I am a big fan of the murder-stabby, preferably with a strong female lead and/or an unreliable narrator.
I’ve enjoyed:
Gone Girl, Girl On a Train, Dublin Murder Squad, Castaways, Leave No Trace… and many more.
I’m running out of good ones. Please recommend me more!
by PracticalKat
14 Comments
Secret History and not quite murder stabby but The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood
You might like the Phryne Fisher series, jazzy 1920s.
Kathy Reichs? Female forensic pathologist
Sue Grafton’s alphabet series has a female PI lead
The Mallory series by Carol O’Connell. The main character is pretty complex, and you find out more of her back story as you progress through the series. She is also a police detective, so there’s plenty of crime and murder in the books as well.
Currently reading The Passenger by Lisa Lutz and it’s more shooty kicking murder but hella strong and sketchy female leads
Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney
There is no female lead but ‘All The Sinners Bleed’ by S.A. Cosby is fantastic.
He has 3 others that aren’t ‘Murder-Stabby’ but more just ‘Murder’ but all his work is great.
‘Razorblade Tears’
‘Blacktop Wasteland’
‘My Darkest Prayer’
If Nordic noir does it for you I recommend Åsa Larsson’s [Rebecka Martinsson series](https://www.goodreads.com/series/53215-rebecka-martinsson).
Or some Anne Holt. You could go with either [Selma Falck](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42733378-a-grave-for-two) or [Hanne Wilhelmsen](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13260120-blind-goddess).
British and a bit dated, but as I recall it was a solid read, [The Scold’s Bridle](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45116.The_Scold_s_Bridle).
Definitely the Thursday Murder Club:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199263546-the-thursday-murder-club-the-man-who-died-twice-the-bullet-that-miss
i know its got a lot of mixed reviews but i enjoyed The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager! but im also just getting back into reading so the amount of twists helped keep me interested lol (though a couple feel kinda unnecessary)
Val McDermid’s Karen Pirie series. Weirdly Karen isn’t the major driving figure behind solving the mystery in the first book (although it works just fine), but she is the main character in all the others and it’s a great series with great characters and amazing atmosphere. A bit “noir.”
Just finished *My Heart is a Chainsaw* by Stephen Graham-Jones – a horror obsessed teenage girl knows that a slasher is coming to her shitty small town, so it’s partially a who-is-going-to-do-it and how-are-they-going-to-do-it. Very intense.
Simone St James writes taut and creepy thrillers, that have vivid supernatural elements and all her main characters are women. Some set in the past (around the world wars) some set in modern times. Just re-read *The Sundown Motel*, now back to *An Inquiry into Love and Death*.
American psycho
Clockwork orange
Harley Quinn comics
‘A good girl’s guide to murder’ by Holly Jackson (first part of a trilogy)
‘The It Girl’ or ‘One by One’ by Ruth Ware
‘There should have been eight’ by Nalini Singh