Here are 93 books that The Investigator fans have personally recommended if you like
The Investigator.
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I’ve loved murder mysteries since I first discovered the genre. As a child, I loved watching Morse, Miss Marple,and other detectives as they got to the bottom of whodunit. I was hooked. It wasn’t long before I started to read books starring these detectives. I really love the way that female amateur detectives often have far more ideas of what’s going on and why things have happened than the men who populate the books. What woman can’t resist reading about another woman who just gets to the bottom of it all? I know I can’t, but these books are some of the very best in the genre.
I can’t resist a book that can make me laugh and has a great storyline. This murder mystery has books in bucketfuls. I love the way that humor is woven into the story.
I think that the thing that really makes this story such a great read is the different characters that fill the pages. I fell in love with the main character, Jane, and her love interest, the padre, and I, of course, completely loved her dog, Sexy Beast.
Jane Delaney does things her paying customers can’t do, don’t want to do, don’t want to be seen doing, can’t bring themselves to do, and/or don’t want it to be known they’d paid someone to do. To dead people.
Life gets complicated for Jane and her Death Diva business when she’s hired to liberate a gaudy mermaid brooch from the corpse during a wake—on behalf of the rightful owner, supposedly. Well, a girl’s got to make a living, and this assignment pays better than scattering ashes, placing flowers on graves, or bawling her eyes out as a hired mourner. Unfortunately…
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
I’m agnostic to book genre. If I see it, I will try it. I read all over the place. I just finished a book on online dating and race, the buzzy fiction of the moment, and a self-help book. There are two genre’s that are my absolute favorites, though, women’s fiction, and police procedurals. I’ve read Elizabeth George, Julia Spencer Fleming, Michael Connelly, and Tana French since they started publishing. While I enjoy the whodunit nature of the books, my favorite parts are those quiet moments of pure, unfettered relations between people who care for each other in an otherwise chaotic world. It’s what I write and what I read.
Irish author Tana French is known for her Dublin Murder Squad series and is what some call a literary crime writer.
The Searcher, a standalone novel, explores themes of restorative justice. Chicago cop Cal Hooper retires to rural Ireland where he undertakes the renovation of a dilapidated cottage. While he toils, he’s joined by a nearly silent teen Trey.
It’s another book where an adult and child don’t realize they need each other, but so quietly and beautifully help heal each other’s wounds.
This was my absolute favorite book in this author’s canon. It’s not perfect, but it’s perfectly imperfect.
'Terrific - terrifying, amazing' STEPHEN KING 'Completely, indescribably magnificent' MARIAN KEYES -----
A DISAPPEARANCE. A SMALL TOWN. A QUESTION THAT NEEDS ANSWERING...
Cal Hooper thought a fixer-upper in a remote Irish village would be the perfect escape. After twenty-five years in the Chicago police force, and a bruising divorce, he just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing much happens.
But then a local kid comes looking for his help. His brother has gone missing, and no one, least of all the police, seems to care. Cal wants nothing to…
I’ve always loved dark stories. There is something especially human about being lured by that part of us we bury. How secret desires and thoughts get teased out in ways we don’t really experience in real life. Which is why I write suspense novels. Sometimes you just want to go there! Here are some books that I find hit that fix.
No matter how much you may love a certain genre, you can inevitably fall into a reading slump. Too much of a good thing, right?
I will begrudgingly admit, the “missing” or “murdered girl” trope can sometimes get a bit dull without a new touch. Which is why when I came across Megan Miranda’s adult debut told entirely in reverse (from Day 15 to Day 1) was I ever floored with delight!
How absolute genius is it to take a twisty, shocking story about the disappearance of two girls, decades apart but give it to reader backwards? I found myself deeply engrossed not only in the propulsive story but intrigued by the unique way I had to process the timeline.
A New York Times Book Review “Editors’ Choice” Entertainment Weekly — Thriller Round-Up The Wall Street Journal — 5 Killer Books Hollywood Reporter — Hot Summer Books…16 Must Reads
“This thriller’s all of your fave page-turners (think: Luckiest Girl Alive, The Girl on the Train, Gone Girl) rolled into one.” —TheSkimm
“Both [Gillian] Flynn’s and Miranda’s main characters also reclaim the right of female characters to be more than victim or femme fatale… All the Missing Girls is set to become one of the best books of 2016.” —Los Angeles Review of…
Crossing is a vividly human re-imagining of the love, sacrifices, and accomplishments that two Chinese brothers - American Immigrants - experience as they travel to California to build the Transcontinental Railroad.
I love reading mysteries, ever since I started back in junior high with Hercule Poirot, I have loved an atmospheric murder and ensuing investigation. As I’ve gotten older and started writing my own books, though, I’ve gotten pickier about what kinds of detective novels I can stick with—I now require that they also be excellent on the sentence level, which isn’t always easy to find. I also find that I gravitate towards books that have pockets of dry humor from time to time and a unique investigator.
I loved this book (the first in a trilogy) mostly because of its main character, Detective Inspector Manon Bradshaw. She’s investigating the disappearance of a beautiful graduate student at Cambridge, but the book is full of wry humor about Manon’s own predicament, which is that she is single and unhappily internet-dating.
