 Today, we're going to be chatting about my favorite genre, murder mysteries. Fun, welcome back to my channel. I hope you're all good. Today, I'm going to be telling you where to start with murder mysteries. I'm going to give you all my advice on where to start with my favorite genre, murder mysteries. Now, I have put a lot of thought into this. I've been working on this for five weeks. But I only started reading murder mysteries, I say like a year and a half ago. So I haven't been reading them like properly and consistently for like a long time. But they have very quickly become my favorite genre. I love like the traditional structure of a murder mystery. They get the cogs turning, which is my favorite thing, like you have to really figure out what is happening in theorize. And that's like so much fun. So I'm going to give you some tips on where to start. Maybe you have never read murder mystery, or maybe you've read like a few, I want some tips on where to go from there. Now the different ways you can take this video, I've got like a couple different categories for places I would recommend to start. I've ordered them in order of what I think will be where most people want to start to where the least number of people or like fewer people will want to start. So you can kind of view it as like pick one of these, and it will probably be an earlier one and go with that. Or you can view it as like an order, like a journey through murder mysteries that I'd recommend you take. They're ordered in both of those ways. You know, I would recommend you start and progress through in that way, or you pick whichever one of these you want to start with. Does that make sense? I hope it does. The first and most obvious place I recommend you start is with like the modern murder mystery thriller hybrid. The traditional murder mystery, a lot of people are scared to write it, right? Because even if you write a murder mystery, it's going to be marketed as a thriller. But they're separate things, in my opinion. Like they're always long together, but they're separate things. I was angry. I was angry. But it's always going to be marketed by the publishing house as a thriller, because that's where the money is. It's not going to be marketed as a murder mystery. So I am here to tell you what I would class as a murder mystery. My number one recommendation, I feel like a lot of you are going to predict, but it is The Guest List by Lucy Foley. This was my second favourite book of last year, I would say. It's one of my favourite murder mysteries ever. This is basically a wedding of this rich couple on this isolated island, and we know at the start that a body has been found. And then it's kind of, we go back in time to the day before we see all these characters arriving at the island. They all have secrets. They all have things that they're trying to hide from each other. We don't know actually who's even been killed until very close to the end, because it kind of jumps back and forth in time. I just loved it. I thought it very much deserved to have all the success that it had last year, and I'm so excited for Lucy Foley's next book, which I think comes out at the start of next year. To me, this is such like a digestible, easy to read murder mystery. You really can't go wrong with this. I think it's so well-paced. I think our characters have a lot of interesting dynamics with each other. They're all very unique characters, and I absolutely loved it. Another two which I would recommend, which I think are like traditional style murder mysteries, but modern. One is one by one, but one is one by one. One by one by reason where this is another like isolated. Well, all three of these first ones are isolated. You can tell I like isolated murder mysteries. Do you think you could like look straight into the webcam and say, isolation mysteries are the best trope? For me, please. I would never say that. There's company called Snoop, which is kind of like Twitter and Spotify combined. You can see what people are listening to. They go on this company retreat, and people start getting killed off one by one. Now, I sometimes struggled with the people are going to get killed off one by one. I did. I didn't like, and then there were none back at the Christie, and I didn't like the islanders. They were like scheduled killings, right? I don't like to know in like the next chapter someone's going to die. I think it becomes predictable. But in this, you never really knew when people were going to die. You never knew how many people were going to die. Like it was very unpredictable, I think, but it's a very much a traditional murder mystery. And I feel like it got a few bad reviews because people were expecting this high-paced thriller, but it's really an isolated murder mystery. And there's just this like tension that builds at this one point in this book that I just think about all the time. Again, like a good collection of rich characters that we don't care about dying. And I said what I said and I'm not changing on it, okay? Just really great tension and pace built in this one. The last one I recommend is like just passes in my opinion as a murder mystery. And it is The Last by Hannah Jameson. Now, I gave this like, I think a four, but I think about it all the time. In terms of concept, it's one of my favorite books. So basically, the world has ended in nuclear war. You and 19 other survivors hold up in an isolated Swiss hotel. Again, I love isolation. Listen, we just know this by now. You wait, you survive, then you find the body. One of your number has blood on their hands. The race is on to find the killer. Now, I just loved the pacing of this. Such a quick read. Like I flew through it. And I loved the idea of the world has ended in nuclear war because like in these other isolated ones, you know, you can, you'll get to civilization again eventually. But in this one, there's nothing. So like, what do you got to lose? I think it adds a really interesting dimension. It's told through