Now the days have become short and dark, curling up with a page-turning mystery has become even more appealing. However, avoiding the genre’s wealth of formulaic books with guessable endings is easier said than done – which is why we have gone through the trouble of selecting the finest that have been published this millennium.
From the psychological to the literary and gothic, here are the mystery novels actually worth your time and money…
In the Woods by Tana French
Twenty years after two children vanished in an Irish wood, the sole survivor, now a detective, is called to investigate another child’s murder at the same site. An unsettling, psychologically complex mystery about the secrets we bury and the past we cannot escape.
Hodder, £10.99
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
When editor Susan Ryeland receives the manuscript of a bestselling crime writer’s latest novel, she discovers that a real-life mystery is lurking within its pages. This intricately plotted whodunnit within a whodunnit pays playful homage to Agatha Christie.
Orion, £10.99
The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
A Tokyo mathematician helps his neighbour cover up a murder, setting the stage for an extraordinary battle of wits with the investigators. The killer’s identity is never in doubt, but this ingenious Japanese mystery has plenty of surprises up its sleeve.
Abacus, £10.99
I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
A murdered woman in a New York hotel room, a body discovered in Afghanistan and a terrifying plot against America. Only a former intelligence operative known as Pilgrim can connect the dots and unravel the mystery in this ambitious, pulse-racing espionage thriller.
Corgi, £10.99
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
On the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne’s wife Amy disappears, leaving him under mounting suspicion. Told through competing accounts of their marriage, this wickedly entertaining and genre-defining read keeps you questioning everything you think they know.
W&N£10.99
The Lost Man by Jane Harper
In the scorching Australian outback, a man is found dead beside an old grave, miles from help. As his brothers struggle to understand what happened, long-buried family secrets emerge in this expertly page-turning mystery.
Abacus, £8.99
All the Colours of the Dark by Chris Whitaker
After being abducted as a teenager, Patch emerges haunted by memories of a girl who comforted him in captivity but has seemingly since vanished. His obsessive search for her spans decades in this moving, wide-ranging mystery about love, friendship and the search for truth.
Phoenix, £9.99
The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
A group of old friends gathers at a remote Scottish hunting lodge to celebrate New Year, only for one of them to turn up dead. Snowbound and cut off from civilisation, everyone is a suspect in this tightly plotted, Christie-inspired whodunnit
HarperFiction, £9.99
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
When her cousin sends a desperate letter claiming her husband is poisoning her, glamorous socialite Noemi travels to a crumbling mansion in 1950s Mexico. There, disturbing family secrets and increasingly frightening visions await in this wonderfully eerie Gothic mystery.
Arcadia, £9.99
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
Three seemingly unrelated cases, including a missing child and a murdered young woman, occupy private investigator Jackson Brodie during a Cambridge summer. Atkinson skilfully brings their stories together in a witty, affecting mystery about loss and the connections between strangers.
Black Swan, £9.99
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
In 1954, two US marshals arrive at an isolated psychiatric hospital to investigate the disappearance of a patient. With a hurricane approaching and the staff behaving strangely, their investigation descends into a disturbing psychological puzzle where nothing is quite as it seems.
Bantam, £9.99
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
When a wealthy family’s teenage daughter disappears from a summer camp, memories resurface of her older brother, who vanished 16 years earlier. Part family saga, part missing-person mystery, this intricately woven novel is one that will keep you up all night.
The Borough Press, £10.99
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist is hired to investigate the decades-old disappearance of a wealthy industrialist’s niece, joining forces with brilliant hacker Lisbeth Salander. Their search uncovers disturbing family secrets in this compulsively readable Swedish thriller that popularised Nordic noir.
Orion, £9.99
Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke
Two murders, one Black victim and one white, threaten to ignite racial tensions in a small East Texas town. Texas Ranger Darren Mathews arrives to investigate in this evocative Southern noir, where questions of justice are inseparable from the region’s troubled history.
Serpent’s Tail, £9.99