10 Best Murder Mystery Shows That Will Keep You Guessing From Start To Finish

Murder mystery shows are a beloved staple of crime TV, which have become as integral to the small screen as classic sitcoms or soap operas. It’s telling that the two most anticipated releases on Netflix in 2025 involve a murder mystery head-to-head, between the third instalment of Rian Johnson’s Knives Out franchise and the movie adaptation of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club. This genre is now more popular than ever, with the best murder mystery movies in particular high demand on streaming. It’s not all about feature-length releases, though, as serial murder mysteries often prove to be the most engrossing.

Even more than their cinematic equivalents, the best murder mystery shows tend to keep you guessing until the very end. No one watches a good mystery series expecting to guess the killer right away, as misdirection and suspense are part of the fun. Here, we’re specifically focusing on shows that conceal their culprits up to their climactic conclusions, archetypal “whodunnits” that nail the most common tropes of murder mystery shows down to a tee. While there are plenty of different kinds of series in this bracket, they all allow us to indulge in the macabre delights of their deadly puzzles.

10

The Night Of

2016

Starring John Turturro and Riz Ahmed alongside Poorna Jagannathan, of Never Have I Ever and Deli Boys fame, The Night Of is a treat for fans of murder mysteries and legal thrillers alike. Although much of this intricate and wickedly smart miniseries takes place in the context of a criminal trial with one principal murder suspect, it’s secretly a mystery drama masquerading as a legal procedural.

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The unexpected turns it takes in search of the truth leave us enthralled until the final half hour of the series. Before that moment, the interplay between Turturro’s defense lawyer, Ahmed’s college student accused of murder, and Bill Camp’s detective immerses us fully in the troubling world of their characters.

9

Mare of Easttown

2021

Another miniseries worthy of watching in one binge-sitting, Mare of Easttown takes us through the travails of Kate Winslet’s Marianne “Mare” Sheehan, a homicide detective in the titular Pennsylvania town. We go through Sheehan’s personal battles with her, as well as her struggle to solve two different and seemingly unrelated murdersin a beautifully tempered narrative that surprises us beyond the scope of a typical murder mystery.

The show’s creator, Brad Ingelsby, understandably sees giving Mare of Easttown a season 2 challenge that’s likely beyond the realms of immediate possibility, meaning it should remain as a one-off limited series for the foreseeable future. But, if anything, this single-narrative format lends itself to the cinematic visual realism of this highly unorthodox murder mystery.

8

And Then There Were None

2015

A British murder mystery series that somehow passed most viewers by when it was first released a decade ago, And Then There Were None faithfully adapts Agatha Christie’s bestselling novel utilizing some of the UK’s best acting talent. Charles Dance and Miranda Richardson star alongside New Zealand actor Sam Neill to deliver the version of this story Christie’s fans had wanted for decades.

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7

True Detective

2014–Present

Arguably the most successful contemporary murder mystery series, True Detective season 1 is already a television classic. The show employs thrilling, meticulously paced storylines inspired by true crime to create a truly compelling watch. It’s hard to compare True Detective’s other seasons to the first one considering how perfect the show’s debut was, but each one of them had its qualities.

True Detective’s best episodes tend to come towards the end of its seasons, but each of its steps towards revealing a killer across an eight-episode narrative is as authentic as they are thrilling. Season 1 remains the standout set of episodes in this incomparable anthology series, with creator Nic Pizzolatto on writing duties and It director Cary Joji Fukunaga at the helm.

6

The Chestnut Man

2021–Present

For fans of The Breakthrough and other Nordic noir crime dramas, The Chestnut Man is definitely the show to watch next. Probably the best murder mystery series ever produced in Scandinavia, this series brilliantly blends elements of grisly horror with gritty police procedural TV. But its real genius lies in its knack for suspense, as well as plot twists absolutely no one saw coming.

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The Chestnut Man has belatedly – but quite rightly – been renewed for a second season, so now is the perfect time to discover its first six episodes. The show doesn’t shy away from following the well-worn path of other detective murder mysteriesbut it does so with such skill and authority that it’s hard to imagine a further season not doing the same.

5

Twin Peaks

1990–1991, 2017

Twin Peaks is quite simply one of the best TV shows of all time, in addition to being the best show made by celebrated filmmaker David Lynch. The only reason it isn’t sitting right at the top of this list is that it’s hard to categorize the series as a murder mystery. It certainly has one foot in the genre, and definitely keeps us guessing about who the perpetrator of Laura Palmer’s murder might be. Yet Twin Peaks also offers so much more than could be contained within a single genre.

The elements of supernatural horror and unsettling social commentary, depicted with Lynch’s trademark surrealist undertones, make Twin Peaks a story to experience more than a puzzle to solve. We do get an answer as to who killed Laura Palmer, but we’re left with so many more questions than when we started watching.

4

The White Lotus

2021–Present

Along with Twin Peaksit’s hard to define The White Lotus as a murder mystery show, too. More than anything, the series is a satire about wealthy elites within the conceit of a murder that has taken place on a luxury island resort. Nevertheless, it more than deserves its place on this list, as many fans see each season of the show as a murder mystery to be solved, even if creator Mike White doesn’t.

Given that The White Lotus season 3 includes more twists than ever, it’s safe to say that the legacy of this innovative series in the pantheon of great murder mystery shows is secured. We might ultimately watch the show for what the characters do and say in between the first and last episode of each season, but we still want to know who did it.

3

Only Murders in the Building

2021–Present

Only Murders in the Building feels like the culmination of a major revival for the murder mystery genre over the past decade. Combining the comic genius of Steve Martin and Martin Short and the charisma of Selena Gomez with an unbridled enthusiasm for the genre itself, the show has captured the imaginations of both serial mystery lovers and relative newcomers in their millions.

Along with some clever plotting and sharp comedy writing, the series taps into the recent surge in the popularity of crime fiction and non-fiction alike with its self-aware references to true crime podcasting and murder mystery genre tropes. With Only Murders in the Building’s season 5 production now wrapped, the show continues to go from strength to strength, as more and more fans produce speculative theories about the murder teased at the end of the previous season’s finale episode.

2

The Sinner

2017–2021

The Sinner

Release Date

2017 – 2021-00-00

Network

Netflix

For those who enjoy the psychological thriller show Mindhunter but want a replacement that’s a little more focused on the murder mystery at the heart of its plot, you can’t go wrong with the four-season anthology series The Sinner. This dark, disturbing detective show thrives on wrongfooting its audience, while Bill Pullman’s characterization of Harry Ambrose makes him one of the best murder mystery protagonists ever to appear on television.

This series is one for mystery fans who aren’t afraid to get stuck into the dark motivations that lie behind murder cases, and don’t mind a jump-scare. Each season explores a different case, always from the perspective of Harry Ambrose.

1

Murder, She Wrote

1984–1996

As much as modern murder mystery shows have innovated in the genre, making it almost unrecognizable in certain aspects from what it once was, certain classics simply can’t be surpassed. Murder, She Wrotestarring Angela Lansbury in her most iconic role as writer-turned-detective Jessica Fletcher, is surely the most classic murder mystery show of them all.

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What’s more, unlike most of its contemporaries, the series still more than holds up today, with its adaptation of literary tropes, pioneering realism, and deft injection of comic relief setting the benchmark for virtually every murder mystery show that followed it. As popular as Murder, She Wrote was in its heyday, its classic episodes still keep younger generations guessing, with the streaming age having done little to dent its appeal.