10 Best Urban Mystery Books Unfolding on the City Streets
City streets can be a labyrinth of dark corners, secrets whispered in alleyways, and unseen dangers lurking in the shadows. But these concrete jungles also serve as the perfect backdrop for an engrossing urban mystery that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't feel bad if you like the thrill that comes from being slightly scared, engaged and stumped - it's all part of the attraction.
Volumes have been written about small town mysteries, but the complexity and vibrancy of the city injects a certain sense of anxious excitement that is hard to match. These tales are not just about solving a crime or discovering a secret. Each story, steeped in intrigue, reveals the unspoken underbelly of urban life. It's these raw and unfiltered portrayals of humanity that make urban mystery novels so compelling.
For the sleuths among us who are drawn to streetlights more than starlight, we’ve prepared a list of ten best urban mystery books that masterfully depict the suspense and thrill of untangling a mystery in the heart of a bustling metropolis. Happy reading and may your journey through these gritty city streets be as thrilling as it is fulfilling.
『Now Entering Addamsville』
“A darkly humorous, rapid-fire read.” —Kirkus Reviews Stranger Things meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer in this contemporary novel from Francesca Zappia, the acclaimed author of Eliza and Her Monsters. When Zora Novak is framed for a crime she didn’t commit, she must track down the true culprit and clear her name before it’s too late. But in a small town obsessed with ghosts, getting people to believe the truth might prove to be impossible. When someone burns down the home of the school janitor and he dies in the blaze, everyone in Addamsville, Indiana, points a finger at Zora. Never mind that Zora has been on the straight and narrow since her father was thrown in jail. With everyone looking for evidence against her, her only choice is to uncover the identity of the real killer. There’s one big problem—Zora has no leads. No one does. Addamsville has a history of tragedy, and thirty years ago a similar string of fires left several townspeople dead. The arsonist was never caught. Now, Zora must team up with her cousin Artemis—an annoying self-proclaimed Addamsville historian—to clear her name. But with a popular ghost-hunting television show riling up the townspeople, almost no support from her family and friends, and rumors spinning out of control, things aren’t looking good. Zora will have to read between the lines of Addamsville’s ghost stories before she becomes one herself. Acclaimed author Francesca Zappia has a perfectly pitched teen voice that shines in this inventive novel. Now Entering Addamvsille is perfect for fans of Brittany Cavallaro, Victoria Schwab, Riverdale, Truly Devious, and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Includes interior spot illustrations from the author.
Author | Francesca Zappia |
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Price | $6.49 |
Publisher | HarperCollins |
Release Date | Oct 01, 2019 |
Source | Google Books |
『The Box in the Woods』
After solving the case of Truly Devious, Stevie Bell investigates her first mystery outside of Ellingham Academy in this spine-chilling and hilarious stand-alone mystery from New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson. Amateur sleuth Stevie Bell needs a good murder. After catching a killer at her high school, she’s back at home for a normal (that means boring) summer. But then she gets a message from the owner of Sunny Pines, formerly known as Camp Wonder Falls—the site of the notorious unsolved case, the Box in the Woods Murders. Back in 1978, four camp counselors were killed in the woods outside of the town of Barlow Corners, their bodies left in a gruesome display. The new owner offers Stevie an invitation: Come to the camp and help him work on a true crime podcast about the case. Stevie agrees, as long as she can bring along her friends from Ellingham Academy. Nothing sounds better than a summer spent together, investigating old murders. But something evil still lurks in Barlow Corners. When Stevie opens the lid on this long-dormant case, she gets much more than she bargained for. The Box in the Woods will make room for more victims. This time, Stevie may not make it out alive. * Cosmopolitan Best YA Books of 2021 * People Magazine Best Books of Summer 2021*
Author | Maureen Johnson |
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Price | $10.49 |
Publisher | HarperCollins |
Release Date | Jun 15, 2021 |
Source | Google Books |
『The Stalking Jack the Ripper Collection』
Devour the complete #1 New York Times bestselling Stalking Jack the Ripper series: Stalking Jack the Ripper, Hunting Prince Dracula, Escaping from Houdini, Capturing the Devil, and a free novella are included in this thrilling new collection! Between social teas and silk dress fittings, Audrey Rose Wadsworth leads a secret life studying corpses in the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. A string of ghastly corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer as she searches for the identity of Jack the Ripper. This is only the beginning of Audrey's life-shattering journey. Soon, she's drawn deeper into the captivatingly gruesome world of bizarre murders. As Audrey finds herself in the castle of Dracula himself, and then face-to-face with the one and only Houdini, she discovers that love and death go hand in hand, and there's something irresistible about the charming Thomas Cresswell who accompanies her. Shocking, blood-soaked discoveries will take Audrey and Thomas across the seas from London to America, where they find themselves dangerously lost in the infamous Murder Hotel. Will Audrey Rose and Thomas see their last mystery to the end-together and in love-or will their fortunes finally run out when their most depraved adversary makes one final, devastating kill?
