The Greatest Crime Books of All Time

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
17120 The Singing Bone R Austin Freeman 1912 British English
17120 The Silent Bullet Arthur B Reeve 1910 American English
17120 The Lodger Mrs Belloc Lowndes 1913 British English
17120 Max Carrados Ernest Bramah 1914 British English
17120 The Lone Wolf Louis Joseph Vance 2003 American English
17120 Limehouse Nights Thomas Burke 1917 British English
17120 The Middle Temple Murder J. S. Fletcher 1919 British English
17120 Bull Dog Drummond Sapper 1920 British English
17120 Tutt And Mr Tutt Arthur Cheney Train 1920 American English
17120 The Grey Room Eden Phillpotts 1920 British English
17120 The Eight Strokes Of The Clock Maurice Leblanc 1923 French French
17120 The Brooklyn Murders G. D. H. Cole 1923 British English
17120 The Rasp Philip MacDonald 1924 British English
17120 The House Of The Arrow A. E. W. Mason 1924 British English
17120 The House Without A Key Earl Derr Biggers 1925 American English
17120 The Paddington Mystery John Rhode 1925 British English
17120 Payment Deferred C. S. Forester 1926 British English
17120 The Bellamy Trial Frances Noyes Hart 1927 American English
17120 Meet The Tiger Leslie Charteris 1968 British English
17120 Murder By The Clock Rufus King 1929 American English
17120 Clues Of The Caribbees T. S. Stribling 1929 American English
17120 The Book Of Murder Frederick Irving Anderson 1930 American English
17120 The Hammersmith Murders David Frome 1930 British English
17120 The Cape Cod Mystery Phoebe Atwood Taylor 1931 American English
17120 Death Walks In Eastrepps Francis Beeding 1931 British English
17120 Murder At School James Hilton 1931 British English
17120 The Fatal Five Minutes R.A.J. Walling 1932 British English
17120 The Murder Of My Aunt Richard Hull 1934 British English
17120 The Nursemaid Who Disappeared Philip MacDonald 1938 British English
17120 Death From A Top Hat Clayton Rawson 1938 American English
17120 Pray Silence Manning Coles 1940 British English
17120 The So Blue Marble Dorothy B. Hughes 1940 American English
17120 The Norths Meet Murder Frances Lockridge, Richard Lockridge 1940 American English
17120 Verdict Of Twelve Raymond Postgate 1940 British English
17120 The Patience Of Maigret Georges Simenon 1965 Belgian French
17120 Trial By Fury Craig Rice 1941 American English
17120 A Taste For Honey H.F. Heard 1941 British English
17120 Rocket To The Morgue Anthony Boucher 1942 American English
17120 The Just And The Unjust James Gould Cozzens 1942 American English
17120 Blood Upon The Snow Hilda Lawrence 1946 American English
17120 The Adventures Of Sam Spade Dashiell Hammett 1944 American English
17120 The Unsuspected Charlotte Armstrong 1945 American English
17120 Dr Sam Johnson, Detector Lilian De la Torre 1946 American English
17120 The Department Of Dead Ends Roy Vickers 1954 British English
17120 A Case To Answer Edgar Lustgarten 1947 British English
17120 Love Lies Bleeding Edmund Crispin 1948 British English
17120 Dreadful Summit Stanley Ellin 1948 American English
17120 Mischief Charlotte Armstrong 1950 American English
17120 The People Against O'hara Eleazar Lipsky 1950 American English
17120 Through A Glass, Darkly Helen McCloy 1950 American English
17120 The Motive Evelyn Piper 1950 American English
17120 Blues For The Prince Bart Spicer 1950 Unknown English
17120 Nightmare In Manhattan Thomas Walsh 1950 American English
17120 A Gentle Murderer Dorothy Salisbury Davis 1951 American English
17120 The Game They Played Stanley Cohen 1977 Unknown English
17120 The Lords Of The Rings Vyv Simson, Andrew Jennings 1992 Unknown English
17065 The Harder They Fall Budd Schulberg 1947 American English
17120 Cuckooland Tom Burgis 2024 Unknown English
17120 High Art Rubem Fonseca 1983 Brazilian Portuguese
