With murder, secrets, lies, and suspense spilling off the page, it’s no wonder mystery novels are a tried-and-true fan-favorite to read. From slow-and-steady amateur sleuthing to nail-biting plot twists in isolated settings, popular mysteries have long since utilized a range of tropes to increase heart rates and goosebumps.
Whether you’re looking for your next classic Agatha Christie whodunit, female amateur-sleuth heroine like Pip in A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, or your next The Bourne Identity, check out these three popular mystery tropes and our best Tule book recommendations.
Mystery Trope #1: Isolation
Nothing quite spells intrigue like a secluded destination, a roomful of suspicious characters, and a sudden discovery of a dead body. As suspicion mounts and situations grow dire, will the gruesome details of these murders be revealed and the murderer finally caught? Or will they all be picked off one-by-one….
Add yourself to the guest list and join the hunt for the truth in these isolated settings. If you dare.
1. Widow’s Walk by Raemi A. Ray
Murder’s on the menu…
Attorney Kyra Gibson has a lot on her mind this Thanksgiving. She’s been working long hours on a multi-billion dollar corporate merger, her family is visiting from London, and her relationship with former police detective Tarek Collins is heating up. When she and her companions are invited by her aristocrat client to attend a formal gala at a historic mansion on Chappaquiddick, Kyra reluctantly agrees.
But Chappy is more than just a playground for the wealthy. It’s a wild, remote place cut off from civilization. When the first body is found, the occupants are worried. Was it an accident or murder? When a second guest is brutally killed and then a third, there’s no doubt and the guests fearfully turn on each other. They are locked in a house with a murderer picking them off one-by-one. Kyra, her best friend Chase Hawthorn, and Tarek must survive the night and find the killer, or one of them could be next.
Don’t wait until November 6, 2024 to get your hands on this eerie isolation mystery novel. Pre-order your copy of Widow’s Walk today!
2. Until Depths Do Us Part by K.B. Jackson
Sudden riches lead to a world of trouble…
Newly widowed Charlotte McLaughlin is adrift following the sudden death of her husband of twenty years and the shocking discovery of the lavish double life he’d lived while purportedly traveling for business.
When Charlotte’s only nephew and his fiancée are notified that their secluded wedding venue has flooded, her sister Jane suggests an alternative venue: a Thanksgiving week cruise from Seattle to Alaska aboard the private residence ship where Charlotte’s husband had purchased a two-bedroom unit without her knowledge.
What better way to get closer with her family and banish the memories Charlotte can’t bear to touch now?
But the bride is found dead less than twenty-four hours after departure, and the head of security holds the groom on suspicion of her murder. Charlotte and Jane must figure out who is responsible for the murder before their nephew goes to jail for a crime they’re adamant he couldn’t have committed. Then a second victim is discovered, and Charlotte becomes even more certain there’s a killer on the guest list.
Don’t let this mystery pass you by! Claim your copy of Until Depths Do Us Part today.
Mystery Trope #2: Amateur Detective
Don’t worry if you don’t have all the answers, never do these first-time amateur detectives who have thrown themselves into the thick of these dangerous murder investigations without any professional experience. With keen eyes, a sturdy gut, and a heavy penchant for justice, these civilians are determined to uncover the truth and solve the unsolvable—no matter how ugly it may be.
Dust off your adventurous side and your sleuthing skills and try your hand at solving these investigations. Who knows? You might just be a new amateur detective in the making!
1. Something Shady at Sunshine Haven by Kris Bock
She’s pursued the most dangerous news stories around the world. But can she survive going home?
Injured in a bombing, war correspondent Kate Tessler returns to her hometown in Arizona to recover. For the first time in her life, she’s starting to feel her age of nearly fifty despite living like a teenager again: staying in her childhood bedroom with only a cat for company, trying to understand why her sister resents her so much, and running into people who still refer to her as Kitty. The hardest part? Seeing her once-sharp and witty mother stuck in an Alzheimer’s unit.