Author | Kerri Maniscalco |
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Price | $30.99 |
Publisher | Little, Brown Books for Young Readers |
Release Date | May 19, 2020 |
Source | Google Books |
『In a Dark, Dark Wood』
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES and GLOBE AND MAIL BESTSELLER What should be a cozy and fun-filled weekend deep in the English countryside takes a sinister turn in Ruth Ware’s suspenseful, compulsive, and darkly twisted psychological thriller. Sometimes the only thing to fear…is yourself. Leonora (Lee to some, Nora to others) is a reclusive writer, but when an old friend unexpectedly invites her to a weekend away in an eerie glass house, she reluctantly agrees to make the trip. But a haunting realization creeps in to the party: they are not alone in the woods. Forty-eight hours later, Nora wakes up in a hospital bed with the knowledge that someone is dead. Wondering not “What happened?” but “What have I done?” she tries to piece together the events of the past weekend. In order to uncover secrets and reveal motives, Nora must revisit parts of herself that she’d rather leave buried where they belong: in the past. This gripping thriller will have readers on the edge of their seats until the very last page.
Author | Ruth Ware |
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Price | unknown |
Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
Release Date | Jan 01, 2019 |
Source | Google Books |
『The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo』
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The thrilling first book in the Millenium series featuring Lisbeth Salander: “Combine the chilly Swedish backdrop and moody psychodrama of a Bergman movie with the grisly pyrotechnics of a serial-killer thriller, then add an angry punk heroine and a down-on-his-luck investigative journalist, and you have the ingredients of Stieg Larsson’s first novel” (The New York Times). Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pierced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.
Author | Stieg Larsson |
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Price | unknown |
Publisher | Vintage Crime/Black Lizard |
Release Date | Jun 23, 2009 |
Source | Google Books |
『The Cuckoo's Calling』
Published under a pseudonym, J. K. Rowling's brilliant debut mystery introduces Detective Cormoran Strike as he investigates a supermodel's suicide in "one of the best books of the year" (USA Today), the first novel in the brilliant series that inspired the acclaimed HBO Max series C.B. Strike. After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, creditors are calling, and after a breakup with his longtime girlfriend, he's living in his office. Then John Bristow walks through his door with a shocking story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry -- known to her friends as the Cuckoo -- famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man. You may think you know detectives, but you've never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you've never seen them under an investigation like this.
Author | Robert Galbraith |
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Price | $12.99 |
Publisher | Mulholland Books |
Release Date | Apr 30, 2013 |
Source | Google Books |
『Big Little Lies (Movie Tie-In)』
DON’T MISS SEASON 2 OF THE GOLDEN GLOBE AND EMMY AWARD-WINNING HBO® SERIES STARRING REESE WITHERSPOON, NICOLE KIDMAN, SHAILENE WOODLEY, LAURA DERN, ZOË KRAVITZ, AND MERYL STREEP From the author of Nine Perfect Strangers, Apples Never Fall, and The Husband’s Secret comes the #1 New York Times bestselling novel about the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive. A murder...A tragic accident...Or just parents behaving badly? What’s indisputable is that someone is dead. Madeline is a force to be reckoned with. She’s funny, biting, and passionate; she remembers everything and forgives no one. Celeste is the kind of beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare but she is paying a price for the illusion of perfection. New to town, single mom Jane is so young that another mother mistakes her for a nanny. She comes with a mysterious past and a sadness beyond her years. These three women are at different crossroads, but they will all wind up in the same shocking place. Big Little Lies is a brilliant take on ex-husbands and second wives, mothers and daughters, schoolyard scandal, and the little lies that can turn lethal.
