Best Mystery Series to Start With

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The best mystery series to begin with: the first book of ten detectives worth following for years.

The ranking

The Thursday Murder Club

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders. But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the m...

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The Cuckoo's Calling

by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowlings)

The apparent suicide of supermodel Lula Landry is not accepted by her brother, who hires private detective Cormoran Strike. The first Strike novel from Robert Galbraith, J. K. Rowling's pen name.

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Maisie Dobbs

by Jacqueline Winspear

Maisie Dobbs isn’t just any young housemaid. Through her own natural intelligence—and the patronage of her benevolent employers—she works her way into college at Cambridge. When World War I breaks out, Maisie goes to the...

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The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

by Alan Bradley

In his wickedly brilliant first novel, Debut Dagger Award winner Alan Bradley introduces one of the most singular and engaging heroines in recent fiction: eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passio...

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Knots and Crosses

by Ian Rankin

Edinburgh policeman, John Rebus, must solve murders involving seeming crank letters. He is not the only officer workering the case, but the only one who has all the pieces to resolve it.

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The Black Echo

by Michael Connelly

LAPD detective Harry Bosch investigates the body of a man found in a drain below Mulholland Dam, and the case takes him back to his past as a tunnel rat in Vietnam. The first Harry Bosch novel.

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Devil in a Blue Dress

by Walter Mosley

Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins has few illusions about the world--at least not about the world of a young black veteran in the late 1940s in Southern California. His stint in the Army didn't do anything to dissuade him fro...

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Still Life

by Louise Penny

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surete du Quebec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal. Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet of...

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The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

by Alexander McCall Smith

This first novel in Alexander McCall Smith's widely acclaimed The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series tells the story of the delightfully cunning and enormously engaging Precious Ramotswe, who is drawn to her profession...

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A is for Alibi

by Sue Grafton

A IS FOR AVENGER. A tough-talking former cop, private investigator Kinsey Millhone has set up a modest detective agency in a quiet corner of Santa Teresa, California. She's a twice-divorced loner with few personal posses...

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Best Mystery Series to Start With

The ranking

The Thursday Murder Club

The Cuckoo's Calling

Maisie Dobbs

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Knots and Crosses

The Black Echo

Devil in a Blue Dress

Still Life

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

A is for Alibi

Trending Books in Best Mystery Series to Start With

The Thursday Murder Club

The Cuckoo's Calling

Maisie Dobbs

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Knots and Crosses

The Black Echo

Devil in a Blue Dress

Still Life

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

A is for Alibi

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Best Mystery Series to Start With

The ranking

Trending Books in Best Mystery Series to Start With

Trending Mystery Booklists

Best Cozy Mystery Books

Best Handicapped Mystery Books

Best Culinary Mystery Books

Best Bumbling Detective Mystery Books

Best Caper Mystery Books

Best Suspense Mystery Books