Best Murder Mystery Shows You Can’t Miss (Ranked 30 to 1)
30. Lady in the Lake
This is 1960s Baltimore where two mysteries are tangled in the city’s shadows, two lives cut short. Natalie Portman is mesmerizing as a housewife who abandons domesticity to chase the truth as a journalist. Moses Ingram stuns as a bartender whose death sparks questions no one dares answer. Together, their stories bleed into each other, creating a haunting portrait of ambition, race, and violence that will not let you go.
29. Long Bright River
Amanda Seyfried delivers one of her finest performances as Mickey, a cop searching for her missing sister in Philadelphia’s grittiest corners. Addiction, family secrets, and the hunt for a serial killer collide in this adaptation of Liz Moore’s bestselling novel. ‘Long Bright River’ is essentially a tale of blood ties and broken promises, where love and danger are hopelessly entwined.
28. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
Don’t underestimate Pip Fitz-Amobi. Emma Myers plays the British teen detective with razor-sharp determination as she reopens the cold case of Andie Bell’s disappearance. Five years have passed, the boyfriend accused has long been dead, but Pip is certain the truth is buried deeper. With her final-year school project as a cover, she digs into the town’s secrets and uncovers more than she ever bargained for.
27. Death and Other Details
Luxury, power, and murder sail together on a glittering cruise ship, but beneath the champagne flutes lies a ghost from the past. Imogene lost her mother in a fiery explosion years ago, a crime that the “world’s greatest detective” (Mandy Patinkin) failed to solve. Now, reunited on this opulent voyage, another murder throws them back into the unsolved case that shaped her life. On the open sea, there’s nowhere to hide and every secret is about to surface.
26. The Flight Attendant
Cassie Bowden, played by Kaley Cuoco, wakes in a Bangkok hotel, drenched in panic and confusion. Beside her: a dead man. With a hangover pounding and the FBI circling, she flees, but guilt and memory chase her harder than any agent. As flashbacks twist into visions, ‘The Flight Attendant’ blurs the line between unreliable memory and chilling reality, making every revelation feel like a descent into madness.
25. The Better Sister
Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks ignite the screen as estranged sisters bound by tragedy and betrayal. When Chloe (Biel) finds her husband dead, suspicion turns her gilded New York life into a waking nightmare. But the revelation that her sister Nicky (Banks) once loved the same man—and lost him—brings their shared history roaring back. Family ties and family lies entwine in this slow-burning, vicious puzzle.
24. The Perfect Couple
A wedding on Nantucket, all beauty and extravagance, until a body shatters the vows. Nicole Kidman, Dakota Fanning, and Liev Schreiber headline this glamorous Netflix mystery, where every guest harbors a motive and the perfect celebration collapses into suspicion. ‘The Perfect Couple’ revels in betrayal dressed in designer clothes, a reminder that love and murder often share the same stage.
23. Under the Banner of Heaven
Andrew Garfield gives a soul-stirring performance as Detective Jeb Pyre, a devout Mormon forced to question his entire faith when confronted with the savage murder of Brenda Lafferty (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her child. Based on Jon Krakauer’s true-crime book, this series strips religion bare, showing how devotion can become salvation, or a weapon. It is as heartbreaking as it is horrifying.
22. A Murder at the End of the World
A billionaire’s frozen compound in Iceland. Nine guests. One corpse. Darby (Emma Corrin), a tech-savvy amateur detective, realizes the killer walks among them, and will strike again. Claustrophobic, icy, and relentless, ‘A Murder at the End of the World’ is a locked-room mystery for the digital age, chilling in its isolation and urgency.
21. Magpie Murders
When an acclaimed author dies, leaving his final manuscript unfinished, editor Susan Ryeland (Lesley Manville) begins piecing it together, only to discover that fiction and reality are blurring dangerously. What if his death wasn’t natural at all? What if the missing ending hides a clue to his murder? ‘Magpie Murders’ is a mystery within a mystery, a story where the lines between editor and detective vanish into the shadows.
20. The Residence
Murder in the White House—what could be more deliciously scandalous? ‘The Residence’ turns the world’s most famous home into a crime scene when Chief Usher A.B. Wynter collapses dead in the middle of a state dinner. Uzo Aduba’s Cordelia Cupp, eccentric and sharp as broken glass, is called in to untangle the mystery while staff scramble to hide the chaos from international dignitaries and Kylie Minogue herself. With Giancarlo Esposito, Susan Kelechi Watson, and Jane Curtin in the mix, this is murder mystery with a wicked, satirical edge.
19. The Outsider
From the mind of Stephen King comes a nightmare dressed as a crime procedural. An 11-year-old boy is found murdered, and all evidence points to beloved coach Terry Maitland. But as detective Ralph Anderson digs deeper, the facts begin to rot, unraveling into something unexplainable, something inhuman. ‘The Outsider’ drags its audience into a suffocating blend of true-crime grit and supernatural dread—proof that evil wears many masks.
18. The Undoing
Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant star in this glossy, devastating thriller where wealth and privilege can’t shield a family from suspicion. A brutal murder rocks their insular New York elite, and whispers swirl: could Grant’s charming doctor be a killer hiding behind a perfect smile? ‘The Undoing’ is all about facades—beautiful, brittle, and bound to shatter.
17. Poker Face
Rian Johnson, the mastermind behind ‘Knives Out,’ gifts television a sly, modern Columbo. Natasha Lyonne’s Charlie has one uncanny skill—she can always tell when someone is lying. On the run from dangerous enemies, she drifts from town to town, stumbling into murders like moths find flame. Each episode is a self-contained riddle, a new dance between truth and deception, told with wit, grit, and Lyonne’s magnetic charm.
