Picture this: Idyllic beaches, bright blue skies, pools, spas, and stunning nature. Sounds perfect. Maybe a little too perfect.
Resorts, retreats, and vacation spots are deliciously sinister settings for murder mysteries. Beneath every picture-perfect facade, long-buried secrets and unresolved tensions always lurk.
Murder mystery books at resorts offer the perfect juxtaposition between the most extravagant and comfortable of places and the worst human deeds.
These 9 murder mysteries set at resorts turn these blissful locations on their heads, making getaways into nightmares. So grab a lounge chair, sip a cocktail, and relax, but don’t let your guard down too much.
Our Last Resort: A Novel
Raised as siblings within a secluded cult in upstate New York, Frida and Gabriel drifted apart after their dramatic escape from the group. Now, the two decide to reunite for a luxe vacation at a resort in Utah.
What was meant to be a break full of swimming and hiking quickly takes a turn for the worst when the dead body of the young wife of a powerful older man is found.
When Gabriel is suspected of the crime, Frida must revisit the memories and secrets of their upbringing. As evidence mounts, she finds her own loyalty wavering.
Everyone's Dead But Us
Scott Carpenter, a former professional baseball player, recently made big waves in the media when he came out as gay and married his long-term boyfriend, Tom Mason.
Desperate to escape from the public eye and get some privacy, the couple decide to ship off to privately-owned Aegean island.
When a storm cuts off the 22 villas of the island from the outside world, chaos ensues.
The owner of the island is found murdered… on the floor of Scott and Tom’s villa. As more guests and employees turn up dead, it’s up to Tom and Scott to stop the killer before the entire island is murdered.
Don't Let Go
Rich Parisians Martial and Liane Bellion, along with their six-year-old daughter, decide to holiday at a picture-perfect resort on the island of Réunion. The island has everything: blue skies, clear waters, nature. Then Liane disappears.
Her bedroom door was left open and her sheets are stained with blood. Martial quickly becomes the number one suspect in the potential murder. But when Martial and their daughter also disappear, the resort goes into a full manhunt.
Who killed Liane, and where has the family gone?
First Comes Love, Then Comes Murder
Newlyweds Corrie Sutton and Sheriff Rick Sutton are ready to begin a happy marriage running a business together.
Instead, Rick’s mother asks them to tail her billionaire friend to Cancun to make sure she isn’t rushing into marriage herself. Corrie and Rick are hoping they can turn the trip into their own luxury vacation.
Soon after they arrive, bodies start turning up. A resort worker is stabbed, the groom is shot, and the concierge kills himself. Looking into the resort’s history, Corrie and Rick dig for a connection between the deaths and find long buried secrets.
The Last Resort
Kate is happily divorced from her now ex-husband, Craig, and enjoys a healthy platonic relationship with him. But then Craig starts dating his divorce attorney, Suzanne. Suzanne is tall, beautiful, and ruthless, unlike Kate.
When Suzanne is strangled while staying at a health resort with Craig, the new boyfriend is instantly suspected of the killing.
After much pleading by Craig, Kate agrees to step in and help clear the name of her ex-husband, now a friend. To find the real killer, Kate checks herself into the dangerous vegetarian retreat.
Two & Two Make Twenty-Two
Paradise Island in the Gulf of Mexico is home to an abundance of vices for rich guests to partake in. The island is known for sports, gambling, and the infamous Peacock Club.
Federal Agents Andrew Dillingham and Jack Raymond believe something even worse is lurking in the shadows of Paradise.
When a fellow agent turns up dead, Dillingham and Raymond find their investigation into drug smuggling suddenly much more dangerous.
The island is rife with suspects, as long as the agents can stay alive long enough to question them.
The Club
The Home Group owns and operates a series of members-only clubs around the world, where A-list celebrities can party as hard as they want outside of the public eye.
The three-day launch party of Island Home, the most luxurious club yet, is the most sought-after invite of the decade.
Beneath the surface of the extravagance and excess, secrets and tensions lurk. As clashes begin between the Home Group’s CEO, the overworked resort employees, and the rich and famous guests, behavior gets worse and the body count begins to climb.
The club is hard to get into, but it may be harder to get out.
The Guest List
When a rising TV star and a beautiful magazine executive plan their perfect wedding, it is like something straight out of a magazine, with designer clothes, a remote resort off the coast of Ireland, luxury giveaways, and small-batch whiskey.
But nothing is truly perfect. As the small inner circle of guests settles into the weekend, past resentments and hidden secrets rise to the surface. And then when someone is killed, nobody is safe. Who will escape from the beautiful locale, as a storm arrives and a killer is on the loose.
The Retreat: A Novel (Detective Elin Warner Series Book 2)
Located off the English coast, the island of Reaper’s Rock is undergoing a renaissance, trying to drop its dark past as a beautiful new wellness retreat is founded. Easier said than done.
When Detective Elin Warner begins investigating the death of a young woman who is found dead on the yoga pavilion, she finds that the woman wasn’t meant to be at the resort at all.
As Elin uncovers more secrets and another person winds up dead, she must stop the killer before the luxury resort becomes the setting for the island’s history to repeat itself.
