The Best Traditional Mysteries of the Year

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For me, there are few things more enjoyable than a good, old-fashioned whodunnit. Or a good, new-fashioned whodunnit. I say it a lot on this website, but, to me, the best thing that can happen in a book or a movie is someone crying out: “someone in this house is a murderer!” Or, if that doesn’t happen literally, I’d like that to be the overall vibe of what I’m reading or watching. As such, I was thrilled and honored to get to pick the best traditional mysteries that came out in 2022. The “traditional mystery” is a story in which there is a murder (or a robbery), and an investigator (either an inspector or a plucky amateur) follows a series of clues to find the killer (or the thief). If there is in fact a corpse, the story is not about the trauma of death or the proximity to death—the dead body is a riddle, and nothing more.

These new entrants into the genre are scintillating and intriguing mysteries, featuring a panoply of gutsy amateur sleuths and dogged detectives, twisty plots and logistical puzzles. All are stylish, playful inheritors to this tradition, delicately toying with the history of the category’s expectations and innovations. Here’s hoping you have a moment to curl up on your couch and crack open one of these babies. Preferably with a roaring fireplace in the background. Or, you know, a nice candle.

 

Richard Osman, The Bullet That Missed
(Pamela Dorman/Viking Books)

I adore the first two Thursday Murder Club books with all my heart, and GUESS WHAT? Now I adore the third one and it MIGHT be the most fun book of them all. It pits our Thursday Murder Club members against spies, mysterious assignments, television personalities, and of course, several dead bodies. A hilarious, gripping new tale, it is not to be missed! –OR

 

Anthony Horowitz, The Twist of a Knife
(Harper)

The incomparable detective duo Horowitz and Hathaway are BACK in this fourth installment of their adventures. (If you’re wondering why the detective and the author share a name, it’s because they are the same person. Kind of. Yes, that’s right, Horowitz is Van Dine-ing himself here!) But anyway, in this new installment, Horowitz is the main suspect in a murder, and Hathaway is the only one who can exonerate him. Problem is, they’re not talking.–OR

 

Joel Dicker, The Enigma of Room 622
(HarperVia)

A new meta-mystery from the Swiss author unfolds with uncanny precision and evolves from a hotel whodunnit into something more nebulous. The elegant surroundings bring to mind classic mysteries, with notes of subversion peppered throughout. –DM

 

Janice Hallett, The Appeal
(Atria)

Okay, so this would be a great mystery novel whether or not it featured a community theater group, but the added drama makes The Appeal into a perfect follow-along caper. Told in emails, announcements, and other found texts, The Appeal has a charmingly meta set-up: two law students have been assigned all of these documents to analyze. If they misinterpret them, the wrong person may go to prison for a long time. And you, the reader, can interpret this fair play mystery right alongside them. –MO

Sulari Gentill, The Woman in the Library
(Poisoned Pen Press)

Sulari Gentill, the author of the delightful Rowland Sinclair books, has penned a fascinating, very meta new mystery that walks the line between impressive literary experiment and gripping murder story. Winifred “Freddie” Kincaid, an Australian writer, is in Boston on a fellowship when, one day in the library, she hears a woman scream, and is inspired to write a story about it. Hannah Tigone is an Australian novelist writing the mystery about Freddie writing the mystery in the library. And Leo is Hannah’s biggest fan, writing countless emails to her that inadvertently influence the ways Hannah tells the story, until Leo’s own story is rejected and his presence in the writerly web grows far more dangerous. Yeah, you don’t want to miss this. –OR

Paraic O’Donnell, The Maker of Swans
(Tin House)

O’Donnell mesmerizes with another stylish, atmospheric tale, this one melding elements of a traditional country manor murder mystery with deep strands of gothic fiction’s occult obsessions. A butler wandering the grounds of an estate witnesses a murder, an event that gives occasion to recount the strange history of his employer’s one-time association with various secret societies, eultural elites, and would-be practicioners of the dark arts. The Maker of Swans is a remarkable and deeply unsettling novel. –DM