the diary of our protagonist that he's writing down. Let's start on this with five stars. But the ending of this is crazy. So like, be prepared going into it. The ending like probably won't satisfy you. But like, I do admire mystery, murder mystery, thriller endings that go balls to the wall. That like, try and achieve something bonkers. And like, even if they don't necessarily do it, because this didn't really like the ending wasn't necessarily successful, even if they don't achieve that, I still admire it for trying. And I like, enjoy the wacky ending, even if I'm like, what the fuck was that? That didn't work. Next place to start, I think the obvious place is Agatha Christie, right? The queen of murder mystery. She's known for like, being the best murder mystery gal out there. A lot of what we see now in modern murder mystery is thanks to her. She's an icon. She's a legend. And she is the moment. Now come on now. Now I am reading the Urquiporo books in chronological order at the moment, because I want to read all her books, right? I know I want to do that over the course of my lifetime. So I'm reading them in chronological order. You don't have to. I'll try and put a picture up here on the Goodreads for the series. There is a few books like you have to read. If you don't want to spoil them, you have to read this book before this book. But there's not many, as you'll see. You can pretty much read the Urquiporo books or Ms. Martha or whatever as stand-alones, right? I wouldn't recommend going through it chronologically unless you really want to like read all of them, like me, because you'll get a lot of duds, right? I feel like there's a lot of filler books. I feel like there's a lot of books, particularly at the start as well. She's still figuring stuff out, like her writing out and how to plot the mystery and stuff. The place I'd recommend you start out of what I've read so far is Murder on the Oran Express. Can we just appreciate this cover? I may have bought a few of such editions and I have a book called Coming Soon. This is a sneak peek. Oh my god, aren't we just like crying? Like I'm, I look at this and I want to cry. Alexa, tell me I'm stunning. So this is like I would say probably her most well-known book. It is the first Agatha Christie book I ever read and it made me want to read all of her books. It made me want to read more murder mysteries. So I think it's a very successful place to start. There is a murder on the Oran Express and they're snowed in so the train is stopped and so Akiparo has all these very interesting characters trapped on this train with him. And a lot of it actually, this one takes the format of interviews with each of the characters. He sits down with pretty much every character and has an interview with them. So for example, part one from chapter one to eight is The Facts, right? And then part two is The Evidence, which is those interviews. And that's like from page 79 to 164 and then you have the end where he kind of like pieces everything together at the end. So a big chunk of the middle is just interviews and I actually think it works really well. I think it's like easy to read, easy to kind of guide you through the murder if you haven't read a lot of murder mysteries. Then my other like favorite Agatha Christie that I've read is The Murder of Roger Akroyd. This has that traditional Christie setting of a small gossipy English quaint town that a lot of her other books have just not necessarily like the big ones. I find like her most successful ones are like Murder on the Oran Express, Death on the Nile, like the ones where she sends Akiparo to like a crazy place. But she has a lot set in like quaint English towns and this is one of them but it has this twist. That is just so good. I thought it was paid so well. It's written so interestingly and the ending was like one of the most satisfying endings to her murder mystery that I've ever read. Some of you may read more Young Adult than Adult so I thought I would have a few recommendations for Young Adult. My number one recommendation for Young Adult Murder Mysteries is A Good Girl's Guide to Murder and Good Girl Bad Blood by Holly Jackson. These are like five and four point five stars to me. I absolutely love this series. Basically Stevie, Stevie that's an expert, sorry, Andy. I think she looks very good in this. That's a beautiful, very flattering shot but she's so stupid. Investigating this cold case from her town where this girl went missing and her boyfriend supposedly admitted to the crime but she doesn't believe that that's the case. And it's told through her doing this like project for school and so we have all these mixed media elements like interviews, photos, transcripts you know and it just makes it so interesting. A bit differently to some of these other ones. There's a lot of focus on Andy as a character as well. Oh my god I just, sorry. Her name's Pip. I don't know why I made that mistake. I'm so sorry. I know her name's Pip. I've never gotten her name wrong in my life. Andy is the one who's gone missing. That's embarrassing. I'm sorry. Pip is one of my favorite characters. I'm sorry. I just read, listen, sometimes I like doubt myself and just the first name I saw on the back is Andy and I'm sorry. And I got confused with Stevie. Listen, sorry. I don't want to hear any goddamn excuses. Be prepared. But Pip goes on a really interesting like character arc through series and I think the last book which comes out in August we're gonna see that again. So like some of the other books like there's not really that focus on the detective but Pip is really like the star of the show and this one went even further with like the mixed media elements and I thought I did it so well. But I think this is genuinely like one of the best YA murder mystery series out there. My usual warning that I give is that in the US the location for some reason has been switched to the US from the UK and a lot of people who read it in the US and read that version I