If you’re facing a weekend at home – whether by circumstance or by design – you’ll need a great read to keep you entertained, preferably one that you can finish before you have to go back to the real world. Here are 25 mystery and thriller books you can binge read in a weekend.
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
Big Little Lies is the book that put Liane Moriarty on the map as a domestic mystery-thriller writer, and it will be clear why from the first few pages. Each chapter is punctuated with extracts from witness interviews with a journalist – something went down at a school trivia night, and one of the characters present is responsible. Everyone was drunk, everyone was dealing with a lifetime’s worth of baggage, and everyone had good reason (well, good-ish) to want someone at the Pirriwee Public Trivia Night fundraiser dead. It’s intriguing and it will pull you through at breakneck speed. Read my full review of Big Little Lies here.
Last One Out by Jane Harper
Jane Harper, true to form, has written another seemingly impossible-to-solve mystery set in rural Australia: Last One Out. It seems unlikely that Ro, her estranged husband, or her workaholic daughter will ever find out what happened to Sam, a 21-year-old who vanished from the side of the road, leaving only a few dusty footprints. On the anniversary of his disappearance, they gather to mourn, and to rehash the old clues once again. This intriguing story weaves the mystery into a wider story about the impact of absence on those left behind and the pressures of small-town life. Read my full review of Last One Out here.
Room by Emma Donoghue
Room, a 2010 novel by Emma Donoghue, is a story told from the perspective of five-year-old Jack, a boy who has spent his entire life held captive in a single locked room with his mother. It’s all he has ever known. This is no post-apocalyptic hide-out or agoraphobic folie à deux – they are both victims of a terrible crime (based on the real-life horrors of Josef Fritzl). The story is stay-up-all-night-to-finish-it readable, so you’ll definitely knock it over in a weekend, no problem. Read my full review of Room here.
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
As far as mystery novels go, And Then There Were None has a killer premise. It’s a locked-room mystery, with a ticking clock. Would you expect anything less from the Queen of Crime? Ten strangers are lured to an isolated island mansion. All were brought there under similar false pretenses, and all of them are hiding a terrible secret. One by one, they are murdered – Who is the killer? Will anyone survive? This is one of Agatha Christie’s best-selling mysteries, and it has been binge-read by many a reader on stormy nights and quiet weekends. Read my full review of And Then There Were None here.
Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson
The narrator of Before I Go To Sleep, Christine, has a strange kind of acquired memory loss. Every night, while she sleeps, her memory re-sets. Every morning, when she wakes up, Ben has to explain to her that she’s his wife, what has happened to her, and how she came to be married to him. That all sounds lovely, but here’s the thing: can Christine trust Ben’s answers? This is a well-executed thriller with surprisingly few foibles, definitely binge-worthy on a quiet weekend. Read my full review of Before I Go To Sleep here.
The Cry by Helen Fitzgerald
The premise of The Cry evokes the real-life case of Madeline McCann, for the tender age of the child who goes missing and the worldwide scrutiny of the parents in the case, but also Azaria Chamberlain for its Australian setting. It’s a modern take on the missing child, told in the style of Liane Moriarty or Gillian Flynn. It’s a rich and complex psychological mystery-thriller that will have you gripped for hours, the perfect way to spend a weekend. Read my full review of The Cry here.
Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
The conceit of Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone unfolds much as the title suggests. Everyone in Ernie’s family has killed someone: his brother, his father, his step-sister, the lot. One by one, Ernie reveals how each family member was culpable in someone’s death, as he tries to figure out which one of them is responsible for the most recent murder – a man none of them appear to know, who simply showed up dead outside the ski chalet where they’re hosting a family reunion. This is the perfect pick for a mystery to binge-read in a weekend when you also want a few laughs along the way. Read my full review of Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone here.
The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard
The Nothing Man takes its title from the moniker given to the man who assaulted and murdered a series of people in the early 2000s, in their Cork homes. They called him that because the Gardaí had “nothing” on him. This isn’t a whodunnit, though. You know from the very first chapter that Jim is The Nothing Man, and he’s now working as a security guard at a supermarket. You also learn that the only survivor of one of his crimes has recently written a memoir, in the hopes of eliciting new evidence that will crack the case. Read my full review of The Nothing Man here.
