The weather is getting cooler, the leaves are starting to change, the nights are getting longer. For me, this time of year always ushers in an intense desire to make a cup of tea, put on my flannel PJs and curl up with a good mystery.
Whether it’s the approach of Halloween and the general spookiness that attends it or the thought of the year getting old and preparing to lie down for its eternal sleep, fall has always been the season of the murder mystery for me. I’m not really picky either. While the old-fashioned whodunits tend to be my favorites, I also love a good cozy, a police procedural, a psychological thriller, a legal thriller and a flat out horror story. I’ve created quite a list of favorites and I am now sharing them with you, in case the mood strikes you one dark and stormy night.
Most of these recommendations are part of a series, so I linked to the first book in the series so you would know where to begin. Some of the authors have so many books or so many series that I've simple linked to the author so you can peruse for yourself.
Good, old-fashioned whodunits
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
Whose Body? by Dorothy Sayers
A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh
The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham
Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death by James Runcie
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
A Test of Wills by Charles Todd
Still Life by Louise Penny
Cover Her Face by PD James
Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler
Cozy Mysteries
Death of a Gossip by MC beaton
Evans Above; Murphy's Law; Her Royal Spyness (3 series) by Rhys Bowen
Death at Wentwater Court by Carola Dunn
Death by Darjeeling by Laura Childs
Murder on Astor Place by Victoria Thompson
The Zig Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths
Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
Police Procedurals
Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin
Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs
1st to Die; Step On a Crack (2 series) by James Patterson
On, Off by Colleen McCullough
Naked in Death by JD Robb
Heat Wave by Richard Castle
The Surgeon by Tess Gerristen
The Black Echo by Michael Connelly
The Ritual Bath by Faye Kellerman
Psychological Thrillers
Let Me Die in His Footsteps by Lori Roy
In the Blood by Lisa Unger
Before the Fall by Noah Hawley
Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter
The 7th Victim by Alan Jacobson
Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Legal Thrillers
Obviously anything by John Grisham
The Las Days of Night by Graham Moore
The Secret of Magic by Deborah Johnson
Horror
Again, this one’s obvious, but anything by Stephen King, Shirley Jackson, Joe Hill, Peter Straub or Clive Barker is going to be a good bet.
American Psycho by Bret Ellis
Coraline by Neil Gaimen
Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (short stories) by Harlan Ellison