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Top 16 Best British Mystery Books Updated 03 /2024

Dennis Lehane
  Mar 28, 2024 6:17 PM

Here we ranked and reviewed the top 16 Best British Mystery Books that are highly rated by 159,203 customers.

 


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  • SCORE
    9.8
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    AI Score is a ranking system developed by our team of experts. It from 0 to 10 are automatically scored by our tool based upon the data collected(at the time of writing, more than 4,000 books and 3,000 authors). This score has no relationship or impact from any manufacturer or sales agent websites.

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    Arthur A. Levine Books
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    9.8
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    AI Score is a ranking system developed by our team of experts. It from 0 to 10 are automatically scored by our tool based upon the data collected(at the time of writing, more than 4,000 books and 3,000 authors). This score has no relationship or impact from any manufacturer or sales agent websites.

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    9.4
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    AI Score is a ranking system developed by our team of experts. It from 0 to 10 are automatically scored by our tool based upon the data collected(at the time of writing, more than 4,000 books and 3,000 authors). This score has no relationship or impact from any manufacturer or sales agent websites.

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  • SCORE
    9.2
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5
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    9.2
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    AI Score is a ranking system developed by our team of experts. It from 0 to 10 are automatically scored by our tool based upon the data collected(at the time of writing, more than 4,000 books and 3,000 authors). This score has no relationship or impact from any manufacturer or sales agent websites.

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    9.2
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    AI Score is a ranking system developed by our team of experts. It from 0 to 10 are automatically scored by our tool based upon the data collected(at the time of writing, more than 4,000 books and 3,000 authors). This score has no relationship or impact from any manufacturer or sales agent websites.

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7
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    9.2
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    9.2
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9
  • SCORE
    9.0
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    AI Score is a ranking system developed by our team of experts. It from 0 to 10 are automatically scored by our tool based upon the data collected(at the time of writing, more than 4,000 books and 3,000 authors). This score has no relationship or impact from any manufacturer or sales agent websites.

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10
  • SCORE
    9.0
    AI Score

    AI Score is a ranking system developed by our team of experts. It from 0 to 10 are automatically scored by our tool based upon the data collected(at the time of writing, more than 4,000 books and 3,000 authors). This score has no relationship or impact from any manufacturer or sales agent websites.

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11
  • SCORE
    8.8
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    AI Score is a ranking system developed by our team of experts. It from 0 to 10 are automatically scored by our tool based upon the data collected(at the time of writing, more than 4,000 books and 3,000 authors). This score has no relationship or impact from any manufacturer or sales agent websites.

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12
  • SCORE
    8.4
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13
  • SCORE
    8.4
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    AI Score is a ranking system developed by our team of experts. It from 0 to 10 are automatically scored by our tool based upon the data collected(at the time of writing, more than 4,000 books and 3,000 authors). This score has no relationship or impact from any manufacturer or sales agent websites.

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14
  • SCORE
    8.2
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15
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    8.2
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16
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Last update on 2024-03-28 / Affiliate links / Images, Product Titles, and Product Highlights from Amazon Product Advertising API


Best British Mystery Books

Looking to solve a few mysteries this weekend while you're at home? Take one of these fantastic British mystery series and test how many novels you can read in a single sitting. You won't be able to put them down if they're page-turning mysteries like these. Just make sure your tea, scones, and clotted cream are close by.

The Adam Dalgliesh Series

Adam Dalgliesh, a character created by P.D. James, has appeared in 14 mystery books. Dalgliesh is a Detective Chief Inspector in the first novel, Cover Her Face. He rises through the ranks of the Metropolitan Police Service at New Scotland Yard in London in later novels. One of the main pulls to this series is, of course, the detective character himself. These mysteries are well crafted and entertaining to read. Dalgliesh is a thoughtful investigator who spends his free time writing poetry.

Each mystery in this series can be read on its own, but it's also fun to follow the detective's development over the course of all 14 books. Dalgliesh also appears in P.D. James's two novels involving Cordelia Gray: An Unsuitable Job for a WomanandThe Skull Beneath the Skin as a character.

The Lady Sherlock Series

Despite the fact that author Sherry Thomas is not British, Sherlock Holmes is unmistakably British. Sherry Thomas reimagines Sherlock Holmes as a female detective working under the assumed name Sherlock in this historical mystery series. A Study in Scarlet Women is the first book of Charlotte Holmes' detective career. Charlotte must solve a murder mystery in order to cleanse her family's name in this story. But the puzzles don't stop there.

