where to START with MURDER MYSTERY BOOKS🔎💀 book recs for beginners (cosy crime, mixed media + more)

It is time for another video on where to start with murder mysteries. Hello friends, welcome back to my channel. Today we're doing a video on the best places to start with murder mystery books for beginners. I did this video the first time about a year and a half, two years ago? I don't even know how long ago, I think a year and a half ago I did it. It somehow has now become my most viewed video so I decided I've got to give the people what they want and I thought, you know, I've read a lot more murder mysteries since then and I thought it'd be a good time to kind of renew the list and give you a part two. But before we get into the video I want to say a massive thank you to the sponsor which is Book of the Month. Book of the Month are one of my favourite brands to work with, I love Book of the Month so much. Book of the Month is a super popular online book service for readers where you get to choose a new release every month to read. Their mission is to promote new and emerging authors, shown by the fact that actually the two books that I chose this month are debuts, we'll get into that in a little bit, but they scour through all the new releases, it's my favourite thing about them, they look through all the new releases coming out in a month and they pick some of the most exciting ones coming out so you don't have to do the research, you don't have to be scouring what new releases are coming out, you can just subscribe to Book of the Month and let them help you discover your new favourite books. Book of the Month is risk-free, you can skip any month if none of the picks interest you that month and they have the best price for new release hardcover fiction which I always think is amazing, you can get your first book for only £9.99 using the code MEGWITHBOOKS. So let's just quickly chat about the two books that I chose this month and they're two that I'm really excited for. First we have Thistlefoot, this is a fantasy inspired by Jewish folklore and I love books and fantasy books in particular inspired by folklore, I think it just gives fantasy books this kind of fairy tale kind of energy, I mean a lot of you'll know one of my favourite series is the Bear and Nightingale series and so I just feel like this is right up my street, it's a lot about like I think Baba Yaga and Baba Yaga's house maybe, the house with chicken legs, so I've never read a story that focuses on that but I've heard a lot about that kind of folk tale, so really excited to get to this. And then we have As Long As Lemon Trees Grow which has already been getting incredible reviews, I've had a look at like reviews and ratings for this and they've all been so high, we're following a young Syrian woman whose life is upended by war and kind of her journey of self-discovery, so very excited to get to this. I feel like it's going to be very emotionally hard-hitting, it's pitched for fans of the book Thief and Salt to the Sea, so I'm a bit scared for myself. But yeah, these are both debuts so I love that they're included in the Book of the Month choices, if you're interested in either of these books or any other of the picks of this month definitely use my code MEGWITHBOOKS to get your first one for only £9.99. I love Book of the Month and I think coming up to festive season it's great to get as a gift for a book lover in your life or to ask for as a gift. I love getting subscription services as like asking for that as a gift at the festive season because it's kind of the gift that keeps on giving because it, you know, carries on for a couple months. So yeah, I'd 100% recommend you go check out the link in the description and use my code MEGWITHBOOKS. So the way I did the first video with these is that there's two ways you can view this. I've got different categories that we're going to chat about in where you can start with murder mystery books. You can either view this as a journey I would recommend you take, you start with this category, you move through the categories, right? Or I would recommend you can pick any of these as a place you could start. Okay, whenever you're ready. I'm ready. Okay. I'm ready. Whenever you're ready. I'm ready. The first category is very interesting because the first category I had in the other video was the modern mystery thriller hybrid because I spoke about how a lot of mysteries are marketed as thrillers because that's where the money is, that's where marketing's money is, publishing's money is. But things have changed. Things have changed quite dramatically since I made that video in the year and a half. I'm going to take the hat off actually. It's not, it's not going well with my head today. So the big genre, the big kind of trend in mysteries now is the modern cosy crime murder mysteries. And this really began with the Thursday Murder Club. This is the series. Oh my god, look how cute they all look together. I have already read the first two. Oh my god, I'm like struggling. The third one has just come out, but I'm going to read it probably next month. So let me just hold up these two because they're the ones I can actually recommend. So Richard Osman wrote Thursday Murder Club series. These are following elderly people at a retirement village. Oh my god, can you hear my stomach rumbling? My goodness, I'm trying to film. It was rude and I didn't deserve it. So we're following friends at a retirement village as they solve murder mysteries. And it has got this quaint cosiness to it that is taking over the genre. There are so many books that I say are copycats of this, where it's like other older people solving murder mysteries, but not even just that. I think before we would just see cosy mysteries as like historical mysteries or, you know what I mean, there was always that kind of, that genre of cosy mysteries that were not as mainstream. But I'd say the