The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time

This is one of the 748 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

Time, 100 Books

With a panel of celebrated authors—Megan Abbott, Harlan Coben, S.A. Cosby, Gillian Flynn, Tana French, Rachel Howzell Hall, and Sujata Massey—TIME presents the most gripping, twist-filled, satisfying, and influential mystery and thriller books, in chronological order beginning in the 1800s.

This list was originally published in 2023 and was added to this site over 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
138 The Woman in White Wilkie Collins 1860 British English
11 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky 1866 Russian Russian
5309 The Leavenworth Case Anna Katharine Green 1878 American English
3120 Daisy Miller Henry James 1878 American English
163 The Hound of the Baskervilles Arthur Conan Doyle 1902 British English
251 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Agatha Christie 1926 British English
6706 The Crime At Black Dudley Margery Allingham 1929 British English
5316 The Patient In Room 18 Mignon G. Eberhart 1929 American English
143 The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett 1930 American English
6706 The Conjure Man Dies Rudolph Fisher 1932 American English
6706 A Man Lay Dead Ngaio Marsh 1934 New Zealander English
804 Gaudy Night Dorothy L. Sayers 1935 British English
456 The Hollow Man John Dickson Carr 1935 British English
59 Rebecca Daphne du Maurier 1938 British English
789 The Mask of Dimitrios Eric Ambler 1939 British English
1192 Double Indemnity James M. Cain 1943 American English
5315 If He Hollers Let Him Go Chester Himes 1945 American English
1181 In A Lonely Place Dorothy B. Hughes 1947 American English
416 The Daughter of Time Josephine Tey 1951 British English
6706 Beat Not The Bones Charlotte Jay 1952 Australian English
495 Casino Royale Ian Fleming 1953 British English
1268 A Kiss Before Dying Ira Levin 1953 American English
161 The Long Goodbye Raymond Chandler 1953 American English
1152 Beast In View Margaret Millar 1955 Canadian English
635 The Quiet American Graham Greene 1955 British English
142 The Talented Mr. Ripley Patricia Highsmith 1955 American English
861 We Have Always Lived in the Castle Shirley Jackson 1962 American English
234 The Spy Who Came in From the Cold John le Carré 1963 British English
4113 The Honjin Murders Seishi Yokomizo 1946 Japanese Japanese
3316 Where Are The Children? Mary Higgins Clark 1975 American English
1084 Misery Stephen King 1987 American English
1693 The Last Good Kiss James Crumley 1978 American English
114 The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco 1980 Italian Italian
1045 The Hunt for Red October Tom Clancy 1984 American English
1887 A Dark Adapted Eye Barbara Vine 1986 British English
6231 The Decagon House Murders Yukito Ayatsuji 1987 Japanese Japanese
578 The Silence of the Lambs Thomas Harris 1988 American English
1320 Devil in a Blue Dress Walter Mosley 1990 American English
3926 Mean Spirit Linda Hogan 1990 American English
3266 Postmortem Patricia Daniels Cornwell 1990 American English
1445 Faceless Killers Henning Mankell 1991 Swedish Swedish
8167 Dead Time Eleanor Taylor Bland 1992 American English
278 The Secret History Donna Tartt 1992 American English
862 Smilla's Sense of Snow Peter Høeg 1992 Danish Danish
8290 When Death Comes Stealing Valerie Wilson Wesley 1994 American English
8421 Fade Away Harlan Coben 1996 American English
1927 Killing Floor Lee Child 1997 British English
8522 Lady Joker Kaoru Takamura 1997 Japanese Japanese
8522 Morituri Yasmina Khadra 1997 Algerian French
2290 Out Natsuo Kirino 1997 Japanese Japanese
8681 Inner City Blues Paula L. Woods 1999 American English
5217 A Place Of Execution Val McDermid 1999 British English
8681 Those Bones Are Not My Child Toni Cade Bambara 1999 American English
7115 Blanche Passes Go Barbara Neely 2000 American English
3384 Death Of A Red Heroine Qiu Xiaolong 2000 Chinese English
7115 The Redbreast Jo Nesbø 2000 Norwegian Norwegian
4286 Mystic River Dennis Lehane 2001 American English
1808 The Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon 2001 Spanish Spanish
7190 The Surgeon Tess Gerritsen 2001 American English
8985 The Emperor Of Ocean Park Stephen L. Carter 2002 American English
1007 Fingersmith Sarah Waters 2002 British English
7724 The Ice Princess Camilla Läckberg 2003 Swedish Swedish
232 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
6467 Case Histories Kate Atkinson 2004 British English
4145 The Devotion Of Suspect X Keigo Higashino 2005 Japanese Japanese
2178 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Stieg Larsson 2005 Swedish Swedish
7893 The Lincoln Lawyer Michael Connelly 2005 American English
9510 Snakeskin Shamisen Naomi Hirahara 2006 Japanese English
9607 Queenpin Megan Abbott 2007 American English
5412 What The Dead Know Laura Lippman 2007 American English
4759 The Yiddish Policemen's Union Michael Chabon 2007 American English
1238 Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead Olga Tokarczuk 2009 Polish Polish
9840 Wife Of The Gods Kwei Quartey 2009 Ghanaian English
7125 Bury Your Dead Louise Penny 2010 Canadian English
8423 Faithful Place Tana French 2010 Irish English
7125 The Plotters Un-su Kim 2010 Korean Korean
5587 The Sound Of Things Falling Juan Gabriel Vásquez 2011 Colombian Spanish
790 Gone Girl Gillian Flynn 2012 American English
2064 The Round House Louise Erdrich 2012 American English
6245 Six Four Hideo Yokoyama 2012 Japanese Japanese
8821 Ordinary Grace William Kent Krueger 2013 American English
5476 Big Little Lies Liane Moriarty 2014 Australian English
5560 Everything I Never Told You Celeste Ng 2014 American English
10543 Land Of Shadows Rachel Howzell Hall 2014 American English
921 The Sympathizer Viet Thanh Nguyen 2015 American English
5652 Bluebird, Bluebird Attica Locke 2017 American English
10968 Hollywood Homicide Kellye Garrett 2017 American English
6076 My Sister, The Serial Killer Oyinkan Braithwaite 2018 Nigerian English
11102 The Widows Of Malabar Hill Sujata Massey 2018 American English
9895 Miracle Creek Angie Kim 2019 American English
11241 The Need Helen Phillips 2019 American English
11241 The Other Americans Laila Lalami 2019 Moroccan English
11241 The Turn Of The Key Ruth Ware 2019 British English
9895 Your House Will Pay Steph Cha 2019 American English
6670 Blacktop Wasteland S. A. Cosby 2020 American English
11387 Djinn Patrol On The Purple Line Deepa Anappara 2020 Indian English
7867 Mexican Gothic Silvia Moreno-Garcia 2020 Mexican English
11387 When No One Is Watching Alyssa Cole 2020 American English
11387 Winter Counts David Heska Wanbli Weiden 2020 American English
12023 Survivor’s Guilt Robyn Gigl 2023 American English