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There are millions of books. Which one are you planning on reading next? Overwhelmed? Here are a few of the best mystery/crime books that will make you yearn for more.
In case you’re thinking why mystery/crime, it’s because we know that there is a sleuth hidden somewhere in everyone. It gets active every now and then to solve the never ending case of finding the lost keys or misplaced phones. It gives us the thrill and almost feels like we are racing against the book to catch the culprit and solve the crime first.
So before the ink is dry on the page, let’s go through the books!
IN COLD BLOOD – Truman Capote
Truman Capote, an American author, famously known for his novel Breakfast at Tiffany, has written a number of other books including In Cold Blood, Other Voices and A Christmas Memory.
Published in 1996, In Cold Blood, tells a true story of an incident that took place in a small town of Holcomb, Kansas, on November 15, 1959. Four members of the Clutter family were viciously shot down at close range. No immediate evidence, motive or clues were found at the crime scene.
The book is written in a tone of a novel and what Truman referred to as ‘New Journalism’, a nonfiction novel. As Truman scrutinized and investigated the murder, he created both mesmerizing suspense and astounding pity for the victims. The book set a benchmark in this genre.
Quotes from the book:
“It is no shame to have a dirty face – the shame comes when you keep it dirty.”
“Imagination, of course, can open any door – turn the key and let terror walk right in.”
AND THEN THERE WERE NONE – Agatha Christie
If you’re an ardent reader then you must have heard of Agatha Christie. She is one of the bestselling novelists of all time, known primarily for her detective novels.
And Then There Were None consists of 10 characters, who have their own wicked secrets and fears buried within themselves. They get invited to a private island by a millionaire. However, on arrival, the host is nowhere to be found, leaving them isolated and cut off from the outside world, stranded with each other and the shadows of their inevitable pasts.
They start to reveal their secrets one by one, and one by one they die. The book will keep you hooked till the very end. You will be in search for the answers. Which of them is the killer? Will any of them survive?
Quotes from the book:
“One little Indian left all alone, he went out and hanged himself and then there were none.”
“There was something magical about an island—the mere word suggested fantasy. You lost touch with the world—an island was a world of its own. A world, perhaps from which you might never return.”
It gives us the thrill and almost feels like we are racing against the book to catch the culprit and solve the crime first.
THE SILENT PATIENT – Alex Michaelides
If you are a nail biter then this is a warning for you! This is Alex Michaelides’s debut book and he has done an outstanding, jaw-dropping job by uncovering the story layer by layer. It is a kind of a book that does not need any pretentious twist to keep you engaged, the plot itself boggles your mind.
Alicia Berenson has a picture perfect life, a famous painter, happily married to a celebrated fashion photographer, living in a posh area in London. Until one evening, her husband returns home and she shoots him five times in the face. And then she goes silent! The matter becomes a domestic tragedy. The news spreads like bushfire and her art starts selling off the racks briskly. Meanwhile she is tucked into a forensic unit in North London, being held hostage in her own mind.
The story takes another turn when a criminal psychotherapist, Theo Faber, is determined to talk to her and makes it his life mission to expose the mystery of why she shot her husband.
Quotes from the book:
“We’re all crazy, I believe, just in different ways.”
“Remember, love that doesn’t include honesty doesn’t deserve to be called love.”
AND NOW SHE’S GONE – Rachel Howzell Hall
The author is a writer/assistant development director at City of Hope, a cancer research and treatment institute in the US. Her first novel, A Quiet Storm, was a featured selection in Borders’ Original Voices programme, as well as an alternate selection of in the Black Expressions Book Club.
The book is about a girl, Isabel Lincoln, who disappears, but the question remains, is she really missing?
A distinctive tale of two extraordinary women, full of sardonicism and dark humour, it is a type of book that would make you to read it in one go. Grayson Sykes, a detective, is keen to find her, but Isabel does not want to be found. The book has several dangerous and complicated revelations about the woman’s well kept secrets and what all she has kept hidden from her friends and family.
