The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time

This is one of the 759 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
139 The Woman in White Wilkie Collins 1860 British English
11 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky 1866 Russian Russian
5319 The Leavenworth Case Anna Katharine Green 1878 American English
3126 Daisy Miller Henry James 1878 American English
164 The Hound of the Baskervilles Arthur Conan Doyle 1902 British English
251 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Agatha Christie 1926 British English
6717 The Crime At Black Dudley Margery Allingham 1929 British English
5326 The Patient In Room 18 Mignon G. Eberhart 1929 American English
142 The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett 1930 American English
6717 The Conjure Man Dies Rudolph Fisher 1932 American English
6717 A Man Lay Dead Ngaio Marsh 1934 New Zealander English
805 Gaudy Night Dorothy L. Sayers 1935 British English
457 The Hollow Man John Dickson Carr 1935 British English
59 Rebecca Daphne du Maurier 1938 British English
790 The Mask of Dimitrios Eric Ambler 1939 British English
1193 Double Indemnity James M. Cain 1943 American English
5325 If He Hollers Let Him Go Chester Himes 1945 American English
1183 In A Lonely Place Dorothy B. Hughes 1947 American English
419 The Daughter of Time Josephine Tey 1951 British English
6717 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
1153 Beast In View Margaret Millar 1955 Canadian English
637 The Quiet American Graham Greene 1955 British English
143 The Talented Mr. Ripley Patricia Highsmith 1955 American English
861 We Have Always Lived in the Castle Shirley Jackson 1962 American English
233 The Spy Who Came in From the Cold John le Carré 1963 British English
4119 The Honjin Murders Seishi Yokomizo 1946 Japanese Japanese
3321 Where Are The Children? Mary Higgins Clark 1975 American English
1086 Misery Stephen King 1987 American English
1695 The Last Good Kiss James Crumley 1978 American English
114 The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco 1980 Italian Italian
1048 The Hunt for Red October Tom Clancy 1984 American English
1888 A Dark Adapted Eye Barbara Vine 1986 British English
6241 The Decagon House Murders Yukito Ayatsuji 1987 Japanese Japanese
578 The Silence of the Lambs Thomas Harris 1988 American English
1322 Devil in a Blue Dress Walter Mosley 1990 American English
3931 Mean Spirit Linda Hogan 1990 American English
3271 Postmortem Patricia Daniels Cornwell 1990 American English
1445 Faceless Killers Henning Mankell 1991 Swedish Swedish
8183 Dead Time Eleanor Taylor Bland 1992 American English
279 The Secret History Donna Tartt 1992 American English
862 Smilla's Sense of Snow Peter Høeg 1992 Danish Danish
8306 When Death Comes Stealing Valerie Wilson Wesley 1994 American English
8440 Fade Away Harlan Coben 1996 American English
1930 Killing Floor Lee Child 1997 British English
8538 Lady Joker Kaoru Takamura 1997 Japanese Japanese
8538 Morituri Yasmina Khadra 1997 Algerian French
2298 Out Natsuo Kirino 1997 Japanese Japanese
8698 Inner City Blues Paula L. Woods 1999 American English
5227 A Place Of Execution Val McDermid 1999 British English
8698 Those Bones Are Not My Child Toni Cade Bambara 1999 American English
7127 Blanche Passes Go Barbara Neely 2000 American English
3389 Death Of A Red Heroine Qiu Xiaolong 2000 Chinese English
7127 The Redbreast Jo Nesbø 2000 Norwegian Norwegian
4292 Mystic River Dennis Lehane 2001 American English
1809 The Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon 2001 Spanish Spanish
7204 The Surgeon Tess Gerritsen 2001 American English
9001 The Emperor Of Ocean Park Stephen L. Carter 2002 American English
1010 Fingersmith Sarah Waters 2002 British English
7741 The Ice Princess Camilla Läckberg 2003 Swedish Swedish
232 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
6477 Case Histories Kate Atkinson 2004 British English
4151 The Devotion Of Suspect X Keigo Higashino 2005 Japanese Japanese
2190 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Stieg Larsson 2005 Swedish Swedish
7909 The Lincoln Lawyer Michael Connelly 2005 American English
9531 Snakeskin Shamisen Naomi Hirahara 2006 Japanese English
9628 Queenpin Megan Abbott 2007 American English
5422 What The Dead Know Laura Lippman 2007 American English
4768 The Yiddish Policemen's Union Michael Chabon 2007 American English
1194 Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead Olga Tokarczuk 2009 Polish Polish
9857 Wife Of The Gods Kwei Quartey 2009 Ghanaian English
7137 Bury Your Dead Louise Penny 2010 Canadian English
8442 Faithful Place Tana French 2010 Irish English
7137 The Plotters Un-su Kim 2010 Korean Korean
5597 The Sound Of Things Falling Juan Gabriel Vásquez 2011 Colombian Spanish
791 Gone Girl Gillian Flynn 2012 American English
2070 The Round House Louise Erdrich 2012 American English
6255 Six Four Hideo Yokoyama 2012 Japanese Japanese
8837 Ordinary Grace William Kent Krueger 2013 American English
5486 Big Little Lies Liane Moriarty 2014 Australian English
5569 Everything I Never Told You Celeste Ng 2014 American English
10571 Land Of Shadows Rachel Howzell Hall 2014 American English
922 The Sympathizer Viet Thanh Nguyen 2015 American English
5662 Bluebird, Bluebird Attica Locke 2017 American English
10999 Hollywood Homicide Kellye Garrett 2017 American English
6085 My Sister, The Serial Killer Oyinkan Braithwaite 2018 Nigerian English
11135 The Widows Of Malabar Hill Sujata Massey 2018 American English
9914 Miracle Creek Angie Kim 2019 American English
11274 The Need Helen Phillips 2019 American English
9027 The Other Americans Laila Lalami 2019 Moroccan English
11274 The Turn Of The Key Ruth Ware 2019 British English
9914 Your House Will Pay Steph Cha 2019 American English
6681 Blacktop Wasteland S. A. Cosby 2020 American English
11419 Djinn Patrol On The Purple Line Deepa Anappara 2020 Indian English
7883 Mexican Gothic Silvia Moreno-Garcia 2020 Mexican English
11419 When No One Is Watching Alyssa Cole 2020 American English
11419 Winter Counts David Heska Wanbli Weiden 2020 American English
12050 Survivor’s Guilt Robyn Gigl 2023 American English