On the (Book)Case: 6 of The Best Twisty Police Procedurals

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When Jennie Killingbeck disappears on her drive back to Albuquerque, Detective Alyssa Wyatt races to find her alive. The case shifts when FBI Agent Ryker Newlin arrives with a chilling warning: Jennie may be the next victim of the Sunset Slayer, a serial killer who targets red-haired women and leaves an “X” carved across their lips. With the killer active across multiple states, Alyssa and Ryker must track a murderer through the New Mexico desert before he strikes again.

Oftentimes, when I’m in the mood to read a mystery, I want it to be a twisty police procedural. Chalk it up to a lifetime of Law & Order reruns, but there’s something about a detective on the hunt. These are mysteries that have a particular rhythm, but they will surprise me nonetheless. I want to be duped by every red herring, fall down every rabbit hole, the works.

To keep my Law & Order analogy going, I really love when a procedural is set in a country or region I don’t know much about. That’s why Law & Order UK was such a treat. There’s always an interesting window into a place by how their legal system works and how crimes reflect broader societal failures. I’m going to toot my own horn: I’ve brought you to some amazing places today. In the books below, we’re traveling to Mumbai, New Zealand, remote Alaska, a Chicago college campus with an exclusive secret society, a Denver-area town divided by religious and racial tension, and a Rust Belt town trying to recover.

As is often the case with procedurals, many of these books are in a series following one detective’s cases. So if you find a book among these to enjoy, you may have more to dive into. The character development of detectives and overarching plots that start to form in series are always things to look forward to. So pick a book, hit the streets, and start looking for clues.

Cold to the Touch by Kerri Hakoda

This book, set in Alaska, follows Anchorage homicide detective DeHavilland Beans (what a name!) as he investigates the death of a barista he interacted with regularly. As more bodies appear, the detective fears a serial killer is on the loose, and the FBI gets involved. This book is full of subplots and memorable characters.

Echo by Tracy Clark

I am always down for a mystery involving a secret society. Chicago Police Department detective Harriet “Harri” Foster is on the case of a body found near a building that houses Belverton College’s Minotaur Society. The victim is the son of a billionaire benefactor of Belverton, so the story delves into another mysterious death in the past that may be linked to this one. This is a gritty mystery that also explores Detective Foster’s grief for her deceased partner.

The Blue Monsoon by Damyanti Biswas

This book is in the series following Senior Inspector Arnav Singh Rajput. A desecrated human body left at a Hindu place of worship is a shocking crime in and of itself. But footage of the murder on a Bollywood influencer’s social media sends things into a true frenzy. This twisty story examines how differences in class, caste, and religion play out in Mumbai.

Blood Betrayal by Ausma Zehanat Khan

Similar to The Blue Monsoon, this complex story examines race and religion as it unravels a mystery. Detective Inaya Rahman is surprised when a police officer who harassed her when she lived in Chicago comes to for her help. He needs her to clear his son’s name. The son has been accused of police violence in the shooting of a Latino teen. Meanwhile, Inaya’s boss is investigating another potential case of police violence in which an officer shot an unarmed Black man. The way these two cases braid together will keep you turning the pages.

Johnny-Boy by A.F. Carter

If you like books that also provide the point of view of a killer, pick Johnny-Boy up. Johnny-Boy is a contract killer who does extracurricular murders as well, and he has shown up on Delia Mariola’s turf. Delia, the chief of detectives, teams up with Blanche Weber to figure out what’s going on in their gritty rust belt town. This book is truly suspenseful. It also doesn’t shy away from the complexities of life in the Rust Belt for a queer woman such as Delia Mariola.

Return to Blood by Michael Bennett

This entry in the Hana Westerman series won a Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel. In this book, Hana Westerman has left her detective job in Auckland and is living with her father in her hometown. There, the discovery of human bones in a dune recalls the murder of Hana’s classmate over twenty years ago. Hana was never satisfied with the resolution of that case, and she must decide if she’s willing to sacrifice her peace for the sake of justice.

For more, get an introduction to police procedurals and some recommended procedural series. Additionally, sign up for our mystery newsletter Unusual Suspects and download our mystery podcast Read or Dead!

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