Mystery novels put you into the world of closed-door crimes and the hidden culprits. You can always find at least one of those on the best book club lists. Our list includes both fiction and nonfiction titles, covering the cozy atmosphere of Agatha Christie books and the mind-blowing reality of modern psychological thrillers.

Non-fiction mystery

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

Killers of the Flower Moon is documented historical horror that also traces the FBI’s beginnings. In the 1920s, the Osage Nation of Oklahoma was among the wealthiest per capita in the United States because it retained mineral rights to oil-rich land. What followed was a series of brutal, methodical murders targeting wealthy Osage members. Mollie Burkhart watched in horror as the killings claimed her sisters Anna and Rits and her mother Lizzie. Undercover investigators led by Tom White eventually arrived in Osage County to piece together the clues. By reading this book, you can also search for a murderer or… murderers.

Your challenge:After reading, ask yourself — how many people in Osage County knew, and how many of them got away with it?

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

This novel has two narrative perspectives that unfold at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. Daniel H. Burnham was the visionary architect driving the impossible construction of the White City. Miles away, H.H. Holmes was operating what he had built as a hotel. In reality, it was nothing else but a custom-constructed killing ground, with hidden rooms, sealed passages, and industrial equipment designed for disposal.

Erik Larson approached Holmes’s crimes with the rigor of a prosecutor, refusing to speculate beyond the documented evidence. Every conclusion he reaches is backed up in the footnotes, which make up almost a second book. They point readers to the evidence behind his reasoning, so they can check the clues themselves and decide what they think really happened.

Your challenge: After reading, decide for yourself — how many victims did Holmes actually kill, and how many of the stories are fiction?

Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

Elizabeth Holmes founded Theranos on a promise that would have changed medicine: a device capable of running hundreds of diagnostic tests from a single drop of blood, cheaply and accurately enough to democratize healthcare. The promise attracted billions in investment and celebrity board members. But keeping that promise proved impossible. The mystery here is how so many intelligent, experienced people failed to see it for so long.

Your challenge: Holmes attracted some of the world’s most powerful and sophisticated investors and advisors. After reading, ask yourself — at what point should they have known, and why didn’t they?

The Premonitions Bureau by Sam Knight

Have you ever heard about the Aberfan disaster? It was a Welsh landslide that buried a school and killed 144 people, most of them children. Following it in 1967, psychiatrist Dr. John Barker established the British Premonitions Bureau. His question was whether human beings might send or receive warning signals ahead of catastrophic events. This novel is a puzzle in itself, questioning the most basic assumptions about time and causality. What’s interesting the bureau operated until Barker’s own death in 1968 — a death that Middleton and Hensher, the bureau’s most celebrated “seers,” had predicted in advance.

Your challenge: Middleton and Hensher foresaw multiple real disasters with apparent accuracy. After reading, decide for yourself whether it was a coincidence, pattern recognition, or something else entirely.

Fiction mystery

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

It’s one of the masterpieces from the queen of whodunit style. Ten strangers, none of whom know each other, are lured to an isolated island mansion by a host who never appears. On their first night, a gramophone recording plays and accuses each of them of a past crime for which they escaped justice. Then, one by one, they begin to die. While reading this novel, you can try to find the killer yourself. No detective is present. You are alone with the clues, alone with the killer.

Your challenge: The killer’s identity is hidden in a letter revealed in a postscript. After reading, ask yourself if you saw it coming, and which clue gave it away first.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

If you’re ready to be fooled, then Gone Girl is your perfect pick, being a landmark in mystery books for adults. The story starts on the morning of Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary, when Amy disappears, and Nick becomes the prime suspect. The police find evidence of financial strain. A diary Amy kept for years paints an increasingly disturbing portrait of a marriage in crisis. Is Amy dead, kidnapped, or perhaps alive?

Your challenge: After reading, identify the single moment where the criminal’s plan almost failed.

Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson

Margaret “Jet” Mason is twenty-seven years old when she is violently attacked on Halloween night. She survives — but barely; she has a week to live. With her best friend Billy beside her, Jet decides to find the person who attacked her, but will she catch up to do it when the clock is ticking?

Your challenge: Jet is dying and knows it. After reading, ask yourself, “Did the killer make a mistake that a healthy detective would have caught faster, and what was it?”

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

Stuart Turton spent three months before writing a single word of prose mapping every two minutes of the day’s timeline on a spreadsheet. The complexity lies in the plot itself.

Aiden wakes up in the body of a stranger at a country house estate with no memory of who he is or why he is there. Over eight days, his mind will be transferred into eight different hosts, and he must solve the same murder each time: the death of Evelyn Hardcastle. She will be killed at the same moment every day until Aiden identifies the killer and escapes the loop. Each host gives him, and you as a reader, a different vantage point, different relationships, different information. Try identifying the killer before Aiden does.

Your challenge: After reading, decide on which host gave Aiden the single piece of evidence without which the case could not have been solved.

The Sentence Is Death by Anthony Horowitz

In his novel The Sentence Is Death, Anthony Horowitz plays a fictionalized version of himself. He becomes an unwilling sidekick to Daniel Hawthorne, a private investigator hired to find the killer of a wealthy divorce solicitor. The prime suspect is an eccentric literary novelist whose published poetry contains the phrase “the sentence is death.” You will struggle to keep up with the investigation and often come up with your own versions.

Your challenge: Hawthorne pieces together the solution from clues embedded in language itself. After reading, ask yourself when you first noticed it.

Every book in this article is a mystery in itself with hard-to-find evidence, vague clues, and genuine puzzles. If you want to discover more, we also have other articles, like Books similar to “The Da Vinci Code”or 6 authors like Dan Brown , which also offer intricate plots and interesting conundrums.