A puzzle, a clue, one more page: you like to uncover what the story hides.
The Mystery Hunter reads with an invisible pencil in hand. From the first page you take note of what is said and, above all, what isn't: an alibi that's a little too neat, a detail that doesn't fit, a character who looks away. For you, a good story is a puzzle, and the pleasure lies in trying to solve it before anyone else.
You like tension that's carefully measured, chapters that end exactly when they shouldn't, and that "just one more" feeling that keeps you up past midnight. But you also value fair play: a surprising ending that, on a second look, was there from the start.
Your ground runs from the classic detective novel, with its drawing room full of suspects, to the modern thriller you race through, by way of stories where the mystery is a village's past or a family secret.
In this selection you'll find the classics that invented the rules, books a little further off the beaten path that twist those rules with wit, and a hidden gem or two for readers who think they've seen it all.
This is a guide, not a label: you may recognise yourself in several profiles.
Where to start
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Agatha Christie
Its 1926 ending is still one of the most talked-about in detective fiction.
The Flanders Panel
Arturo Pérez-Reverte
A mystery solved through the game of chess shown in a painting.
Red Queen
Juan Gómez-Jurado
The first book in the Antonia Scott trilogy.
Books to start with
A selection from our catalogue, from much-loved classics to lesser-known reads.
In the quiet English village of King's Abbot, a wealthy industrialist is found dead in his study, hard on the heels of another death that has the neighbours whispering. Hercule Poirot, supposedly retired, is drawn back to work amid rumours, debts and family secrets. Sharp, playful and often called Christie's masterpiece, it toys with the reader right to the very end.
A former army doctor new to London needs a flatmate and ends up living with a detective as odd as he is brilliant. Together they take on a baffling murder that puts Sherlock Holmes's powers of deduction to the test. This is where a legendary partnership begins, told briskly and steeped in Victorian atmosphere.
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Angels & DemonsDan Brown
Angels & DemonsDan Brown
Angels & Demons
Dan Brown
Symbologist Robert Langdon is pulled into Rome and Vatican City to chase the Illuminati, an old secret brotherhood threatening the Church with stolen antimatter. With an Italian scientist at his side, he races through churches, sculptures and cryptic ambigrams against a killer who stays one step ahead, all within a single day. Short chapters, art history and conspiracy make it a breathless, page-turning ride.
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Middle road
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The Flanders PanelArturo Pérez-Reverte
The Flanders PanelArturo Pérez-Reverte
The Flanders Panel
Arturo Pérez-Reverte
While restoring a fifteenth-century Flemish painting, Julia uncovers a hidden inscription asking who killed the knight. A studio curiosity turns into an investigation in which a chess game painted on the panel holds the keys to an old murder and to dangers very much alive today. Elegant and gripping, it weaves together art, history and the logic of the game.
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A Place of ExecutionVal McDermid
A Place of ExecutionVal McDermid
A Place of Execution
Val McDermid
In 1960s England, a girl vanishes from a remote, closed-off village, and the police inquiry that follows leaves its mark on everyone involved. Decades later, a journalist revisits the case and finds the old certainties beginning to shift. A rich, slow-burning procedural told across two eras, driven by vivid characters and a steadily tightening grip.
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Tell No OneHarlan Coben
Tell No OneHarlan Coben
Tell No One
Harlan Coben
Eight years after losing his wife on a terrible night by a lake, pediatrician David Beck receives an email that only she could have sent. As he chases the truth about what really happened, the FBI begins to see him as a suspect. A propulsive, short-chaptered thriller driven by grief and a love that refuses to let go.
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Hidden gem
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Red QueenJuan Gómez-Jurado
Red QueenJuan Gómez-Jurado
Red Queen
Juan Gómez-Jurado
Antonia Scott has never been a cop or carried a gun, yet she has cracked dozens of baffling crimes. These days she barely leaves her attic flat in Madrid's Lavapiés, until a stranger climbs the stairs looking for her. A breakneck, short-chaptered thriller led by a sharp, wounded heroine you won't easily forget.
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One of Us Is LyingKaren M. McManus
One of Us Is LyingKaren M. McManus
One of Us Is Lying
Karen M. McManus
Five students walk into detention at Bayview High one Monday afternoon, and only four walk out: the fifth, who ran the school's notorious gossip app, was about to expose all their secrets. Told through the shifting voices of the suspects, the story turns every chapter into a new clue and every confession into a doubt. A fast, twisty, hard-to-put-down high school mystery.
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A Good Girl's Guide to MurderHolly Jackson
A Good Girl's Guide to MurderHolly Jackson
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder
Holly Jackson
Five years after a killing her small town considers closed, Pip, a determined high school senior, picks it as her final project, unconvinced that the gentle boy she once knew was guilty. Interviews, logs and clues pull her deeper until the inquiry becomes an obsession, and someone would rather she stopped digging. A gripping teen mystery with the feel of a true-crime podcast.