Book cover of Shirley Jackson's 'We Have Always Lived in a Castle' Image via Penguin Books By Scott Simone Published Oct 7, 2026, 11:01 PM EDT At any given moment, Scott Simone has at least three books jockeying for his attention. He’ll never turn down a campus novel with a literary bent, nor will he hesitate to add yet another mystery to his Leaning Tower of Pisa-inspired to-be-read pile — which is built upon the bedrocks of too many short story collections, how-are-these-real true crime books, and classics waiting to be cracked open again. Topics that have him ripping through pages the fastest include closed-circle murders, unhappy professors, life-questioning philosophical deep dives, so long as they feature sharp sentences, a dark sense of humor, and at least a little malice.
He’s spent so much time in book shops over the years he is, to his wife’s chagrin, continuing to build a library that doesn’t quite respect the dimensions of the apartment meant to contain it.
The weekend is a dangerous time to read a mystery. It starts off innocently, with you settling down with a cup of coffee on Saturday morning, cracking open that one book that's been staring at you from your to-be-read pile. Then you're lost, the book continually twisting you along with its premise, hooking you with each uncovered secret . All the while, those errands you'd planned — the grocery shopping, laundry — settle into the dust of thoughts past. It's then, and only then, the trouble that's been lingering all along screams forth: Monday morning and a hundred unread pages.
But some of the best mystery books ever can save you from that fate. The ones whose size belies the journey that unfolds, packing a series-worth of intrigue into less than 200 page s. Or the ones who creep past that mark, yet seem to end before that Saturday morning bleariness wipes from your eyes. The ones you can finish before the clock strikes at 12:01 AM on Monday morning, if not a single sitting.
The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani book cover on black background. Image via Penguin Books The Perfect Nanny is packaged like an episode of Law & Order : You know the killer from the start. Here it's a nanny who killed two young kids in a Paris apartment. Leïla Slimani then unpacks the mystery of how this nanny, pulled from a dream, descends into the nightmarish monster introduced in those first couple of pages.
Leïla Slimani first paints the perfect portrait of the modern family: Two parents — Myriam and Paul — balancing their careers and marriage, and their two kids growing into a weight threatening to tip the scale. They find Louise, who becomes the stabilizing force. She cooks elaborate meals and tidies the house to spotless perfection, all the while showering the kids with the attention that allows Myriam and Paul to hand her more and more of the child-rearing duties . The rest of the 240 pages have a sickening pull as you watch the occasional strange comment, or moment she lingers a little too long, grow into such tragedy.
The Colorado Kid by Stephen King book cover. Image via Simon & Schuster "Have you ever come across a mystery you just can't explain?" The question comes during a simple conversation between an intern and two veteran newspapermen. The question opens the door to a mystery the men have been toiling with for decades.
It starts with two teenagers stumbling upon a dead man propped against a garbage can on a beach in Maine . He was carrying no I.D., and no one in town recogniz…