What’s That? 20 of the Best Mystery Books You’ve Never Heard Of

This is an Edgar Award winner from over 60 years ago. It’s an early domestic thriller, about a young woman who is fighting sleep deprivation due to the demands of her children. Are her growing sinister suspicions about their lodger, a schoolmistress, true or a product of her lack of sleep?

This thriller is about a detective solving her biggest mystery — her own. Detective Abigail Boone is the victim of a trauma and lost her memory. Now she must figure out who is responsible for her abduction while she tries to remember the people closest to her. Her only clue: the last case she was working on before she disappeared.

Called the “first ever African American crime novel,” this novel was written in the 1930s. It’s about Perry Dart, one of Harlem’s ten Black police detectives, who is assigned to the case of a murder of an African conjure-man. Fisher was one of the writers of the Harlem Renaissance, but died at the young age of 37 in 1934.

This is a delightful mystery about a killer on the loose aboard a passenger liner traveling from New York to Sydney. Wealthy socialite Rowland Sinclair is the captain’s first suspect, so he must clear his name before the boat docks and he is turned over to the authorities. I read this book on Rincey’s recommendation, and it was great! It is the second in the series, so you might want to start at the beginning. Or jump in — I had no problem following along.

This is an excellent Australian thriller for fans of Jane Harper and Candace Fox. It’s about the coach of a football club (with secrets of her own) who must figure out why her star player quit right before the finals. Before taking up writing, Thornton was a lawyer, so she knows her crime talk!

This is a great series about a dynamic detective agency in Detroit run by Charlie Mack. In this first book, Charlie and some of her team head to Alabama to help solve the case of a missing person, and wind up in a complex case. Making matters even more complicated are Charlie’s mother’s failing health issues and Charlie’s romantic situation with her girlfriend and ex-husband. I picked this up on the advice of Jamie and look forward to the next one!

Despite being the winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Fiction, among other accolades, this beauty seems to go largely unnoticed. It’s an excellent slow burn of a psychological thriller, about two bored young women in a dead-end California town, whose new friendship leads to violence.

This is a delightful mystery for readers of all ages! It’s about two kids, Toby and Ivy. Toby helps out around his uncle’s detective agency, Ivy thinks she IS a detective. Together they decide to compete in the World’s Greatest Detective contest — a contest that leads to a real-life murder. Are they in over their heads, or can they catch a killer?

This stellar debut novel is set in Pittsburgh, and it’s about a biracial Black man, passing for white, whose friend gets him caught up in a crime. Bobby has never told anyone about his real heritage, but when his friend returns from prison a newly radicalized white supremacist, it has devastating consequences. And then Bobby’s long-absent father returns to town…

This is the first in the Sacramento PD Detective Connor Parks series. Upset from the finalization of his divorce, Detective Parks goes out to drink his sorrows away, and winds up going home with a beautiful woman. But when the woman disappears, Parks finds himself involved in a case more complicated than anything he’s ever investigated before.

Nanette’s life is not going well — she’s having relationship trouble and then a fellow busker is murdered in her kitchen. When that busker turns out to be an undercover cop, Nanette finds herself in hot water. Can Nanette solve the mystery of the police officer’s murder and a legendary saxophone before she’s singing the blues behind bars?

State prosecutor Chastity Riley has a talent for stirring up trouble, but her career is put on hold when she’s sent into witness protection. Not one to sit around, Chastity soon finds herself embroiled in the story of a mysterious man also under police protection and an attempt to bring down a dangerous Albanian mafia kingpin. But the next case for Chastity may be her own murder.

And here’s another Jamie recommendation! Paula is a cab driver trying to come up with money for her husband’s mounting hospital bills. When she picks up a fare that she recognizes as a celebrity out with a woman who is not his wife, she sees a chance to get it. So she asks the celebrity for money in exchange for her silence. But when that woman is murdered days later, Paula’s innovating money-raising scheme may prove fatal.