When an old friend asks her to investigate suspicious deaths at the nursing home, Kate limps into action. Is a self- appointed “Angel of Mercy” killing patients to end their suffering? Are family members hastening their inheritance? Is an employee extorting money and removing the witnesses? Kate uses her journalism skills to track clues, but the puzzle pieces simply won’t fit.
If Kate can’t uncover the truth quickly, her mother could be next on the killer’s list.
If you love Murder, She Wrote, female heroines, and high stakes, then you’ll love Something Shady at Sunshine Haven. Order your copy here!
2. Room for Suspicion by Carol Light
It’s going to take more than carefully labeled boxes to sort through the clues of this homicide…
Professional organizer Crystal Ward knows she can make a success of her new business, Organizing Chicago. The extra income would allow her to renovate her own home, full of more cluttered spaces than she’d ever admit to her clients. But her life wasn’t always this disorganized. Five years ago her husband, Rick, a Chicago police detective, was shot while chasing a suspect. Now a paraplegic, he’s wary of her going into strangers’ homes…and for good reason.
When Crys discovers a dead man in a client’s living room, she refuses to accept that the murder is an open-and-shut case of domestic violence. If she can untangle this mess, she can prove her client’s innocence and ease Rick’s fears.
But the only witness to the murder is hospitalized in a catatonic state. And the lead detective is Rick’s former partner, the man Crys blames for his paralysis. Crys is on her own to save her client from jail and stop a murderer intent on tidying up loose ends.
Go on, Sherlock. Throw your tweed hat into the ring and try your luck in solving this mystery before Crys does! Your copy waits for you here…
Mystery Trope #3: Amnesia
Think solving a murder investigation is hard enough? Try adding a smoking-gun character that has no idea who they are, where they came from, or why everyone seems so damned familiar. Within these complex narratives, everyone is fighting for the truth—the problem is, what will happen when what’s been forgotten turns out to be better left buried?
There’s a reason this trope is such a classic—add these to your TBR and see what the hype is about before you forget!
1. Forgotten by C.J. Carmichael
Five unsolved murders. A shocking new discovery. He’s back for the truth but Jane Doe holds a deeper secret.
Sheriff Wade Mackay needed a break. Little did he know, a day of fishing would land him right into the aftermath of a deadly accident.
The only survivor is a woman who doesn’t remember her name and has no identification. Wade’s instincts ignite when he notices the telltale marks of old bruises on Jane Doe. What hidden truths lie beneath the layers of her forgotten past?
For true crime writer Dougal Lachlan, Twisted Cedars holds secrets that refuse to stay buried. The librarian murders, unsolved for decades, drew him back to town, but intuition tells him there’s more to Jane Doe than anyone suspects.
Teaming up with local librarian Charlotte Hammond, they uncover a chilling link between the past murders and the mysterious Jane Doe. Will their discovery of past and present colliding be enough to convince the sheriff that a serial killer has resurfaced in Twisted Cedars?
Order your copy of Forgotten by C.J. Carmichael here!
2. The Package by Kimberley Troutte
In the deadly future after the second civil war, the United States is divided and dangerous…
Agent Heather Slade is a beautiful well-crafted fake. A perfect lie. A highly-trained asset with no country, no memory, and no home. She spies for a secretive group of Revo agents from the democratic Free States and fights against the crushing power of the charismatic authoritarian leader who controls the militant Patriot regions. Risking her life, she infiltrates top levels of the brutal government and lives deeply under cover with her enemies.
Heather’s current mission is to smuggle a package from under the President’s nose onto a highly guarded golden train and bring it to safety in the Free States. Her partner on the perilous journey is a handsome but inexperienced foreign agent with secrets of his own. Why is Miguel Robles so hauntingly familiar? He might hold the key to finding the family she no longer remembers—if they survive the mission.
Kimberley Troutte’s The Package is perfect for fans of The Bourne Identity series. Pick up your copy here.
Written by Tule intern, Kristina Gaffney
