The Greatest Books of All Time on Murder

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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
73 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962 American English
109 In Cold Blood Truman Capote 1966 American English
115 The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco 1980 Italian Italian
120 The Big Sleep Raymond Chandler 1939 American English
141 The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett 1930 American English
143 The Talented Mr. Ripley Patricia Highsmith 1955 American English
161 The Long Goodbye Raymond Chandler 1953 American English
190 And Then There Were None Agatha Christie 1939 British English
220 Brighton Rock Graham Greene 1938 British English
233 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
251 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Agatha Christie 1926 British English
258 The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner James Hogg 1824 Scottish English
280 The Secret History Donna Tartt 1992 American English
286 Oresteia Aeschylus -458 Greek Ancient greek
344 The Thirty-Nine Steps John Buchan 1915 British English
399 The Shining Stephen King 1977 American English
423 Murder on the Orient Express Agatha Christie 1934 British English
459 The Hollow Man John Dickson Carr 1935 British English
469 The Postman Always Rings Twice James M. Cain 1934 American English
494 The Third Policeman Flann O'Brien 1967 Irish English
497 Murder Must Advertise Dorothy L. Sayers 1933 British English
511 Perfume Patrick Suskind 1985 German German
540 Red Harvest Dashiell Hammett 1929 American English
543 So Long, See You Tomorrow William Maxwell 1980 American English
544 Uncle Silas Sheridan Le Fanu 1864 Irish English
570 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis 1991 American English
578 The Silence of the Lambs Thomas Harris 1988 American English
581 The Innocence of Father Brown G. K. Chesterton 1911 British English
586 The Third Man Graham Greene 1949 British English
595 Farewell, My Lovely Raymond Chandler 1940 American English
626 The Nine Tailors Dorothy L. Sayers 1934 British English
661 The Thin Man Dashiell Hammett 1934 American English
759 Thérèse Raquin Émile Zola 1867 French French
790 The Mask of Dimitrios Eric Ambler 1939 British English
801 The Mysterious Affair at Styles Agatha Christie 1920 British English
862 We Have Always Lived in the Castle Shirley Jackson 1962 American English
863 Smilla's Sense of Snow Peter Høeg 1992 Danish Danish
872 Wieland Charles Brockden Brown 1798 American English
917 Malice Aforethought Francis Iles 1931 British English
948 The Poisoned Chocolates Case Anthony Berkeley 1929 British English
950 Richard III William Shakespeare 1592 British English
953 Trent's Last Case E. C. Bentley 1913 British English
984 A Study In Scarlet Arthur Conan Doyle 1887 British English
987 Electra Sophocles -409 Greek Ancient greek
998 The Judge and His Hangman Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1950 Swiss German
1002 Red Dragon Thomas Harris 1981 American English
1063 Fantômas Marcel Allain, Pierre Souvestre 1911 French French
1067 La Bête humaine Émile Zola 1890 French French
1075 The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown 2003 American English
1094 Gorky Park Martin Cruz Smith 1981 American English
1105 The Chill Ross Macdonald 1964 American English
1136 The Tunnel Ernesto Sábato 1948 Argentinian Spanish
1155 Beast In View Margaret Millar 1955 Canadian English
1184 In A Lonely Place Dorothy B. Hughes 1947 American English
1194 Double Indemnity James M. Cain 1943 American English
1195 Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead Olga Tokarczuk 2009 Polish Polish
1214 The Moving Toyshop Edmund Crispin 1946 British English
1240 Strangers On A Train Patricia Highsmith 1950 American English
1250 The White Devil John Webster 1612 British English
1269 A Kiss Before Dying Ira Levin 1953 American English
1276 The Laughing Policeman Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö 1968 Swedish Swedish
1280 Psycho Robert Bloch 1959 American English
1301 My Name is Red Orhan Pamuk 1998 Turkish Turkish
1319 To Each His Own Leonardo Sciascia 1966 Italian Italian
1327 A Judgement In Stone Ruth Rendell 1977 British English
1336 Hangover Square Patrick Hamilton 1941 British English
1366 The Adversary Emmanuel Carrère 2000 French French
1371 The Devil's Elixir E. T. A. Hoffmann 1815 German German
1424 And The Darkness Falls Boris Karloff 1943 British English
1439 Édes Anna Dezső Kosztolányi 1926 Hungarian Hungarian
1445 Faceless Killers Henning Mankell 1991 Swedish Swedish
1450 Mary Barton Elizabeth Gaskell 1848 British English
1491 Presumed Innocent Scott Turow 1987 American English
1494 Eye Of The Needle Ken Follett 1978 British English
1496 The Sleeping And The Dead August Derleth 1947 American English
1511 The Strange Case of Peter the Lett Georges Simenon 1931 Belgian French
1512 The Beast Must Die Nicholas Blake 1938 British English
1543 The Devil In The White City Erik Larson 2003 American English
1552 Hawksmoor Peter Ackroyd 1985 British English
1640 No Orchids for Miss Blandish James Hadley Chase 1939 British English
1649 The Pledge Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1958 Swiss German
1677 London Fields Martin Amis 1989 British English
1682 The Killer Inside Me Jim Thompson 1952 American English
1691 Lady Macbeth Of Mtsensk Nikolai Leskov 1865 Russian Russian
1694 The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold 2002 American English
1712 Woyzeck Georg Buchner 1879 German German
1721 The Lady In The Lake Raymond Chandler 1943 American English
1739 A Fatal Inversion Barbara Vine 1987 British English
1788 The Mystery Of Edwin Drood Charles Dickens 1870 British English
1801 A Time To Kill John Grisham 1989 American English
1812 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon 2003 British English
1815 The Ring And The Book Robert Browning 1868 British English
1826 The Other Thomas Tryon 1971 American English
1848 The Little Sister Raymond Chandler 1949 American English
1889 A Dark Adapted Eye Barbara Vine 1986 British English
1900 The Zebra Striped Hearse Ross Macdonald 1962 American English
1909 Smallbone Deceased Michael Gilbert 1950 British English
1930 Killing Floor Lee Child 1997 British English
1939 The Marble Faun Nathaniel Hawthorne 1860 American English
1949 The Cadaver Of Gideon Wyck Alexander Laing 1934 American English
1949 The Second Century Of Creepy Stories Hugh Walpole 1937 British English
2068 The Black Dahlia James Ellroy 1987 American English
2091 Strong Poison Dorothy L. Sayers 1930 British English
2105 Chronicle of a Death Foretold Gabriel García Márquez 1981 Colombian Spanish
2135 Cop Hater Ed McBain 1956 American English
2142 Home Sweet Homicide Craig Rice 1944 American English
2189 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Stieg Larsson 2005 Swedish Swedish
2254 Busman’s Honeymoon Dorothy L. Sayers 1937 British English
2264 The Murderess Alexandros Papadiamantis 1903 Greek Greek
2281 Boris Godunov Alexander Pushkin 1831 Russian Russian
2284 Smiley's People John le Carré 1979 British English
2291 The Big Nowhere James Ellroy 1988 American English
2297 Out Natsuo Kirino 1997 Japanese Japanese
2326 What a Carve Up! Jonathan Coe 1994 British English
2333 The Devil In Velvet John Dickson Carr 1951 American English
2400 Last Seen Wearing Colin Dexter 1976 British English
2429 The Physicists Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1962 Swiss German
2453 The Sign of Four Arthur Conan Doyle 1890 British English
2460 The League Of Frightened Men Rex Stout 1935 American English
2483 The Firm John Grisham 1991 American English