Author | Liane Moriarty |
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Price | unknown |
Publisher | Penguin |
Release Date | Feb 07, 2017 |
Source | Google Books |
『Devil in a Blue Dress』
Private detective Easy Rawlins looks for a gangster's girlfriend in 1940s L.A.
Author | Walter Mosley |
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Price | unknown |
Publisher | W. W. Norton & Company |
Release Date | Jan 01, 1990 |
Source | Google Books |
『The Devil In The White City』
'An irresistible page-turner that reads like the most compelling, sleep defying fiction' TIME OUT One was an architect. The other a serial killer. This is the incredible story of these two men and their realization of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, and its amazing 'White City'; one of the wonders of the world. The architect was Daniel H. Burnham, the driving force behind the White City, the massive, visionary landscape of white buildings set in a wonderland of canals and gardens. The killer was H. H. Holmes, a handsome doctor with striking blue eyes. He used the attraction of the great fair - and his own devilish charms - to lure scores of young women to their deaths. While Burnham overcame politics, infighting, personality clashes and Chicago's infamous weather to transform the swamps of Jackson Park into the greatest show on Earth, Holmes built his own edifice just west of the fairground. He called it the World's Fair Hotel. In reality it was a torture palace, a gas chamber, a crematorium. These two disparate but driven men are brought to life in this mesmerizing, murderous tale of the legendary Fair that transformed America and set it on course for the twentieth century . . .
Author | Erik Larson |
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Price | unknown |
Publisher | Random House |
Release Date | Sep 30, 2010 |
Source | Google Books |
『Rebecca』
The bestselling classic and masterpiece of psychological fiction 'The greatest psychological thriller of all time' ERIN KELLY 'The book every writer wishes they'd written' CLARE MACKINTOSH 'Excellent entertainment . . . du Maurier created a scale by which modern women can measure their feelings' STEPHEN KING On a trip to the South of France, the shy heroine of Rebecca falls in love with Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower. Although his proposal comes as a surprise, she happily agrees to marry him. But as they arrive at her husband's home, Manderley, a change comes over Maxim, and the young bride is filled with dread. Friendless in the isolated mansion, she realises that she barely knows him. In every corner of every room is the phantom of his beautiful first wife, Rebecca, and the new Mrs de Winter walks in her shadow. Not since Jane Eyre has a heroine faced such difficulty with the other woman. An international bestseller that has never gone out of print, Rebecca is the haunting story of a young girl consumed by love and the struggle to find her identity. 'Rebecca is a masterpiece' GUARDIAN 'This chilling, suspenseful tale is as fresh and readable as it was when it was first written' DAILY TELEGRAPH
Author | Daphne Du Maurier |
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Price | unknown |
Publisher | Virago |
Release Date | Feb 09, 2012 |
Source | Google Books |
So, there you have it folks! If there's one thing these urban mystery books prove, it’s that the city streets are just as capable of serving up intrigue as any dark forest or haunted mansion. Each book weaves a different tale, unearthing secrets from the concrete jungle and reminding us that mysteries can even lie in plain sight. Whether it's gritty detective work, dangerous gang tales, or the cryptic dealings of secret societies, there’s something in this list that's certain to keep you hooked. So, grab a cup of coffee, pick a spot by the window and get ready to lose yourself in these city streets. They're waiting to pull you into their enigmatic depths, where even the most commonplace details can take a unexpected turn. Happy reading!
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