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First Novels in Mystery Series

In the Mystery section unless noted.

Donna Andrews, Murder with Peacocks.
Meg Lanslow is juggling the duties of being maid of honor at three summer weddings when one of the guests is murdered.

Jefferson Bass, Carved in Bone.
A forensic anthropologist investigates when the mummified body of a woman who died 30 years ago is found in a cave.

James Benn, Billy Boyle.
During World War II, Billy Boyle—a Boston cop on Eisenhower’s staff—is assigned to unmask a spy who could compromise Allied plans to drive the Nazis out of Norway.

Cara Black, Murder in the Marais.
Computer expert Aimee Leduc is delivering a decrypted 1940s photo when she finds a dead woman with a swastika carved on her forehead.

C.J. Box, Open Season.
Joe Pickett, the new game warden of Twelve Sleep, Wyoming, finds it hard enough filling his predecessor’s shoes without having to deal with a dead poacher in his woodpile.

Alan Bradley, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.
A precocious English girl with an interest in chemistry decides to investigate when she discovers the body of a stranger who is linked to her father and a priceless missing stamp.

Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles.
Hercule Poirot is called to an English country manor where a wealthy widow has been poisoned with strychnine.

Michael Connelly, The Black Echo.
L.A. cop Harry Bosch finds the body of a friend in an abandoned tunnel and discovers that the man was using skills he’d learned in Vietnam to rob a bank.

Patricia Cornwell, Postmortem.
Medical examiner Kay Scarpetta gathers evidence to track a serial killer who strangles young women.

Robert Crais, The Monkey’s Raincoat. Paperback Mystery
When he’s hired to find a woman’s missing husband and son, L.A. private eye Elvis Cole links their disappearance to a drug theft.

Deborah Crombie, A Share in Death.
Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid retreats to Yorkshire for a much-needed vacation, but when a body is discovered in the hotel's whirlpool bath, he and Sergeant Gemma James are back to work.

Diane Mott Davidson, Catering to Nobody. Paperback Mystery
When her ex-father-in-law is poisoned at a funeral she catered, Goldy Bear must find the culprit in order to clear her name.

Colin Dexter, Last Bus to Woodstock.
Inspector Morse seeks the owner of a red car who picked up two women from a bus stop—one of whom was later found murdered.

Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet.
Dr. Watson returns from the Afghan War in need of a place to stay and takes rooms at 221B Baker Street with Sherlock Holmes and helps him on the case of a body with no wounds and a word written in blood on the wall.

Bryan Gruley, Starvation Lake.
A disgraced reporter takes a job at the local paper in his Michigan hometown and investigates the suspicious death of his old hockey coach.

Tarquin Hall, The Case of the Missing Servant.
A private detective in India is hired to find a maid missing from the household of a lawyer who is fighting government corruption.

Steve Hamilton, A Cold Day in Paradise.
After his partner’s murder, Detroit cop Alex McKnight becomes a P.I. in Michigan, but it appears an old nemesis has followed him there.

Tony Hillerman, The Blessing Way.
When a dead man with a mouth full of sand is found, Navajo Tribal Police Lt. Joe Leaphorn investigates a possible connection to witchcraft.

J. A. Jance, Until Proven Guilty (in Sentenced to Die or in Paperback Mystery).
When a little girl is killed, Seattle cop J.P. Beaumont investigates the cult that her mother belongs to.

Craig Johnson, The Cold Dish.
Wyoming sheriff Walt Longmire thinks revenge may be the motive in the murder of a man who, along with three others, raped a Native American girl.

J.A. Konrath, Whiskey Sour.
Chicago cop Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels and her partner seek a serial killer who leaves mutilated bodies in public places.

Michael Koryta, Tonight I Said Goodbye.
When a fellow private eye dies and his wife and child disappear, Lincoln Perry and his partner find themselves in danger from the Russian mob.

William Kent Krueger, Iron Lake.
Former sheriff Cork O’Connor thinks a judge’s apparent suicide and the disappearance of his paperboy are connected.

Dennis Lehane, A Drink before the War. Fiction
Two U.S. Senators hire Boston private eyes Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro to recover sensitive documents stolen by a cleaning woman who has since disappeared.

Donna Leon, Death at La Fenice.
Venice police commissario Guido Brunetti investigates when a famous maestro drinks cyanide during intermission at the Venice opera.

Laura Lippman, Baltimore Blues.
Tess Monaghan is hired by a friend who thinks his girlfriend is cheating on him; but when the woman’s lover turns up dead, Tess fears her friend may be the killer.

Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.
A woman in Botswana opens a detective agency and helps people solve a variety of mysteries.

Michael McGarrity, Tularosa.
Retired sheriff Kevin Kerney is asked by a friend to find his son who is AWOL from the White Sands Missile Range.

Brian McGilloway, Borderlands.
Garda Inspector Benedict Devlin takes charge when a girl’s body is found on the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Sara Paretsky, Indemnity Only.
Chicago private eye V.I. Warshawski is hired to find a missing girl but soon begins to suspect her client’s motives.

Robert Parker, The Godwulf Manuscript.
When P.I. Spenser is hired by Boston University to find a stolen manuscript, his only clue is the bullet-riddled corpse of a radical student.

Louise Penny, Still Life.
Chief Inspector Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec investigates the death of an artist in an apparent hunting accident.

Anne Perry, The Cater Street Hangman.
In Victorian England, Inspector Thomas Pitt is called in when a maid is strangled in an upper-class household.

Kathy Reichs, Déjà Dead.
Forensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan thinks a serial killer is at work in Montreal, but when police dismiss her fears she pursues the case on her own.

Ruth Rendell, From Doon with Death.
When a prim housewife is murdered, Inspector Wexford finds a cache of rare books inscribed by a mysterious lover called Doon.

Peter Robinson, Gallows View. Paperback Mystery
DCI Alan Banks left crime-ridden London for a picturesque market town in Yorkshire, but a series of crimes against women shatter the peace.

Spencer Quinn, Dog on It.
A dog helps his master—who runs a detective agency—locate a missing girl with a shady father.

Ian Rankin, Knots and Crosses.
Edinburgh cop John Rebus connects a series of murders to his own past in the SAS.

C.J. Sansom, Dissolution.
In 1537, Cromwell sends lawyer Matthew Shardlake to investigate the murder of one of his commissioners at a monastery.

Karin Slaughter, Blindsighted.
Dr. Sara Linton finds a blind woman dying from a vicious attack and fears that she may be the killer’s real target.

James Thompson, Snow Angels.
During Lapland’s period of total darkness, Inspector Vaara investigates the murder of a Somali woman.

Charles Todd, A Test of Wills.
Inspector Ian Rutledge—a shell-shocked veteran of World War I—returns to duty at Scotland Yard and takes a murder case where the prime suspect is a decorated war hero.

Jacqueline Winspear, Maisie Dobbs.
After World War I, former nurse Maisie Dobbs opens a private investigations agency a takes a case that uncovers a wartime tragedy.