Recently I started back watching the BBC series Sherlock. I had seen the first two seasons and then just never had time to devote to the series. Coincidentally, my interest in the series was rekindled around the same time I found myself reading more mysteries. While watching the show and reading these books, I realized how much fun it is to play detective but how bad I am at it. Within the first one hundred pages or first thirty minutes of an episode, I’m often disappointed when I think I have the whole story figured out only to realize I am way off, not even close to figuring out the real twist. Reading more mysteries, I have tried to awaken my inner Sherlock Holmes and try to pick up little clues, pay attention to every word uttered by the characters and parse the true story from the misdirection. Although my detective skills are improving, there is part of me that hopes I don’t become too good since part of the fun of this genre is the surprise.

Here are two mystery books I recently read that kept me guessing to the end. If you have already read these two, LBPH has a large collection of other mystery books, including many of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories featuring the great detective Sherlock Holmes.

The Wife Between Us
Greer Hendricks
CL 16880
This is the story of a soon-to-be-married woman and the ex-wife of the man she is set to marry. The reader’s perspective – a first-person perspective, alternating between the two main characters – left me in suspense only to have a twist thrown in that caught me completely by surprise.

The Woman in the Window
A.J.Finn
DB 90036
This was a mystery I could not put down. The main character, Anna Fox, is so engaging that I became incredibly invested in the story. Fox, a recluse, witnesses the murder of her neighbor. However, no one believes her when she tells what really happened. This was one of those mystery books where I was sure I had figured out what happened only to discover that I was way off.