Love a classic whodunit? (Who doesn't?) The best streaming services are full of them, from clue-filled detective dramas to adrenaline-pumping thriller shows. But to help you narrow down which great puzzler to watch next, we've compiled the five best mystery TV shows you can stream right now on Netflix.
Though these five genre titles vary greatly, ranging from psychological crime thrillers to pulpy spy series, they all have one thing in common: a gripping mystery that needs solving, with shocking twists, suspenseful secrets and misleading red herrings unraveling episode by episode.
If you think you have what it takes to accurately crack the case and suss out the real culprit, put those sleuthing skills to the test with a binge of one (or all!) of these must-watch mystery shows on Netflix.
'Mindhunter'
Following FBI agents Holden Ford and Bill Tench (played by Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany, respectively) as they embark on an investigation to unlock the sinister psyches of serial killers, "Mindhunter" captures all of the noir creepiness we've come to expect from showrunner-slash-director David Fincher's works. (The Oscar-nominated filmmaker is, of course, behind such popular titles as "Se7en," "Zodiac" "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and "Gone Girl," among others.)
With help from psychologist Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), the agents apply their disturbing findings to solve ongoing cases in the late 1970s, marking the origins of criminal profiling. The two-season drama has plenty for mystery lovers to unpack, though, alas, a third installment is not in the works.
►Watch on Netflix
'Black Doves'
In this six-episode British thriller created and written by Joe Barton, Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw play professional assassins in a spies-for-hire organization known as — you guessed it — the Black Doves. When Knightley's Helen Webb, the wife of the British defense secretary, finds out that her secret lover Jason (Andrew Koji) has been murdered and her identity has been compromised, the org brings in an old friend, trigger man Sam Young (Whishaw), to protect her.
Set in yuletide London, the action-packed "Black Doves" sees the gun-toting twosome investigate who killed Jason and why, and how his untimely death is connected to an even larger geopolitical web of international crime families and foreign ambassadors. Come for the tense mystery, stay for Knightley's epic knife fight!
►Watch on Netflix
'Lupin'
For three seasons so far — a fourth installment of the hit French drama is currently in development, according to Variety — mystery fans have been excitedly following the Parisian heist hijinks of gentleman thief Assane Diop (Omar Sy), a character inspired by master burglar Arsène Lupin, the protagonist of Maurice Leblanc’s iconic 1907 novel.
Twenty-five years after the loss of his father, who was framed by the wealthy Pellegrini family for a diamond necklace theft, Assane avows to avenge his dad and uses every trick in his book — including teaming up with police inspector Youssef Guédira (Soufiane Guerrab) — to bring down the Pellegrini clan and reveal their many crimes and corruptions.
Netflix's most-watched French series ever, "Lupin" has also been a hit with awards bodies, too: it won the Critics' Choice Award for Best Foreign Language Series this past year and has also earned Golden Globes nods both for the show and for Sy's riveting performance.
►Watch on Netflix
'A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder'
Based on the 2019 Holly Jackson novel of the same name, this BBC series brings the murder mystery genre to high school: for her final year project, Pippa "Pip" Fitz-Amobi (Emma Myers) decides that she wants to uncover what really happened when fellow schoolgirl Andie Bell (India Lillie Davie) disappeared from their sleepy English town five years earlier. Was Andie really killed by her lover Sal Singh (Rahul Pattni), who was later found dead by suicide, or is there another culprit still on the loose?
Across six episodes, Pip and Sal's brother Ravi (Zain Iqbal) reopen the cold case and uncover dark secrets along the way. And if you enjoyed season 1 of "A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder," there's more what that came from: the mystery series was renewed for a second season in November 2024, which will reportedly cover events from the second book, "Good Girl, Bad Blood."
►Watch on Netflix
'Dark Winds'
A string of seemingly unrelated and unconscionably dark crimes — including a ritualistic double murder and an audacious heist — prompt an investigation from Navajo Nation cops (Zahn McClarnon) and Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) in this 1970s-set Neo-Western drama.
Based on the "Leaphorn & Chee" novel series by Tony Hillerman, "Dark Winds" dramatically pulls viewers into the tribal reservations of the American Southwest, entangling a classic mystery procedural with knotty topics like cultural identity and spiritual beliefs as the officers' personal demons become challenged by the case.
There are two six-episode seasons so far — if you watch them now, you'll be all caught up for when the third season premieres on AMC on March 9.
►Watch on Netflix
More From Tom's Guide
