The Best Mystery & Sci-Fi/Fantasy Books of 2024

As the year comes to a close, we've put together a collection of the best books of the year (according to us). Our collection of 130+ titles span the full range of genres and categories. Over the next few weeks, we'll be taking a closer look at some of these volumes with a focus on specific genres. This edition features 2024's best in mystery & sci-fi/fantasy.   

Mystery

The Housemaid is Watching by Freida McFadden
Millie used to clean other people's houses. Now, after years of saving, she and her family have a home of their own. She's finally left her dark past behind her. Or has she? Could this quiet suburban street be the most dangerous place of all? This is the third thriller in the bestselling The Housemaid series.

The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny
The newest mystery in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series (a NYT #1 Best Seller) begins with a sequence of strange and unsettling events—including murder—that propel Gamache and his team toward a terrible realization. Something much more sinister than any one case is fast approaching.

Three-Inch Teeth by C. J. Box
A rogue grizzly bear has gone on a rampage, killing several people. Meanwhile, Dallas Cates is out of prison and seeking revenge on a list of those who put him away. Using the grizzly attacks as cover, Cates sets out to methodically check off his list. But Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett is on the case.

A Calamity of Souls by David Baldacci
Set in southern Virginia in 1968, this legal drama (a NYT #1 Best Seller) centers on Jack Lee, a white lawyer who has never before challenged the racist system around him. When he decides to represent a Black man charged with a brutal killing, he enlists the help of Desiree DuBose, a Black lawyer from Chicago.

First Frost: A Longmire Mystery by Craig Johnson
Sheriff Walt Longmire returns in this twentieth installment of the award-winning and bestselling series set in the unspoiled countryside of Wyoming. This time, he is up against a sinister plot that could hurt the people closest to him and forever change the way he sees his beloved Wyoming.

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman
Solving murders is a family business. Retired cop Steve Wheeler thinks his days of adventure are behind him. But when his daughter-in-law Amy, a bodyguard protecting bestselling thriller author Rosie D'Antonio, finds herself in a real-life murder mystery, she enlists Steve's help to root out the killer.

Spirit Crossing by William Kent Krueger
When the disappearance of a local politician's teenaged daughter launches a huge manhunt, Cork O'Connor's grandson stumbles across the shallow grave of a young Ojibwe woman, a discovery that nobody, except Cork and the newly formed Iron Lake Ojibwe Tribal Police seems that interested in investigating.

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty
If you were told how and when you were going to die, would you do things differently? Would you try to dodge your destiny? From the author of Big Little Lies comes a brilliantly constructed tale that looks at free will and destiny, grief and love, and the struggle to maintain control in an uncertain world.

Society of Lies by Lauren Ling Brown
Maya is thrilled to return to Princeton, her alma mater, for her little sister, Naomi's graduation. But what should have been a dream weekend becomes Maya's worst nightmare when she receives the shocking news that Naomi is dead. The police are calling it an accident, but Maya suspects there is more to the story.

The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden
Like every single woman in New York City, Sydney has had terrible luck in dating—until now. Her new boyfriend is perfect. But a string of murders by a mystery man who dates his victims before killing them has her on edge. This suspenseful thriller topped the NYT Best Seller list for two weeks.

The Puzzle Box by Danielle Trussoni
A Publisher's Weekly Best Book of the Year, this rip-roaring adventure thriller takes readers to Tokyo where ingenious puzzle master Mike Brink is battling to open the legendary Dragon Box, a devilishly difficult, ancient treasure trove that has killed every puzzle master who has ever attempted to open it.

The Fury by Alex Michaelides
This is a tale of murder. But at its heart, it's a love story. Lana Farrar is a reclusive ex-movie star and one of the most famous women in the world. Every year, she invites her closest friends to escape the English weather and spend Easter on her private Greek island. You may think you know this story. But you don't.

The 24th Hour by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
SFPD Sergeant Lindsay Boxer, Medical Examiner Claire Washburn, Assistant District Attorney Yuki Castellano, and crime writer Cindy Thomas are celebrating exciting news. But before they can raise their glasses, a woman in the restaurant is assaulted and, of course, The Women's Murder Club is on the case.

Passions in Death: An Eve Dallas Novel by J. D. Robb
A pre-wedding girls' night out turns into a murder scene in the 59th book of the bestselling futuristic police procedural In Death series. The site of the grisly crime brings back bad memories for Homicide Detective Eve Dallas, but she won't stop until she gets justice for the young bride whose dreams have been cut short.

