Crime and mystery novels for reading groups and book clubs

British Library Crime Classics 146

In the village of Brimberley, the worst thing on the horizon seems to be the chance of being outshone by the rival village choir of Bramshott. But that is until Brimberley's lead tenor is blown up in his home by an explosion that rocks the whole community. As an amateur coalition of the motorcycling choir leader Liz, her ex-commando son and a retired general begins to piece together this strange crime, mystery upon mystery compounds in a case involving dark secrets buried in the turmoil of the Second World War, parochial grudges, a burglar whose reputation borders on the mythical, and a volatile killer poised to strike again.

First published in 1955, this classic village mystery with elements of WW2 spy fiction showcases Gilbert's ingenious plotting and ability to blow the reader's assumptions sky high.

Marchfield Square was meant to be a haven from the outside world. A place for those who need somewhere safe from their pasts, or who could otherwise not afford to stay in the city they call home. That was Celeste Van Duren's plan.

One of her tenants being murdered in his own kitchen, and the police trying to pin it on his long-suffering wife, was not. So Celeste does what anyone with a lot of money, a strong sense of justice and a bad hip would do: she recruits some help to track down the real murderer. Her cleaner, Audrey, knows everyone in the square and is liked by all, while failed crime writer, Lewis, is known by no one.

He hates his job, hates his life, and he’s not that fond of Audrey either, but Celeste is persuasive. In theory his knowledge of police procedure and her way with people should help them find the killer - if they don't kill each other first... Despite their differences the two soon discover the victim’s dodgy art deals may hold the key to the mystery – but have they missed something closer to home? After all, how well do you really know your neighbours?

The classic, atmospheric Australian thriller about the mysterious disappearance of a group of young girls. A cloudless summer day in the year nineteen hundred... Everyone at Appleyard College for Young Ladies agreed it was just right for a picnic at Hanging Rock.

After lunch, a group of three girls climbed into the blaze of the afternoon sun, pressing on through the scrub into the shadows of Hanging Rock. Further, higher, till at last they disappeared. They never returned.

Is Picnic at Hanging Rock fact or fiction? Only you can truly decide.

When Nicola Bridge moves back to Dorset after years as a CID detective in the big city, the last thing she expects is for the picturesque village of Fleetcombe to become a grisly crime scene. Jim Tiernan, landlord of the White Hart pub, has been found dead, the body staged with macabre relish on an isolated country road.

As soon as she starts asking questions, Nicola realises everyone in the village has something to hide. Frankie, the hairdresser who isn’t a skilled enough actor to conceal they’re lying about the night of the murder. Eddie, the delivery driver whose heart starts racing every time he drives past the crime scene.

Deakins, the embittered farmer still living in the shadow of a supposedly murderous ancestor. And even the little girl, hidden at the top of the playground slide, who’s watching them all. Whispers.

Rumours. Lies. But Nicola knows that somewhere among them, a killer is hiding in plain sight.

Because sometimes the smallest villages hide the darkest secrets...

On 9 July 1857, Angus MacPhee, a labourer from Liniclate on the island of Benbecula, murdered his father, mother and aunt. At trial in Inverness he was found to be criminally insane and confined in the Criminal Lunatic Department of Perth Prison. Some years later, Angus’s older brother Malcolm recounts the events leading up to the murders while trying to keep a grip on his own sanity.

Malcolm is living in isolation, ostracised by the community and haunted by this gruesome episode in his past. From Graeme Macrae Burnet, the Booker-shortlisted author of His Bloody Project, comes a dark, psychological thriller, leavened by moments of black humour and absurdity.

Anna Deerin moves to a remote Cotswold cottage to become a gardener, trying to strip away everything she’s spent all her life as a woman striving for, craving the anonymity and privacy her new off-grid life provides.

But when she clears the last vegetable bed and digs up not twigs but bones, the outside world is readmitted. With it comes Detective Inspector Hitesh Mistry, who has his own reasons for a new start in the village of Upper Magna. Drawn in spite of herself to this unknown woman from another time, Anna is determined to uncover her identity and gain recognition for her, if not justice.

As threats to Anna and her new life grow closer, she and DI Mistry will find that this murder is inextricably bound up with issues of gender, family, community, race and British identity itself – all as relevant in decades past as they are to Anna today.

Two broken cops. One irretrievably damaged and the other an outcast.

Dóra struggles to cope with life after taking a bullet to the head. Rado is the child of refugees, his career shunted off the tracks due to his family connections to an organised crime gang. But they’re the only ones available when a troubled teenager vanishes from a school trip, and the trail gets darker the further they pursue it.

Broken takes place in a side of Reykjavík no visitor would ever want to see, as the mismatched pair tread on all the wrong toes in the search for the missing youngster. This takes place against the backdrop of a vicious vendetta and price on Dóra’s head. A brutal turf war embroils Rado’s family as he and Dóra follow the threads of corruption higher and higher, to the top of the exclusive apartment block on the outskirts of the city.

The first novel by award-winning screenwriter Jón Atli Jónasson to appear in English, Broken is the first of a razor-edged crime trilogy shot through with black humour and characters who leap off the page.

Miss Marple 7

Elspeth McGillicuddy is positive she witnessed a man strangling a woman to death. But it was only the merest glimpse through a carriage window as the trains drew parallel. She is the only witness, there are no suspects, and, most importantly, there is no corpse.

Who, apart from her friend Jane Marple, would take her seriously?