8 Native and Indigenous Mysteries and Thrillers

This Oklahoma noir thriller stars a Cherokee archaeologist who can’t outrun the ghosts from her past any longer. After a traumatic childhood in rural Oklahoma, Syd Walker ran away to Rhode Island for a job working to preserve Indigenous artifacts with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. But when a strange skull is found in her hometown at the same time her sister goes missing, Syd has no choice but to get involved. Syd makes for such a deeply complex and compelling protagonist that I’m absolutely dying to see her again in a sequel.

Māori detective and single mother Hana Westerman takes on a big challenge when she investigates an Auckland crime scene that might just be the work of New Zealand’s first serial killer. As she tries to find the murderer before more people get hurt, the evidence leads Hana down a path that reveals more about her homeland’s dark, violent, colonial past. Written by award-winning Māori screenwriter Michael Bennett, Better the Blood has a rich, cinematic quality that grabs you right from the start.

Quill is out on a run on the Pine Hill Reservation in Minnesota, where she lives, when she hears a piercing, urgent scream. Sick and tired of Native American women going missing and never being found, Quill seeks out the source of the scream and finds tire tracks and a single beaded earring. Quill decides to take the mystery into her own hands, her focus immediately turning to the crew of pipeline workers north of her home. But the closer she gets to the truth, the more danger and disappearances occur. It’s a layered, powerful mystery about the epidemic of missing Indigenous women and girls.

Nine-year-old Elsa comes from generations of Sámi reindeer herders in the Arctic Circle, and their relationship with reindeer is both cultural and spiritual. So when Elsa witnesses a man violently killing a reindeer calf, his threats can’t stop her from seeking justice. But the local police tell Elsa and her father that they won’t do anything to stop it. A decade later, the violence against reindeer continues, and Elsa decides it’s time to take on the brutal, xenophobic hunters herself. Inspired by real events, it’s a powerful and gripping mystery set against a changing Scandinavian landscape.

It all starts with a strange plane crash in a frozen, isolated area of Canada. The Indigenous pilot and a journalist are the only survivors. A year later, that tragedy has spun into a tangled web of messy dramas: the journalist promoting her new memoir about the crash, a professor of Indigenous studies whose marriage is falling apart, an athlete in the Indigenous Hockey League worried his playing days are numbered, and a detective sorting through a string of murders. While their lives may seem disconnected, something beyond their understanding is pulling them together. Ojibway author Drew Hayden Taylor weaves together elements of First Nations mythology, thriller, police procedural, and horror, all with an excellent sense of humor.

Kari has long managed to ignore the mystery of her mother’s disappearance, which happened when Kari was still a baby. Instead, she spends her days drinking at her favorite dive bar and listening to heavy metal with her urban Indigenous community in Denver. But when Kari’s cousin gives her a bracelet haunted by her mother’s ghost, she can no longer ignore the mystery that’s been hanging over her for her whole life. It’s an atmospheric, darkly funny mystery/horror with an irreverent protagonist you won’t forget.

Since she died in a car crash at the age of 15, Indigenous Australian girl Beth has still been present, but only her detective father can see and hear her. Although her dad is still grieving, Beth is determined to help him move on by focusing on his next case: a fire at a children’s home that ended with an unidentified body and several missing adults. But when one of the fire’s witnesses can see Beth too, she realizes she has much more to say. This YA mystery by a sister-and-brother team of Palyku authors is a beautifully crafted, layered story about Indigenous erasure, grief, and healing.

For a twisty mystery and a haunting horror novel all wrapped up in one thrilling ride, read Nick Medina’s Indian Burial Ground. Noemi is envisioning a bright future for herself with her new boyfriend, Roddy, off the reservation where she grew up. Even better, her uncle Louie, who helped raise her, shows up after ten years away to participate in a powwow. But then Noemi is crushed to learn Roddy died in an accident that some are claiming was self-inflicted. Could Louie’s dark, complicated past help them find answers about Roddy’s death and the evil lurking on their land?