Books Like Murder, She Wrote (But Darker): 9 Coastal-Town Sleuths

Did you know that almost one in five American women who read say mystery and crime is the genre they read most? According to YouGov, among women who read at least one book genre, almost one in five name mystery and crime as the one they read the most, against one in ten men. That was a thousand American adults in the summer of 2022, and I suspect every one of those women can hum the Murder, She Wrote theme, and that a good number of them have typed books like Murder She Wrote into a search bar at some point.

Fun fact: Murder, She Wrote the book series and I share the same lit agent.

Growing up, I went to my grandma’s house after school to play on her computer and watch TV. Every single day at her house, I watched Murder, She Wrote. I absolutely loved the show. I loved how calming it was, and I started to notice its structure. In the first 15 minutes, someone ended up dead. Then they would bring one person in for questioning and try to solve the case in the next 15 minutes. In the 15 minutes after that, a likable character we had fallen in love with would suddenly be accused of being the murderer and thrown in jail. And the last 15 minutes was Jessica Fletcher figuring out who the real killer was.

It was the same format in nearly every episode, and that’s how I learned what a procedural is. Even with that structure, I loved every minute of it and never stopped watching, which is what made me a diehard fan of Murder, She Wrote. So I am very excited to share this list of books like Murder, She Wrote:

The Short Version

• For the coastal town where the one person asking questions is the one nobody believes, read The Storm Reaper: a Fire Island police officer saw a murder at sixteen, was told she imagined it, and has spent ten years watching the disappearances get ruled storm-related deaths while the island decides she is the problem.
• If you want the closest match to a small seaside town that has already filed the case, read The Last House Guest: a year-round local in a Maine resort town keeps digging into her best friend’s death after a suicide note has officially ended the matter, in a town the dead girl’s family mostly owns.
• For the sleuths who are not police, read The Postscript Murders or The Thursday Murder Club: a carer, a cafe owner and a retired broadcaster decide an old woman’s unremarkable death in Shoreham-by-Sea was murder, and four pensioners in a Kent retirement village manoeuvre their way inside a police investigation.
• When you want the village to turn on the person who told the truth, read The Girl Who Died: a substitute teacher in a ten-person Icelandic fishing village reports what she saw, and the village refuses to back her up.

How I Picked These

Having grown up in a tiny beach town where the stories really do write themselves, and written a coastal crime novel myself, here’s my criteria for a book like Murder, She Wrote:

1. The person asking the questions has no badge, or a badge nobody respects: Jessica Fletcher is a novelist. Most of the sleuths here are teachers, carers, editors, retirees and bloggers, and the one who is police has spent ten years being told by her own department that she imagined it. The question has to be asked by somebody who could be told to mind her own business.
2. The town has already filed it: A suicide note, an accidental death, a case the state police took away. Most of the books here open with an official answer already in place, because the suspense in a small-town mystery is never only whodunit. It is whether the town will forgive you for asking.
3. Someone likable gets accused of the crime: That was the part of every episode I waited for, when a character we’d fallen in love with got thrown in jail and Jessica Fletcher had to prove them innocent. The books here put someone you care about under suspicion, so you’re rooting for the person asking questions.

At a Glance

Nine books like Murder, She Wrote, and what each one is doing differently.

Swipe sideways to see the whole table.

What Are the Best Books Like Murder, She Wrote?

Nine books, in three groups. The first three are about the local who will not let it drop, in a town that has already decided. Four to six are the retirees and the neighbours, where the sleuthing happens over coffee and the police get manoeuvred. Seven to nine are the professionals who are not police: a solicitor, a book editor and a true-crime blogger. If you have never read one of these, start with number two, The Last House Guest.

Group one: the local who will not let it drop. Three books where the person asking is from the town, and the town has already decided.

1. The Storm Reaper by Kristen Van Nest (2026)

Read this if: If you want the person asking questions to be the one the whole town stopped believing years ago. If you like a small community where the loyalties and the suspicions are tangled up with the case.

