5 Splendid Science Fiction Detective Novels

When detective Cal Sounder is called in to help the police with a homicide investigation, he sees the body of a super-tall young man. But the victim was actually in his nineties. He was one of the Titans, a select few humans around the world who have been genetically modified to achieve immortality. Provided they aren’t killed, that is. Who would want to murder these elite humans? Or, as Cal digs deeper, the question becomes who wouldn’t? As he unravels a far-reaching plot involving science, resentment, and entitlement, Cal knows he has the most unusual—and dangerous—case of his life.

A lot of people feel like they’re cursed with bad luck, but for amateur detective Mallory Viridian, it might be real. Everywhere she goes, someone dies. So often, in fact, that she’s suspected of being a killer, which interferes with her ability to do her job. So where does a person go to keep people from dying and out of the reach of the law? A sparsely-populated sentient space station, of course! But even in the dark depths of space, with mostly aliens for neighbors, the deaths continue. And if Mallory can’t figure out who—or what—is causing it, there will be nowhere safe left for her in the entire galaxy.

Mack Megaton was once a robot programmed to take over the world, but after a failed attempt, he was sent to the bottom of the garbage heap. (Same.) Now instead of harming humanity, he wants to join it; he spends his days driving a cab and working on getting his citizenship. In the hopes of being even more helpful, Mack decides to investigate a case involving his missing neighbors. But that quickly turns out to be a big mess, involving the mob, mutants, a sinister plot, and a talking gorilla. Now the fate of the world rests on the metal shoulders of the robot created to destroy it. No pressure, though.

In this charming Sherlock Holmes-ish series starter, investigator Mossa is assigned the case of a missing man. Her investigation leads her to Valdegeld on Jupiter, where she enlists the help of her ex-girlfriend Pleti, who is employed at the university. Between Pleti’s research into recolonizing Earth, the interactions between the missing man and her colleagues, and Mossa’s ability to make seemingly invisible connections in her cases, the two might just find the answers. And possibly a new spark between them.

It’s 1997, and special detective Shannon Moss has been called to Pennsylvania to investigate the murder of a Navy SEAL’s family, and the disappearance of his teenage daughter. But what sounds like a straight-forward crime is anything but, as the SEAL was an astronaut in a unit that supposedly disappeared while on a time-travel mission. Moss will have to use time travel herself to go into the future to search versions of the wold to find the answers to the case. But instead of answers, what she learns about humanity’s upcoming existence is even more devastating than she could have imagined.