Historical mysteries and thrillers are listed on separate pages. Contemporary mysteries are set in the time they were written, so some of these are very old. Although most Golden Age mysteries are contemporary for their own time, I have separated them out into their own heading. After the Golden Age mysteries, Contemporary Mysteries are listed by the country in which they are set.
Older and Golden Age Mysteries
The Golden Age of Detective fiction was in the 1920’s to 1930’s, but some writers from the Golden Age wrote well beyond that time. I have included all of their books, whether written in that time period or not and also those from before the Golden Age. These mysteries are contemporary for their time. I have stretched a point with Hughes, whose mysteries were written in the 1940’s.
- Allingham, Margery, The Tiger in the Smoke, Traitor’s Purse, The White Cottage Mystery
- Armstrong, Charlotte, Mischief
- Berkeley, Anthony, Jumping Jenny, The Wintringham Mystery
- Biggers, Earl Derr, Seven Keys to Baldpate
- Brand, Christianna, Death of Jezebel, Green for Danger
- Bude, John, The Cornish Coast Murder, Death on the Riviera, The Lake District Murder, The Sussex Downs Murder
- Burton, Miles, Death in the Tunnel
- Campbell, Alice, Juggernaut, Water Weed
- Carr, John Dickson, The Black Spectacles, The Lost Gallows, The Seat of the Scornful
- Caspary, Vera, Laura
- Christie, Agatha, 4:50 from Paddington, The ABC Murders, Appointment with Death, At Bertram’s Hotel, By the Pricking of My Thumbs, A Caribbean Mystery, Death on the Nile, Destination Unknown, The Man in the Brown Suit, Murder at the Vicarage, Murder on the Orient Express, N or M?, Partners in Crime, Postern of Fate, Sad Cypress, The Secret Adversary, The Seven Dials Mystery, Sleeping Murder, Taken at the Flood, They Do It with Mirrors, The Tuesday Club Murders
- Collins, Wilkie, The Moonstone
- Crispin, Edmund, The Moving Toyshop
- Crofts, Freeman Wills, Antidote to Venom, The Hog’s Back Mystery
- Dickson, Carter, The White Priory Murders
- Edwards, Martin (ed.), The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories, Deep Waters, The Edinburgh Mystery and Other Tales of Scottish Crime, Final Acts: Theatrical Mysteries, Murder at the Manor, Silent Nights
- Eustis, Helen, The Horizontal Man
- Farjeon, J. Jefferson, Mystery in White, Thirteen Guests, The Z Murders
- Farmer, Bernard J., Death of a Bookseller
- Farr, Sebastian, Death on the Downbeat
- Felix, C. (Benjamin Disraeli), The Notting Hill Mystery
- Ferguson, John, Death of Mr. Dodsley
- Flynn, Brian, The Billiard-Room Mystery, The Mystery of the Peacock’s Eye
- Gilbert, Michael, Death Has Deep Roots
- Green, Anna Katharine, The Mayor’s Wife
- Harvey, W. F., The Mysterious Mr. Badman
- Hay, Mavis Doriel, The Santa Klaus Murder
- Heyer, Georgette, Behold, Here’s Poison, A Christmas Party (previously published as Envious Casca), Death in the Stocks, They Found Him Dead
- Highsmith, Patricia, The Blunderer
- Hitchens, Dolores, Fool’s Gold
- Holding, Elisabeth Sanxay, The Blank Wall
- Hughes, Dorothy B., In a Lonely Place
- Hull, Richard, The Murder of My Aunt
- Jesse, F. Tennyson, A Pin To See a Peepshow
- Lockridge, Frances and Richard, Murder Out of Turn, The Norths Meet Murder
- Lorac, E. C. R., Checkmate to Murder, Crook O’Lune, Death of an Author, Fell Murder, Murder by Matchlight, Murder in the Mill-Race, Post after Post-Mortem, Two-Way Murder
- Lowndes, Marie Belloc, The Chianti Flask
- Melville, Alan, Weekend at Thrackley
- Meredith, Anne, Portrait of a Murderer
- Milne, A. A., The Red House Mystery
- Mitchell, Gladys, The Mystery of a Butcher’s Shop
- Riddell, Charlotte, The Uninhabited House
- Rowland, John, Calamity in Kent
- Sayers, Dorothy L., Busman’s Honeymoon, The Five Red Herrings, Strong Poison, Unnatural Death, Whose Body?
