Mysteries Set at the New Year: New Year's Eve and New Year's Day!

Happy New Year! Wishing you the best for 2025! May Mystery and Mayhem only happen in crime fiction! 

Today's list features Mysteries, Crime Fiction, Thrillers, and Movies that take place at the New Year. This is an updated list. Let me know if I've forgotten any of your favorites! 

Crime Fiction Set at the New Year

Allyson K. Abbott: A Toast to Murder

Anthony Abbott: About the Murder of the Night Club Lady
Jennifer Alderson: Death on the Danube

Marian Babson: Line up for Murder
Bain, Donald and Jessica Fletcher. Murder She Wrote: Death of a Blue Blood
T. L. Barnett: Murder for the New Year
George Baxt: The Marlene Dietrich Murder Case
George Bellairs: The Case of the Headless Jesuit

Virginia K. Bennett: The Toast of New Year's Eve. 
Nero Blanc: A Crossworder's Gift
Eileen Brady: Last But Not Leashed
Paul Brazil: Guns of Brixton; Cold London Blues
Jon L. Breen: Touch of the Past

Rita Mae Brown: Full Cry
Anna Celeste Burke: Gnarly New Year!
Lynn Cahoon: Have A Deadly New Year.

Alison Cairns: New Year Resolution
Lillian Stewart Carl: The Blue Hackle
C.S. Challinor: Murder at Midnight
Lee Child (ed): Killer Year: Stories to Die for
Colette Clark: A Sparkling Case of Murder

Anne Cleeves: Raven Black
Maning Coles: They Tell No Tales.
Anna Ashwood Collins: Deadly Resolutions

Michael Connelly: The Dark Hours
Patricia Cornwell: Cause of Death
Mark Costello: Bag Men

Elisabeth Crabtree: Death Takes a Holiday.

Alisa Craig: Murder Goes Mumming

P. Creeden: Murder on New Year's Eve.

M. Culler: A New Year's Cat-aclysm
Maddie Day: Murder in a Cape Cottage

Isis Crawford: A Catered New Year's Eve

M. Culler: A New Year's Cat-aclysm.
Jeffrey Deaver: The Devil's Teardrop
Colin Dexter: The Secret of Annexe 3
Carter Dickson: Death and the Gilded Man
Rose Donovan: The Mystery of Ruby's Roulette

Carole Nelson Douglas: Cat on a Hyacinth Hunt
D.B. Elrogg: Murder Again! Happy New Year

Loren D. Estleman: Stress
James Ellroy: This Storm
Ifeanyi Esimai: Her Last New Year's Eve

Janet Evanovich: Plum New Year
J. Jefferson Fargeon: Death in Fancy Dress (aka The Fancy Dress Ball)
Quinn Fawcett: Siren Song
Jerrilyn Farmer: Dim Sum Dead
D.M. Flexer: New Year's: The Night of All Nights.

Lynn Florkiewicz: The New Year's Eve Mystery

Lucy Foley: The Hunting Party

Frederick Forsyth: The Fourth Protocol
Claire Gardner: New Year's Eavesdropping

Tess Gerritsen: The Silent Girl.

Janet Gleeson: The Grenadillo Box
Kerry Greenwood: Murder in the Dark
J.M. Gregson: The Lancashire Leopard

Jane Haddam: Fountain of Death
Hannah, Sophie: The Last Death of the Year: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (coming in 2025)

Karen Harper: The Queene's Christmas
Lee Harris: The New Year's Eve Murder
Ellen Hart: Hallowed Murder, Merchant of Venus
Roy Hart: Seascape with Dead Figures
Lauren Henderson: Pretty Boy
Reginald Hill: Killing The Lawyers
Tom Hindle: The Murder Game.

Jorn Lier Horst & Thomas Enger: Smoke Screen

Liz Ireland: Mrs. Claus and the Nightmare Before New Year's

Graham Ison: Hardcastle's Traitors

J.A. Jance: Name Withheld

Tonya Kappas: New Year Nuisance
Rufus King: Holiday Homicide

Harper Lin: New Year's Slay
J.K. Litton: Caught Dead 

Frances and Richard Lockridge: The Dishonest Murderer; Let Dead Enough Alone
Heather Dune Macadam: The Weeping Buddha
Clair Mackintosh: The Last Party

Ed McBain: Lullaby
Johnston McCulley: New Year's Pardon; New Year's Duty
Ellie McDougan: Homicide and a Happy New Year
Philip McLauren: Scream Black Murder
Elisabeth McNeill: Hot News

Leslie Meier: New Year's Eve Murder
James Melville: The Body Wore Brocade

David William Meredith: The Christmas Card Murders
Miriam Ann Moore: Stayin' Alive
Jack Murray: The New Year's Eve Murders
Tamar Myers: A Penny Urned

Nick Oldham: Bad Tidings
Leonardo Padura: Havana Blue (starts with a New Year's Eve hangover)
Elizabeth Peters: The Golden One
Edward O. Phillips: Sunday's Child
Denis Pitts: This City is Ours

Ellery Queen: Calamity Town
Raquel Reyes: Barbacoa, Bomba, and Betrayal

Craig Rice: The Right Murder
Gillian Roberts: The Mummer’s Curse
Cindy Sample: Dying for a Date
Dorothy L. Sayers: The Nine Tailors (begins on New Year's Eve)

Madelyn Scott: Poison and Party Hats: New Year's Eve

Catherine Shaw: Fatal Inheritance
Jeffrey Shields: New Year, New Prosciutto

Sofia Slater: Auld Acquaintance

Paige Sleuth: Cherry Hills Case Files
Joan Smith: Don't Leave Me This Way, Why Aren't They Screaming
Kat Stone: New Years Dog-Tastrophe
Kathleen Suzette: New Year, New Murder

Meg Taggart: Murder at the Savoy
David C. Taylor: Night Life

Kathleen Taylor: Cold Front
Charles Todd: A Long Shadow
Carolyne Topdjian: The Hitman's Daughter
Auralee Wallace: Ring in the Year with Murder
Sarah Ward: The Sixth Lie

Patricia Wentworth: The Clock Strikes Twelve

Whiting, J.A. & Nell McCarthy: The Horse Knows the Way; A Fatal New Year
Valerie Wolzein: 'Tis the Season to be Murdered (aka And a Lethal New Year)
Rachel Woods: Happy New Year Murder
James Ziskin: Stone Cold Dead
Mark Richard Zubro: The Truth Can Get You Killed

Short Story:
Q. Patrick: "Murder on New Year's Eve"

Children's:
Ron Roy: New Year's Eve Thieves

You might also want to check out my Christmas list (Christmas Mysteries, Authors A-Z). Some of the action spills over into New Year's.

Mystery Movies that take place at the New Year.

Happy Viewing!

After the Thin Man (1936)
Better Luck Tomorrow (2002)
Entrapment (1999)
The Godfather Part II (1974)
Little Caesar (1931)
Money Train (1995)
New Year's Evil (1980)
Night Train to Paris (1964) 
Ocean's 11 (1960)
Strange Days (1995)
Survivor (2015)