Five Detective Books to Read

A good detective story invites readers to follow clues, spot red herrings, and form theories alongside investigators like Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, and Benoit Blanc. The best mysteries can build tension out of familiar settings and apparent chaos before bringing the pieces together.

Detective stories take many forms. These five books offer absorbing mysteries from beginning to end.

5. Magpie Murders (2016), by Anthony Horowitz

Anthony Horowitz’s Magpie Murders weaves together two mysteries. One takes place in a novel by fictional author Alan Conway, in which the housekeeper at Pye Hall is found dead in 1955. Detective Atticus Pünd and his assistant James Fraser investigate, while details of Pünd’s personal life emerge toward the end.

The other story follows Susan Ryeland, an editor who discovers that the final chapter of Conway’s novel is missing. Without it, the whodunit has no solution, leaving Susan with another mystery to solve.

The connected narratives give readers two sets of clues to follow. Horowitz also pays homage to Golden Age whodunits by Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, with a period mystery nested inside a modern story.

4. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), by Agatha Christie

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd opens with its narrator, Dr. James Sheppard, discussing the death of a wealthy widow who took her own life a year after her abusive husband died. Soon afterward, a widower named Roger Ackroyd urgently invites Sheppard over to discuss a pressing matter.

A murder follows the visit, drawing retired detective Hercule Poirot into the case. He relies on his “little gray cells” to sort through a web of local gossip and uncover the truth. Like many Agatha Christie plots, the novel moves briskly while keeping readers guessing.

Christie uses the expectations of the genre to set up an unexpected twist. The title announces the crime, but the reasons and circumstances remain elusive as the people connected to Ackroyd reveal their hidden motivations. Poirot’s eye for discrepancies helps bring the clues into focus.

3. The Thin Man (1934), by Dashiell Hammett

In The Thin Man, former private investigator Nick Charles and his socialite wife Nora become involved in a puzzling case during Christmas 1932, near the end of Prohibition in the United States. The daughter of Nick’s former client Clyde tells him she has been unable to reach her father. Then Clyde’s secretary and lover, Julia, is found dead, and a local gangster falls under suspicion.

Nick and Nora’s investigation becomes a glamorous, booze-filled adventure with plenty of danger. Their quick wit and easy rapport give the story much of its charm.

The mystery moves briskly, with a different feel from Hammett’s hard-boiled The Maltese Falcon. Around the likable central couple, a gritty world contrasts high-society glamour with middle-class economic uncertainty. The result leans toward a comedy of manners as well as a detective story.

2. Red Dragon (1981), by Thomas Harris

Thomas Harris’ Red Dragon follows former FBI profiler Will Graham as he helps authorities pursue a serial killer known as The Dragon. Graham reluctantly turns to Hannibal Lecter, the former psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer he previously captured.

Graham sought psychological help after his traumatic encounter with Lecter, and their relationship remains strained. Yet he needs Lecter’s cryptic clues to help catch The Dragon.

Harris gives readers the killer’s perspective as well as Graham’s, adding to the tension of the pursuit. Graham is haunted by his ability to empathize with serial killers. His “pure empathy” differs from that of Hugh Dancy’s Will in NBC’s Hannibal, which takes a more preternatural approach to the ability. Lecter appears sparingly in the novel, making his encounters with Graham unpredictable.

1. The Big Sleep (1939), by Raymond Chandler

Raymond Chandler’s hard-boiled mystery The Big Sleep, which has been adapted to film twice, follows alcoholic private investigator Philip Marlowe. Wealthy General Sternwood hires Marlowe over a blackmail attempt involving a bookseller named Arthur Geiger and explains further complications concerning his daughters, Carmen and Vivian.

Marlowe’s investigation takes him into the seedy side of Los Angeles, where secrets and double-crosses multiply. Chandler builds a tangled plot populated by people whose motives are rarely straightforward.

As Marlowe faces danger, his quick wit tempers his cynical view of the city. His understanding of human hypocrisy helps him navigate the corruption and betrayals around him.

Source: Polygon