We love true crime documentaries just as much as the next person, but sometimes we want the shocking twists and turns that only a fictional story can provide, one where we haven't already heard the ending on the news or read up on its main players in the paper.
That's where the best detective series on Netflix come in. These 10 crime and mystery series keep audiences on their toes as investigators search for clues, follow leads and hunt down the bad guy.
From France-set thrillers like Lupin to period-piece heart-racers like Mindhunter, here are riveting detective series you should add to your next Netflix watch list. We also have a best Netflix shows round-up if you want a broader look.
The best detective series on Netflix
Bodies
You get four detective stories for the price of one in Bodies, a time-travel murder mystery based on the graphic novel by Si Spencer. When a dead body appears in the streets of London, four detectives in four different time periods of England find themselves investigating the same murder: Alfred Hillinghead (Kyle Soller) in 1890, Charles Whiteman (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) in 1941, Shahara Hasan (Amaka Okafor) in present-day 2023, and Iris Maplewood (Shira Haas) 30 years in the future.
Mindhunter
Though sadly only two seasons — after much anticipation, executive producer David Fincher announced in September 2021 that big budgets and busy schedules mean a third season is unlikely for the popular streaming series — this psychological crime drama packs in plenty of chills and thrills. Set in the late 1970s, the story trails two FBI agents, Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany), who alongside psychologist Wendy Carr (Anna Torv) launch a research project to interview imprisoned serial killers in the hopes that getting inside the murderers' minds will help solve future cases.
Lupin
Inspired by the adventures of master of disguise Arsène Lupin, this French thriller returned Lupin Part 3 on Thursday, October 5, bringing with it even more illicit hijinks from Paris-bred gentleman thief Assane Diop (Omar Sy). Throughout the clever crime series, Assane works to prove his father innocent of a 25-year-old crime, as police detective Youssef Guedira (Soufiane Guerrab) pursues the con man using his knowledge of the classic Arsène Lupin books.
The Sinner
In this Golden Globe-nominated anthology, police detective Harry Ambrose (Bill Pullman) investigates a chilling new homicide each season. That means while Pullman remains as the connecting thread between the stories, the rest of the cast is changed up for each edition. The first explores the startling stabbing crimes of young mother Cora Tannetti (Jessica Biel); the second, the murder of a couple by their 11-year-old son; the third begins with an investigation into a suspicious car accident; and the fourth and final season finds the now-retired detective at the center of a tragedy himself.
Collateral
A four-part story that takes place over four days, this British serial features Carey Mulligan as Detective Inspector Kip Glaspie, assigned to investigate the shooting of a delivery driver in inner-city south London after he dropped off a pizza to Karen Mars (Billie Piper), the ex-wife of the Shadow Minister for Transport David Mars, MP (John Simm). A wider web of spies, smugglers and other shady characters is discovered as Kip tries to untangle the case.
Unbelievable
Based on a harrowing true crime, this eight-episode Netflix miniseries recounts the real-life story of Marie Adler (played by Kaitlyn Dever), a teenage sexual assault survivor in Washington who is accused of fabricating reports that she was raped by a masked intruder in her home. After noticing a pattern of similar intruder rapes, two female detectives, Grace Rasmussen (Toni Collette) and Karen Duvall (Merritt Wever), work together to methodically track down the culprit and shine a spotlight on a horrifying miscarriage of justice.
Seven Seconds
A streaming adaptation of the Russian movie The Major, this provocative Netflix drama from The Killing creator Veena Sud stars Beau Knapp as Pete Jablonski, a white New Jersey police officer who accidentally hits a 15-year-old Black boy with his car on the way to the hospital to meet his pregnant wife. The crooked cop enlists his fellow law enforcement officers to help him cover up the hit-and-run. That is until an investigator (Michael Mosley) and assistant district attorney (Clare-Hope Ashitey) start delving deeper into the incident and unlock an underbelly of social injustice and racial division.
Narcos
This fast-paced, three-season Netflix series is centered on the rise and fall of notorious Colombian narcoterrorist and drug kingpin Pablo Escobar (Wagner Moura), the leader of the Medellin Cartel who became a billionaire through the production and distribution of cocaine. The show is told from the perspective of American DEA agent Steve Murphy (Boyd Holbrook), who is tasked with bringing down Escobar and is partnered with fellow agent Javier Peña (Pedro Pascal). Fun fact: the real-life Peña was a consultant on the show.
Perfume
Based on the 1985 novel of the same name by Patrick Süskind, this dark, six-part German series begins when the corpse of charismatic singer Katharina “K” Laüfer (Siri Nase) is discovered in a swimming pool with her scent glands horrifyingly excised from her body. In interviewing a group of K's boarding-school buddies, profiler Nadja Simon (Friederike Becht), Chief Detective Inspector Matthias Köhler (Jürgen Maurer) and Federal Prosecutor Grünberg (Wotan Wilke Möhring) uncover a decades-long secret the friends have been hiding.
Peaky Blinders
Birmingham gangster Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) encounters more nefarious antagonists as the years go on in this BBC crime drama. But in its debut season, Peaky Blinders is a classic cat-and-mouse story between the ambitious Brummie criminal and law enforcement, specifically Chief Inspector Chester Campbell (Sam Neill) and undercover agent Grace Burgess (Annabelle Wallis), who is posing as a barmaid in the Blinders' local pub to get information on Tommy and his illicit operations. Things get even more complicated for the crime boss when he starts to fall for Grace and the lines between love and the law get blurred.
More to watch on Netflix
