5 of the Best Mystery Books Like DEAD TO ME

I’ll start with the fun book for those already hesitant about this theme. This is a great read for fans of puzzle books, pop culture and literary references, and especially The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin.

Basically, a billionaire dies and sends a group of people on an Edgar Allan Poe treasure hunt through Boston. And one of the hunters is Tuesday Mooney, a loner whose childhood best friend disappeared, thought to have been murdered. Being that her mind has conjured up her friend as a “ghost” to cope, and her teen neighbor (found family) is also grieving the death of her mother in a car accident, there’s a lot of overlapping exploration with Dead to Me — plus dark humor.

(TW depression/parent death in recent past/discussion about suicide/past domestic and child abuse)

This has quite a bit of overlap with Dead To Me in that both start with a hit-and-run and the fall out, including the grieving for a loved one. It explores the family’s grief, focused on the daughter and widow, and also the impact on the community as a witness to the crime is hesitant to come forward. You get multiple points of view, including those of a former cop and the detective working on the case, some found family, and difficult questions to ponder, making this a great follow-up read to the show.

(TW addiction/PTSD)

Alice Dupont is a pregnant mother to a 6-year-old when her husband dies in a car accident. The problem — outside of being widowed — is that the car accident happened nowhere near where her husband had told her he’d be. This turns Alice into a dog with a bone, needing to know why he was somewhere else and what else she may not have known about her husband…I especially recommend this on audio.

(TW past suicide mentioned/anxiety attacks)

This is a beautiful and ultimately uplifting Australian book about family and friendship and the process of grief and moving forward. Beth Teller may be dead but her dad can still see her and speak to her, something that is not helping him move on from losing her. Beth decides the best way to help her father, a detective, is to help him with a current case of an unidentified body found in a fire at a children’s home where the caretakers are also missing. Enter Isobel Catching, a witness they interview who poetically recounts her story.

(TW there is nothing on page but alludes to child abuse.)

This is a PI novel sprinkled with magic since it’s set at a magic school, but it’s very much grounded in our world. It’s about two estranged sisters with a ton of baggage, who grew up divided by the fact that one was magic and the other was not. One now teaches at a school for magic — where a fellow colleague has been murdered — and the other is the detective investigating. Awkward family reunion to say the least! This one explores many aspects of grief including how when unprocessed it can consume a person.

(TW cancer)