Homicidal Headlines: 8 Sensational Mystery Books About Journalists

Bill Owen, the original armchair detective—shabbily dressed and apparently permanently suffering from a cold—is the star of these cracking mystery stories from the author of The Scarlet Pimpernel. But he’d have no cases to solve if it wasn’t for glamorous Fleet Street reporter Polly Burton.

The smart and self-confident Burton is the one who does the leg work, collecting the evidence and taking the risks while Owen sits in the corner of the ABC café waiting to astound her (and us) with his brilliant conclusions. The young journalist is Watson to Owen’s Holmes.

The author of The Phantom of the Opera created one of the first great locked room mysteries with this 1908 novella.

The story features teenage Parisian newshound Joseph Rouletabille. The crime sees the perpetrator disappear, Houdini-like, from the titular locked yellow room after half-killing a young woman.

Youthful reporter Rouletabille, an orphan raised by nuns, reappears in several more Leroux penned mysteries, including The Perfume of the Lady in Black, in which he solves a crime at the court of the Russian Czar.

Like that other famous French-speaking boy reporter, Tintin, Rouletaiblle never seems to write much or have any deadlines. But maybe a journalist’s life was easier back then.

Awarded the title of Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 1964, Coxe was a prolific author of hard-boiled mysteries—many of which featured newspapermen. Kent Murdock, a photo-journalist at the fictional Courier-Herald in Boston, stars in more than 20 of Coxe's tales.

This minor classic from 1954 calls to mind Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald. In it, Murdock is sent on what seems like a routine assignment with reporter Ralph Stacey.

The job quickly goes sideways when their car is shot at. Shortly afterwards, Stacey turns up dead.

With the police baffled, Murdock runs his own investigation and uncovers a story of blackmail and revenge.

British author Antonia Fraser is better known for her non-fiction historical biographies, but she also wrote a highly successful series of mysteries featuring inquisitive TV journalist Jemima Shore.

In this one, the series opener from 1977, sharp-witted Shore returns to her old convent boarding school to investigate the death of a former schoolmate, a wealthy heiress who became a nun. The fearless reporter is soon uncovering dark secrets, while all the while trying to get to the bottom of the spectral “Black Nun” whose ghostly appearance is a warning of an impending death.

Unlike most of the authors on this list, Hiaasen actually was a journalist —and a highly acclaimed one at that. He penned this typically wild and crazy tale while working as a columnist for the Miami Herald.

Set in Florida and featuring a cast of characters that include turtle-worshipping evangelicals, glue-sniffing white supremacists, a homicidally jealous judge, and a statue of The Madonna that weeps perfumed tears, Lucky You centers on the attempts of journalist Tom Krone and his girlfriend, JoLayne Lucks, to retrieve her stolen jackpot winning state lottery ticket.

The result is a madcap ride filled with the sort of dark, cynical humor that is a staple of newsrooms the world over.

Journalists often seem to play a central role in Nordic Noir—perhaps because of the success of disgraced hack Mikael Blomkvist in Steig Larsson’s novels. Norwegian writer Thomas Enger has written a superbly chilly (in all senses) series of mysteries featuring Oslo-based internet reporter Henning Juul.

In this debut, Juul has just returned from work after the death of his young son. He’s sent to cover the murder of a woman found mutilated in a tent in the forest.

Still struggling to shake off the effects of grief, Juul starts to believe there is more to the death than the police are willing to admit.

Edwards is an expert of the Golden Age of Detective fiction and the editor of the British Library Crime Classics series. Unsurprisingly, given his background, his cracking 2018 novel featuring junior crime reporter Jacob Flint is set in the 1930s.

In Gallows Court, the impulsive Flint gets himself wrapped up with the beautiful daughter of a notorious judge. It seems she’s a brilliant amateur detective.

But Flint gradually comes to think that as well as solving crimes, she may be committing them, too.

This 2024 crime sensation from Japan features journalist Roka Machida. A female reporter in Tokyo battling institutional sexism at her workplace, Machida finds herself investigating the mystery of Manako Kajii.

A female gourmet and chef, Kajii is accused of poisoning three of her boyfriends. But did she really do it, and if so, why?

Based on the real life case of “The Konkatsu Killer,” Yuzuki’s novel is both a satisfying mystery and a scathing look at societal attitudes towards the eating habits of women.