Remember Me by Charity Norman
Are some secrets best left buried? That’s the question at the heart of Remember Me. Twenty-five years ago, Leah Patara disappeared from her rural New Zealand town without a trace, and Emily Kirkland was one of the last people to see her alive. Now, Emily is drawn back to that town to care for her ailing father who’s in the middle-to-late stages of Alzheimer’s. When Emily’s father starts talking about Leah, she begins to suspect he knows more about Leah’s disappearance than he let on at the time – and now, he seems to be forgetting why he stayed quiet. Read my full review of Remember Me here.
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
Sharp Objects follows Camille Preaker, a journalist for a small Chicago newspaper, as she’s drawn back to her hometown to report on the abduction and murder of two young girls. At first, Camille doesn’t seem particularly unusual – sure, she’s a bit of a drinker, and she clearly has some unresolved issues with her family, but who doesn’t? As you binge read this captivating mystery-thriller, you realise how dark the protagonist really is, and why those issues with her mother and her hometown might never be untangled. Read my full review of Sharp Objects here.
You by Caroline Kepnes
When Guinevere Beck stumbles into a quiet East Village bookshop, it could’ve been the perfect meet-cute. Joe, the bookseller behind the desk, is instantly enamoured with her, and they have some good banter as he puts her purchase through. He takes note of her name from her credit card, and immediately Googles her. That’s where You takes off, and you won’t be able to help binge-reading this mystery-thriller all the way to the end. Read my full review of You here.
Sadie by Courtney Summers
Sadie begins with the discovery of a body, that of 13-year-old Mattie Southern, in a small run-down town in the middle of nowhere. She is survived by her 19-year-old sister, the only person who might know what happened to her. West McCray – a radio journalist – overhears the tragic news of Mattie’s death while he’s working on another story nearby. At first, he doesn’t think much of it (another dead girl? that’s sad, but it’s hardly a story). Then, he hears from their landlady: Sadie has gone missing, just months after Mattie’s death. That’s the impetus for his podcast investigation, what hooks him (and us, the readers): what happened to the girls? Read my full review of Sadie here.
Anatomy Of An Alibi by Ashley Elston
In Anatomy Of An Alibi, Camille Bayliss’s “perfect” marriage is actually anything but. She’s desperate to find hard evidence of her lawyer husband Ben’s misdeeds so that she can get out, and she enlists the help of Aubrey Price to do it. Aubrey will pretend to be Camille for a day, driving her car and carrying her phone, while Camille sets up hidden cameras to see what Ben gets up to while she’s not around. The thing is, at the end of that day, Ben winds up dead, and suddenly both Camille and Aubrey’s whereabouts at the time of the murder are under scrutiny – both of them have a motive, and neither of them have an alibi that holds up. Read my full review of Anatomy Of An Alibi here.
Big Lies In A Small Town by Diane Chamberlain
Big Lies In A Small Town centers around a Depression-era mural: the woman commissioned to paint it (who disappeared under mysterious circumstances), and the woman charged with restoring it for installation, nearly eight decades later. It might sound like a sleepy subject for a mystery novel, but from the first pages you’ll be drawn head-first into this story of race, privilege, and opportunity. It’s definitely binge-worthy enough to knock over in a weekend. Read my full review of Big Lies In A Small Town here.
Cold Truth by Ashley Kalagian Blunt
Cold Truth follows Harlow Close, a Winnipeg influencer not deterred in the slightest by the region’s sub-zero temperatures and cold snaps. Her father mysteriously disappears from his home one night, and Harlow enlists the assistance of her reluctant (and far less Insta-famous) sister to aid in the search, seeing as the police are turning up nothing. It’s an intriguing mystery, with incredibly evocative place writing, a combination that’s hard to beat and you might find yourself binge-reading the whole thing in one sitting. Read my full review of Cold Truth here.
The Concierge by Abby Corson
Hector Harrow has worked at Cavengreen Hotel for his entire adult life. He’s The Concierge, which means he sees everything and says nothing… until now. He’s finally ready to spill the beans about what happened the night of the murder. He didn’t just discover the body at Cavengreen Hotel, he was accused of the murder, and he’s telling the story in the hopes of clearing his name. Make sure you speed through to the final chapters, because there’s a Big Twist coming. Read my full review of The Concierge here.
The Woman In The Library by Sulari Gentill
The Woman In The Library is a meta-fictional mystery, a book-within-a-book, with two puzzles playing out on the page. A crime writer forwards her work-in-progress, chapter by chapter, to a fan who gives her feedback on her story about a woman murdered in the Boston Library. Soon, the writer realises that her “fan” might not be exactly what he seems. This twisty and mischievous novel is a true delight to read, and easy to tear through in a single weekend. The big clang comes on page 132 (of my edition, anyway), and from there it’s a thrilling ride all the way to the finish. Read my full review of The Woman In The Library here.
