First Books in Good Crime Fiction Series
Discover the best first books in gripping crime fiction series. Dive into thrilling mysteries, detective stories, and suspenseful reads that launch unforgettable series. Perfect for crime novel enthusiasts!
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Killing Floor
by Lee Child
A former military policeman, Jack Reacher is passing through Margrave, Georgia, on his way to nowhere in particular when four policemen arrive to arrest him for a murder he did not commit, in critically acclaimed suspense novel. Reprint. NYT.
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The Bone Collector
by Jeffery Deaver
Look who's back to chill readers to the bone... The first novel featuring Detective Lincoln Rhyme, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Stone Monkey.
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Postmortem
by Patricia Cornwell
Dr Kay Scarpetta uses forensic medicine to try to catch the killer of five young women.
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When the Bough Breaks
by Jonathan Kellerman
In the first Alex Delaware novel, Dr. Morton Handler practiced a strange brand of psychiatry. Among his specialties were fraud, extortion, and sexual manipulation. Handler paid for his sins when he was brutally murdered in his luxurious Pacific Palisades apartment. The police have no leads, but they do have one possible witness: seven-year-old Melody Quinn. It's psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware's job to try to unlock the terrible secret buried in Melody's memory. But as the sinister shadows in the girl's mind begin to take shape, Alex discovers that the mystery touches a shocking incident in his own past. This connection is only the beginning, a single link in a forty-year-old conspiracy. And behind it lies an unspeakable evil that Alex Delaware must expose before it claims another innocent victim: Melody Quinn.
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The Ritual Bath
by Faye Kellerman
Detective Peter Decker of the LAPD is stunned when he gets the report. Someone has shattered the sanctuary of a remote yeshiva community in the California hills with an unimaginable crime. One of the women was brutally raped as she returned from the mikvah, the bathhouse where the cleansing ritual is performed. The crime was called in by Rina Lazarus, and Decker is relieved to discover that she is a calm and intelligent witness. She is also the only one in the sheltered community willing to speak of this unspeakable violation. As Rina tries to steer Decker through the maze of religious laws the two grow closer. But before they get to the bottom of this horrendous crime, revelations come to light that are so shocking that they threaten to come between the hard-nosed cop and the deeply religious woman with whom he has become irrevocably linked.
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One for the Money
by Janet Evanovich
The dynamite blockbuster from Janet Evanovich that started it all—now a major motion picture starring Katherine Heigl as Stephanie Plum! ONE FINE MESS Welcome to Trenton, New Jersey, home to wiseguys, average Joes, and Stephanie Plum, who sports a big attitude and even bigger money problems (since losing her job as a lingerie buyer for a department store). Stephanie needs cash—fast—but times are tough, and soon she's forced to turn to the last resort of the truly desperate: family... ONE FALSE MOVE Stephanie lands a gig at her sleazy cousin Vinnie's bail bonding company. She's got no experience. But that doesn't matter. Neither does the fact that the bail jumper in question is local vice cop Joe Morelli. From the time he first looked up her dress to the time he first got into her pants, to the time Steph hit him with her father's Buick, M-o-r-e-l-l-i has spelled t-r-o-u-b-l-e. And now the hot guy is in hot water—wanted for murder... ONE FOR THE MONEY Abject poverty is a great motivator for learning new skills, but being trained in the school of hard knocks by people like psycho prizefighter Benito Ramirez isn't. Still, if Stephanie can nab Morelli in a week, she'll make a cool ten grand. All she has to do is become an expert bounty hunter overnight—and keep herself from getting killed before she gets her man...
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"A" is for Alibi
by Sue Grafton
A woman wrongly convicted of murdering her husband hires private detective Kinsey Millhone to find the real killer.
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The Monkey's Raincoat
by Robert Crais
First published 1987. Elvis Cole mystery. Elvis is on the case when a client's estranged husband kidnaps their son.
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The Black Echo
by Michael Connelly
A Vietnam veteran-turned-police detective, Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch discovers the body of a former comrade-in-arms during an investigation and, with the help of an attractive FBI agent, hunts for the murderers along a trail leading back to Saigon. Reprint.
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The Sins of the Fathers
by Lawrence Block
The pretty young prostitute is dead. Her alleged murderer—a minister's son—hanged himself in his jail cell. The case is closed. But the dead girl's fatherhas come to Matthew Scudder for answers, sending the unlicensed private investigator in search of terrible truths about a life that was lived and lost in a sordid world of perversion and pleasures.
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Burglars Can't Be Choosers
by Lawrence Block
Bernie Rhodenbarr is a personable chap, a good neighbor, a passable poker player. His chosen profession, however, might not sit well with some. Bernie is a burglar, a good one, effortlessly lifting valuables from the not-so-well-protected abodes of well-to-do New Yorkers like a modern-day Robin Hood. (The poor, as Bernie would be the first to tell you, alas, have nothing worth stealing.) He's not perfect, however; he occasionally makes mistakes. Like accepting a paid assignment from a total stranger to retrieve a particular item from a rich man's apartment. Like still being there when the cops arrive. Like having a freshly slain corpse lying in the next room, and no proof that Bernie isn't the killer. Now he's really got his hands full, having to locate the true perpetrator while somehow eluding the police -- a dirty job indeed, but if Bernie doesn't do it, who will?
