10 Mystery Book Series That Keep Amateur Detectives Guessing

I love Walter Mosley and am glad he has a new crime series — his backlist is extensive and in all genres! This series is for fans of PIs, and old school detectives looking for a modern story.

Joe King Oliver lives in a world where people owe each other favors and no one is all good or all bad. He used to work for the NYPD until he was framed and ended up in Rikers. Now he’s a PI with his daughter helping out in the office, even if he’s trying very hard to dissuade her from this line of business. He ends up with two jobs, both really uncomfortable: a family friend needs him to look into a white nationalist arrested for murder who is being hidden in the prison system; and his ex-wife needs help for her wealthy husband. As usual King is going to find himself down very dangerous rabbit holes…

You can jump in here, but if you’re a completionist pick up Down the River Unto the Sea.

The audiobook is narrated by Dion Graham who is always an automatic listen for me.

(TW brief suicide mention, detail)

This is one of my favorite reads of the year. It has so much of my catnip: university setting, return to past school, a past murder mystery being reexamined, and a true crime podcast host. It also dives into the way rape culture has always existed but the difference in language and understanding through generations, the spectrum of predators, and the way victims are exploited in the true crime genre.

Bodie Kane is a well known podcaster with two young children and a marriage-on-paper-only when she’s asked to return to Granby School, the boarding school in New England she once attended, to teach a film class. She accepts, even though she never really enjoyed her time there and her roommate was murdered. Now one of her students decides to take on the assignment Kane gives with a focus on her roommate’s murder. The case was solved, the athletic trainer found guilty, but the student is convinced it was all wrong. Now Kane has a front row seat to the students digging into the case, a flood of her own memories, and a world where it feels like everyone has an online opinion for true crime cases.

The audiobook is a great production, mostly narrated by Julia Whelan with a bit narrated by JD Jackson. More audiobook productions should follow this lead.

(TW brief mention past drug overdose, brief mention past addiction and death unknown if suicide, detail/ brief mention past domestic abuse/ mentions sexual assault case/ eating disorder/ rumors of statutory student teacher/ past memory possible suicide attempt/ recounts past groping/ mentions suicide cases, method mentioned/ mentions of terminal cancer diagnosis and death)