17120 The Killer Patrícia Melo 1995 Brazilian Portuguese
17120 The Bangalore Detectives Club Harini Nagendra 2022 Indian English
17120 Who Killed Bambi? Monika Fagerholm 2019 Finnish Swedish
17120 The Naturals Jennifer Lynn Barnes 2013 American English
17120 Bad Blood Jennifer Lynn Barnes 2016 Unknown English
17120 The Bird Tribunal Agnes Ravatn 2013 Norwegian Norwegian
17120 Smaller And Smaller Circles FH Batacan 2002 Philippine English
17120 Killer Instinct Jennifer Lynn Barnes 2014 American English
17120 白夜行 [Byakuyakō] Keigo Higashino 1999 Japanese Japanese
17120 Murder Among Friends Elizabeth Ferrars 1946 British English
17120 The Fabulous Clipjoint Frederick Brown 1947 American English
17120 Five Roundabouts To Heaven John Bingham 1953 British English
17120 Post Mortem Guy Cullingford 1953 British English
17120 The Party At No. 5 Shelley Smith 1964 Unknown English
17120 Gideon’s Week John Creasey 1956 British English
17120 Mystery Stories Stanley Ellin 1956 American English
17120 The New Sonia Wayward Michael Innes 1960 British English
17120 Gun Before Butter Nicolas Freeling 1963 British English
17120 The Expendable Man Dorothy B. Hughes 1963 American English
17120 Murder Against The Grain Emma Lathen 1967 American English
17120 The Last Best Friend George Sims 1967 British English
17120 The Tremor Of Forgery Patricia Highsmith 1969 American English
17120 Young Man, I Think You're Dying Joan Fleming 1970 British English
17120 Beyond This Point Are Monsters Margaret Millar 1970 Canadian English
17120 The Players And The Game Julian Symons 1972 British English
17120 Mirror, Mirror On The Wall Stanley Ellin 1972 American English
17120 The Poison Oracle Peter Dickinson 1974 British English
17120 The Long Shadow Celia Fremlin 1975 British English
17120 The Naked Nuns Colin Watson 1975 British English
17120 A Death In The Life Dorothy Salisbury Davis 1976 American English
17120 The Investigation Dorothy Uhnak 1977 American English
17120 Nobody's Perfect Donald E. Westlake 1977 American English
17120 A Pinch Of Snuff Reginald Hill 1978 British English
17120 Skinflick Joseph Hansen 1979 American English
17120 The Green Ripper John D. MacDonald 1979 American English
17120 All On A Summer's Day John Wainwright 1981 British English
17120 The Glitter Dome Joseph Wambaugh 1981 American English
17120 To Make A Killing June Thomson 1982 British English
17120 The Artful Egg James McClure 1984 South African English
16894 Capitães Da Areia Jorge Amado 1937 Brazilian Portuguese
17120 Mindhunter John E. Douglas 1995 American English
17120 Dead Street Mickey Spillane 2007 American English
17120 End Games Michael Dibdin 2007 British English
17120 Q Luther Blissett 1999 Italian Italian
17120 The Kills Patrick House 2013 Unknown English
17120 Devil House John Darnielle 2022 American English
17120 Entered From The Sun George Garrett 1990 American English
17120 Desperadoes Ron Hansen 1979 American English
16797 The Talented Mr. Ripley / Ripley Under Ground / Ripley's Game Patricia Highsmith 1955 American English
17120 Bad Monkey Carl Hiaasen 2013 American English
17120 Naoki Urasawa's Monster, Volume 1 Naoki Urasawa 1994 Japanese Japanese
17120 The Short Drop Matthew FitzSimmons 2015 American English
17120 Jhereg Steven Brust 1983 American English
17120 By The Fire We Carry Rebecca Nagle 2024 Unknown English
17120 Los Alamos Joseph Kanon 1997 American English
17120 King's Man C.M. Edmondston, M.L.F. Hyde Unknown Unknown
17120 The Firedrake's Eye Patricia Finney 1992 British English
17120 Dark Torrent Of Glencoe Edward Grierson 1960 British English
17120 A Good Way To Die Del Barton Unknown Unknown
17120 Deception Eleanor Cooney, Daniel Altieri 1993 Unknown English
17120 The Fourth Man Robert Baer 2022 American English