What you’re getting: Fire Island, hurricane season: a claustrophobic, slow-burn crime thriller about the only police officer who believes a serial killer is using the storms for cover. When she was sixteen, Detective Violet Crisp saw a man get murdered in the fog. The chief said she was confused by grief, and her own father said she was making it up. She has spent ten years building a case while the disappearances got ruled storm-related deaths, and now a new chief is finally listening. Book one of the Violet Crisp series.

Why Murder, She Wrote fans will like it: Jessica Fletcher is tolerated. Violet is not. The island decided a decade ago that she made it up, so every interview she does is with somebody who already has an opinion about her, which is the small-town problem the show always waved away by episode’s end. Next to The Last House Guest, where the town has accepted a suicide note, this is the one where the town has accepted a decade of weather.

What readers say:

“The way she tries to show that a serial killer is operating is tangled up with life in such a small community, with underlying loyalties and suspicions.” — Alison Hoeksema, Goodreads Reviewer.

“I love that Violet was such a strong character, didn’t give up on what she felt was right, even though she was talked down to and made fun of.” — Nikki B., Goodreads Reviewer.

“Van Nest’s descriptions made it feel like I was personally walking down the streets and beaches of Fire Island.” — Lisa Ellis, Goodreads Reviewer.

Read the First Six Chapters Free →

2. The Last House Guest by Megan Miranda (2019)

Read this if: it’s here because the official answer is a suicide note and the one person who refuses it is the dead girl’s year-round friend. You want the closest match on this page to a seaside town that would rather not know.

What you’re getting: Littleport, Maine. Avery Greer is a year-round local; her best friend Sadie Loman is a summer resident. According to Kirkus, the Lomans “own much of Littleport,” and Sadie “apparently threw herself off a cliff into the churning sea.” Publishers Weekly says “The discovery of a suicide note ends all talk of foul play, but Avery can’t fathom Sadie taking her own life,” and a year later she is still digging, in a town where the dead girl’s family owns most of the ground.

Why Murder, She Wrote fans will like it: The show’s town always had a sheriff who was happy to let Jessica poke around. Here the sleuth is also the suspect: Kirkus says “Avery is at the top of the suspect list,” and does “a bit of snooping” before handing Sadie’s phone to the police. Kirkus adds that the book’s best material is “the class tensions between Littleport’s year-round residents and the seasonal, moneyed tourists,” which is the part the show never touched. Next to The Girl Who Died, where the village turns on an outsider, this is the one where the prime suspect is one of its own.

Fair warning: Kirkus says “genre fans will find few surprises within” and that “the final revelations are more sad than shocking.” Publishers Weekly notes that the Littleport flashbacks keep “casting doubt on Avery’s honesty as a narrator,” so don’t trust her completely.

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3. The Girl Who Died by Ragnar Jónasson (2021)

Read this if: it’s here because the outsider tells the police what she saw and the village turns on her for it. You want the one where asking the question costs her the village.

What you’re getting: Una is a substitute teacher from Reykjavík who takes a job in Iceland, in what Publishers Weekly calls “the remote fishing village of Skálar, which has only 10 residents,” in the mid-1980s. PW says she “soon finds how insular and isolated Skálar is.” Kirkus sets the problem in two questions: “So why won’t Salka back up her identification? Why does fishery owner Guffi, the closest thing to a power broker in town, threaten her over what she’s done?”

Why Murder, She Wrote fans will like it: This is the Cabot Cove problem with the warmth removed: a village so small that one person’s testimony changes everything, and a village that would rather it changed nothing. Kirkus says “Una feels her status in Skálar crumbling” once she calls the Reykjavík police, which is the exact price the show never made Jessica pay. Next to Death at Whitewater Church, where the rumour mill does the sleuth’s work for her, this is the one where the rumour mill works against her.

Fair warning: Ragnar Jónasson has written a ghost story as much as a mystery here: Kirkus calls it “An atmospheric, authentically shivery ghost story with criminal trimmings,” and Publishers Weekly says it “packs less of a punch than the author’s best work.”

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Group two: the retirees and the neighbours. Three books where the sleuthing happens over coffee, and the police get manoeuvred rather than consulted.