Kill Your Husbands by Jack Heath
Kill Your Husbands is a locked-room mystery set over the course of a weekend getaway. Three couples rent an isolated house on a mountaintop, to spend some time reconnecting and relaxing in nature. There’s no wifi and no phone reception, but that’s alright – unplugged escapes are all the rage now, aren’t they? Things get spicy when the idea of partner-swapping comes up. It’s got swinging, it’s got murder, and it’s perfectly paced to keep you intrigued and entertained every step of the way. Read my full review of Kill Your Husbands here.
Like Mother by Cassandra Austin
Is it possible to be too tired to remember where you put your infant daughter down to sleep? That’s the disturbing premise of Like Mother, a domestic noir mystery set in small-town Australia in 1969. Over the course of a single day in the life of sleep-deprived Louise, it interrogates the role of women in the world and in the home, and how far the apple really falls from the tree. You’ll be so impatient to figure out what’s really going on, you won’t be able to help binge-reading it all. Read my full review of Like Mother here.
The Neighbours by Emma Babbington
One of your close neighbours turning up dead – murdered, in fact – is stressful enough. What if you had reason to suspect that someone in your orbit was the perpetrator? That’s the conceit of The Neighbours, a domestic murder mystery that will have your heart in your throat. The story mostly centers on Liz, a woman who has the whole world on her shoulders, her university-age daughter, and a childhood friend who recently moved to the area; all of them had an axe to grind with charismatic morning TV show darling Richard Wellington, but did any of them go so far as to actually kill him? Read my full review of The Neighbours here.
The Note by Alafair Burke
For a certain kind of person (okay, most of us), getting together with old friends for a few drinks is liable to get a little wild – and that goes double when you’re on holidays, away from the rules and responsibilities of real life. In The Note, three such friends in such circumstances play a practical joke on a total stranger – one that ends up having deadly consequences. This well-plotted mystery will have you gripped, and you’ll finish it faster than you can plan your next weekend getaway. Read my full review of The Note here.
One Of Those Mothers by Megan Nicol Reed
In One Of Those Mothers, the tight-knit middle class community of Point Heed, Aotearoa, unravels when a local father (name suppressed) is convicted of possessing child exploitation materials. All of the couples in this story have kids around the same age, they have barbecues and nights out and holidays together – and now, none of them can trust the others. Dual mysteries play out and entwine around each other: who’s the perv? What happened between Bridget and Lucy to destroy their lifelong friendship? It’s all unveiled tantalisingly slowly, and you’ll binge-read faster and faster to find out the truth. Read my full review of One Of Those Mothers here.
A Particularly Nasty Case by Adam Kay
A Particularly Nasty Case is a mix of murder, mystery, and medicine that kicks off with an emergency resuscitation at a mature age queer sex club (yes, you read that right). The main character is recovering from a manic episode that nearly cost him his job, self-medicating with a nasal spray laced with cocaine (a totally foolproof plan). It takes a minute to get to the true inciting incident – the sudden death of his boss, who was in perfect cardiac health before suffering a major heart attack – but once you do, you’ll have to cancel your weekend plans because you won’t want to put this book down. Read my full review of A Particularly Nasty Case here.
Pheasants Nest by Louise Milligan
Pheasants Nest is a stunning and surprising thriller about a journalist who is kidnapped, and finds herself living out the worst-case-scenarios she reports on the news (all the more realistic for the fact that it’s written by one of Australia’s bravest and most committed journalists, Louise Milligan). From the boot of a car, then a cage under a bridge, Kate Delaney watches the minutes tick by and wonders if her own untimely death is imminent, and how it will be reported by her colleagues – and you’ll tear through the pages wondering the same things. Read my full review of Pheasants Nest here.
The Turn Of The Key by Ruth Ware
The Turn Of The Key by Ruth Ware is billed as a modern-day Turn Of The Screw. A new governess finds herself alone with weird children in an isolated house, complete with bitter housekeeper, mysterious caretaker, and unexplained bumps in the night. It’s a very contemporary take, with smart home devices that will have you reaching over to turn off Alexa, and the twists keep coming right up until the final page (that you’ll reach sooner than you think). Read my full review of The Turn Of The Key here.
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