kind of cosy crime murder mystery that stems from the success of this is really taking over the mainstream genre. And I love this. This was my favourite book, was it last year? Or my second favourite? I think it was my favourite book that I read last year, and I also gave the second one five stars. I think these are really well written, the mysteries are really well plotted, and they are so accessible for being a first murder mystery book. I think these books are probably for a lot of people the first murder mystery books they've read, or maybe the first they've read in a long time, if maybe they've read Agatha Christie when they were younger, but then they're seeing the success of these in like Waterstones, and they're just everywhere, I mean these books are everywhere. I think the third one like broke the UK record for hardcover sales like in the first day or week or whatever, like this is breaking records, this is the most popular series in the UK right now. You wish you had what I had in the bank darling. So because there's going to be so much more of this style of book coming out because of the success of this, I would recommend this as a great place to start. They're not super gory, they're not super like dark like man detective solving murder, do you know what I mean? They're not that vibe, they're gentle and cozy and heartwarming and heartbreaking at times. They've got a lot of other plot other than just the murder mystery as well, so I'd 100% recommend this as a great place to start and I think it's been a really successful place to start for a lot of people. Another quick mention for another like mainstream cozy that's been really successful is The Maid by Anita Prose. I only gave this four stars, I mean I love this edition though, I love her so much. We're following a maid who works at this grand hotel and a murder happens in one of the rooms and she is kind of framed as the main suspect. This definitely has that kind of cozy writing, we've got a lot of humour in it, we've got a main character who we can kind of sympathise for and root for. I didn't love this as much but I think I didn't love it as much because I found it quite obvious and perhaps that's because I've read a lot of now, but I think if you're just beginning this is going to be a great place to start as well. The next category that I want to recommend is mixed media. I think mixed media murder mysteries are super fun, super quick, super fast paced, super accessible to people who are just starting in the genre. The main one of these that has come out, and this can definitely be classed under like cozy crime as well, is The Appeal by Janice Hallett. This is told through text messages but predominantly all emails, these are all email conversations. So this one there's been a murder at this kind of quaint English town, you're going back in time and you're reviewing all of the emails that this cast, it's a cast of like a small town play, have emailed back and forth to try and figure out who the murderer is through the emails. Now I remember saying I was a bit disappointed by this but that's only because I want it to be five stars, five stars, five stars, beyond five stars but I did still really enjoy it and I would 100% recommend this as a place to start. I think you could probably read this in like a day, I know it looks big but it's like emails so you're just reading it so fast. I'm so excited to read Janice Hallett's next book, I've got The Twyford Code which I think is told, oh yeah like audio files, this one is. I'm going to hopefully read this soon and then I don't know what her next book is going to be told through because I assume it's going to be mixed media but I know it's going to be to do with a cult so I'm really excited that's coming out at the start of next year so I think this would be a fantastic place to start if you're wanting to get into murder mysteries. I also just want to give a quick honourable mention to A Good Girl's Guide to Murder here but I did give this as a book recommendation in the previous video so I can't really recommend it here but this is mixed media as well. Pip is solving a cold case from her town and it's told to, this has got a larger mix of mixed media than The Appeal, that's just emails, whereas we have interviews, audio files, web pages, like so many different types of mixed media in this. This is a five star for me, I love it, but I've already recommended it to you in that other video. Now in the last video a recommendation I gave was obviously to start with Agatha Christie. I think starting with Agatha Christie is a great place to begin, particularly her big name books. Since that video I have read Death of the Nile which I think again would be a great place to start. I'd still probably recommend Murder on the Orient Express and Murder of Roger Aykroyd over this though. I think this one's a bit more complex with the characters that it deals with. It's a bit more later Christie than those ones and I think those are good to start with because they're kind of like classic Christie. This still is but it kind of has some more like moral teachings I would say than those two. But since I can't recommend starting with Agatha Christie again, what I recommend you start with is books that obviously take a lot of inspiration from Agatha Christie. Now one that I did not love, I think I gave it three stars, but I think it would still be a good place to start is A Fatal Crossing by Tom Hindle. So Tom Hindle definitely takes a lot of inspiration from Agatha Christie. I'm really excited to read his next release which I think is like a stately home, like locked room murder mystery. But this one is set on a ship, it's set on the Endeavour in 1924 and there's a murder on the ship and there's an investigator and the ship's officer who investigate the crime together. And I went on his Goodreads Tom Hindle and he reads a lot of non-fiction about Agatha