4. The Postscript Murders by Elly Griffiths (2021)

Read this if: it’s here because an old woman’s death looks like nothing, and the only people who think otherwise are her carer, a cafe owner and a retired broadcaster. You want the seaside version with the most Jessica Fletcher in it.

What you’re getting: According to Publishers Weekly, “The death of elderly Peggy Smith in Shoreham-by-Sea, England, looks unremarkable on the surface, but her devoted associates” suspect foul play: “home healthcare worker Natalka, café owner and ex-monk Benedict, and former broadcaster Edwin.” Peggy turns out to have been thanked in the dedications of a string of mystery novels, and the trio chase the clues in the books while Det. Sgt. Harbinder Kaur, in PW’s words, “is forced to continue her investigation alongside the enthusiastic amateur sleuths.”

Why Murder, She Wrote fans will like it: A dead woman who lived inside mystery novels, a seaside town, and three amateurs the police cannot shake: this is the closest the list comes to the show’s own shape. PW promises “Complex characters, hidden histories, and adept twists.” Next to The Thursday Murder Club, where the retirees are a club with a system, this is the one where they are a carer and two friends improvising.

Fair warning: I am working from one trade review here, and Publishers Weekly records no reservations. One thing to know going in: the action leaves the seaside partway through, when PW says “the trio head to a literary festival in Aberdeen.”

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5. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (2020)

Read this if: it’s here because four retirees treat the police as a resource to be managed. You want the one that will make you laugh, and you know the body is still real.

What you’re getting: Kirkus gives the premise in a line: “Four residents of Coopers Chase, a British retirement village, compete with the police to solve a murder.” The murder, per Publishers Weekly, is “the bludgeoning murder of drug dealer Tony Curran, who operated a building business as a front,” and PW describes how “the club members arrange for Donna to be assigned to a homicide case they have a connection to by manipulating her boss.”

Why Murder, She Wrote fans will like it: Jessica’s great trick was being underestimated, and the Thursday Murder Club runs on the same thing at scale. Kirkus calls it “A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters,” and PW calls “Osman’s witty prose” a highlight. Next to The Spy Coast, where the retirees have tradecraft, this is the one where their best weapon is that nobody takes them seriously.

Fair warning: this is the lightest book on the page. Both reviews file it as a cosy: Kirkus says “A top-class cozy” and Publishers Weekly says it “mixes mirth and murder.” Neither review places Coopers Chase on the coast, so it is here for the sleuths, not the sea.

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6. The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen (2023)

Read this if: it’s here because a body turns up in a retiree’s driveway, the state police shut out the local chief, and the retirees happen to be ex-CIA. You want Cabot Cove with tradecraft.

What you’re getting: Maggie Bird is retired in the hamlet of Purity, Maine. According to Publishers Weekly, “When a dead body is dumped in her driveway and someone takes a few shots at her from across a field,” she turns to her friends, “four ex-agents with a full assortment of tradecraft skills.” Kirkus describes the local side: “Jo Thibodeau, Purity’s acting chief of police, is frustrated because the state police take control of the murder case,” while “a klatch of other retired CIA agents” “cheerfully deflect Thibodeau’s persistent queries.”

Why Murder, She Wrote fans will like it: Two sets of sleuths get shut out at once, the acting chief by the state police and then the chief by the retirees, who deflect her questions, and both keep going. Kirkus describes “five old spooks whose bones may ache but whose minds remain sharp,” which is the show’s retiree-detective fantasy with an actual skill set attached. Next to The Thursday Murder Club, this is the one where the retirees could really hurt somebody.

Fair warning: it is a spy thriller as much as a village mystery. Publishers Weekly says the plot goes “careening from Thailand to Italy and many points in between,” and Kirkus says it “moves to London, Bangkok, and Milan before ending in Purity.” Neither review calls Purity a coastal town; Kirkus only says the thriller is launched “straight from the peaceful shores of Maine.”

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Group three: the professionals who are not police. Three books where the sleuth has a job that gets her into the room, and no authority once she is there.

