The Best Mystery Book Series To Read Right Now

1920s India: Perveen Mistry, Bombay’s only female lawyer, investigates a suspicious will on behalf of three Muslim widows living in full purdah. When the case takes a deadly turn, Perveen must uncover what really happened on Malabar Hill. Inspired by India’s first female attorney, The Widows of Malabar Hill is the first installment of the Perveen Mistry Novel series.

In the Woods is the bestselling first novel in the Dublin Murder Squad series. In the summer of 1984, three children disappear into the woods of a small Dublin suburb. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children gripping a tree’s trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers, unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours. Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a 12-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and his partner and closest friend find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the mystery.

In book one of The Lady Sherlock series, Charlotte Holmes has never felt comfortable with the demureness expected of the fairer sex in upper-class society. But even she never thought that she would become a social pariah, an outcast fending for herself on the mean streets of London. When the city is struck by a trio of unexpected deaths and suspicion falls on her sister and her father, Charlotte is desperate to find the true culprits and clear the family name. She’ll have help from friends new and old — a kind-hearted widow, a police inspector, and a man who has long loved her. But in the end, it will be up to Charlotte, under the assumed name Sherlock Holmes, to challenge society’s expectations and match wits against an unseen mastermind.

In this installment of Janet Evanovich’s beloved Stephanie Plum series, dead bodies are turning up in shallow graves on the empty construction lot of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds, and Stephanie’s name is on the killer’s list. Short on time to find evidence, family and friends insist she finally choose between Trenton cop Joe Morelli and bad-boy security expert Ranger. If that wasn’t enough, her mom is pushing a returning high school football star, Lula is proposing a red-hot boudoir “bake-off,” and Grandma Bella is putting “the eye” on her. With a cold-blooded killer on her trail, a handful of hot men, and a capture list featuring a dance bear and a senior citizen vampire, Stephanie’s life is about to go up in smoke.

Volume I includes the novels and stories that introduced the brilliant Sherlock Holmes and his partner, Dr. Watson, to the world. A Study in Scarlet is a drama of long-simmering revenge from the fog-bound streets of London to the pioneer settlements of Utah. The Sign of Four weaves together a stolen treasure, poison darts, and double-crossing thieves, while The Hound of the Baskervilles brings a diabolical hellhound and an old family curse to a moonlit moor. The volume also includes favorites such as “A Scandal in Bohemia,” “The Red-Headed League,” “The Adventure of the Speckled Band,” and “The Final Problem,” showcasing Holmes’s astounding powers of deduction.

The thrilling first book in the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series featuring Lisbeth Salander. Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families, disappeared over 40 years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pierced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.

The first book in a new culinary cozy series full of sharp humor and delectable dishes that might just be killer … When Lila Macapagal moves home after a horrible breakup, she’s tasked with saving her Tita Rosie’s failing restaurant while fending off her matchmaking aunties. But when a nasty food critic, who happens to be her ex-boyfriend, drops dead after a confrontation with Lila, her rom-com life becomes an Agatha Christie case. With the cops treating her as the prime suspect and the shady landlord threatening her family’s restaurant, Lila’s launches her own investigation. Armed with the nosy auntie network, barista best friend, and her trusted Dachshund, Longanisa, she takes on this tasty, twisted case that puts her own neck on the chopping block …

In this installment of the Easy Rawlins Mystery series, Easy Rawlins returns from the brink of death to investigate the dark side of that haven for Los Angeles hippies, the Sunset Strip. He’s soon back in top form, cruising the gloriously psychedelic mean streets of L.A. with his murderous sidekick, Mouse. They’ve been hired to look for a young black man, Evander “Little Green” Noon, who disappeared during an acid trip. Fueled by an elixir called Gator’s Blood, Easy experiences a physical, spiritual, and emotional resurrection, but peace and love soon give way to murder and mayhem.

It is the summer of 1950, and at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, young Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is intrigued by a series of inexplicable events: A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Then, hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath. For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.” This is the first installment of Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce mystery series.