I recently gave a lesson to the youth in my church and to get their attention, I asked them if they liked a good mystery. I showed them a slide with some of my favorite mystery novels.
However, when I created this slide, I realized that I haven’t read many mysteries lately. I voraciously read Nancy Drew as a young girl, and in high school I began working on Mary Higgins Clark’s prolific oeuvre. I remember reading her work late into the night, so frightened that I couldn’t sleep and so intrigued that I couldn’t put the books down!
In recent years, that has been a rarity. I have been missing out.
I did some research and found a list of great contemporary fiction also categorized as mysteries. Here’s the pile I plan to read late into the coming fall nights. October seems like the perfect months for mystery novel reading.
What great mystery novels have you read lately?
The Bookshelf of Emily J. 
I read the The Historian again recently and still loved it. I consistently fail to read Rebecca though!
The Historian is so good! I think I’ve read it twice and I could totally read it again.
Emily, I read mysteries ALL the time, but haven’t read any of these! Thanks for giving me new fodder to make my Kindle overheat–again!!! 😄 (It doesn’t really, does it??)
I hope it doesn’t overheat! Let me know if you like any of these. I haven’t read them yet, so I can’t tell you if they are good or not!
I’ll be interested to hear how you like Fates and Furies. I couldn’t get into it, but intend to try again. Sometimes it takes a couple of false starts.
I really liked Siracusa by Delia Ephron, though it’s more of a psychological mystery about a bunch of unlovable vacationers. (I reviewed it on my blog.). Also, probably a bit raw for students!
If you haven’t read Elizath Kostova’s “The Swan Theives” you should! It’s one of my all-time favorite books.
I’m going to try a couple of your new ones I had not seen before.
Another Kostova book!?!? I had no idea! I will look into that now. And every since you posted about Siracusa on your blog, I’ve been wanting to read it but none of my libraries have it (not even my university one) and I hesitate to buy it. I’ll keep looking or maybe request that my library buy it.
Emily, I used to be a voracious mystery reader lapping up Ludlum, King, Forsyth, Follett, etc. Now I read mostly nonfiction. I think my last mystery was “Gone Girl” as I wanted to read it before the movie. Keith
I really liked Gone Girl! I had forgotten about that one being more recent. I read too much nonfiction now too. 🙂
Sounds like fun! I don’t read a lot of mysteries, either. The most recent ones I’ve read are The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena and The Fortunate Brother by Donna Morrissey – both good! My book club’s most recent pick, though, is The Girl on the Train, so I’ve got one coming up soon!
I’ll be interested to know what you think of Fates & Furies. I did not like it at all and finally abandoned it a little more than halfway through.
I am currently listening to Broken Harbor by Tara French. Is a murder mystery. I still haven’t figured out how it ends. I thoroughly enjoy my commute to work!
I love mysteries! How about some Agatha Christie (though it’s not exactly contemporary). The ones that come to mind are The Prestige by Christopher Priest, and The Scotland Yard Series by Alex Grecian.
I don’t read many mysteries with the exception of the Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce novels. They’re about a 12 year old girl sleuth and so fun! I read every single one when it comes out and look forward to the next story. These are for young readers but apparently I’m still young enough (ha!) because I love them. I think I tend away from grown up mysteries because I don’t like to read about terrible things. Books about terrible things really upset me but occasionally there’s one that’ll grip me without leaking darkness into my life.
When I was younger I couldn’t get into much Nancy Drew or Enid Blyton. But I devoured Hardy Boys and Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators. Lately I been listening to some Leo Tolstoy short stories on car trips. The current novel I’m reading is Anthony Doerr’s ‘All the Light we Cannot See’. It is beautiful.
The Historian is a great story!
Agreed!
Does ‘The Instance of the Fingerpost’ count as a mystery? It’s certainly mysterious… (and one of my favourite books!)
I haven’t read that one, but it sounds like I should!
I’m guilty of not having read a mystery recently, I seriously to get back in touch with that genre. 👍🏼 Thank you for sharing as I need recommendations.
🙂
Absolutely loved Rebecca! thanks! 🙂
It is one of my favorites!
Some of my favorites here.
That’s nice to hear!