Whodunits, Cozies, and More: A Mystery Sub-Genres Primer

Easy Rawlins, a Black World War II veteran in 1940s Los Angeles, visits a local bar after being fired from working at a defense factory plant. It is here that a stranger approaches him with a job: to locate a missing white woman.

As Rawlins investigates the case, what he uncovers brings racial and social issues in the United States into sharp focus.

Reagan Reyes is an in-house investigator for defense attorney Cade McCarrick in Dallas, Texas. Secretly, they live together despite strict rules against romantic relationships at their law firm. Their love is defined by a promise: to never lie to each other.

But when Reyes is compelled to investigate the sudden death of a woman who visited their office just minutes earlier, their relationship — and safety — is pushed to its limit.

Tattooed former punk rocker Sister Holiday is not who, at first glance, one might expect to be a member of the Sisters of Sublime Blood in New Orleans. When a mysterious arsonist targets the Saint Sebastian’s School, Sister Holiday takes it upon herself to investigate — even if it leads her to confronting other sisters and her life before the convent.

Samantha Washington runs a mystery bookstore in small town Michigan and, in her free time, works on a manuscript of her own. When a realtor is murdered in her backyard and Samantha becomes a suspect, she must put her armchair sleuthing skills to practice and catch the killer.

When his former lover Hugh Paris is found dead, gay public defender Henry Rios suspects someone murdered Hugh — even if the police deem his death accidental. After all, Hugh came from a wealthy family, and money often leads others to corruption. It’s up to Rios to unravel the family secrets left behind in Hugh’s wake in this Lambda Award–winning series.

This is the first in a police procedural series starring Darko Dawson, a detective inspector in Accra, Ghana. Called to a remote village to investigate the murder of medical volunteer Gladys Mensah, Dawson is haunted by memories of his mother’s disappearance in the same village 20 years earlier as he works to solve the case.

Fired from his job as a police detective after being outed as gay, Evander “Andy” Mills is approached by Pearl Velez with a job: solve the murder of her wife Irene Lamontaine, the wealthy owner of the Lamontaine Soap company.

As he investigates the case at the Lamontaine estate, Mills discovers a safe haven for the queer family members and servants — unheard of in the 1950s. But a killer lurks within the confines of the estate, and Mills must catch them amidst a large cast of suspects and rising tensions.

65-year-old hired assassin Hornclaw is increasingly confronted with the uncertain future of her career as she ages. After suffering an injury, she forms an unexpected connection with her new doctor while following her suspicion that someone within her agency is targeting her.

When James Sommers moves to an English village, he hopes for a quiet life as a country doctor while he copes with PTSD after serving in World War II. But when a local is murdered, Sommers is pulled into investigating alongside jaded spy Leo Page — who he finds himself increasingly drawn to as the case progresses.

Twenty-five-year-old Molly Gray loves nothing more than being a housekeeper for the Regency Grand Hotel. In the aftermath of her Gran’s death, it gives her days structure and meaning. But when a wealthy guest named Mr. Charles Black is murdered, Molly is the one person with the attention to details and knowledge of the hotel that may be able to solve the case.

After sustaining an injury during an on-stage accident, professional magician Tempest Raj returns home to work with her family’s Secret Staircase Construction company — a home renovation service that builds secret passageways for their clients.

But after a body is found sealed in a client’s wall, Tempest is compelled to investigate for two reasons. First, because the room has been sealed for over 100 years. And second, because the body discovered is Tempest’s stage double.

I’ve heard this book best described as “Practical Magic, but make it a cozy mystery.” Following her husband’s sudden death, witch Brynn Warren returns home to grieve and help her aunts Nora and Izzy run their bed and breakfast.

When a particularly argumentative guest named Constance Graves is found murdered at the B&B, Aunt Nora is named a suspect by the police. It’s up to Brynn to reconnect with her magical abilities and use them to prove Aunt Nora’s innocence.