16. The Night Of
One wild night, one brutal murder, one life destroyed. Riz Ahmed is extraordinary as Nasir Khan, a college student who wakes up beside a dead woman after a haze of drugs and desire. The evidence damns him. But the truth is messier, darker, and far more tragic than anyone wants to see. ‘The Night Of’ is not just a mystery, it’s a searing indictment of justice, prejudice, and the razor-thin line between innocence and guilt.
15. The Chestnut Man
A bone-chilling Nordic noir, ‘The Chestnut Man’ is a masterpiece of suspense. Every twist lands like a knife to the gut, every reveal darker than the last. A grisly Copenhagen case ties a local politician to unspeakable crimes, and what follows is both harrowing and hypnotic. With its second season finally greenlit, now is the perfect time to dive into this six-episode storm of dread.
14. Sharp Objects
Amy Adams is haunting as Camille Preaker, a journalist drowning in trauma who returns home to investigate the brutal murders of two girls. Wind Gap is a town where every smile conceals a secret, and every truth cuts deeper than the last. This show doesn’t just tell a mystery, it makes you feel its rot.
13. Big Little Lies
Glamour, lies, and murder collide on the California coast. At first glance, Monterey’s women have it all—wealth, beauty, power. But one death at a school event unravels their perfect façades, exposing betrayals and violence simmering beneath polished surfaces. Every flashback is a breadcrumb leading to a devastating revelation.
12. Murder, She Wrote
The queen of murder mysteries, Jessica Fletcher, proved that one small town could harbor infinite death. Angela Lansbury’s iconic sleuth may have smiled sweetly, but behind her eyes was steel. Twelve seasons of mayhem later, Cabot Cove remains the deadliest little town on TV—and Fletcher remains untouchable.
11. The Sinner
Detective Harry Ambrose is no ordinary cop; his genius lies in peeling back the layers of guilt, trauma, and desire to expose why ordinary people commit unthinkable crimes. Each season of ‘The Sinner’ is a slow, psychological descent, and Bill Pullman’s weary, soulful performance anchors it with heartbreaking brilliance.
10. The White Lotus
Paradise has never felt so sinister. Behind the dazzling sunsets and luxury suites, ‘The White Lotus’ hides a rot no amount of money can mask. Each season drops the privileged elite into an exotic resort, then strips them bare through betrayal, cruelty, and, of course, murder. The result is a razor-sharp whodunit drenched in satire, where every laugh is undercut by dread.
9. Broadchurch
On the windswept cliffs of Britain’s Jurassic Coast, the body of a child shatters a quiet seaside town. What begins as a single tragedy unfurls into a devastating portrait of grief, suspicion, and secrets buried deep. David Tennant and Olivia Colman’s detectives anchor the storm with gut-wrenching performances, making Broadchurch not just a mystery, but an emotional earthquake.
8. Mare of Easttown
Kate Winslet delivers the performance of a lifetime as Mare Sheehan, a detective carrying more ghosts than she can count. When a local girl is murdered, her investigation drags the whole town’s sins into the light, and forces Mare to confront her own unbearable past. Equal parts mystery and meditation on loss, ‘Mare of Easttown’ is raw, unflinching television.
7. The Killing
Seattle’s rain-soaked streets become a labyrinth of lies in this slow-burn thriller. Each day, each hour, brings detectives Linden and Holder closer to a truth as elusive as the mist around them. 'The Killing' thrives in its silences, its tension, its refusal to let the audience breathe until the final, devastating reveal.
6. And Then There Were None
Agatha Christie’s most chilling tale comes to life in this BBC adaptation. Ten strangers lured to a remote island begin to die one by one, each death echoing a sinister nursery rhyme. Trapped and terrified, they turn on each other, knowing the killer is among them. Bleak, brutal, and faithful to Christie’s vision, it’s murder mystery at its most merciless.
5. The Bridge
On a border bridge between Denmark and Sweden lies a body—two halves, from two different women, fused into one grisly crime scene. What follows is a relentless, cross-national hunt for a killer whose brutality knows no bounds. Saga Norén, with her icy brilliance and haunting loneliness, is one of the genre’s most unforgettable detectives. ‘The Bridge’ is Nordic noir at its absolute peak.
4. Only Murders in the Building
Murder doesn’t always come cloaked in darkness…sometimes it’s wrapped in charm and comedy. Selena Gomez, Steve Martin, and Martin Short are three unlikely sleuths whose obsession with true crime pulls them into a real one. Equal parts clever, hilarious, and suspenseful, this series proves that even in the most glamorous New York apartment buildings, death is just behind the next door.
3. Twin Peaks
“Who killed Laura Palmer?” That question electrified the world. But David Lynch’s masterpiece was never just about the murder. ‘Twin Peaks’ is a fever dream of small-town secrets, supernatural terrors, and surreal nightmares that defy genre itself. The mystery is solved, but the questions linger, festering in the subconscious long after the final frame.
2. Sherlock
Brilliant, arrogant, unstoppable—Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes storms through London with the force of a hurricane. Each case is a duel of wits, each episode a riddle wrapped in blood. With Martin Freeman’s Watson grounding the chaos, Sherlock modernizes Conan Doyle’s detective with unmatched flair, layering genius deductions over crimes that cut to the bone.
1. True Detective
At the summit stands 'True Detective.' Each season is its own descent into darkness—Louisiana swamps hiding occult horrors, California highways littered with corruption, Ozark forests concealing ghosts of the past, Alaskan tundra swallowing men whole. The cast changes, but the dread remains: a meditation on evil, obsession, and the fragile line between hunter and hunted. From McConaughey’s haunting Rust Cohle to Jodie Foster’s ice-cold Liz Danvers, 'True Detective' isn’t just a mystery. It’s a reckoning.
