The Outsider - 2018 - book cover - Stephen King Image via Scribner By Anja Djuricic Published Aug 3, 2026, 11:55 PM EDT Anja Djuricic was born in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1992. Her first interest in film started very early, as she learned to speak English by watching Disney animated movies (and many, many reruns). Anja soon became inspired to learn more foreign languages to understand more movies, so she entered the Japanese language and literature Bachelor Studies at the University of Belgrade. Anja is also one of the founders of the DJ duo Vazda Garant, specializing in underground electronic music influenced by various electronic genres. Anja loves to do puzzles in her spare time, pet cats wherever she meets them, and play The Sims. Anja's Letterboxd four includes Memories of Murder, Parasite, Nope, and The Road to El Dorado. Sign in to your Collider account Add Us Add on Google Preferred Source Google News Like Like follow Follow followed Followed Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap One of the greatest genres is the detective novel . People continue to read them and get into a new detective story, despite many critics and audiences declaring them exhausted once every few years. Every time we think we've read it all, the detective novel returns in a new coat , whether in the Nordic noir crime thriller format , an Agatha Christie homage format, or a procedural format that begins as a courtroom drama and ends up being a supernatural thriller.
The modern detective novels on our list span decades and continents, and they all present a case that is compelling on its own but is ultimately wrapped around detectives who will entice readers to follow them into any kind of mess they end up in. With these compelling detectives and their creators, you never know what they're going to do next—or you've read enough about them to feel like you've known them forever. Here are modern detective books that are perfect from the first page to the last.
Book cover for 'Watching You' by Arne Dahl Image via Vintage Every now and then, a crime writer decides that the ongoing series they've been gracing our eyes with is no longer what they want to write about—and opens the Word doc to write a brand-new series of even better works. That's essentially what Jan Arnald , aka Arne Dahl , did with Watching You , the book that launched his Sam Berger series after years of directing the ensemble-driven Intercrime novels. In the first installment, Berger begins to receive messages that appear to be aimed solely at him, tiny metal cogs left at crime scenes linked to missing teenage girls. As more girls go missing, Berger must persuade his own department not to dismiss the cases as unrelated, all while an old wound from his early days on the force resurfaces at the worst possible time.
What makes Watching You so enjoyable is its lean, mean, and more akin to hard-boiled American noir style than the procedural sprawl of his previous work, and it seems as if it knows exactly what kind of tension it's creating. This is an introduction to Berger and his eventual partner, Molly Blom , one of Nordic noir's most quietly compelling duos, and the kind of first chapter that makes you eager for the sequel. Dahl writes the Berger & Blom novels in the style of a movie, with close-up shots, tense storytelling that feels like he's editing a film on the fly, and just…