2025's Best-Loved Mystery, Thriller, and Crime Bestsellers

In 1920s Melbourne, glamorous lady detective Phryne Fisher makes short work of alleyway ruffians while en route to a gala, inadvertently rescuing the handsome Lin Chung and his grandmother, who are utterly convinced she is a goddess.

The excitement continues at the theater, where a bizarre on-stage death forces the newly anointed "deity" to trade her cognac for crime-solving.

When notoriously successful, and thoroughly despised, criminal defense lawyer A.B. Carr moves into an exclusive, upper-crust neighborhood, his new neighbors are furious but powerless to stop him.

Carr quickly finds himself embroiled in the very kind of local scandal he usually defends against, proving that even a master of the law can't escape his reputation or his past.

Chief-Inspector Masters is called to the sinister, supposedly haunted Plague Court mansion where he finds a spiritualist stabbed to death inside a perfectly locked room.

With the only clue being a dagger belonging to the court's most notorious ghost, Masters must determine if a human killer or a vengeful specter is responsible for the impossible murder.

Flapper detective Phryne Fisher’s joyous night of dancing is interrupted when the father of her handsome partner asks her to investigate the suspicious death of a pious student. 

Phryne trades the dance floor for the dusty aisles of a bookshop in the Eastern Market to uncover the dark secrets lurking beneath the surface of the religious community.

A fun afternoon at Luna Park turns deadly for Phryne Fisher when a mummified, bullet-riddled corpse literally falls at her feet inside the Ghost Train ride. 

Her investigation into the historic murder takes her to the country town of Castlemaine, where menacing threats make it clear someone wants this glamorous detective off the case for good.

When her friends, former cabbies Bert and Cec, appeal for help, glamorous detective Phryne Fisher must investigate the suspicious deaths of two men who were part of a group of seven Australian soldiers who unknowingly witnessed a murder while carousing in Paris in 1918.

As Phryne races to protect the remaining soldiers and unravel the decade-old killing, she is simultaneously distracted by chaos at home, as her long-time lover Lin Chung prepares for his impending marriage.

Inspector Littlejohn's French Riviera vacation is ruined when a dying man names him as the investigator for his own stabbing, forcing the British bulldog to pursue justice in an uncooperative foreign land.

With a dozen suspects and motives stretching back to WWII, Littlejohn races against mounting bodies and French police apathy to solve the case before the killer escapes across borders.

When a Roman skeleton and the supervising archaeologist vanish from an English dig site, the disappearance is revealed to be the first thread in a shocking conspiracy linking a sudden death in Baghdad and a scientist's suicide in California.

One tough, determined woman must unravel this intricate web of global intrigue and quirky, deceptive characters before the culprits cover their tracks permanently.

When an aging crime boss decides to retire from his family's highly profitable, untraceable operation, young actor Harry Murphy overhears their plans, which include a London murder. 

After a disastrous attempt to warn the victim, Harry finds himself alone with a suitcase of cash and on the run from the charmingly ruthless Bruschetti crime family he never knew existed.

Phryne Fisher's tranquil mountain holiday at a Gothic mansion turns deadly when her host begins receiving death threats, and the discovery of a strangled parlor maid confirms a killer is loose.

Surrounded by eccentric guests, mysterious urns, and the handsome Lin Chung, Phryne descends into the estate's dungeons and the labyrinthine Buchan caves to expose the secrets hidden beneath the veneer of wealth.

When a luxury yacht docks in Reykjavík harbor completely abandoned, lawyer Thora Gudmundsdottir is hired to investigate the chilling disappearance of the family on board, even as a young child repeatedly insists, “All dead.”

Her search for answers is complicated by a washed-up body, rumors that the vessel is cursed, and a terrifying sighting of one of the missing children aboard the empty boat.

Dr. Gideon Fell is drawn into a baffling case when the long-banished heir to the Farnleigh estate returns to claim his inheritance, only to be challenged by a second man insisting he is the true Sir John.

Before the identity can be settled, one of the claimants is murdered, forcing Fell to untangle a seemingly impossible crime involving stolen identities, sinister occult phenomena, and a bizarre automaton.

This star-studded anthology gathers fifteen brand-new crime stories from renowned authors like Michael Connelly, Susan Straight, and Denise Hamilton, each one using the unique, complex landscapes of Los Angeles as the backdrop for menace and mayhem. 

