10 Mystery Books for British TV Fans
The novels behind the shows — and a few classics every fan should get to eventually.
10 Mystery Books for British TV Fans
Ten real books for the reader on your list, several of them the actual novels a favorite show was adapted from. Prices move around on these, so each one links straight to the current listing instead of a guessed number.
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
Four retirees in a quiet retirement village meet weekly to solve cold cases over tea and biscuits. The book that started the series — warm, funny, and genuinely clever.
Get the Book →The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood
A retired crossword setter, a dog walker, and a vicar's wife team up to solve murders in a quiet Thames-side town. The novel behind the TV series.
Get the Book →Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
A book-within-a-book mystery — an editor reading a manuscript stumbles onto a real murder that mirrors the fictional one. Clever enough to reread.
Get the Book →Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie
Bite-sized Christie mysteries, perfect one a night by the fire for the reader who likes to finish something before bed.
Get the Book →The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves
The novel that introduced DI Vera Stanhope, long before Brenda Blethyn brought her to television. The place to start for any Vera fan who hasn't read the books.
Get the Book →Raven Black by Ann Cleeves
The first Jimmy Perez mystery, set on a wind-battered Shetland island. The book behind the TV series of the same name.
Get the Book →The Killings at Badger's Drift by Caroline Graham
Caroline Graham's novel behind the very first Midsomer Murders episode — a quiet English village with considerably more going on than it should.
Get the Book →Last Bus to Woodstock by Colin Dexter
Colin Dexter's first Inspector Morse novel — the start of the Oxford-set series that eventually became one of British TV's longest-running detective dramas.
Get the Book →Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death by James Runcie
The first Grantchester Mysteries book, following a vicar with an unusual talent for solving crimes in 1950s Cambridgeshire.
Get the Book →The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
Poirot's most famous case, and one of the most influential mysteries ever written. If the reader on your list hasn't read it yet, this is the one to give them.
Get the Book →Prefer to watch than read?
The Mystery & Drama DVDs page covers ten more box sets for the bingers.
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