Christie. He has a lot of non-fiction that I have about her use of poisons or her methods and like stuff like that. He's obviously a big fan of Agatha Christie. I think you can see the influence a lot in this work. So yeah, I didn't love this. I think it was a debut. Do you know what I mean? I think for a debut it's not that bad. Like when I think of A Mysterious Affair at Starr, which is Agatha Christie's first book, I don't love it. So don't say that. Mona, don't ever say that. Tom Hindle still has a lot of possibility, I feel like. Yeah, this is a fun, if you want one on a ship, you want one like in an interesting location, I think this would be a good recommendation. And then another recommendation I have is The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley. I think Lucy Foley is one of the closest writers we have to a modern day Agatha Christie. Not in terms of writing style, I don't think their writing styles are at all similar, but in terms of having a really great location. I feel like Agatha often has a very atmospheric, vivid, tangible location that you're set in. This one's set in a Paris apartment, and like the architecture, and the layout, and like the secret parts of the apartment are all very cool. And it's set in Paris as well, but I think also they both do very well at having a small cast of characters who you know are your suspects that have a lot of interesting dynamics to them. So Lucy Foley always has like six characters or so who you know are your suspects. You know that they're who you're like targeting, and on the back there's always like the archetypes that they are. So you have the socialite, the nice guy, the alcoholic, the girl on the verge, the concierge. I really like the kind of archetypal characters that Lucy Foley has that have like a very strong identity that we can begin to pick apart and see holes in and see lies in. Also this is, I will say, more of a missing person mystery, but very early on in the book it's a very large probability that that person is dead. So it's like, kind of is a murder mystery in a way, I would say. My next recommendation where to start, perhaps if you read more classics or older books, is to read other classic crimes. So not Agatha Christie, but she's like the number one classic crime person. But my recommendation is The Winching Him Mystery by Anthony Berkley. I read this for a video where I solved it, which was so much fun, well I tried to solve it. No spoilers, but like you're going to fail miserably. Where I kind of like took you through the book with me, and I was actually surprised at how much I loved this. I think it had great humour, a great cast of characters again, a great setting, a great mystery, and it's made me really excited to read more classic crime. This is from the Collins Crime Club, and I'm really excited to maybe get some more in this collection and read them. In this one, our protagonist is this guy who, he comes from a rich background, he inherited a lot of money from his uncle, but he spent it all. So he has to go work as like a butler, the stately home, he's there, there's a dinner party going on, and one of the guests disappears, and they're trying to find out what's happened to her. Actually, more than I think about it, not really a murder mystery. But I did tell a bit of a lie there. But of course the possibility is there. I'd say less of a murder mystery than anything else in this video, I've only just thought of that. But less than I've included it now, so it's too late. Then my last recommendation would be to start with, if you perhaps read a lot of fantasy, a book with some speculative elements. My recommendation would be The Broken Girls by Simone St. James. I love this, this is one of my favourite books I've read this year. So this has two timelines. In the present day, we've got a girl trying to come to terms with the murder of her sister that happened, I think like 20 years ago. Renovations are happening to the school, the old school, the abandoned school on which grounds she was found. And during the renovations, another old body is found hidden, in a way that makes it clear it was a murder. Like that was not a normal death. And we're also in the 1950s, following perspectives of some girls who went to the school at that time. And I love this. I'm so excited to read more at Simone St. James, because I just adored this. I thought the speculative elements in this, they're not a massive part of the book. I'd say the majority of it is like a murder mystery, or two murder mysteries really, perhaps with more of a thriller edge to it. With amazing writing, I loved the writing in this. But the speculative elements are there, and it's just, it's done in such a good way that I love in my mysteries, horror, fantasy, like whatever has a speculative element to it, if it's set in our world, it kind of like leaves the door open, and doesn't shut it or open it more. Do you know what I mean? How do I, I don't want to spoil anything, but like the speculative doors open ajar, we're not shutting it and saying nothing exists, you know what I mean? It was just some, like there's some real world excuse for it. And we're not opening it up and getting fully into like, how is that possible? We're just leaving them open a bit and letting the speculativeness seep through a bit. Do you know what I mean? So I loved this. I think if you read fantasy, or if you read a lot of thrillers, this would be a great place to start. So there we have it, that is my murder mystery recommendations for beginners. I hope you found something helpful here, I hope you found a book that you would be excited to read. Let me know what you would recommend to murder mystery for beginners, or recommend to beginners for murder mystery. I am like incapable of any thought anymore. But yeah, let me know that down below. Thank you guys so much for watching, and I'll see you very soon in another video. Bye!