r/mysterybooks

I honestly am supremely disappointed. What the hell was that book?! It started off so strong. It was a page-turner, I’ll give it that. But, all for what??? The ending was sooo ambigous. Fine I get the whole alternate dimensions, evil entity shit but still you gotta explain something! Don’t get me wrong I have read books that plays with the concept of alternate realities (Dark Matter, for example). But the authors do a good job making it seem believable or logical…or at least explain the events of the story. Nothing with this one. Ending literally did nothing for me! I do get it ( I have multiple interpretations of it) but I still don’t like any of the outcome I may perceive. Just a huge waste of my time. Honestly, expected so much when I started reading. It could’ve gone in any direction but It feels like the author chose the worst possible one. Also, soooo fkin much happened in the book…so many characters and plots left unexplained or atleast unexplored. Uggghhh hated it.

and out of curiosity- do you have a least favorite?

I haven't met anyone who liked this book as much as me and that i haven't any big complains with the book. I have never reread a book but i have reread this one, idk why. It's like I'm in love with it.

First some answers to the complaints i read on reddit posts : I don't understand when people are complaining about the book not being a fair play puzzle to point out the killer. There are other clues but the one that's in your face is that, the team arrives separately than van to the island so he isn't counted as one of them if anything happens to all of them. Duh

I've also read complains that shimada doesn't do anything meaningful in the end, which is fair but the book starts with the killer as the main character and ends with him. It's not like a poirot novel, Shimada as a detective was not the main. Shimada reaching out to morisu in the end hints to his suspicions but he's got no proof. Van being a master plotter. Also the author has even pointed out that for him in a murder-mystery novel the mystery is more important than anything else. And i loved the murder mystery, even though i thought how can his guy even top "And then there were none" by the great Agatha christie.

Also that ellery is a disappointment ignoring evidence. He's a college kid who's a wannabe detective without real life experience with solving murders. As sherlock holmes said, "facts first theories later". But I think Ellery goes with seiji being the killer line of thought and attached more theories to prove his assumptions which made it really hard to deviate. Considering how compelling it was, it was harder for him to throw suspicion on his friends without proper motive. I think Ellery did a great job, even though he met a sad end.

My question to you :

1. Kawaminami took some responsibility of what happened to chiori, blaming himself too and left the club even though he wasn't even present in the after party, but the members who were present went to live n forget that anything had ever happened.. with no responsibility till the end. While Van, he felt like he had lost everything. Was it fair, what Van did? Killing 6 for 1. Where do you draw the line for justice? Should they have been punished for how much they were involved in the crime individually? Why didn't Van tell Ellery before killing him about why they were being killed?

I just finished it. Very much drawing influence from Agatha Christie’s And then There Were None. She annd her books even referenced multiple times as a source of inspiration for the detective investigating the. I thought the conceit of the list was really well done. And the reveal of the mystery and what connected the nine on the list was strong too. I think it would be a really good candidate for a Netflix miniseries

Anyone else about this? What did you think of it?

I’m usually not someone who reads series, but recently thanks to Allison Brennan, I find myself trying to find more to dive into. I’m looking for mystery/thriller/psychological thriller series with strong romance subplots that feel earned and develop naturally over time, so no insta-love or relationships that suddenly happen between books. I really want gritty/interesting cases, emotional character development, and recurring characters I can get attached to.

Some series I’ve loved:
\- Quinn & Costa by Allison Brennan
\- Ellery Hathaway series by Joanna Schaffhausen
\- Laurel Snow series by Rebecca Zanetti

What I loved about them:
\- dark/gritty investigations
\- emotionally complex leads
\- slow burn romance
\- trauma/emotional depth that actually impacts the characters
\- strong chemistry and tension
\- recurring (diverse) cast dynamics
\- cases that stay interesting alongside the romance

Some recommendations I’ve already tried that didn’t fully work for me:
\- Lucy Kincaid (I wanted to love the first book 😭 but the romance felt too fast for me)
\- In Death/Eve Dallas (just wasn’t my vibe)

I’m okay with FBI/profilers/detectives/investigative journalists/etc. Bonus points for:
\- haunted/emotionally guarded leads
\- atmospheric writing
\- male or female MCs
\- audiobook narrators that really bring the characters to life! (I mostly listen to audiobooks, thanks adhd 🙄😆)

I’d especially love series where the romance builds gradually over multiple books while the mystery/thriller aspect stays strong.