- Tey, Josephine, Brat Farrar, The Singing Sands
- Tilton, Alice, The Iron Clew
- Watson, Colin, Coffin, Scarcely Used
- Wentworth, Patricia, The Arlington Inheritance, The Catherine Wheel
- White, Ethel Lina, Some Must Watch
- Wynne, Anthony, Murder of a Lady
Contemporary Mysteries
They are arranged by the country of primary setting. A few of the countries previously listed have disappeared, because I moved the books into the Golden Age section.
Argentina
- Sacheri, Eduardo, The Secret in Their Eyes
Australia
- Harper, Jane, The Survivors
- Moriarty, Liane, What Alice Forgot
- Temple, Peter, Bad Debts, Black Tide, The Broken Shore, Dead Point, Truth, White Dog
Canada
- Norman, Howard, My Darling Detective
- Penny, Louise, The Beautiful Mystery , The Brutal Telling , Bury Your Dead , The Cruelest Month, A Fatal Grace, A Great Reckoning, How the Light Gets In, Kingdom of the Blind, The Long Way Home, The Nature of the Beast, A Rule Against Murder , Still Life , A Trick of the Light
- Prose, Nita, The Maid
- Reichs, Kathy, 206 Bones
England
- Atkinson, Kate, Big Sky, Started Early, Took My Dog
- Barnard, Robert, The Killings on Jubilee Terrace
- Bauer, Belinda, The Shut Eye
- Berry, Hannah, Britten and Brűlightly
- Bolton, Sharon, The Craftsman
- Cadell, Elizabeth, Consider the Lilies, Death Among Friends
- Carrell, Jennifer, Interred with Their Bones
- Cleeves, Ann, Burial of Ghosts, The Crow Trap, The Darkest Evening, A Day in the Death of Dorothea Cassidy, The Glass Room, Harbour Street, The Heron’s Cry, Hidden Depths, The Long Call, The Moth Catcher, The Rising Tide, The Seagull, Silent Voices, The Sleeping and the Dead, Telling Tales
- Crane, Hamilton, Miss Seeton Flies High
- Dibdin, Michael, The Dying of the Light
- French, Nicci, Blue Monday, Dark Saturday, Friday on My Mind, Thursday’s Children, Tuesday’s Gone, Waiting for Wednesday
- Galbraith, Robert, The Cuckoo’s Calling, The Silkworm
- George, Elizabeth, A Banquet of Consequences, Believing the Lie, A Great Deliverance, Just One Evil Act, The Punishment She Deserves, Something to Hide
- Goddard, Robert, Found Wanting
- Griffiths, Elly, The Chalk Pit, The Crossing Places, The Dark Angel, A Dying Fall, The Ghost Fields, The House at Sea’s End, The Janus Stone, The Lantern Men, The Locked Room, The Night Hawks, The Outcast Dead, The Postscript Murders, A Room Full of Bones, Smoke and Mirrors, The Stone Circle, The Stranger Diaries, The Woman in Blue, The Zig Zag Girl
- Hallett, Janice, The Appeal, The Twyford Code
- Hand, Elizabeth, Wylding Hall
- Hannah, Sophie, The Cradle in the Grave, The Dead Lie Down, Kind of Cruel, Little Face, The Truth-Teller’s Lie, Woman with a Secret, The Wrong Mother
- Hawkins, Paula, The Girl on the Train, A Slow Fire Burning
- Healey, Emma, Elizabeth Is Missing
- Horowitz, Anthony, Magpie Murders, The Word Is Murder
- James, P.D., The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories
- Jenkins, Elizabeth, Harriet
- Kelly, Erin, Broadchurch
- Lovesey, Peter, The Last Detective
- Lovett, Charlie, The Bookman’s Tale
- McDermid, Val, A Darker Domain, Fever of the Bone, Trick of the Dark, The Vanishing Point
- McPherson, Catriona, As She Left It
- Rendell, Ruth, The Water’s Lovely
- Robinson, Peter, Before the Poison, Playing with Fire
- Sampson, Fay, Death on Lindisfarne
- Turton, Stuart, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
Finland
- Seeck, Max, The Witch Hunter
France
- Bannalec, Jean-Luc, Death in Brittany
- Black, Cara, Murder in Pigalle
- Burnet, Graeme Macrae, The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau
- Mina, Denise, Confidence
Germany
- Kerr, Philip, March Violets
Greenland
- Petersen, Christoffer, Blood Floe, Seven Graves One Winter
Iceland
- Ægisdottir, Eva Björg, The Creak on the Stairs