Nita Prose, The Maid
(Ballantine)

he Maid is a rollicking locked-room whodunit, a delightful and difficult subgenre to begin with, let alone that The Maid told from the perspective of a character who is, more often than not, a plot device: the maid who finds the body. A clever, corking, crackling novel that twists and bends the expectations it sets up as it goes along. –OR

Cara Black, Murder at the Porte de Versailles
(Soho)

Everyone’s favorite sophisticated sleuth is back, this time for her 20th investigation. In the fall of 2001, Parisians are still shocked at the fall of the towers, and Aimee Leduc is grieving her father while celebrating her daughter’s third birthday. When Aimee’s friend Boris is accused of setting a bomb off at a police lab, she throws herself into clearing him of the accusation, glad for the distraction, but will her her newfound energy lead her into more danger than ever before? I can’t wait to put on a fancy yet understated little black dress, pick up a glass of cabernet, and get reading. –MO

Laurie R. King, Back to the Garden 
(Bantam)

Listen up, people! Laurie R. King is back, with a riveting new novel about a 50-year-old cold case and the detective determined to crack it, after all this time. When a decomposing human skull is found during the renovations of a California estate that once was the location of a 60s commune run by a wealthy playboy, Inspector Raquel Laing wonders if might belong to one of the many people who vanished while visiting the house at its heyday, or if it’s connected to “The Highwayman,” a mysterious serial killer who terrorized the region during that era. Or both. –OR

Rob Osler, Devil’s Chew Toy 
(Crooked Lane Books)

Rob Osler calls this new comical mystery of his a “quozy,” but we’re not doing a cozy mystery list, so it’s going on here. This rollicking mystery about a Seattle teacher named Hayden McCall who follows a series of convoluted clues to try to find his crush, a dancer named Camilo Rodriguez, who has gone missing. Camillo is “Dreamer” whose parents have been deported, and Hayden and Camillo’s two best friends Hollister and Burley are worried the police won’t take his disappearance seriously. So the three of them are on the case!–OR

Eva Jurczyk, The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections

(Poisoned Pen Press)

 Let me introduce you to the bibliophilic mystery of your dreams. Liesl Weiss is a librarian in the rare books department of a large university library, consigned to the slightly humdrum routine that goes with storing and caring for books that do not circulate. When she notices that an extremely valuable book has gone missing, she tries to alert the university, only to be told not to make a scene. And then one of her colleagues stops coming in to work, and Liesl knows that something sinister really is going on.–OR

Lev AC Rosen, Lavender House

(Forge)

Lavender House is the queer, midcentury-historical mystery you have been waiting for. Evander “Andy” Mills is a young private detective, recently fired from the local police department after being seen at a gay bar during a police raid, happy to accept a case looking into the death of a soap empire matriarch, Irene Lamontaine, who lived with a female partner at her estate, Lavender House–which she had turned into a safe haven for queer individuals to live together in a community. The only thing is, Irene’s widow tells Andy, there might be a murderer living among them too.–OR

Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy
(Anchor)

What an absolutely perfect mystery The Violin Conspiracy is, and one that reaches deep into the history of race and inequality in America in its investigation of a seemingly simple crime. A classical violinist – often the only Black musician included in elite musical ensembles – finds out that his own violin, a family heirloom, is a rare Stradivarius once gifted to his ancestor by a slave owner. After discovering the violin’s now-astronomical worth, the descendants of the slave-owning family decide to sue the violinist to recover “their” property. Meanwhile, the violin itself is stolen, and it’s up to the musician to both prove his ownership and recover the stolen instrument. The ending will shock you. But perhaps the ending shouldn’t be so surprising, given the lengths to which white supremacy will go to justify pre-existing inequalities or secure a place at the top. –MO

Louise Penny, A World of Curiosities
(Minotaur)

In Penny’s latest, backstories come to light as the world slowly emerges from a long winter. Penny continues her carefully focused character studies of small town life and crafts a clever and complex set of interlocking mysteries whose answers must be found in memories, long and short. A satisfying new entry from a world-class writer. –MO

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