She also loves snacks; there are lots of good snacks in the book. All three of the books in the series are really, really gripping and good. Steiner (who died in 2022) is a genius at writing about the feelings between people.
'Hits the sweet spot between literary and crime fiction - Gripping' ERIN KELLY
'For those who love their crime fiction rich in psychology, beautifully written and laced with dark humour. Dive in' LUCIE WHITEHOUSE
Mid-December, and Cambridgeshire is blanketed with snow. Detective Sergeant Manon Bradshaw tries to sleep after yet another soul-destroying Internet date - the low murmuring of her police radio her only solace.
Over the airwaves come reports of a missing woman - door ajar, keys and phone left behind, a spatter of…
I don’t warm to crime novels where the only point is to find whodunnit. Those that resonate with me are the ones that have an extra dimension. It may be taking me into a world I am unfamiliar with, like bell-ringing or a theatre troupe. Or it could be a richly-evoked setting, like Donna Fletcher Crow’s Celtic Christian background. Or a character whose very flaws make them more gripping, such as Rebus or Wallender. I want to come away feeling enriched and not just pleased that I guessed that it was the butler with the candlestick.
Mankell’s troubled hero, Kurt Wallender, hits new depths in this final novel. Things have not been well. His handgun left on the seat of his car was to be picked up by a child. Past conversations with his artist father, who paints the same landscape 7000 times while his memory deteriorates. Wallender now has to face the realization that he, too, is losing his memory. I felt for him on this difficult journey.
But there is still a last case to be solved. The father of his daughter’s fiancé goes missing on his morning walk. Dark secrets from Sweden’s Cold War past threaten to resurface. Wallender has to battle with deteriorating health to solve the mystery, fearing the truth may not be welcome. For me, his integrity shines through.
Every morning Hakan von Enke takes a walk in the forest near his apartment in Stockholm. However, one winter's day he fails to come home. It seems that the retired naval officer has vanished without trace.
Detective Kurt Wallander is not officially involved in the investigation but he has personal reasons for his interest in the case as Hakan's son is engaged to his daughter Linda. A few months earlier, at Hakan's 75th birthday party, Kurt noticed that the old man appeared uneasy and seemed eager to talk about a controversial incident from his past career that remained shrouded in…
As the author of comedy cosy mystery novels, including a series set in an eccentric boarding school for girls, I’m always attracted by the notion of closed, clearly-defined worlds as colourful settings for stories of crimes and misdemeanours. Having worked for 13 years in a girls’ boarding school, where I loved being part of its lively and spirited community, I am very familiar with the quirks and foibles, as well as the practicalities, of boarding school life, and I really enjoy reading other people’s impressions and interpretations of boarding schools of all kinds.
Finally, a serious, sombre book, and a modern classic. Set at a strict boarding school for girls, Appleyard College in Australia, it tells the story of an ill-fated outing to a local beauty spot at which a teacher and two pupils go missing. Lindsay brilliantly sets up the mystery with all kinds of backstories, and (plot spoiler alert) it’s never truly resolved, but the haunting story lingers with the reader long after they’ve finished the book. This has also been made into a film, but as always, it’s worth reading the original story – Lindsay’s writing is as evocative as any film.
**A BBC BETWEEN THE COVERS BIG JUBILEE READ PICK**
'A sinister tale' Guardian
The classic, atmospheric Australian thriller about the mysterious disappearance of a group of young girls.
A cloudless summer day in the year nineteen hundred...
Everyone at Appleyard College for Young Ladies agreed it was just right for a picnic at Hanging Rock. After lunch, a group of three girls climbed into the blaze of the afternoon sun, pressing on through the scrub into the shadows of Hanging Rock. Further, higher, till at last they disappeared.
Almost Home is a fictional retelling of the last great tragedy of the Civil War.
In late April 1865, almost 2,000 newly freed Union prisoners of war are packed onto the steamer Sultana, in poor repair and with a listed capacity of 376 passengers. Among them are four Indiana soldiers…
As a child I loved reading detective stories, and I still retain strong memories of Tintin and Sherlock Holmes, after which I graduated to Agatha Christie. As an adult my tastes changed and I lost interest in mysteries (with the exception of Edgar Alan Poe). However recently my interests have reversed, partly because I became a grandfather, and partly for the reason that I teach ethics to primary school children, as a volunteer. So it’s possible that Worcester Glendenis is a re-incarnation of me, but as the 12-year-old I wish I had been (as far as my memory can be relied upon to go back 60 years): more emotionally mature and more extrovert.
This book is very arty by which I mean it introduces the young reader to the world of art and art galleries. There is also a strong dose of spy-type intrigues.
A very snooty older man gets satirised for his arrogance, which I think is a nice twist for the reader and a good change from the bossy types who often appear. The father-daughter relationship is well done.
A third mystery for thirteen-year-old Agatha Oddly - a bold, determined heroine, and the star of this stylish new detective series.
Agatha Oddlow is on the case with yet another adventure! An assistant at the National Gallery has gone missing, but when Agatha begins investigating, she uncovers a plot bigger than she could ever have imagined. Join Agatha as she travels throughout London and into the very heart of the mystery...
