The Best Books of 2024: Mystery
In the comparatively anemic mainstream US publishing world of 2024, I got most of my best experiences of historical fiction by reading historical murder mysteries, and the genre just in general mostly didn't let me down, certainly helped by the presence of so many trusted veteran writers in the lists. As a result, I read a good many very satisfying mysteries this year. These were the best of them:
10 Tooth and Claw by Craig Johnson (Viking) – In this short bit of backstory in the annals of Walt Longmire, the craggy lawmen readers have come to love gives way to a much younger man, looking for work up in Alaska. Of course, even a younger Longmire is still a lightning rod for trouble, which he finds not only in the predictable human form but also in the form of a monstrous, malevolent polar bear who easily steals the whole story from good guys and bad guys alike.
9 The Phantom Patrol by James Benn (Soho Crime) – Benn's series detailing the adventures of former Boston copy Billy Boyle during the Second World War is an unfailing source of reading pleasure, and this latest installment, dealing with the ever-fruitful world of Nazi art pillaging and set during the Battle of the Bulge.
8 Death by Misadventure by Tasha Alexander (Minotaur Books) – Equally reliable is Alexander's series of the globe-trotting sleuthing adventures of Lady Emily and her husband Colin, who here find themselves in the Bavarian Alps of 1906, embroiled in murderous complications that reverberate from the days of notorious King Ludwig half a century earlier.
7 The Saint by Carin Gerhardsen (Mysterious Press) – The mysterious murder of a seemingly saintly soccer coach in Stockholm's Herräng Forest is the mystery at the heart of this latest piece of “Scandi Noir,” an sub-genre so easily parodied that it can be easy to overlook the times when it's really well done. This police procedural, in which the Hammarby murder squad tries to figure out why the local saint might be murdered, is a good example of that.
6 Peking Duck and Cover by Vivien Chen (Minotaur Books) – As with other entries on this list, Chen's Noodle Shop mysteries are very proven things, sure to delight in ways that so often elude me with other “cozy” mysteries I read during the week. This one spools out from an elaborate Chinese New Year celebration and is the customary blend of humor and plot twists.
5 The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger (Atria Books) – This novel by the reliably talented Krueger is set in small town late-1950s Minnesota, where the body of a prominent landowner is found in the river. Sheriff Brody Dern is tasked with solving the murder, a task made doubly complicated by the fact that the town's suspicions are falling on Dern's fellow WWII veteran Noah Bluestone. Like other authors on this list, Krueger takes these familiar elements and makes them into something urgently readable.
4 Under the Paper Moon by Shaina Steinberg (Kensington Books) – Evelyn Bishop, Steinberg's memorable main character, spent WWII as a spy for the British government and is now a PI in post-war Los Angeles, teaming up with her erstwhile partner Nick Gallagher for one last investigation together, which turns out to be not only connected with their experiences during the war but also darker than either of them could expect. It's all richly atmospheric, very satisfying stuff.
3 The Last Hope by Susan Elia MacNeal (Bantam) – As spycraft giveth, so spycraft taketh away: this is the final installment in MacNeal's beloved series featuring plucky espionage agent Maggie Hope, who here goes to Madrid on orders to assassinate German physicist Werner Heisenberg. A simple killing is alarmingly unlike anything Maggie's been ordered to do, and her time in Madrid is further complicated by the presence of none other than Coco Chanel, on a mission of her own. It would be an understatement to call the finale bittersweet.
2 A Chain of Pearls by Raemi Ray (Tule Publishing) – Like some other entries in the list this time around, a big strength of this book is its evocation of setting, in this case the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard, where a famous journalist is found dead, and where the man's daughter soon arrives to settle his affairs – and, inevitably, get involved in on-island intrigues.
1 The Wharton Plot by Mariah Fredericks (Minotaur Books) – The star of this, the best mystery novel of the year, is indisputably and wonderfully Edith Wharton herself, who in 1911 is a famous novelist and an imperious figure fully accustomed to getting her own way. When a fellow writer (of whom she's not exactly a fan) is shot dead on a New York street, Mrs. Wharton becomes perhaps the least likely – and most winning – amateur sleuth of the year.