10 Clever Mystery Books to Read While You Wait for Knives Out 3

New Year’s Eve, 1999. Novelist Sebastian Trapp loses his wife and teenage son. They’re taken from two different locations, never to be seen again. After that, Trapp withdrew from society causing many to speculate: did the talented crime writer commit the perfect crime? 

Twenty years later, he reaches out to longtime correspondent, Nicky Hunter with an unusual offer: Come live with Trapp and his family to draft his life story. As Nicky works on piecing together Strand’s life, she becomes obsessed with finding the truth. But when a corpse appears in the family koi pond, she realizes the past was never gone, it was just waiting. 

The Leonides family live together in their sprawling, ramshackle mansion as one big, happy family. Until someone murders the patriarch, Aristide, with a lethal injection of barbiturates. Now, everyone is a suspect. Starting with the widow, a woman fifty years his junior. But the murderer made one mistake: they didn’t take into account Charles Hayward, engaged to marry Aristide’s granddaughter. He refuses to accept the facts as presented and is far more interested in something else: the truth. 

Four unlikely friends meet every Thursday to investigate unsolved murders. But when a brutal murder disrupts the peaceful retirement community they live in, Evelyn, Joyce, Ibrihim, and Ron are suddenly in the middle of their first real live case. The Thursday Murder Club might be over the hill at eighty, but they still have a few tricks up their canes. The only question is can the unorthodox amateur detectives catch the killer before they strike again? 

On a remote island off the coast of Ireland, a magazine publisher and a television star are getting married. It’s a dazzling affair, one complete with a designer dress, posh party favors, and boutique whiskey. Every detail is planned, every minute perfectly executed. But as the festivities begin, resentments and jealousy bubble up with the champagne. And then someone turns up dead. There’s no shortage of people who might want to ruin the wedding. Everyone has a motive. That doesn’t change the fact that someone on the island is a killer. And they have to find out who. 

Evelyn Hardcastle will die at 11:00 pm. She’ll die every day at 11:00 pm until Aiden Bishop can identify the killer. Every day he’ll inhabit the body of a different guest. Some will be more helpful than others. He has eight days and eight witnesses. And he can only escape once he knows the truth. Are you ready? Let’s begin. 

When Sam Westing dies, no one expects the game-loving millionaire to play one last game after he dies. He calls sixteen strangers to be his heirs. They’re all tenants at the neighboring building and they’re all required to be present while to read his will. And one of the sixteen murdered Sam. To win, one of the sixteen strangers, one of them a murderer, has to solve Sam Westing’s murder. Let the games begin. 

Susan Ryeland has been editing bestselling crime author Alan Conway’s detective series for years. She knows everything about Detective Atticus Pünd and his sleepy English villages. She’s even more familiar with Conway’s troubling behavior. But she puts up with it because she has to if she wants to keep her job. So when she gets his latest manuscript, she has no reason to think it will be anything different. Except, the more she reads, the more she thinks there’s a story hidden in the manuscript. And if she’s right, there’s going to be a murder. 

A. Kimrean and Z. Kimrean are private eyes. But they’re also A.Z. Kimrean, private eye. Two siblings, one body, each trying to stand on their own two feet. And being different isn’t bad. They’ve built a reputation that takes advantage of the confusion their presence brings. When someone starts murdering the sons of ruthless cartel bosses, they go undercover to discover the truth. And rescue an undercover cop in way too deep. It won’t be easy. And they’ll have to break all the rules. All while not killing each other or themselves. 

Vera Wong is many things. A self-proclaimed tea expert. A matchmaker. A detective. Or, at least, she uses her investigating skills to search the internet to find out who her son is dating. But when the sixty-year-old finds a dead body in the middle of her tea shop, she knows she’ll do a better job than the police. After all, no one can find secrets better than a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands and a case to solve. Especially when she decides it’s up to her to find the killer. 

His name is Ernest Cunningham. Some call him Ern. Others call him Ernie. And if there’s one thing he wishes, it’s that he actually did kill whoever picked the ski resort for their family reunion. But it’s more complicated than that. Everyone in his family has killed someone. Even Ernest. A few have killed more than once. So when the family discovers a body, everyone’s a suspect. Who did it? It could be anyone.