- Indriðason, Arnaldur, Jar City
- Jónasson, Ragnar, The Mist
- Sigurdardóttir, Yrsa, Gallows Rock, Last Rituals, My Soul to Take
Ireland
- Black, Benjamin, Christine Falls
- French, Tana, Broken Harbor, The Searcher, The Secret Place, The Trespasser, The Witch Elm
- McTiernan, Dervla, The Good Turn, The Ruin, The Scholar
Italy
- Dibdin, Michael, And Then You Die, Back to Bologna, Dead Lagoon, A Long Finish, Medusa, Vendetta
- George, Elizabeth, Just One Evil Act
- Leon, Donna, The Jewels of Paradise
Jamaica
- James, Marlon, A Brief History of Seven Killings
Japan
- Ayatsuji, Yukito, The Decagon House Murders
- Shimada, Soji, Murder in the Crooked House
Norway
- Fossum, Karin, The Indian Bride, The Water’s Edge
- Holt, Anne, Death in Oslo, The Final Murder, Punishment
- Nesbø, Jo, The Redbreast
Poland
- Tokarczuk, Olga, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
Scotland
- Beaton, M. C., Death of a Maid
- Carrell, Jennifer, Haunt Me Still
- Cleeves, Ann, Blue Lightning, Cold Earth, Dead Water, Raven Black, Red Bones, Thin Air, Too Good to Be True, White Nights, Wild Fire
- McPherson, Catriona, The Child Garden, Come to Harm, The Day She Died, Quiet Neighbors
- Mina, Denise, Confidence, Conviction, The End of the Wasp Season, Gods and Beasts, The Less Dead, The Red Road, Still Midnight
Sweden
- Alvtegen, Karin, Betrayal
- Edwardson, Åke, Death Angels, Never End, The Shadow Woman, Sun and Shadow
- Eriksson, Kjell, The Cruel Stars of the Night, The Demon of Dakar, The Princess of Burundi
- Läckberg, Camilla, The Ice Princess, The Lost Boy, The Preacher
- Larsson, Åsa, Sun Storm
- Larsson, Stieg, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest , The Girl Who Played with Fire , The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- Jungstedt, Mari, Unspoken
- Mankell, Henning, The Dogs of Riga, The Man from Beijing
- Nesser, Håkan, Borkmann’s Point, Mind’s Eye, The Return
- Persson, Leif, G. W., Another Time, Another Life, Between Summer’s Longing and Winter’s End, Free Falling, As If in a Dream
- Sjöwall, Maj and Per Wahlöö, The Man on the Balcony, The Man Who Went Up in Smoke, Roseanna
- Theorin, Johan, The Asylum, The Darkest Room, Echoes from the Dead, The Quarry
- Tursten, Helen, The Torso
Thailand
- Burdett, John, Bangkok 8, Bangkok Haunts
Turkey
- Nadel, Barbara, Dance with Death, Deadly Web
United States
- Amis, Martin, Night Train
- Beukes, Lauren, The Shining Girls, Broken Monsters
- Chirovici, E. O., The Book of Mirrors
- Connelly, Michael, The Drop
- Davidson, Hilary, The Damage Done
- Ebershoff, David, The 19th Wife
- Erdrich, Louise, The Round House
- Harrison, Mette Ivie, The Bishop’s Wife
- Hillerman, Anne, Spider Woman’s Daughter
- Johnson, Craig, Another Man’s Moccasins, Any Other Name, As the Crow Flies , The Cold Dish, The Dark Horse , Death Without Company , Dry Bones, Hell Is Empty, Junkyard Dogs , Kindness Goes Unpunished, An Obvious Fact, A Serpent’s Tooth
- King, Laurie R., Back to the Garden
- Klein, Daniel, Kill Me Tender
- LaPlante, Alice, A Circle of Wives
- Leonard, Elmore, Raylan
- Lippman, Laura, Life Sentences
- McDermid, Val, The Vanishing Point
- McPherson, Catriona, Scot & Soda, Scot Free
- McTiernan, Dervla, The Murder Rule
- Pollock, Donald Ray, The Devil All the Time
- Reichs, Kathy, Spider Bones
- St. James, Simone, The Book of Cold Cases, The Sun Down Motel
- Slaughter, Karin, Triptych
- Schimmelman, Peggy, Insomniacs, Inc.
- Swanson, Peter, Eight Perfect Murders
- Thompson, Jim, The Killer Inside Me
- Tracy, P. J., Shoot to Thrill
- Woodrell, Daniel, The Death of Sweet Mister, Winter’s Bone
please read Donna Leon, Italy, Venice. Fantastic. Well written. Intelligent.
I began reading her long ago, when she first started. Haven’t picked her books up in awhile.