Queer mysteries are as diverse as the queer community, running the gamut from cozy to thrilling! These eight mystery novels will keep you turning pages, whether you’re after twists and turns or some lighter fare.
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Hannah Hendy, The Dinner Lady Detectives
Put on the kettle and break out the good biscuits, because this cozy mystery set in a small English village will have you craving a nice cup of tea. Margery and Clementine are an older lesbian couple who work at the local school as dinner ladies (or lunch ladies, for the American readers), but their comfortable routine is shaken when their manager is found dead in the school freezer.
The cops rule it an accident, but the scratch marks on the inside of the door tell a different story. The halls of their school could be harboring a killer, and they get up to plenty of mischief trying to find whodunit.
Margot Douaihy, Scorched Grace
A tattooed, chainsmoking, lesbian nun with a mouth like a sailor heads up this mystery. If that isn’t enough to get this gritty yet cozy read on your TBR, perhaps the twisty arson case at its center or its blistering prose will do the trick.
This is one book you can judge by its absolutely stunning cover; the pages deliver on its stained-glass promise of an irreverent romp with a heartfelt, earnest center.
Tess Sharpe, No Body No Crime
For those who want their reading to raise their heart rate a little, No Body No Crime is a pulse-pounding, sapphic, romantic thriller that brings two ex-best friends together who haven’t spoken since they buried a body in the backwoods when they were sixteen.
Full of family drama and secrets with deep roots, this propulsive mystery is best read in a cabin in the woods with a murder ballad playing in the background.
Malka Older, Mimicking of Known Successes
Sherlock and Watson get a futuristic sapphic makeover for this novella series. Ex-girlfriends Investigator Mossa and scholar Pleiti follow the thread of a missing person’s case on a human colony of Jupiter. As they follow the twists and turns of the mystery, so too do they unravel the reason for their breakup.
This clever narrative will satisfy lovers of cozy mystery and sci-fi, all while serving up a delicious second-chance sapphic romance.
Nekesa Afia, Dead Dead Girls
If you’re in the mood for a mystery with a touch of noir and heaps of danger, look no further. Set in the Harlem Renaissance, this mystery will have you glued to your seat until the last page.
At age sixteen, Louise Lloyd saved herself and two other girls from a kidnapper. Ten years later, the so-called Harlem Hero has failed to live up to the hype, but she likes it that way. She’d rather dance and drink the nights away with her girlfriend at their favorite speakeasy, but after she punches a cop, she’s given two bad choices: serve time, or help them solve the grisly murders of young Black women.
Stepping up and trying to help the young women of her community isn’t easy, and soon she’s embroiled in the tangled web of a serial killer.
Sam Lumley, How to Have a Killer Time in DC
A travel writer turns investigative reporter when his self-driving car runs over a pedestrian. Starring a gay, autistic man, Lumley’s debut mystery has all the twists and turns of a classic cozy, but what makes this one special is the care with which its characters treat each other, allowing for a sweet romance to blossom without overshadowing the mystery.
It’s also full of sharp commentary on the responsibility, or lack thereof, of tech companies and the politicians who must hold them accountable, making for a timely and entertaining read.
Justine Pucella Winans, Bianca Torre is Afraid of Everything
If you’ve ever thought overlong about lesbian sheep, this book is for you. Campy and hilarious, Winans serves up the perfect YA accompaniment to Only Murders in the Building about a non-binary lesbian birder chasing the mystery of the dead guy next door.
Using her wit, knowledge of true crime, and birding binoculars, the titular Bianca carves a laugh-out-loud funny path to unmasking a killer.
Morgan Spellman, Say I Boo
All these dead victims got you down? Curl up with a mystery where the sleuth aims to prevent a murder—by figuring out which ghost in a very haunted mansion has turned homicidal. Abby is a magician for hire who loves to bring joy to her audiences. Everyone in her life keeps telling her to get serious and move on from the sudden death of her first love, but Abby remains haunted by the loss.
When she and her bestie get stuck in a lavish (and creepy) mansion in a snow storm, she finds herself being haunted by some real ghosts, too. Armed with not-so-state-of-the-art ghost hunting equipment, Abby plays detective to find out who is trying to kill the residents of the mansion before it’s too late. This read manages the perfect balancing act between cozy, fun, and heartwarming, with a lesbian lead!
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