In elementary school, I was told I had an overactive imagination, an insatiable curiosity, and an adventurous spirit. Fortunate to live across the street from the school, the school’s tiny, nondescript library became a sacred place, a sanctuary, a peaceful and magical space where I could escape into worlds far beyond the limits of a small southern town in the 1950s. I incorporate all of these characteristics, plus my love of travel, into my books. My goal is to write thrilling multicultural fiction novels that depict the blended relationships and experiences of African Americans and people within the communities that make up the global African diaspora.
Nigeria is the largest country in Africa and is filled with conflicting and contrasting customs, rituals, and institutions that have tentacles that reach deep into its modern society. I find it hard to close a gripping psychological thriller. Still, in this book, even Philip Taiwo, the criminal psychologist sent to investigate the murders of three college students, has psychological problems of his own that have to be addressed.
I love books that use the psychology of human behavior as the basis to unravel a crime. In this book, I glimpsed a sector of Nigerian society I didn’t know existed. Kayode’s book was filled with heart-thumping intrigue and so many twists and turns that I couldn’t stop listening.
Waterstones Thriller of the Month 'Lightseekers is ripe with all the twists and turns you could hope for... A fast-paced thriller that offers insight into the ever present tensions in a poverty stricken community. An action-packed and spirited debut' Oyinkan Braithwaite, author of My Sister, the Serial Killer Selected as a Best Crime Novel of the Month by The Times, Sunday Times, Independent, Guardian, Observer, Financial Times and Irish Times. Winner of the 2019 UEA Crime Writing Prize, Lightseekers is the start of a major new crime series introducing investigative psychologist Dr Philip Taiwo. When three young students are brutally…
I’m a cozy mystery writer and reader who loves to suss out family dynamics in the books I’m devouring. My love of genealogy and turning family stories into fiction played a large role while writing my first book, Hammers and Homicide. Wherever my husband and I travel, we search for ancestors in ancient cemeteries and try to find out more about their stories. You’ll find a few of them between the pages of my books. I hope you’ll enjoy these books, all featuring some level of family ties, as much as I did!
I can’t even tell you how much I love Aunt Ginny in Libby Klein’s Poppy McAllister Mystery series! She is an absolute hoot. While I love the whole series, the first introduction to Aunt Ginny in this book remains my favorite.
Poppy is newly widowed and a grief-stricken disaster when she receives an invitation to her high school reunion. She heads home to Cape May and her eccentric Great Aunt Ginny’s house. As they do in cozy mysteries, a murder happens, and Poppy and Aunt Ginny are on the case.
Poppy and her aunt’s relationship, paired with Aunt Ginny’s crazy antics, always leaves me wiping tears of mirth out of my eyes. Such a fun read!
Fans of Jana DeLeon and Joanne Fluke will love Libby Klein! For fortysomething Poppy McAllister, taking a stroll down memory lane in Cape May, New Jersey, isn't just awkward--it's deadly.
Newly widowed and stuck in a middle-aged funk, Poppy has been running on cookies, infomercials, and one-sided chats with her cat for months. There's no way on earth she's attending her twenty-five-year class reunion--especially after receiving a very bizarre letter from Barbie, the popular cheerleader who taunted her all through high school. At least, not until Poppy's best friend practically drags her to the event . . .
Creativity, Teaching, and Natural Inspiration
by
Mark Doherty,
I have woven numerous delightful and descriptive true life stories, many from my adventures as an outdoorsman and singer songwriter, into my life as a high school English teacher. I think you'll find this work both entertaining as well as informative, and I hope you enjoy the often lighthearted repartee…
I am a British crime writer with a love of American crime fiction, particularly books with dark plots and quirky, unique characters. I am the author of the Sunday Times bestselling, multiple award-winning, Washington Poe series and the new Ben Koenig series but am first a reader—I read over a hundred books a year. I love discovering a new-to-me series that has a back catalogue for me to work through, and I appreciate recommendations. I’ve been a full-time author since 2015 and, as I suspected, it’s my dream job.
Stephen King introduced the innocent, unfiltered but extremely observant Holly Gibney in the phenomenal Mr. Mercedes.
King himself says, “...she more or less stole the book, and she stole my heart.” I completely agree, so much so she was a massive influence on Tilly Bradshaw, the super-sheltered, super-intelligent nerdy sidekick from my own Washington Poe series. She’s the first of three sidekicks in this list who will go on to get a book of their own.
Holly is out September 2023 and it’s the book I’m most looking forward to this year.
When an eleven-year-old boy is found murdered in a town park, reliable eyewitnesses undeniably point to the town's popular Little League coach, Terry Maitland, as the culprit. DNA evidence and fingerprints confirm the crime was committed by this well-loved family man.
Horrified by the brutal killing, Detective Ralph Anderson, whose own son was once coached by Maitland, orders the suspect to be arrested in a public spectacle. But Maitland has an alibi. And further research confirms he was indeed out of town that day.
As Anderson and the District Attorney trace the clues, the investigation expands from Ohio to Texas.…