Sci-fi/Fantasy

House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas
Stranded in a strange new world, Bryce wants only to get back home to Midgard. Hunt is desperate to help her, but, imprisoned in the Asteri dungeons, his hands are, quite literally, tied. The third book in the sexy, action-packed Crescent City series nabbed the top spot on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune
In the second installment to this enchanting fantasy series, Arthur Parnassus and the love of his life, Linus Baker, are hoping to adopt the six magical and so-called dangerous children who live in their strange orphanage. But unforeseen forces pose a threat to their family's future happiness.

The Mercy of Gods by James S. A. Corey
From the NYT bestselling author of The Expanse comes a spectacular space opera, the first in a new series, that sees humanity fighting for its survival in a war as old as the universe itself. Dafyd Alkhor is a simple man swept up in events that are beyond his control and more vast than his imagination.

Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett
Emily Wilde is a genius scholar of faerie folklore who just wrote the world's first comprehensive encyclopaedia of faeries. In the second enchanting installment of this series, mysterious faeries from other realms appear at her university and the curmudgeonly professor must uncover their secrets before it's too late.

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labor. When a domesticated robot goes rogue, they murder their owner and run away, finding new purpose in a wider world they never knew existed. From the Hugo-nominated author Children of Time comes a delightful tale of robotic murder.

Absolution: A Southern Reach Novel by Jeff VanderMeer
Who was complicit in creating the conditions for Area X to take hold? Get the full story about what happened on the first mission into the Forgotten Coast before Area X was called Area X. The surprise fourth volume to the Southern Reach series answers lingering questions that the original trilogy left unsolved.

Playground by Richard Powers
Four lives are drawn together in this sweeping, panoramic novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Overstory. Set in the world’s largest ocean, this ambitious, awe-filled book follows multiple storylines and explores weighty themes of technology, the environment, and our shared humanity.

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams. The project she'll be working on? A recently established government ministry is gathering "expats" from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible. This witty, sexy sci-fi debut has been landing on everyone's best-of lists.

The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman
Collum is a gifted young knight who arrives at Camelot only to discover that King Arthur has recently died in battle, exposing Britain's fault lines. As kingdoms turn on each other, Collum joins forces with a ragtag fellowship of imperfect men and women full of strength and pain, looking for a way to reforge a broken land.

Hum by Helen Phillips
In a near-future world addled by climate change and inhabited by intelligent robots called "hums," May loses her job to artificial intelligence. Desperate to support her family, she makes an extreme choice. This striking, tender novel depicts a world of both dystopian and utopian possibilities.

Beautyland by Marie-Helen Bertino
Born at the moment when Voyager 1 is launched into space, Adina Giorno has always known she is different. She isn't from here. As she makes a life for herself among humans, she dispatches transmissions about them to her home planet. From the acclaimed author of Parakeet comes this much-lauded novel.

A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen
Bound in an unwanted marriage, Freya spends her days gutting fish but dreams of becoming a warrior. When her boorish husband betrays her, landing her in a fight to the death against his son Bjorn, her dreams abruptly become reality and she finds herself battling to unite a nation in book one of a Norse-inspired duology.

The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo
Equal parts folktale, drama, and detective story, this quiet, atmospheric novel is set in the last years of the dying Qing Empire. Bao is a keenly intuitive detective hired to investigate the death of a courtesan. Meanwhile Snow, a woman with many secrets, seeks vengeance for her lost child.

The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown
Cassie Andrews works in a New York City bookshop and lives an unassuming, ordinary life. When one of her favorite customers, a charming old man, dies right in front of her, Cassie is devastated. All she has to remember him by is the last book he was reading. But this is no ordinary book.

The Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness
This All Souls fantasy continues the story of scholarly witch Diana Bishop and vampire geneticist Matthew de Clermont. When the pair receive a formal demand from the Congregation to test the magic of their seven-year-old twins, a concerned Diana forges a different path for her family's future.

Be sure to check out our recent posts featuring the year's best in literary fiction & nonfiction and kids & YA. Our next edition will focus on romance & horror.

Let your fellow readers know if we missed any of your favorite 2024 reads in the comments below. And be sure to check out our full collection for additional categories like memoir, cookbooks, and book-to-screen.

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Read more by Ashly Moore Sheldon