A good mystery thriller lets you play detective while making you uneasily aware that the murderer is probably still in the room. Possibly passing you the salt. You get a puzzle to solve and a reason to check the locks, which is excellent value for one book.
Here are ten I would recommend to anyone who loves a whodunnit, from cosy to properly dark. No spoilers, and I have even avoided naming victims wherever I could. If you are more about the twist than the puzzle, try my list of thrillers with plot twists you won’t see coming.
10 of the best mystery thrillers to read
The Guest List
Lucy Foley · 2020
A glamorous wedding on a remote island off the Irish coast. A storm rolls in. Somebody ends up dead, and nearly every guest has a reason. Foley hands the story between several narrators, so you suspect each of them in turn and are wrong in a different way every time.
Side effects: replying “maybe” to every wedding invitation from now on.
Read it if: you love a closed circle of suspects.
Find The Guest List on AmazonMagpie Murders
Anthony Horowitz · 2016
An editor settles down to read the final manuscript of her bestselling crime author and discovers the last chapter is missing. Then the author turns up dead. A mystery inside a mystery, and enormous fun if you grew up on classic detective fiction.
Side effects: reading the last page of every book first, just to check it is there.
Read it if: you were raised on Agatha Christie.
Find Magpie Murders on AmazonThe Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
Stuart Turton · 2018
Every day, the same party ends in the same murder, and Aiden wakes up in a different guest’s body to try to stop it. Mind-bending and clever and unlike anything else on the shelf. Keep a notepad handy. You will need it.
Side effects: mild confusion about which day of the week it is.
Read it if: you want a puzzle that properly stretches your brain.
Find The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle on AmazonThe Thursday Murder Club
Richard Osman · 2020
Four friends in a Kent retirement village meet every week to look at unsolved cases. Then a real murder happens on their doorstep. Warm, funny and cleverly plotted, and a reminder never to underestimate a pensioner with time on their hands.
Side effects: a sudden fondness for jigsaws and cake.
Read it if: you like your mysteries cosy with a sharp edge.
Find The Thursday Murder Club on AmazonMurder on the Orient Express
Agatha Christie · 1934
A train stuck in a snowdrift, a passenger stabbed in the night and Hercule Poirot, unfortunately for the killer, on board. The solution is one of the most famous in crime fiction and still completely brilliant.
Side effects: looking at your fellow passengers on the 7.42 very differently.
Read it if: you want the classic everyone else is still copying.
Find Murder on the Orient Express on Amazon
An opening line to keep you up tonight
“Secrets are for when you’ve done something wrong. This is for when somebody else does.”
The Woman in Cabin 10
Ruth Ware · 2016
A travel journalist on a small luxury cruise is sure she saw a woman thrown overboard from the cabin next door. Nobody is missing. Nobody believes her. Ware is brilliant at making you doubt the one person telling the truth.
Side effects: a firm preference for holidays on dry land.
Read it if: you like a heroine nobody will listen to.
Find The Woman in Cabin 10 on AmazonIn the Woods
Tana French · 2007
A detective investigates a child’s murder in the same woods outside Dublin where, years earlier, his two best friends vanished and he was found alone. Beautifully written, deeply unsettling and impossible to shake off.
Side effects: walking the long way round any patch of trees.
Read it if: you want a literary mystery that haunts you.
Find In the Woods on AmazonThe Cuckoo’s Calling
Robert Galbraith · 2013
Private detective Cormoran Strike is hired to look again at the death of a famous model in London. The first in a long-running series, full of London streets, pubs and old-fashioned legwork.
Side effects: adding twelve more books to your list in one go.
Read it if: you want a series to settle into for the winter.
Find The Cuckoo’s Calling on AmazonBig Little Lies
Liane Moriarty · 2014
Someone dies at a school quiz night. The book then goes back six months to show you how everyone got there, and you don’t even find out who the victim is until the end. Sharp, funny and genuinely tense.
Side effects: never again volunteering for the school quiz.
Read it if: you like mysteries with sharp social comedy.
Find Big Little Lies on AmazonThe Ending Writes Itself
Evelyn Clarke · 2026
Six writers on a private island, one unfinished manuscript and an author who is no longer around to finish it. A brand-new locked-room mystery that reads like a love letter to the genre.
Side effects: side-eyeing anybody who offers to finish your sentences.
Read it if: you want the freshest whodunnit of the year.
Find The Ending Writes Itself on Amazon
What is the difference between a mystery and a thriller?
A mystery asks who did it, and the fun is in working it out. A thriller asks what happens next, and the fun is in the fear. A mystery thriller does both: there is a puzzle to solve and the danger is still out there while you solve it. That combination is exactly why they are so hard to put down at a sensible hour.
For the big-name classics of both, see the best thriller books of all time.
Your questions answered
What are the best mystery thriller books to read?
The Guest List by Lucy Foley, Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton, The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman and Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie.
What is a good mystery thriller for adults?
In the Woods by Tana French and The Guest List by Lucy Foley are both gripping, grown-up mysteries with dark edges.
What is the best cosy mystery?
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman is the best-known modern cosy mystery in the UK.
Is there a mystery thriller set in London?
The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith and Who Killed Lenny Gunn? by Kadie Vellis are both mysteries set in London.
Which mystery should I read next?
If you can’t choose, take the 60-second quiz.
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