From dark alleys to sunlit mansions, these narratives explore the city's hidden depths where every corner holds a secret and a potential killer.

Autumn festivities in Otter Lake turn terrifying when trick-or-treating teens discover a boot containing a dead man's foot, immediately reviving local legends of an old witch haunting the bordering apple orchard.

As bookstore owner and investigator Erica Bloom investigates the bones' scandalous connection to the past, she must solve a decades-old murder before the killer uses the spooky legends to cover their tracks permanently.

In this taut collection of suspense, Joyce Carol Oates exposes the secret poisons and perverse desires harbored deep within the human psyche, exploring the volatile crossroads of sex, violence, and longing.

From a woman anxiously awaiting her lover in a scene reminiscent of Edward Hopper to a jealous wife devising a lethal game of Russian roulette with teacups, these stories delve into the sinister impulses that drive ordinary people to extraordinary acts.

In this double volume, Chief Inspector Wexford faces two confounding cases: first, a garroted housewife found under a velvet shroud at a shopping mall, leading his partner down a twisted trail when Wexford is hospitalized.

Second, a neighboring husband's disappearance, initially dismissed as a dalliance, soon ties into a series of alarming stabbings, forcing Wexford to expose the dark, triple-crossing secrets hidden beneath his placid Sussex community.

The villagers of Wandles Parva are not upset when the body of Rupert Sethleigh, a vile, blackmailing moneylender, is found decapitated in the local butcher shop.

Unconventional detective Mrs. Bradley arrives to find a village full of suspects, all of whom seem to have been suspiciously wandering around the druidic stone in Manor Woods where the victim's blood was splattered on the night he met his untimely end.

Detective Chief Inspector C.D. Sloan is called to the Tudor-era Aumerle Court when an elderly chatelaine spots a dead body at the center of a dense yew maze.

As Sloan navigates the impossible puzzle and the parallel oddity of a slaughtered rabbit left on the Bishop's doorstep, he must untangle a perplexing case rife with more twists and turns than the maze itself.

In Northern England, the disappearance of single women from wedding parties escalates into a chilling pattern, with their bodies later found in their own burned-out cars.

As psychologist Tony Hill and former detective Carol Jordan struggle to track the insidious killer, Detective Sergeant Paula McIntyre fights a simultaneous cyber-blackmailer who is threatening their vulnerable teenage ward.

When a famous fairy tale author is puzzlingly murdered, Phryne Fisher goes undercover at the women's magazine that employed him, finding herself submerged in a world of professional deception.

Simultaneously, Phryne's personal life is thrown into chaos by a mysterious summons from her lover Lin Chung's family, followed by a series of alarming attacks and warnings.

In 1920s Melbourne, glamorous detective Phryne Fisher discovers that the hottest dancehall in town, the Green Mill, harbors deadly secrets beneath its jazzy veneer. 

What begins as an evening of dancing quickly immerses her in a dark world of murder, blackmail, and vanished young men.

Disgraced Wall Street broker Jamison Maddox reluctantly accepts a research job in the remote, secretive town of Redemption, Illinois, only to fall for an enigmatic colleague, Gillian. 

When he realizes they are doing illegal work, Jamison flees with Gillian, launching a desperate cross-country flight from the powerful, deadly forces of the company—unaware that the woman he loves is just as dangerous as the people hunting them.

This chilling anthology, representing Florida's Gulf Coast in the acclaimed Noir Series, gathers fifteen brand-new crime stories from masters like Michael Connelly, Ace Atkins, and Lisa Unger.

Each narrative delves into a distinct location within the Tampa Bay area, exposing the dark underbelly and menacing secrets lurking beneath the surface of the "Sunshine State."

When a plane crashes into the Swiss Alps on Christmas Eve, a three-month-old girl is the sole survivor, igniting an 18-year mystery over her identity, as two families—the simple Vitrals and the powerful, dangerous de Carvilles—claim her as their own.

Years later, a private detective is about to reveal the girl's true parentage when she vanishes, sending her distressed young lover on a frantic search, pursued by the very people who stand to lose everything if the secret is exposed.

Disgraced novelist Stewart Hoag, abandoned by everyone except his basset hound Lulu, takes a humiliating ghostwriting job for aging, bitter slapstick comic Sonny Day in Hollywood. 

Instead of easy work, Hoag and Lulu arrive to find Day's corpse, immediately making the down-on-his-luck writer the prime suspect in a Tinseltown murder.