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20 Great Mystery Books You Should Read

Lauren Browning   

20 Great Mystery Books You Should Read
Thelife5 min read

woman walking readingFlickr/Francisco Osorio

The best part about reading a mystery book is not being able to put it down.  

Amazon released its best edge-of-your-seat mysteries and thrillers of 2014.

Even though the year has already wrapped up, these books will keep you completely engrossed.

Keep reading to find your next nail-biting novel.

1. "Revival: A Novel" by Stephen King: Set over half a century ago, the story focuses on the bond between a boy and the new town minister. The tale spans five decades and follows the relationship of these two characters who are plagued by demons and deep-seated grief. "Revival" culminates in the most terrifying conclusion Stephen King has ever written.

2. "Personal: A Jack Reacher Novel" by Lee Child: Former military cop Jack Reacher is called back into duty when an American gunman tries to shoot the president of France. Very few people in the world would have been able to make the long range shot from such a long range, but Reacher knows someone who can, and now has to catch him.

3. "The Secret Place (Dublin Murder Squad)" by Tana French: In the newest addition to the Dublin Murder Squad series, the murder investigation of teen heartthrob Chris Harper is reignited when a photo of him emerges with the caption "I KNOW WHO KILLED HIM." Detectives Stephen Moran and Antoinette Conway work to uncover the truth and are shocked by the danger and mystery of the private world of teenagers.

4. "Wolf in White Van: A Novel" by John Darnielle: After a disfiguring accident, Sean Phillips lives within the confines of his home. He creates a text-based, role-playing game that takes its players on an adventure through an imaginary world. Sean must face reality when two players take his game into the real world and disaster ensues. The story ultimately leads back to the horrific accident that has shaped Sean's isolated existence.

5. "The Laughing Monsters: A Novel" by Denis Johnson: "The Laughing Monsters" tests the loyalty between long-time friends. After a decade away, Roland Nair returns to Sierra Leone to reunite with his friend and former business partner Michael Adriko and Adriko's fiance. On the journey to meet Adriko's clan in Uganda it becomes very clear that the three have their own motives and secrets that threaten their relationships with each other.

6. "I Am Pilgrim" by Terry Hayes: When four brutal and seemingly unrelated murders turn out to actually be connected, only one man, a retired and reclusive CIA operative named Pilgrim, can discover the missing links.

7. "The Heist: A Novel" by Daniel Silva: Gabriel Allon has many identities: art restorer, spy, assassin. This thriller novel follows Gabriel as he searches the globe for renowned artist Caravaggio's stolen masterpiece.

8. "The Long Way Home" by Louise Penny: Former chief inspector of homicide Armand Gamache has found peace and quiet in retirement until his neighbor Clara enlists him to find her missing, estranged artist husband.

9. "Natchez Burning: A Novel" by Greg Iles: Set in Mississippi, lawyer Penn Cage has always looked up to his father Tom, a doctor and pillar in the community. When Tom is accused of murdering a nurse he worked with in the '60s, Penn tries to clear his father's name, and ends up following a trail that dates back 40 years and uncovers his town's racist and bloody past.

10. "The Son: A Novel" by Jo Nesbo: Sonny, a heroin addict, has been in jail for 12 years for crimes he didn't commit, but he doesn't question his sentence as long as he has a steady supply of dope. But when he learns a secret about his deceased corrupt cop father, Sonny escapes jail and his addiction only to find himself at the center of a whole infrastructure of corruption.

11. "Those Who Wish Me Dead" by Michael Koryta: When teenaged Jace Wilson is the only witness of a grisly murder, police put Jace into witness protection at a wilderness camp while they search for the murderous Blackwell Brothers. Jace can only hope the police find the Blackwell Brothers before they find him. 

12. "An Officer and a Spy: A Novel" by Robert Harris: The novel follows French Jewish officer Alfred Dreyfus, who is convicted of treason for sharing secrets with the Germans. Georges Picquart, head of the counterespionage agency that imprisoned Dreyfus, starts to question if there is a larger conspiracy using Dreyfus as the scapegoat.

13. "The Farm" by Tom Rob Smith: Daniel is caught between his parents. His father is claiming that his mother is mentally ill and suffering a psychotic break; Daniel's mother calls Daniel frantically, saying everything his father is saying about her is a lie, and tells him a story of secrets, deceit, crime, and a terrible conspiracy.

14. "Windigo Island: A Novel" by William Kent Krueger: A young girl from the Ojibwe tribe washes up on the shores of Bad Bluff reservation. The girl had gone missing a year ago with her friend Mariah, who is still missing. While the Ojibwe tribe thinks the girls' disappearance is attributed to the mythical creature Windigo, private detective Cork O'Connor finds evidence that the girls were sold into a dangerous sex-trafficking ring. 

15. "Cop Town: A Novel" by Karin Slaughter: It's 1974 and there is a cop killer loose in Atlanta, Georgia. Kate Murphy and Maggie Lawson are two rookie cops looking to prove their worth to the APD. When they are pushed out of the manhunt for the cop killer, the two women take the investigation into their own hands. 

16. "The Fever: A Novel" by Megan Abbott: The story focuses on the close-knit Nash family when their community is shaken with hysteria after a lethal contagion breaks out. 

17. "The Cairo Affair" by Olen Steinhauer: Sophie watches her husband, an American diplomat in Hungary, get killed minutes after confessing that she had an affair in Cairo. Sophie enlists the help of Stan Bertolli, a Cairo-based CIA agent and Sophie's former lover, to find out who wanted her husband dead. The story follows Sophie, Stan, and two other characters as they pursue different roads to solve the same case.

18. "The Kept: A Novel" by James Scott: It's 1897 in rural New York, and after a day at work Elspeth Howell comes home to find her husband and four of her children brutally murdered. She finds her son Caleb alive and hiding in the pantry. Mother and son set out to find the men responsible for shattering their family. 

19. "Secrecy" by Rupert Thomson: The Grand Duke has asked Sicilian sculptor Zummo to create a life-sized wax sculpture of the woman who broke his heart. Meanwhile, Zummo finds love of his own but must conceal his feelings to remain a part of the Medici court. The novel shows the repression, hypocrisy, and piety that plagued seventeenth century Florence.

20. "Chance: A Novel" by Kem Nunn: Neuropsychiatrist Dr. Eldon Chance is primed for ruin when he falls into bed with Jaclyn, one of his patients who suffers from dissociative identity disorder. Jaclyn is also the wife of an abusive and dangerous homicide detective. Chance's relationships both with Jaclyn, and a young man named D, threaten to unravel his life.

Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.

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