The Lady Sherlock series now has four books, with the fifth, Murder on Cold Street, due to be released later this year.

The Agency Series

Didn't you say you'd like to see more female detectives? Then you should read Y.S. Lee's The Agency Series. This Victorian-era British mystery series follows a girls' academy that is actually a front for The Agency, an all-female investigative organization.

The first novel in the series introduces readers to Mary Quinn, a young orphan and burglar. When Mary is first offered a place to study at Miss Scrimshaw's Academy for Girls, she believes she will be taught proper manners. However, she quickly finds herself disguising herself as a lady's companion in order to infiltrate the home of a wealthy businessman.

Of course, the escapades continue in later books. After all, this is a series. There are four novels in this series at the moment. Rivals in the City, his most recent novel, was published in 2015.

The Flavia De Luce Series

Flavia de Luce, a smart 11-year-old girl who loves chemistry and solving crimes, stars in Alan Bradley's mystery series. And killings appear to be happening all the time in her small British village in the 1950s. Flavia, thankfully, is on the case.

If you enjoy Flavia de Luce, you're in luck because this series currently has 10 books. The first, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, was published in 2009, and the latest, The Golden Tresses of the Dead, was published in 2019.

The Hercule Poirot Series

If you enjoy British mysteries, Hercule Poirot is a must-read. But, just in case, I had to mention Agatha Christie's enthralling Poirot series. Because of his various eccentricities, Poirot is a delightful detective character to watch; for example, he is particularly picky about his facial hair. In fact, there's an entire page on Agatha Christie's website dedicated to Poirot's mustache's greatest moments. While Poirot is Belgian rather than British, these books are unmistakably British. The author is British, and the most of the stories are set in the United Kingdom.

Is it your ambition to read all of Poirot's books? You have a lot of work ahead of you. Agatha Christie published 33 novels, two plays, and more than 50 short stories using the detective character between 1920 and 1975. Thankfully, Poirot is a fascinating character, and these are enjoyable books, so your time will be well spent.

The Maisie Dobbs Series

Jacqueline Winspear has stated that she had no idea the first novel in the series, Maisie Dobbs, would become a series when she wrote it. Maisie Dobbs is still going strong after 15 volumes.

But who is this mysterious figure that kickstarted a series that was never supposed to happen? Dobbs was a nurse during World War I and is now a psychologist and investigator. She returned to London after the war to work with her tutor, detective Dr. Maurice Blanche. Blanche eventually retired, and Dobbs went on to start her own agency. The first book follows her as she establishes her agency and undertakes her first task.

The Lord Peter Wimsey Series

Another British mystery author to add to your list? Sayers, Dorothy L. And what about her best-known works? The Lord Peter Wimsey series is a collection of novels written by Lord Peter Wimsey. Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey has become the British gentleman detective's archetype. Sayers penned many mysteries for Wimsey and his sidekick Bunter to solve over the course of 11 novels and numerous short tales.

Dorothy Sayers was not the end of Peter Wimsey's narrative. Following Sayers' death, novelist Jill Patton Walsh resumed the series, with the consent and request of Dorothy L. Sayers' estate. Walsh finished the novel Thrones, Dominations, which Sayers began but never finished in 1938. A Presumption of Death, The Attenbury Emeralds, and The Late Scholar are the three Peter Wimsey novels Walsh has published since then.

The Max Tudor Series

This is yet another British mystery series written by an American author, but if you can overlook G.M. Malliet's citizenship, this series is actually rather good. Max Tudor, a former MI5 agent, leaves his violent past behind to become the priest of St. Edwold's in the lovely village of Nether Monkslip on England's south coast. Max, however, can't seem to get away from murder and violence, even in this small community.

Wanda Batton-Smythe, the president of the Women's Institute, is found murdered at the Harvest Fayre in the first novel in the series, Wicked Autumn. Max Tudor suspects murder, despite the fact that the death appears to be an accident caused by a peanut allergy. And he believes there were a lot of individuals who wanted her to die. This series presently consists of seven books.

The Sam Wyndham Series

The Sam Wyndham series by Abir Mukherjee does not take place in the United Kingdom. Instead of being set during World War II, this series follows Captain Sam Wyndham, a former Scotland Yard detective, as he investigates crimes in British-occupied Calcutta, where he has been hired to lead the new police department. Wyndham hardly has time to settle in before being assigned a case: the assassination of a British official. Wyndham has his own personal challenges as he learns to negotiate the dark underbelly of the British Raj: his memories of the war, his opium addiction, and the history he sought to leave behind.


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