The Best Mystery Books to Read in Summer 2024

After Lucy is found wandering the streets, covered in her best friend Savvy’s blood, everyone thinks she is a murderer. Once the golden girl of their community, Lucy is now a pariah, and Savvy's own past became gossip fodder for those who once adored her. 

After packing up her entire life and moving to Los Angeles for a clean start, Lucy finds herself drawn back to her home town after a true crime podcast, "Listen for the Lie", decides to investigate Savvy's still unsolved murder. The host, Ben Owens, thinks he can uncover the culprit and hopes Lucy can help. 

But Lucy's still not sure what happened. She can't even remember if it was her who killed her best friend... 

In scenic Granite Harbor, a small town off the coast of Maine, life is quiet and simple. But things change drastically when a local teenager is found brutally murdered in the Settlement, the town’s historic archaeological site. 

Detective Alex Brangwen is the only real cop in town, and this is his first murder case. Isabel, a single mother attempting to support her family while healing from her own demons, finds herself in the middle of the drama when she goes to work at the Settlement. 

When a second body is found, both she and Alex worry that their own kids could be next. There's a killer in their midst and the tight-knit world of Granite Harbor might need to be torn apart for them to uncover the truth. 

Every year executives at the celebrated tech start-up Aurora gather the company’s top employees for an exclusive retreat in Miami. It'll be the first time that Caitlin Levy, the company's newest hire, will be there, and she's excited to join the high ranks of Aurora's most celebrated employees. 

When another high-level executive vanishes after the first night, the disappearance has the potential to derail the future of the company’s sale. But Aurora can't let the world know that something has gone wrong, so all the parties and team-building exercises go on. Caitlin's fears that there's something else bubbling beneath the glossy surface are proven true, but she's not prepared for just how dark this company is beneath the surface. 

Sheriff Porter Beck is a Las Vegas man born and raised. After leaving Nevada behind to join the army, he's returned to take up the same job his father once held before dementia ravaged his once-brilliant mind. Things are quiet until an old, retired FBI agent is found murdered, his body shredded by what must have been days' of brutal torture. Solving this case will require Beck to delve into the early days of the nuclear age, when atomic bombs were blown up in the middle of the desert and whispers of Russian spies were on everyone's lips. 

Eleanor Dash is on her latest book tour in sunny Italy, promoting the newest edition in her Vacation Mysteries series. She's also on deadline and has plans to kill off her main character, Connor Smith, as soon as she has time to do so. 

But then an attempt is made on the life of the real Connor, the con man who inspired her a decade ago. Eleanor is enlisted to solve the case, but it's not as easy as writing one. Everyone seems to be a suspect, from rabid fans to her ex-boyfriend Oliver. Can she figure it out before she's killed off too? 

In 1920, Agatha Christie introduced the world to Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective who would become one of the world's most beloved characters and part of one of the biggest selling literary series ever written. The Mysterious Affair at Styles is where it all began. 

Following the Great War, Poirot has settled in England near Styles Court, the country estate of his wealthy benefactor, the elderly Emily Inglethorp. When Emily is poisoned, it seems as though everyone is a suspect but the local authorities are baffled. It's up to Poirot to put his legendary investigative skills to the test and uncover the murderer before they strike once more. 

Lana Farrar is a reclusive ex–movie star and one of the most famous women in the world. Every year, she invites her closest friends join her for a luxurious Easter holiday on her private island off the coast of Greece. Within 48 hours, one of them was found dead. 

With a killer on the loose and no chance of escape, the surviving friends find their pasts returning to haunt them. Old wounds are torn open and it soon becomes clear that everyone has a motive for murder and revenge. 

Allie Burns is an investigative journalist hoping to break out of mundane stories and join the big leagues. One of few women in the newsroom, she's forever underestimated and not taken seriously by her male colleagues. 

But her work is important and it's beginning to piss off some powerful people. Alongside fellow reporter Danny Sullivan, she discovers a terrorist threat close to home. Tackling the threat could make her career. If she fails, a lot of people will die. 

Three years ago, David Hunter moved to rural Norfolk to escape his life in London, where his work in forensics exposed him to the darkest parts of humanity and a tragedy that tore his family apart. Now, he's happy to be a local doctor for the town of Manham, and have the peace to find room to grieve for his lost wife and daughter. 

When the corpse of a woman is found in the woods, a macabre sign from her killer decorating her body, David knows he can't sit out the investigation. As more women disappear and the killer's twisted methods grow more disturbing, David knows he's running out of time to solve the mystery. 

Samuel Todd is a field investigator for the Bingham Foundation, who offer life-changing investments to doctors and scientists whose work could revolutionize the world. Todd is sent to look into the work of Dr. T.G. Thorndecker, a respected Nobel Prize winner who wants a vast amount of money to study the cause of ageing in mammals. 

It seems altruistic enough, but soon Sam wonders what's actually going on in Thorndecker's lab, which is adjacent to a rest home for the well-off. It seems like paradise, right up until people start dying and the professor’s maniacal agenda comes to light.