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Book Your Stay in These 13 Intriguing Hotel Murder Mysteries

These cozy hotel mysteries will make you think twice about booking your next vacation.

illustration of bloody hotel room key

There is something undeniably nostalgic and inherently alluring about hotel mysteries.

From elegant resorts in dream destinations, with their luxurious guests and scandalous secrets to decrepit hotels with infamous histories, shady inhabitants, and cryptic clues behind every paint-chipped corner.

Hotel mysteries charm with classic whodunits, locked-room (or hotel) mysteries, and quirky Agatha Christie-inspired casts of characters—who are all suspects.

With getaways from France to Fort Lauderdale to Scotland and New York, these hotels will captivate you. Once these mysteries lure you in, you may not want to check out. 

Here are thirteen mystery books featuring the shadowy world of hotels. 

A Deadly Measure of Brimstone

A Deadly Measure of Brimstone

By Catriona McPherson

In this eighth installment of the Dandy Gilver series, the Gilvers take to the countryside for some much-needed rest and relaxation at the Laidlaw Hydropathic Hotel.

The Gilver brothers have come down with a host of illnesses between them, and their time at the Hydro is meant to restore them to good health and spirits.

However, the Hydro has a history that cannot help but make itself known, and the soothing oasis may be more than it appears. 

Set in 1920s Scotland, the Laidlaw Hydropathic Hotel is haunted by more than just the mysterious death of a visitor who never left, and the Gilvers will have to recover quicker than expected.

Like any classic mystery, A Deadly Measure of Brimstone can be read in any order with the rest of the Dandy Gilver books. 

A Grave Mistake

A Grave Mistake

By Ngaio Marsh

In an English village that houses the rich and the servants on their staff, Sybil Foster is unhappy. Despite her wealth and the fleet of servants catering to her every need, Sybil is faced with conflicts that money cannot solve; her daughter’s plans for marriage among them. 

Sybil retires to a local hotel known for soothing wearied nerves only to be found dead days after her arrival. It is up to Inspector Roderick Alleyn to investigate the nature of Sybil’s death. Who could have wanted her dead, and why?

A Grave Mistake is part of the Roderick Alleyn mystery series by Ngaio Marsh, which can be read in any order.

Bargain with Death

Bargain with Death

By Hugh Pentecost

In Bargain With Death, Pierre Chambrun manages the illustrious Beaumont Hotel under the ruthless hand of the hotel’s new owner, J.W. Sassoon, and his son, Johnny-baby.

Frustrated with Johnny-baby’s determination to soil the Beaumont’s reputation and sleazy plans for the hotel’s future, Chambrun quits his job as manager and leaves Johnny-baby to fend for himself.

But Chambrun is quickly drawn back in when the body of J.W. is found in a room inside the Beaumont with a call girl’s underwear and a tap on his phone.

With the fate of the Beaumont at stake, Chambrun must solve the mystery of J.W. 's death and clear up Johnny-baby’s messes before it is too late to save the hotel.

Bellweather Rhapsody

Bellweather Rhapsody

By Kate Racculia

Bellweather Rhapsody is the story of Minnie Graves, who witnessed a murder-suicide in Room 712 of the Bellweather Hotel when she was twelve.

Now, as an adult, she has returned to the Bellweather for closure, but finds herself amidst the aftermath of another mysterious death and disappearance. Twin musical prodigies Alice and Rabbit Hatmaker gather with other teenage musicians for a statewide festival at the Bellweather at the same time as Minnie’s visit. 

When Alice witnesses the death—and subsequent disappearance—of another teen musician, Minnie is the only adult to believe Alice’s claims. Who steals a body after it has already been found?

Forced to confront her past, Minnie is determined to uncover the truth of the tragedies occurring in Room 712—before anyone else is hurt.

Bellringer

Bellringer

By J. Robert Janes

In Nazi-occupied France, the once affluent hotels of Vittel became internment camps for British and American women who could not escape when the German army invaded.

For two years, the prisoners live quietly off of Red Cross aid packages and dream of freedom. Now, in the winter of 1943, women begin to die.

When an American woman is found stabbed through the heart with a pitchfork, and bribes intended for the guards in her pockets, inspectors Jean-Louis St-Cyr and Hermann Kohler are called from Paris to investigate.

St-Cyr and Kohler will have to unravel the web of deception at the center of Vittel’s elegant prisons and protect the women within.

Blood on the Dining-Room Floor

Blood on the Dining-Room Floor

By Gertrude Stein

A product of a fit of writer's block, Gertrude Stein’s Blood on the Dining Room Floor is an avant-garde whodunit about the mysterious death of Madame Pernollet, whose body is found at her husband’s hotel. It appears as though she fell from a window…or she was pushed. 

Written without an investigator swooping in to solve the case, readers become detectives themselves, forced to piece together the clues from a host of mysteries plaguing the village in order to decipher just who might have wanted Madame Pernollet dead, and why.

