HOW IT ALL BEGAN
 
MYSTERIES AND THRILLERS
Mystery and Thriller titles that are series starters -
new, completed, or ongoing
Dead Dead Girls

by Nekesa Afia
 
 Harlem, 1926. Young Black women like Louise Lloyd are ending up dead.  When a girl turns up dead in front of the cafe where she works, Louise is forced to confront something she's been trying to ignore-two other local Black girls have been murdered in the past few weeks. 
Glory Be

by Danielle Arceneaux
 
It's a hot and sticky Sunday in Lafayette, Louisiana, and Glory has settled into her usual after-church routine, meeting gamblers at the local coffee shop, where she works as a small-time bookie. Sitting at her corner table, Glory hears that her best friend--a nun beloved by the community--has been found dead in her apartment.
A Killing in Costumes

by Zac Bissonnette
 
Jay Allan and Cindy Cooper were soap opera stars in the late '90s, a wholesome young husband-and-wife duo who combined musical talent with humor and charisma. When the truth about their sexual orientations came to light, their marriage and TV careers ended, but decades later they have remained friends. Together, they open Palm Springs' chicest movie memorabilia store, Hooray for Hollywood.
 
 available in alternate format(s)
The Midnight Witness

by Sara Blædel
 
 
A young woman is found strangled in a park, and a male journalist has been killed in the backyard of the Royal Hotel in Copenhagen. Detective Louise Rick is put on the case of the young girl, but very soon becomes entangled in solving the other homicide too when it turns out her best friend, journalist Camilla Lind, knew the murdered man.
Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder

by V. M. Burns
 
 When Maddy Montgomery's groom is a no-show to their livestream wedding, it's a disaster that no amount of filtering can fix. But a surprise inheritance offers a chance to regroup and rebrand--as long as Maddy is willing to live in her late, great-aunt Octavia's house in New Bison, Michigan, for a year, running her bakery and caring for a 250-pound English mastiff named Baby.
 
 available in alternate format(s)
Death by Bubble Tea

by Jennifer J. Chow
 
 When two cousins open a food stall at a Los Angeles night market, a customer dies after drinking their bubble tea, and they set out to find the killer and clear their names.
 
 available in alternate format(s) 
Finlay Donovan is Killing it

by Elle Cosimano
 
When Finlay is overheard discussing the plot of her new suspense novel with her agent over lunch, she's mistaken for a contract killer, and inadvertently accepts an offer to dispose of a problem husband in order to make ends meet . . . 
 
 available in alternate format(s)
Thief of Souls

by Brian Klingborg
 
Lu Fei is a graduate of China's top police college but he's been assigned to a sleepy backwater town in northern China, where almost nothing happens and the theft of a few chickens represents a major crime wave. That is until a young woman is found dead, her organs removed, and joss paper stuffed in her mouth. 
 
 available in alternate format(s) 
Who is Vera Kelly?

by Rosalie Knecht
 
New York City, 1962. Vera Kelly is struggling to make rent and blend into the underground gay scene in Greenwich Village. She's working night shifts at a radio station when her quick wits, sharp tongue, and technical skills get her noticed by a recruiter for the CIA.
Just Watch Me

by Jeffry P. Lindsay
 
 Riley Wolfe. He's a master thief, expert at disguise, and not averse to violence when it's needed. It's no accident, though, that Riley targets the wealthiest 0.1 percent and is willing to kill them when they're in his way: he despises the degenerate and immoral rich and loves stealing their undeserved and unearned valuables.
 
 available in alternate format(s)
Suburban Dicks

by Fabian Nicieza
 
 Andie Stern thought she'd solved her final homicide. Once a budding FBI profiler, she gave up her career to raise her four (soon to be five) children in West Windsor, New Jersey. But one day, between soccer games, recitals, and trips to the local pool, a very pregnant Andie pulls into a gas station--and stumbles across a murder scene.
 
  available in alternate format(s) 
 No Strangers Here

by Carlene O'Connor
 
 On a rocky beach in the southwest of Ireland, the body of Johnny O'Reilly, sixty-nine years old and dressed in a suit and his dancing shoes, is propped on a boulder, staring sightlessly out to sea. A cryptic message is spelled out next to the body with sixty-nine polished black stones and a discarded vial of deadly veterinarian medication lies nearby. 
 
 available in alternate format(s) 
Under Lock & Skeleton Key

by Gigi Pandian
 
After a disastrous accident derails Tempest Raj's career, and life, she heads back to her childhood home in California to comfort herself with her grandfather's Indian home-cooked meals. Though she resists, every day brings her closer to the inevitable: working for her father's company.
 
available in alternate format(s) 
Grave Reservations

by Cherie Priest
 
Meet Leda Foley: devoted friend, struggling travel agent, and inconsistent psychic. When Leda, sole proprietor of Foley's Flights of Fancy, impulsively re-books Seattle PD detective Grady Merritt's flight, her life changes in ways she couldn't have predicted.
 
available in alternate format(s) 
Still Life

by Louise Penny
 
 Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet of Three Pines, just north of the U.S. border, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it's a tragic hunting accident and nothing more, but Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec and his team smells something foul in these remote woods.
 
available in alternate format(s)
Say You're Sorry

by Karen Rose
 
 There is a serial killer on the loose in Sacramento, preying on vulnerable women. The only identifiable mark the killer leaves are letters -- sometimes one, sometimes two -- all carved into the torsos of his victims. 
 
A Death in Door County

by Annelise Ryan
 
Morgan Carter, owner of the Odds and Ends bookstore in Door County, Wisconsin, has a hobby. When she's not tending the store, she's hunting cryptids--creatures whose existence is rumored, but never proven to be real. It's a hobby that cost her parents their lives, but one she'll never give up on.
 
available in alternate format(s) 
Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone

by Benjamin Stevenson
 
Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I'm not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate.
 
 available in alternate format(s)
Girl Waits With Gun

by Amy Stewart
 
Constance Kopp doesn't quite fit the mold. She towers over most men, has no interest in marriage or domestic affairs, and has been isolated from the world since a family secret sent her and her sisters into hiding fifteen years ago. One day a belligerent and powerful silk factory owner runs down their buggy, and a dispute over damages turns into a war of bricks, bullets, and threats.
 
 
 available in alternate format(s)
Dial A for Aunties

by Jesse Q. Sutanto
 
What happens when you mix 1 (accidental) murder with 2 thousand wedding guests, and then toss in a possible curse on 3 generations of an immigrant Chinese-Indonesian family?  You get 4 meddling Asian aunties coming to the rescue!
 
  available in alternate format(s) 
Look for these other Series Starters lists:
 
How it All Began: Romance and Rom-Com

How it All Began: Historical Fiction

How it All Began: Fantasy / Sci Fi / Paranormal
 
Maybe this list isn't your jam.  Check out the RPL Readers page for more suggestions. 
 
 
Or, if you'd prefer a hand-cafted book suggestion list, try The Bookologist service.  You will need an RPL library card to access.  Don't have one?  Find out how to get one here.
 
 
 
Richmond Public Library
101 East Franklin Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219
(804) 646-7223
https://rvalibrary.org/
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