Do you often hear footsteps behind you? Are your nails bitten down to the nub? Do you find yourself using the word “clue” in everyday conversations? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might be an avid mystery reader. Just as the Mystery Writers of America recently announced the best mystery and crime fiction of the year at the Edgar Awards, we decided to track down the most popular edge-of-your-seat reads of all time among readers in the Libby app.

Readers love these natural page-turners; searching for missing puzzle pieces, analyzing the trustworthiness of characters and sifting through red herrings until the final big reveal. Much like romance novels, there’s plenty of sub-genres to satisfy even the pickiest private eye, including police procedurals, cozies, suspense, noir, psychological thrillers, true crime, legal thrillers, romantic suspense and more. But whatever the angle, it’s no mystery that this genre is one of the bestselling in the book industry, appealing to our innate curiosity, giving us a safe brush with danger and satisfying our strong sense that justice should be served.

"...this genre is one of the bestselling in the book industry, appealing to our innate curiosity, giving us a safe brush with danger and satisfying our strong sense that justice should be served."

If you’ve fallen victim to wondering “What should I read next?”, take a look at this compilation of the best mystery and thriller novels of all time (adult and YA fiction) on the Libby reading app. Many of these top authors will ring a bell, such as John Grisham, Janet Evanovich, David Baldacci, Lee Child and Shari Lapena.

So, settle in on the next dark and stormy night and find all the mysteries you want to read from your library. Case closed.

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*Title availability may vary by region.