think find it weird and they're always like something's a bit off and I'm like that's what's off because to me it's so British like she's doing her EPQ which is this project like that you do to enhance your university application here in the UK when you're like 16, 17 and it's just like so British like it's like a British town. I can't imagine it being transferred to the US. So just be aware of that like people always like it reads so weird why are they do that and I don't know. So if there's something a little bit off it's not the books full it's just trying to imagine it in the UK basically. And then a little recommendation I haven't loved this series I've kind of gotten a bit like as it's gone on I've become a bit more disappointed with it each time but I know a lot of people really love the truly devious series and I think it is a really good place to start with murder mysteries. We're following Stevie who goes to Ellingham Academy which is like this old school and there's a cold case there from like the 1930s where the owner's daughter and wife went missing so she's like uncovering that cold case and we have flashback which is really really fun. She's also doing like detective work for cases happening at the school now when she's arrived and she's like obsessed with true crime and stuff so it kind of decreased in enjoyment but I also think this would be a really great place to start and has so many fun murder mystery elements and I've plotted quite well like I think there's a lot of Maureen Johnson's very good at clues like laying the clues so yeah I would still recommend giving this a go if maybe you haven't read murder mystery I think it would be a good place to start. Now getting into like some of the more niche stuff now you may be looking for like cozy murder mysteries I haven't read a ton of them but like they're very popular thing like cozy murder mysteries. I think these are often fun to read audiobooks that's how I've consumed them my number one recommendation for this would be a quiet life in the country. I read the audiobook for this it's like a long series which I'm gonna continue I'm very excited for when I'm gonna pick these up via audiobook they are all on script which I have a link down below always in my bio if you want to get two months free. This is like set in kind of Victorian, it's not really Victorian is it? I feel like it's like Edwardian maybe like early 1900s England? William, William, Henry, Stephen, Henry, Richard, John, oh Henry, Ed, Ed, Ed, Ed, Ed, Richard, Stephen, three more Henry's general song, Edward, Ed, Richard, Ed, Henry, Henry, and again very one, first noon, chosen, chosen, then few more Marianna, Gloria, George, George, George, Queen Victoria, Edward yeah Edwardian sorry it took me a moment I had to sing the horrible histories uh Kings and Queens song. Literally the dumbest person I've ever met gives me a bad vibe not funny annoying. I think it's set around then it could be wrong but it's like this woman of society this rich woman who is a widow her husband died her like is it made servant like her number one maid servant is kind of like her duo like they're busy mates we don't need to discuss like power imbalance and like you know all of that but they're like best friends and they go on these adventures together all they did before this book so there's constant reference to them like getting kidnapped and they've moved to the country for a quiet life in the country but then a murder is it a murder yeah a murder happens at like the estate near where they live and they kind of come to try and help figure out because that's what they're good at that's what they've been doing but they tried to retire it didn't happen I just thought this was so cozy so fun such an enjoyable read I really loved the audiobook for it and I would really really recommend it I just think it's like a relaxing cozy book but like with a bit of murder and then the last thing I'd recommend maybe you have done all of that and you're looking for like something new to dabble in and I would actually really recommend translated murder mysteries now this is something I want to get into more but one I would really recommend is The Honjin Murders by Sashi Yokomizo I really liked this this is like a Japanese murder mystery this author has written so many murder mystery books with this main detective in this but only two have been translated so far to English this is like the first one in the series and then I think the other one that's been translated is like not the second one I think they're kind of translating the most popular ones maybe this is a locked room murder mystery which was always fun so a bride and groom die on their wedding night the room is locked like there was no way for a killer to get in or out there was snow there was no footprints so it's like how the fuck do they get murdered because there's like no logistical way the ending to this was like again bonkers like crazy like I don't understand how a human could come up with this like I don't understand how clever you have to be for this to be like in your brain and to come out onto the papers it was like crazy so that makes me really excited to read more from this author so there we have it that is where I recommend starting with murder mysteries I hope this has been helpful I tried to have an answer for like every kind of reader or may you may be on your murder mystery journey let me know down below if there's any murder mysteries you're wanting to get to I do also have I'll link down below I did a video on all the murder mystery books on my tbr so if you want to know maybe what murder mysteries I'm looking forward to or look for some more recs I will link that down below let me know some murder mysteries you would recommend to me as well because I'm always looking for more recommendations and if you've gotten to the end of this video comment the magnifying glass thank you so much for watching as always and I will see you very very soon in another video bye