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Grift Sense
by James Swain
Amidst the neon and the big special ugly of Las Vegas, mild-mannered Frank Fontaine is beating the brains out of the Acropolis Casino. The house cops think the dealer, a blonde named Nola, is part of the con, but no one can prove a thing. For Tony Valentine, it’s the first new scam he’s seen in decades—and maybe the best. Three things Tony knows: The blonde is guilty, the grifter has lived a former life, and the biggest scam is the one that hasn’t happened yet. In a dream world of fake Greek statues, statuesque hostesses, and a casino owner whose sex life might just burn down his own house, Tony Valentine is plying his special trade. While some people have a sixth sense, Tony has a grift sense—and he needs it now to separate a grifter from a scam that’s worse than anyone’s wildest dreams. . . .
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Deal Breaker
by Harlan Coben
Softhearted sports agent Myron Bolitar must unravel a complex mystery involving blackmail and family tragedy when his client, celebrated rookie quarterback Christian Steele, receives a phone call from a supposedly-dead ex-girlfriend. Reissue.
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New York Dead
by Stuart Woods
"(A) Hollywood slick and fast-moving" (Los Angeles Daily News) mystery from the bestselling author of Palindrome. After witnessing a horrifying incident, NYPD cop Stone Barrington finds himself hopelessly entwined in the increasingly shocking life--and death--of the country's hottest and most beautiful TV anchorwoman.
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A Drink Before the War
by Dennis Lehane
A novel about the search for a missing woman who had stolen secret documents.
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Vanishing Act
by Thomas Perry
“A challenging and satisfying thriller . . . [with] many surprising twists.”—The New York Times Jane Whitefield is a Native American guide who leads people out of the wilderness—not the tree-filled variety but the kind created by enemies who want you dead. She is in the one-woman business of helping the desperate disappear. Thanks to her membership in the Wolf Clan of the Seneca tribe, she can fool any pursuer, cover any trail, and then provide her clients with new identities, complete with authentic paperwork. Jane knows all the tricks, ancient and modern; in fact, she has invented several of them herself. So she is only mildly surprised to find an intruder waiting for her when she returns home one day. An ex-cop suspected of embezzling, John Felker wants Jane to do for him what she did for his buddy Harry Kemple: make him vanish. But as Jane opens a door out of the world for Felker, she walks into a trap that will take all her heritage and cunning to escape. . . . Praise for Vanishing Act “Thomas Perry keeps pulling fresh ideas and original characters out of thin air. The strong-willed heroine he introduces in Vanishing Act rates as one of his most singular creations.”—The New York Times Book Review “One thriller that must be read. . . . Perry has created his most complex and compelling protagonist.”—San Francisco Examiner
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Privileged Information
by Stephen White
THE FIRST ALAN GREGORY THRILLER! A successful psychologist in Boulder, Colorado, Alan Gregory has a bright future -- until police find one of his female patients dead. In her apartment, they discover a diary describing her sexual obsession with Gregory and his willing involvement. Obligated to keep his patient records confidential -- even from the police -- Alan faces disgrace and ruin unless he reveals what he knows about her fantasies and his own innocence. But when more of his patients die and Alan becomes the prime suspect, he is desperate to clear his name. Unable to turn to anyone for help, he begins the painful search for the explanation on his own -- and soon discovers the terrible truth. Now, only he knows how to stop the killing...if he doesn't wind up dead himself.
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A Cold Day in Paradise
by Steve Hamilton
In an unprecedented literary event, Steve Hamilton's A Cold Day In Paradise has hit mystery's Double Play, winning the two most prestigious honors in the business-- the Edgar and Shamus Awards for Best First Novel. Now, open its covers and see for yourself why this extraordinary novel has galvanized the literary and mystery community as no other book before it... Other than the bullet lodged less than a centimeter from his heart, former Detroit police officer Alex McKnight thought he had put the nightmare of his partner's death and his own near-fatal injury behind him. After all, Maximilian Rose, convicted of the crimes, has been locked in the state pen for years, But in the small town of Paradise, Michigan, where McKnight has traded his badge for a cozy cabin in the woods, a murderer with Rose's unmistakable trademarks appears to be back to his killing ways. With Rose locked away, McKnight can't understand who else would know the intimate details of the old murders-- not to mention the signature blood-red rose left on his doorstep. And it seems like it'll be a frozen day in Hell before McKnight can unravel the cold truth from a deadly deception in a town that's anything but Paradise. A Cold Day in Paradise is the winner of the 1999 Edgar Award for Best First Novel.
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Iron Lake
by William Kent Krueger
A hated judge is found dead in suspicious circumstances in a town in Minnesota with an Indian casino and a young Ojibwe Indian leaves home in a hurry. Former sheriff Cork O'Connor investigates if there is a connection.
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Caught Dead in Philadelphia
by Gillian Roberts
Anthony Award winner for Best First Mystery Novel -- the debut of the Philadelphia-set Amanda Pepper series. Amanda Pepper, English teacher at Philly Prep, does not hate her life. But when a fellow teacher who's engaged to a senate candidate, begs for rest on Amanda's couch, then dies, things could be better. Then the police suspect her of murder, she begins her own investigation, and ends by teaching a certain blue-eyed cop a thing or two.... "Gillian Roberts is a mystery reader's dream come true." Lia Matera
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Dead Irish
by John Lescroart
THE FIRST NOVEL IN THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING DISMAS HARDY SERIES! In his new life as a bartender at the Little Shamrock, Dismas Hardy is just hoping for a little peace. He’s left both the police force and his law career behind. Unfortunately it’s not as easy to leave behind the memory of a shattering personal loss—but for the time being, he can always take the edge off with a stiff drink and round of darts. But when the news of Eddie Cochran’s death reaches him, Hardy is propelled back into all the things he was trying to escape. And forced to untangle a web of old secrets and raw passions, for the sake of Eddie’s pregnant widow, Frannie—and for the others whose lives may still be at risk...