hiding a very big secret.

Our crime fiction columnist assesses three riveting new novels and an emotionally devastating short-story collection.

In Cherie Priest’s new novel, “Grave Reservations,” a travel agent with spotty psychic powers assists a local detective.

In “Mango, Mambo, and Murder,” a series debut from Raquel V. Reyes, a food anthropologist in Miami begins to investigate crimes.

In Katie Lattari’s unnerving suspense novel, “Dark Things I Adore,” a scheming thesis adviser proves no match for his young protégé.

Nail-biting new crime fiction from Amy Stewart, Craig Nova, Catherine Dang and Karen Cleveland.

End-of-summer whodunits bring chills and thrills.

In her latest column, Sarah Weinman explores four new novels, each dark in a different way.

If your idea of a great summer read involves murder, bloodshed, revenge and trickery, you’re in luck.

Our crime columnist raves about Samira Sedira’s “People Like Them,” as well as Willa C. Richards’s debut, “The Comfort of Monsters.”

Sarah Weinman on four new mysteries, including Heather Levy’s “spellbinding” debut, “Walking Through Needles.”

Murders abound in new novels from James Ellroy, Joe R. Lansdale, Laura McHugh and Leonardo Padura.

Four new crime novels plumb the very depths of depravity.

Sarah Weinman on four new mysteries that brim with cunning and subterfuge.

In her latest Crime column, Sarah Weinman reviews Amy Suiter Clarke’s debut novel, “Girl, 11,” about a true-crime podcast host in a killer’s cross hairs.

Joe Goldberg, the psychopath we met in Caroline Kepnes’s first novel, “You,” is back for a third time in “You Love Me,” and he’s got a new obsession.

That’s the premise of “Central Park,” by the French suspense king Guillaume Musso — just one of the novels in this week’s Crime column.

This week’s crime fiction column includes SJ Bennett’s new novel, “The Windsor Knot,” in which the monarch investigates a murder at Windsor Castle.

In these novels, bodies disappear, swallowed by sinkholes and forests.

There’s the latest from Walter Mosley, “Blood Grove,” as well as new books from Belinda Bauer, Catie Disabato and Elle Cosimano.

Cate Quinn’s debut mystery, “Black Widows,” investigates three sister-wives who all had good reasons to wish their controlling husband dead.

Marilyn Stasio surveys the latest crime novels and finds them very much to her liking.

The Butcher’s Boy may no longer be a professional hit man, but he hasn’t forgotten how to kill, as we learn in Thomas Perry’s new novel, “Eddie’s Boy.”

Lars Kepler’s “The Rabbit Hunter,” Susan Furlong’s “Shattered Justice” and more.

In “The Law of Innocence,” someone has planted a corpse in the trunk of the snazzy lawyer’s famous Lincoln Town Car.

Not much frightens Marilyn Stasio — except, as she admits in her new crime fiction column, eerie old dolls.

In Marilyn Stasio’s new crime-fiction column, the bodies accumulate at a rather alarming rate.

In her crime fiction column, Marilyn Stasio weighs in on four new books, including the 16th Inspector Armand Gamache mystery.

In her new Crime column, Marilyn Stasio ranges from an Alpine chalet to the sunny streets of Los Angeles to the venerable British city of Bath.

Marilyn Stasio recommends two recently reissued novels by Seishi Yokomizo, as well as the latest books from Denise Mina and T. Jefferson Parker.

Marilyn Stasio finds much to like in the latest batch of crime novels, filled with abrasive, unpleasant sorts.

In the newest batch of crime novels, bodies accumulate at a rather alarming rate.

In Marilyn Stasio’s new column, the bodies pile up so fast it’s hard to keep count.

Marilyn Stasio investigates summer’s newest mysteries.

In these new crime novels, the settings — mountain hamlets, Antarctic ice fields, French sheep farms — may look bucolic. They are not.

This week’s Crime column includes a computer gamer who is handy with a Samurai sword and a 14-year-old girl who solves a murder in an amusement park.

In her latest crime fiction column, Marilyn Stasio travels to some decidedly strange places.

In Marilyn Stasio’s latest column, the body count is high and the murderers more cunning than ever.

Marilyn Stasio finds the latest crime novels filled with gristle, gore and guts.

Marilyn Stasio finds much to like in the latest crop of crime novels.

Marilyn Stasio surveys the latest crime novels — and finds them decidedly stomach-churning.

Marilyn Stasio’s latest column features a batch of escaped prisoners who scatter across the country and two eccentric sleuths digging up the past in Florida.

Her Crime column leads with Jeff Lindsay’s worthy successor to Dexter, his enticingly twisted serial killer — Riley Wolfe, a devilish master thief.

Marilyn Stasio’s 2019 top 10 list includes a gruesome Danish serial-killer thriller, a missing-persons caper and a murder mystery set in the video-gaming world.

Martin Cruz Smith’s latest Russian thriller leads off Marilyn Stasio’s Crime column, which also includes a new Jack Reacher novel from Lee Child.

Marilyn Stasio’s Crime column features an intricate British mystery by Martha Grimes. Also new books from Anne Perry, Linwood Barclay and Liam McIlvanney.

Her latest Crime column features a cold case for Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch and whodunits from Susan Isaacs, Charles Todd and Deborah Crombie.

A guilt-ridden female sheriff polices a Southern town while a bad-boy bruiser ventures into Minnesota’s academia. And two sleuths tussle over a London corpse.

The crime novels in Marilyn Stasio’s column take readers from East Texas to West Africa, with stops in Ireland and the memory care unit of a nursing home.

Marilyn Stasio’s column sends readers on the trail of a present-day Danish serial killer, then all the way back to England at the time of the Black Death.

Marilyn Stasio’s Crime column features a serial killer who murders his way onto a jury, a wife creeped out by a robotic double and a nasty mental asylum.

Marilyn Stasio’s Crime column stalks a lonely shop clerk in Norway, an almost kidnapped California bank clerk and a jittery Manhattan apartment sitter.

Nesbo’s new novel, “The Knife,” made Marilyn Stasio’s skin crawl, so she followed it with less grisly fare, including a mystery set at a summer cottage in Maine.

Everyone’s got something to hide in this latest batch of summer thrillers, particularly the suburban mom at the heart of Denise Mina’s “Conviction.”

Her latest novel, “Big Sky,” leads off Marilyn Stasio’s Crime column. Rounding out the group: a Japanese puzzle mystery and Gothic and summer resort thrillers.

His new novel, “This Storm,” leads off Marilyn Stasio’s Crime column. To recover, she sends readers to Cara Black’s Paris and Martin Walker’s Périgord.

Marilyn Stasio’s Crime column enters a dangerous online world, then jumps to a very real drug gang, a hit man in a hospital and a dog with a death sentence.