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If the twisty puzzles and clever crimes of Golden Age mysteries—pioneered by legends like Agatha Christie—are your cup of tea, you’re in for a treat.
These 20 modern whodunits capture the charm, wit, and intrigue of that classic era, while adding fresh twists for today’s readers. From mind-bending plots to fiendishly clever murders, each one is a tantalizing case just waiting to be cracked.
The question is… can YOU solve them?
Happy Reading!
Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz
New York Times Bestseller • Now a MASTERPIECE mystery series on PBS!
Bestselling author Anthony Horowitz brings back his famous literary detective Atticus Pund and Susan Ryeland, hero of Magpie Murders, in an inventive, labyrinthine story that is “catnip for classic mystery lovers” (Time magazine).
Retired publisher Susan Ryeland is living the good life. She is running a small hotel on a Greek island with her long-term boyfriend Andreas. It should be everything she’s always wanted. But is it? She’s exhausted with the responsibilities of making everything work on an island where nothing ever does, and truth be told she’s beginning to miss London.
And then the Trehearnes come to stay. The strange and mysterious story they tell, about an unfortunate murder that took place on the same day and in the same hotel in which their daughter was married—a picturesque inn on the Suffolk coast named Farlingaye Hall—fascinates Susan and piques her editor’s instincts.
One of her former writers, the late Alan Conway, author of the fictional Magpie Murders, knew the murder victim—an advertising executive named Frank Parris—and once visited Farlingaye Hall. Conway based the third book in his detective series, Atticus Pund Takes the Cake, on that very crime.
The Trehearne’s daughter, Cecily, read Conway’s mystery and believed the book proves that the man convicted of Parris’s murder—a Romanian immigrant who was the hotel’s handyman—is innocent. When the Trehearnes reveal that Cecily is now missing, Susan knows that she must return to England and find out what really happened.
Brilliantly clever, relentlessly suspenseful, full of twists that will keep readers guessing with each revelation and clue, Moonflower Murders is a deviously dark take on vintage English crime fiction from one of its greatest masterminds.
From TRBS: With a mystery-within-a-mystery structure that would make Agatha Christie grin, Horowitz spins a wickedly clever puzzle full of red herrings, shifting motives, and gasp-worthy twists. Atticus Pünd’s (think Poirot, but with better bedside manner) brilliant sleuthing and Susan Ryeland’s dogged determination make for a pitch-perfect pairing, pulling readers through a labyrinth of secrets that’s as satisfying as it is surprising. Vintage in charm yet modern in execution, this is a masterclass in crime fiction that proves Horowitz is the reigning king of today’s whodunit.
INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
The 19th mystery in the #1 New York Times-bestselling Armand Gamache series.
Relentless phone calls interrupt the peace of a warm August morning in Three Pines. Though the tiny Québec village is impossible to find on any map, someone has managed to track down Armand Gamache, head of homicide at the Sûreté, as he sits with his wife in their back garden. Reine-Marie watches with increasing unease as her husband refuses to pick up, though he clearly knows who is on the other end. When he finally answers, his rage shatters the calm of their quiet Sunday morning.
That’s only the first in a sequence of strange events that begin THE GREY WOLF, the nineteenth novel in Louise Penny’s #1 New York Times-bestselling series. A missing coat, an intruder alarm, a note for Gamache reading “this might interest you”, a puzzling scrap of paper with a mysterious list―and then a murder. All propel Chief Inspector Gamache and his team toward a terrible realization. Something much more sinister than any one murder or any one case is fast approaching.
Armand Gamache, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, his son-in-law and second in command, and Inspector Isabelle Lacoste can only trust each other, as old friends begin to act like enemies, and long-time enemies appear to be friends. Determined to track down the threat before it becomes a reality, their pursuit takes them across Québec and across borders. Their hunt grows increasingly desperate, even frantic, as the enormity of the creature they’re chasing becomes clear. If they fail, the devastating consequences would reach into the largest of cities and the smallest of villages.
Including Three Pines.
From TRBS: In The Grey Wolf, Louise Penny delivers a haunting, high-stakes masterpiece where every page drips with tension. With each phone call, cryptic clue, and unsettling betrayal, Penny tightens the noose in a suspense web only she could weave. Gamache, one of the greatest fictional sleuths of our time, faces a threat that transcends borders and defies easy answers, forcing the beloved Chief Inspector of Sûreté du Québec (known for his compassion and uncompromising pursuit of justice), to question everyone, including suspects and allies. Rich with atmospheric detail, deeply human, and brimming with moral complexity, this 19th Gamache mystery proves the series is as sharp and compelling as ever—delivering both heart-stopping suspense and the quiet, lyrical beauty fans have come to cherish.
We Solve Murders by Richard Osman
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!
“Madcap fun, with an entertaining new cast of characters and Osman’s trademark wit. Delightful!” —Shari Lapena
From the #1 bestselling author of The Thursday Murder Club Series
A brand new mystery. An iconic new detective duo. And a thrilling new murder to solve . . .
Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He still does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him at home. His days of adventure are over. Adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s job now.
Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. Working in private security, every day is dangerous. She’s currently on a remote island protecting mega-bestselling author Rosie D’Antonio, until a dead body and a bag of money mean trouble in paradise. So she sends an SOS to the only person she trusts . . .
As a thrilling race around the world begins, can Amy and Steve outrun and outsmart a killer?
Solving murders. It’s a family business.
From TRBS: Fast, funny, and every bit as charming as his Thursday Murder Club books, Richard Osman’s latest offering delivers a globetrotting murder mystery with plenty of heart and a cast full of unforgettable new characters. Between Steve Wheeler’s dry wit and Amy’s fearless drive, Osman’s new dynamic duo leaps off the page, navigating danger, deception, and a trail of bodies with the author’s signature blend of sharp plotting and laugh-out-loud humor. Oh, and there’s a bloody good mystery, too! A fresh start to what promises to be another wildly addictive second series for Osman to play around with.
A Line To Kill by Anthony Horowitz
The New York Times bestselling author of the brilliantly inventive The Word Is Murder and The Sentence Is Death returns with his third literary whodunit featuring intrepid detectives Hawthorne and Horowitz.
“Horowitz is a master of misdirection, and his brilliant self-portrayal, wittily self-deprecating, carries the reader through a jolly satire on the publishing world.” —Booklist
When Ex-Detective Inspector Daniel Hawthorne and his sidekick, author Anthony Horowitz, are invited to an exclusive literary festival on Alderney, an idyllic island off the south coast of England, they don’t expect to find themselves in the middle of murder investigation—or to be trapped with a cold-blooded killer in a remote place with a murky, haunted past.
Arriving on Alderney, Hawthorne and Horowitz soon meet the festival’s other guests—an eccentric gathering that includes a bestselling children’s author, a French poet, a TV chef turned cookbook author, a blind psychic, and a war historian—along with a group of ornery locals embroiled in an escalating feud over a disruptive power line.
When a local grandee is found dead under mysterious circumstances, Hawthorne and Horowitz become embroiled in the case. The island is locked down, no one is allowed on or off, and it soon becomes horribly clear that a murderer lurks in their midst. But who?
Both a brilliant satire on the world of books and writers and an immensely enjoyable locked-room mystery, A Line to Kill is a triumph—a riddle of a story full of brilliant misdirection, beautifully set-out clues, and diabolically clever denouements.
From TRBS: Wickedly clever and endlessly entertaining, A Line to Kill is Anthony Horowitz at his most devious. This third Hawthorne & Horowitz outing (which see’s the author write a fictional version of himself into the story, playing the “Watson” to Hawthorne’s Holmes) takes the duo to a remote literary festival on Alderney, where the island’s postcard-perfect charm hides a simmering feud, a colorful cast of eccentric authors, and—of course—a murder that traps everyone in a classic locked-room scenario. For my money, there is no better mystery writer alive today than Horowitz, who continues to deliver one brilliant hit after another.
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Turn of the Key and In a Dark, Dark Wood returns with another suspenseful thriller set on a snow-covered mountain.
Getting snowed in at a luxurious, rustic ski chalet high in the French Alps doesn’t sound like the worst problem in the world. Especially when there’s a breathtaking vista, a full-service chef and housekeeper, a cozy fire to keep you warm, and others to keep you company. Unless that company happens to be eight coworkers…each with something to gain, something to lose, and something to hide.
When the cofounder of Snoop, a trendy London-based tech startup, organizes a weeklong trip for the team in the French Alps, it starts out as a corporate retreat like any other: PowerPoint presentations and strategy sessions broken up by mandatory bonding on the slopes. But as soon as one shareholder upends the agenda by pushing a lucrative but contentious buyout offer, tensions simmer and loyalties are tested. The storm brewing inside the chalet is no match for the one outside, however, and a devastating avalanche leaves the group cut off from all access to the outside world. Even worse, one Snooper hadn’t made it back from the slopes when the avalanche hit.
As each hour passes without any sign of rescue, panic mounts, the chalet grows colder, and the group dwindles further…one by one.
From TRBS: When the co-workers of a London-based tech startup gather for a corporate retreat at a luxurious ski chalet high in the French Alps, only to become suddenly stranded, things take a sharp, dark, and twisting turn. David Baldacci called Ware “the Agatha Christie of our generation,” which is fitting, though not in the way some might take the comment right off the cuff. Ware doesn’t trot out a Miss Marple stand-in or Poirot wannabe. Instead, she tends to go for the edgier, darker thriller—one that shocks but also scares. Fans of Christie’s iconic And Then There Were None will love this book.
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Praised as “One of the hardest working, most thoughtful, and fairest reviewers out there” by New York Times bestselling author Lisa Scottoline, Ryan Steck has “quickly established himself as the authority on mysteries and thrillers” (Author A.J. Tata). Steck also works full-time as a freelance editor in addition to running TRBS. He is the author of FIELDS OF FIRE, which #1 New York Times bestselling author Jack Carr says “will leave you speechless and begging for more,” LETHAL RANGE, OUT FOR BLOOD, GONE DARK, and TED BELL’S MONARCH. For more information, follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and BookBub. For even more content and book news, subscribe to The Real Book Spy Substack!