7. Death at Whitewater Church by Andrea Carter (2018)

Read this if: it’s here because the solicitor is told in plain words to keep out of the investigation, and the town tells her everything anyway. You want the Irish one, and the one with the most gossip in it.

What you’re getting: Benedicta O’Keeffe runs what Publishers Weekly calls the “most northerly solicitor’s office in Ireland,” on the Inishowen Peninsula. A skeleton turns up in the crypt of a deconsecrated church. Kirkus says Sgt. “Molloy is clear the interaction is business and that Ben is to keep out of any investigation,” and that “the rest of Inishowen is filled with rumors that the body belongs to Conor Devitt, who mysteriously vanished the morning that was to see him wed.”

Why Murder, She Wrote fans will like it: Kirkus says Carter is “Writing with Agatha Christie in mind” and calls Ben “curious, if bordering on interfering,” which is a fair description of Jessica Fletcher too. The town does the identifying before the police do, through rumour, which is the mechanism the show ran on. Next to Magpie Murders, where the sleuth is an editor working from a manuscript, this is the one where the clues arrive over the counter.

Fair warning: Publishers Weekly says “The complex, slow-moving plot can be challenging to follow at times, but readers will feel the effort is well worth it.” Neither review uses the word coast; the geography is the peninsula and, in PW’s phrase, the “Last legal advice before Iceland.”

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8. Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz (2017)

Read this if: it’s here because the person who solves it is a book editor, and the clues are in a mystery novel. You want the one for readers who love the genre itself.

What you’re getting: Susan Ryeland is editing the latest whodunit by her bestselling author, Alan Conway, set in, per Publishers Weekly, “1955 Saxby-on-Avon.” The manuscript’s last chapter is missing, and then Conway is dead. Kirkus says “Susan, in the second half of the book, attempts to solve the case herself, questioning Conway’s own associates,” and that she “slowly comes to the realization that Conway has cast virtually all of them as fictional avatars.”

Why Murder, She Wrote fans will like it: Jessica Fletcher wrote mysteries and solved them; Susan Ryeland edits them and has to solve one for real. PW calls it a “tour de force” that “both honors and pokes fun at the genre,” and Kirkus calls it “the most fiendishly clever puzzle” of the year, adding “make that two puzzles.” Next to The Book of Cold Cases, where the sleuth works from a blog, this is the one where she works from a manuscript.

Fair warning: the structure takes some settling into. Kirkus calls it “A preternaturally brainy novel within a novel,” and the sleuth inside the manuscript is a professional, PW’s “Poirot-like sleuth” Atticus Pünd. The amateur is the editor in the frame.

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9. The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James (2022)

Read this if: it’s here because the town decided decades ago who did it, and the woman reopening the case is a medical receptionist who blogs at night. You want the one with a ghost in the house.

What you’re getting: Publishers Weekly introduces “29-year-old Shea Collins, a medical receptionist in Claire Lake, Ore., by day” who runs “a blog devoted to unsolved true crimes.” The crimes are a 1977 double murder, and Kirkus says “most people in Claire Lake have always believed Beth got away with murder.” PW: “Since the crimes are still unsolved, Shea gets Beth’s permission to interview her,” in what Kirkus calls Beth’s “eerie house near the sea.”

Why Murder, She Wrote fans will like it: The town already has its answer and has had it for forty years; the sleuth is the one person willing to go and ask the woman everyone avoids. Kirkus says “St. James expertly builds tension between the women’s stories” and calls it “A twisty and satisfying paranormal mystery.” Next to The Last House Guest, where the case is a year old, this is the one where it is a generation old.

Fair warning: it is paranormal, and the Claire Lake house is haunted in earnest. Publishers Weekly calls it “this chilling paranormal thriller” and says “Horror fans will want to check this out”; Kirkus says “something otherworldly and terrifying roams the dark, empty halls.” PW also says “some readers will wonder why she reveals a major plot twist in the middle of the book.”

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Which One to Read Tonight

Three moods, three books from this list of amateur sleuth mystery books, depending on how dark you want the town to be.