Any recommendations?

I recently got in a conversation about what types of fiction I read and I told these people that I read different types of fiction, but Mysteries are my hands-down favorite. (Right now I'm reading an Agatha Christie Miss Marple novel.) For me it started at the age of 9 or 10 with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. Later I branched out to Ellery Queen. A few years later I discovered Raymond Chandler and then Christie, Marsh and Sayers. As a Holmes buff I became a huge Nero Wolfe fan and also the adventures of Solar Pons. I love all kinds of mysteries, Cozies, Hardboiled, police procedurals. You name it. That being said, Doyle and Ellery Queen started me down this road. What about you ?

Just as the title says I'm looking for a book series with mystery as the main theme.What I'm not looking for though is self contained books with whodunnits(Sherlock Holmes, Heracles Poirot etc),not that I have a problem with them ofc.So basically sth like TV shows such as Lost,Heroes,Prison Break etc where you they set up mysteries,answer some questions and maybe even open up some more in the process.(also preferably completed ones)

English is not my first language, but I prefer to read books in their original language so that nothing is lost in translation, specially if the work depends a lot on wordplay (Like Terry Pratchett's books)

When I was young I read lots of Agatha Christie's books in Spanish and I liked most of them, but I had a bad experience with Why Didn't They Ask Evans? because:

1. In Spanish the title is Trayectoria de Búmeran ("The boomerang's trajectory", completely unrelated), and because of that I didn't realize the titular question was that important.
2. Because of the information lost in translation you are unable to foresee the main plot twist. The translator just added a footnote explaining what happened, and it just felt dumb.

There is also one Isaac Asimov's novel that relies on the word "lemonade", and that only makes sense in English.

Recently I read the first book in the Nero Wolfe series, Fer-de-lance, I liked it and I'm interested in reading more, but the autor uses lots of old American slang that I found a bit difficult to understand, so I thought that maybe I should read them in Spanish. But then I remembered that sometimes mystery novels uses wordplay for their clues (like in the examples I mentioned before). So:

TL,DRL: are there mystery novels that must be read in their original language in order to get all the clues? Are there any Nero Wolfe books like that?

Two books I liked, both with a similar theme.

Big Little Lies and Lost Man, Jane Harper. Neither being police books is part of it. Not being a crime committed, time to solve for most of it, person arrested at end thing.

Big Little Lies because of Madeline, the humour is what I liked there. But not outright funny books, not at all what I want.

Lost Man because the whole book is not the POV of victim. The fact you don't actually know the why of what happened either.

Note: I have read all the books by both authors and while good, didn't give me quite the same thing I am after. Please do not suggest more of Harpers or Moriartys books.

So books like EITHER of these?

Edit: Someone recommended a Hepworth. It's good, but.....not really into women struggling with babies, or stolen babies or kids.

I just found a NEW Anne Perry book (yes I know she’s dead) at my library. It’s a Daniel Pitt story and is (co-authored ?) by Victoria Zackheim. I haven’t read anything by Ms. Zackheim but I’m eager to learn. Is there anyone on here that has any info about the Anne Perry Estate and the future of her characters?

Think detective (or not so official sleuth) in a small, foggy town with many many trees, looking for vibes similar to Twilight, Twin Peaks, and Supernatural

First time a thriller mystery cop book made me actually go reserve the 2nd book in the series just as I finished the first. I’m very impressed. This isn’t RARELY my sub genre.

Looking for a couple of shorter reads. Most mysteries are novel sized, and I'm trying to learn how the shorter ones are supposed to read like. I've been getting pulled away from the novels in the middle and forgetting clues by the time I get back, so the end is a bit too magic to follow because my memory isn't always up to the task. Any suggestions?