Fantasy and the speculative fiction genre as a whole have a ton of potential to it, in a lot of ways that many readers may not be fully aware of.
Of course, everyone has heard of some of the big names and main ideas that you’ll see in fantasy books in stores across the country.
You’ve got the big adventure stories, like The Hobbit. The Epic War stories and tales of good versus evil in The Lord of the Rings. You’ve got the political drama and deconstruction of series like A Song of Ice and Fire. Still, there’s more to be read than just stories of knights, magic, and dragons.
To help you decide on your next fantasy book to pick up, we’ve compiled this of our favorite fantasy mystery books for you to check out here.
Subgenres Of Fantasy
For a genre as potentially full of possibilities as fantasy, this is just scratching the surface. What other stories could be told in a world where fire-breathing dragons and immortal elves live?
A slice of life, character-driven romance? A comedy-of-errors where a person gets the wrong potion from a wizard, and shenanigans ensue?
What about a mystery story? Half the enjoyment of a good fantasy novel is in discovering the world around your heroes or character anyway.
Why can’t part of that discovery include a bona fide mystery to it?
It’s a question that many fantasy writers have also thought about, as there are a surprisingly large amount of books in this particular subgenre.
Murder In G Major: Volume 1 (Alexia Gordon)
We’ll start this list off with a cozy mystery that is perfect for reading by the fire. Murder In G Major is one of our favorite mystery books to come out in the last 10 years, partly because of how it blends fantastical elements with familiar ideas and settings in the real world.
Our main character in the story, Gepsamine Brown, has recently accepted the role of music teacher and instructor at a pretty respected Irish boarding school and has moved into an old cottage in the South Western village where the school is located.
However, Gepsamine slowly comes to realize, the spooky vibes of the cottage might not just be in her head, as she realizes that the cottage is haunted!
However, the ghosts of the cottage may be the least of her worries, as she soon finds herself hunted by a dangerous criminal.
What will Gepsamine do to avoid meeting a grizzly fate at the hands of this mysterious assailant? Well, you’ll just have to read it, and find out for yourself!
White Cat (Holly Black)
YA novels are some of the best places to find stories that blend different genres in ways that you may not be expecting, as well as a great way of encouraging younger people to pick up reading too.
Our main character of the tale, Cassel, has felt like an outsider his entire life, even amongst his family of magical con artists and criminals. A part of that comes from his guilt. He did kill his best friend, Lila, a long time ago, after all.
However, as he starts getting dreams, or rather, visions, of a white cat, and the memories of those around him start to change, he begins to suspect that the two events must be connected in some way. And maybe, even, with the death of his best friend all those years ago, if that’s what even happened.
This rabbit hole he starts diving down quickly starts to unravel a plot far bigger than he could have ever anticipated, and will test Cassel’s will and cunning more than he could ever have thought, and beyond!
Age Of Assassins (R.J. Barker)
Assassins have a messy life. That is the hard lesson that apprentice assassin, Girton Club-Foot, is coming to grips with, as he finds himself under the tutelage of one of the greatest living assassins in the world.
With no family to leave behind, what does he have to lose?
However, his latest assignment might be the biggest test that an assassin could face, as he has to learn to do the unthinkable: Save a life, instead!
Tasked with protecting the heir to a great throne, Girton must uncover a plot to destabilize an entire kingdom, by finding out the why, how, and, most importantly, who, of this web of deception and espionage that he has found himself in.
The Eyre Affair (Jasper Fforde)
Who doesn’t love a good alternate history story? It’s the perfect balance of the familiar real world and the weird and wonderful ideas that spring out of fantasy.
In this story, our weird alternate Earth, we find ourselves in weird alternate modern Britain (well, 1985, but you get the picture), where cloning technology and time travel are as common as toasters and cars, and it’s entirely possible to get lost (in this case, quite literally) in poems and punished for forging old classics.
In this strange new world, a plot unravels to go back in time and erase Jane Eyre. Yes, that Jane Eyre, the fictional protagonist created by Charlotte Bronte.
It falls on the shoulder of disgruntled time and literary detective Thursday Next to dodge time-space wormholes and literary plot holes to save her. So, no pressure there, Thursday!
If that sounds like a bombastic story that you at least don’t want to check out, then you know what book you need to check out next!
Grave Sight (Charlaine Harris)
We all know at least one person that has a rather odd job. Chimney sweep, leech collector, food tester, you know the kind.
Well, our main character, Harper Connelly, has perhaps one of the strangest jobs out there: She finds dead folk.
And not just in a detective way, but finding where people died, and sharing the victim’s last moments with their friends, family, authorities, whoever.
Whether or not they actually want or even need to hear those last words is a different question, and it’s gotten Harper and her stepbrother, Tolliver, chased out of more than a few towns.
However, when the pair stumbles into the small sleepy town of Ozarks, and the death of a teenage girl that even Harper’s powers can’t reach, the plot starts to thicken for our hero.
What happened to this poor girl? And what, exactly, is the town hiding?
Magic, communion with the dead, and mystery. What more could you want?
Guards! Guards! (Terry Pratchett)
There may not be a name that was more closely tied to deconstructing and poking fun at the fantasy genre than one of its greatest lovers and writers, Terry Pratchett.
His Discworld series is one of the most beloved collections of novels in the genre, but it’s not exactly one that is known for its mystery entries. But for Guards! Guards!, first released in 1989, we think there’s enough mystery here to firmly slide this amazing book into this guide!
In the greatest city on Discworld, Ankh-Morpork, a slew of murders and disappearances have coincided with the rumors of a dragon appearing around the city. And not the little stubby kinds that are left these days, but the great, noble dragons that haven’t been seen in a hundred years.
The ones that are a hundred feet long, breathe fire through their nostrils, and can only be defeated by the true heir to the throne (who, by the way, also hasn’t been seen in a hundred years).
That leaves our hapless and unprepared City Watch guards, and one chronically wasted Captain Vimes, to get to the bottom of this mystery. Like, how the hell does a hundred-foot dragon escape a crime scene like that?
Still as funny, as well as fascinating, as it was when it was first released, this book is one part mystery, one part comedy, and all parts fantastical!
The Goblin Emperor (Katherine Addison)
If you’re looking for a fantasy story that meshes court politics with the fantastical and mystery of it all, then The Goblin Emperor will be right up your alley.
The youngest son of the Emperor, Maia the half-goblin fourth son, has lived his entire life in exile from his father and house, away from court intrigue, and out of the deadly game of court politics. It seems unlikely that life will soon turn for this young would-be heir.
However, tragedy and intrigue strike, when not only the king, but his three brothers also die unexpectedly in an ‘accident’, Maia finds himself the only rightful heir to the throne.
Suddenly thrust into the center of a world and position that he never expected to be in, not only must the newly crowned goblin emperor adjust to court life and politics without any training or natural allies, but he must get to grips with all of this, before whoever tried to wipe out his father’s bloodline surely comes back to finish the job.
Final Notes
So, as you can see, you’re pretty spoiled for choice when it comes to amazing stories that mix fantasy and mystery for you to enjoy.
So, which one will you pick first?