• You want the town to have already decided she is lying: The Storm Reaper, the only one here where the sleuth is a police officer and the whole island, her own father included, wrote her off at sixteen.
• You want to be charmed while a body is in the room: The Thursday Murder Club, which Kirkus calls “A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters.”
• You want to be genuinely unsettled: The Girl Who Died, and read it with the lights on, because Kirkus calls it “An atmospheric, authentically shivery ghost story with criminal trimmings.”

If none of those three fits, my list of small town mystery series is for when you want the town more than the sleuth, and funny mystery novels is for when you want the wink the show ended on.

FAQ: Books Like Murder, She Wrote

What Are the Best Books Like Murder, She Wrote?

These nine, in the order above: The Storm Reaper by Kristen Van Nest, The Last House Guest, The Girl Who Died, The Postscript Murders, The Thursday Murder Club, The Spy Coast, Death at Whitewater Church, Magpie Murders and The Book of Cold Cases. They’re grouped by who does the asking, the local, the retirees and the professionals, not ranked.

Is There a Murder, She Wrote Book Series?

Yes, and this list deliberately isn’t it. The Murder She Wrote book series, the tie-in novels, is its own long-running series written in Jessica Fletcher’s voice, and if that is what you came for they are easy to find. This page is for readers who want the same shape, a non-police sleuth in a small town that has already made up its mind, with a real body and real menace. For that, start with The Last House Guest or The Postscript Murders.

What Are the Best Amateur Sleuth Mystery Books?

The Postscript Murders and The Thursday Murder Club are the two where the amateurs drive the whole book: Publishers Weekly has the detective sergeant “forced to continue her investigation alongside the enthusiastic amateur sleuths,” and Kirkus has four pensioners who “compete with the police to solve a murder.” Among amateur sleuth mystery books, Magpie Murders is the one for readers who want the puzzle and who have already read the whole Murder She Wrote book series, and The Storm Reaper is the one where the sleuth has a badge and the island treats it as a joke.

What Are the Best Dark Cozy Mystery Books?

Dark cozy mystery books are the ones here that keep the cosy shape and lose the cosy ending. The Girl Who Died is the darkest: Kirkus calls it “An atmospheric, authentically shivery ghost story with criminal trimmings.” The Book of Cold Cases is the other dark cozy mystery book on the page with something in the house, and Death at Whitewater Church is the one that keeps the village warmth while the plot, in Publishers Weekly‘s words, stays “complex, slow-moving.”

What Are the Best Coastal Town Mystery Books?

For coastal town mystery books where the sea is on the page, The Last House Guest is the pick: Kirkus has the dead girl “off a cliff into the churning sea” and most of Littleport belongs to one family. The Postscript Murders is Shoreham-by-Sea, and The Book of Cold Cases has its witness in her “eerie house near the sea.” The Storm Reaper is the one where the coast is a barrier island and the weather is the accomplice: as Goodreads reviewer Lisa Ellis put it, “Van Nest’s descriptions made it feel like I was personally walking down the streets and beaches of Fire Island.”

Which One Is the Most Like the Show?

The Postscript Murders, because the dead woman lived inside mystery novels and three amateurs solve it in a seaside town. The Thursday Murder Club is the runner-up for the underestimated-retiree energy, and Magpie Murders for the mystery-writer angle. None of them ends with a wink.

Which One Is the Darkest?

The Girl Who Died, then The Book of Cold Cases, both of which have something in the house as well as a body. For darkness that comes from the town rather than the supernatural, The Last House Guest is the one, since Kirkus says “the final revelations are more sad than shocking.”

Which Book Like Murder, She Wrote Has the Town Already Decided She Is Wrong?

The Storm Reaper by Kristen Van Nest. Violet reported a murder at sixteen, was told she imagined it, and has spent ten years on an island that filed every disappearance since as a storm-related death. It is the pick over The Girl Who Died if what you want is the sleuth to be from the town rather than passing through, because the people dismissing her are the people who raised her. As Goodreads reviewer Josette Thomas put it: “Reading about the frustration Violet felt as her peers and family dismissed her claims of a killer loose on the island was frustrating to say the least.”

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