5 Murder Mystery Books To Get You Through Spooky Season

A famous nursery rhyme hangs in each room, and when the guests begin to die in the order of the poem, chaos ensues. Without a visible host or murderer, Christie paved the way with this first-rate whodunnit. 

P.S. The original publication of the novel didn’t reveal who the murderer was, but after extensive pressure from her fans, Christie wrote and published the epilogue. Could you imagine being one of those first readers and not having the novel explained?

Our protagonist Alex isn’t exactly Ivy League material but is granted a full ride with a job offer: monitor the activities of said magical secret societies. That should be a piece of cake, right? Yeah, you can see where I’m going. 

Magic, creatures, rituals, mythology, and more  are all part of this corrupt New Haven as Alex and her (hot, emotionally unavailable) mentor Darlington try to contain the evil that seems to be leaking from Yale itself.

But okay, from start to finish, this book hooks you. It’s incredibly crafted: Bardugo expertly drops seemingly irrelevant information throughout the novel, only for the thread to unravel at the end as everything is brought to life. As a reader, there is nothing, I’m sure you’ll agree, more satisfying than reading a really good book and having the floor dropped from beneath you at the end.

When our protagonist, Miss Rebecca Lane, returns home, she agrees to help her brother deliver his manuscript to a famous author staying at the nearby Swanford Abbey. The old medieval monastery turned luxury hotel is rumored to be haunted, and Rebecca can’t help but notice odd things.

When the famous author is found murdered in the abbey, the past is pushed to the present as secrets are revealed and several people are found to hold grudges against the man, including Miss Lane and her brother… Who committed the crime? And who is the mysterious cloaked figure seen in the halls of the abbey?

Harvard professor Robert Langdon is summoned when a world-renowned scientist is found brutally murdered in a Swiss research facility with a mysterious symbol carved into the dead man’s chest. Not believing his eyes, Robert concludes it’s the work of the Illuminati, a secret brotherhood returned to continue their vendetta against their sworn enemy, the Catholic Church. 

Racing against time, Robert teams up with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful Italian scientist, as they uncover an ancient trail of symbols that leads, inevitably, to Rome. Dan Brown is an expert storyteller, and every clue leads to revelations and plot twists that lead up to the novel’s climax in the Vatican. You’ll fly through this adventure faster than you can say “Illuminati.”

Mariana is a brilliant group therapist whose niece Zoe attends her alma mater, Cambridge. When one of Zoe’s friends is found murdered, Mariana quickly becomes obsessed with an organization the girl was a part of: The Maidens, an all-female secret society. 

At the heart of it all is charismatic Greek tragedy professor Edward Fosca, adored by his Maidens, whom Mariana is quickly convinced is guilty despite his alibi. But why would the professor target one of his own students? And why does he keep returning to the rites of Persephone and her journey into the underworld?