Death at the Hunting Lodge

Death at the Hunting Lodge

By Laura Stewart

In this cozy Gaelic mystery, Amelia Adams, owner of the luxurious hotel, Stone Manor, hosts four archaeologists tasked with excavating ruins around town.

A white witch, Moira, is brought back to her Scottish hometown for the village’s summer festivities, where the townsfolk are unhappy with the presence of the four archaeologists and uneasy about what they may dig up. 

When a body is found at Stone Manor, Amelia must investigate the death.

But bodies are not the only thing being found in town, and with pagan festivals, witches, obstinate townsfolk, and inquisitive outsiders hindering the investigation, Amelia has more than one mystery to unravel before she can discover the truth of what is happening in her beloved hotel.

An Amelia Adams mystery, Death at the Hunting Lodge is the third in a series of mysteries taking place at the opulent Stone Manor hotel.

Death Plays Poker

Death Plays Poker

By Robin Spano

Clare Vengel is the Royal Canadian Mounted Guard’s last hope to catch the serial killer terrorizing players at the Canadian Classic Poker Tour.

Players from across the world have been found strangled in their hotel rooms, and even the undercover cop sent to investigate the Poker Choker was killed.

Clare is sent undercover as a young socialite with a trust fund and a love for gambling that helps her join the ranks of the elite professional liars that play in the tournament.

When her handlers start to doubt her, Clare is left to her own devices to uncover the identity of the Poker Choker, before she becomes the next victim.

Murder with Reservations

Murder with Reservations

By Elaine Viets

Helen Hawthorne is on the run from the law… and from her ex-husband, who wants the money the court says he deserves. Hiding in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Helen is trying to keep as low a profile as possible as a maid at the Full Moon Hotel.

That is, until Helen finds the body of her co-worker shoved in a hotel dumpster… and a guest is killed in their shower. 

Now a witness—and possibly a suspect—Helen is desperate to find the killer before the police have cause to look any deeper into her history, and before she is the next victim.

When Helen’s ex-husband tracks her down and starts stirring up trouble, Helen is forced to uncover more of the Full Moon Hotel’s questionable past and unravel more than one mystery in the process.

The Chelsea Girl Murders

The Chelsea Girl Murders

By Sparkle Hayter

A temporary resident at the Chelsea Hotel, Robin Hudson is hoping for some peace and quiet after a harrowing couple of months. Where better than an artistic haven like the Chelsea? 

Robin’s plans of recuperating are dashed when a notorious art dealer, Gerald Woznik, stumbles through her doorway and dies. Just like that, Robin is at the center of a police investigation into Gerald’s murder and the disappearance of a woman bound for a modern-day underground railroad.

Robin must dig into the lives of the artists staying at the Chelsea and scramble to solve the murder and disappearance to clear her name—and save her life.

The Great Hotel Murder

The Great Hotel Murder

By Vincent Starrett

In this title deemed an American Mystery Classic, the body of a New York banker is found in a Chicago hotel room booked under a false name, and the apparent cause of death is a morphine overdose.

The circumstances of the man’s death drum up enough suspicion that the hotel’s owner seeks the help of Riley Blackwood, an amateur sleuth tasked with solving the case as quickly—and discreetly—as possible. 

When another detective working the case is killed, news spreads through Chicago society quickly, prompting more than one possible suspect to flee the city.

Riley is left to ascertain their guilt or innocence without knowing their whereabouts, and this case proves to be messier than expected.

The Maid

The Maid

By Nita Prose

Molly Gray is a socially awkward, obsessively clean, and stubbornly proper maid at the Regency Grand Hotel whose unique character makes her a perfect fit for the job.

Without her Gran to guide her, Molly follows her own rules of order and propriety in order to understand the world. When Molly stumbles across the body of the affluent Charles Black dead in his suite, her beloved routine is sent to shambles. 

Because of Molly’s demeanor, she quickly becomes the police’s prime suspect and is caught in a complicated web of deception and scandal that she cannot untangle alone.

Luckily, Molly discovers she has more friends than she realized willing to step up and sleuth.

The killer is still on the loose and has Molly in their sights, but with the help of her friends, Molly may just be able to find the killer and clear her name.

The Killing Kind

The Killing Kind

By Sarah K. Stephens

In Sarah K. Stephens’ The Killing Kind, everyone is a suspect. After social worker Dermot Carine’s body is found in a hotel room, suspicion is cast in multiple directions.

One of whom is a prominent surgeon and his wife, who have a motive, and who have a strange connection with another suspect, Trina, a flirty psychology professor with a drinking problem. 

The web becomes more tangled with Laura, a past teenage client of Dermot’s whose relationship with him pushed professional boundaries and propriety.

When Dermot’s sister comes looking for answers, she finds more than she bargained for, and long-buried secrets will come to light… some more dangerous than others.