The Greatest Books of All Time on Police
Click to learn how this list is calculated.
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.
| Rank | Book | Authors | Year | Country | Language | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 920 | The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum | Heinrich Böll | 1974 | German | German | |
| 1001 | Red Dragon | Thomas Harris | 1981 | American | English | |
| 1061 | Fantômas | Marcel Allain, Pierre Souvestre | 1911 | French | French | |
| 1275 | The Laughing Policeman | Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö | 1968 | Swedish | Swedish | |
| 1445 | Faceless Killers | Henning Mankell | 1991 | Swedish | Swedish | |
| 1646 | The Pledge | Friedrich Dürrenmatt | 1958 | Swiss | German | |
| 1875 | Last Seen Wearing ... | Hillary Waugh | 1952 | American | English | |
| 1930 | Killing Floor | Lee Child | 1997 | British | English | |
| 2069 | The Black Dahlia | James Ellroy | 1987 | American | English | |
| 2136 | Cop Hater | Ed McBain | 1956 | American | English | |
| 2234 | Resurrection | Leo Tolstoy | 1899 | Russian | Russian | |
| 2292 | The Big Nowhere | James Ellroy | 1988 | American | English | |
| 2402 | Last Seen Wearing | Colin Dexter | 1976 | British | English | |
| 2517 | L.A. Confidential | James Ellroy | 1990 | American | English | |
| 2921 | Maigret And The Headless Corpse | Georges Simenon | 1955 | Belgian | French | |
| 2984 | Blind Man with a Pistol | Chester Himes | 1969 | American | English | |
| 3143 | The Cask | Freeman Wills Crofts | 1920 | British | English | |
| 3271 | Postmortem | Patricia Daniels Cornwell | 1990 | American | English | |
| 3389 | Death Of A Red Heroine | Qiu Xiaolong | 2000 | Chinese | English | |
| 3462 | The First Deadly Sin | Lawrence Sanders | 1973 | American | English | |
| 3520 | Sidetracked | Henning Mankell | 1995 | Swedish | Swedish | |
| 3549 | The Wolfen | Whitley Strieber | 1978 | American | English | |
| 3635 | The Totem | David Morrell | 1979 | American | English | |
| 3638 | Maigret And The Old Lady | Georges Simenon | 1950 | Belgian | French | |
| 3873 | The Alienist | Caleb Carr | 1994 | American | English | |
| 4616 | The Fifth Woman | Henning Mankell | 1996 | Swedish | Swedish | |
| 4724 | Death of a Lake | Arthur William Upfield | 1954 | Australian | English | |
| 4724 | The Bone is Pointed | Arthur William Upfield | 1938 | Australian | English | |
| 4768 | The Yiddish Policemen's Union | Michael Chabon | 2007 | American | English | |
| 4819 | Cat Of Many Tails | Ellery Queen | 1949 | American | English | |
| 4943 | Ghettoside | Jill Leovy | 2015 | American | English | |
| 5319 | The Leavenworth Case | Anna Katharine Green | 1878 | American | English | |
| 5348 | The Last Coyote | Michael Connelly | 1995 | American | English | |
| 5369 | White Jazz | James Ellroy | 1992 | American | English | |
| 5414 | Nineteen Seventy Four | David Peace | 1999 | British | English | |
| 5439 | The Black Echo | Michael Connelly | 1992 | American | English | |
| 5466 | Child 44 | Tom Rob Smith | 2008 | Russian | English | |
| 5492 | Along Came A Spider | James Patterson | 1993 | American | English | |
| 5603 | Jar City | Arnaldur Indriðason | 2000 | Icelandic | Icelandic | |
| 5645 | Naked In Death | J.D. Robb | 1995 | American | English | |
| 5763 | Unnatural Causes | P. D. James | 1967 | British | English | |
| 5981 | Chiefs | Stuart Woods | 1981 | American | English | |
| 6151 | The Steam Pig | James McClure | 1971 | South African | English | |
| 6176 | Gideon Of Scotland Yard | J. J. Marric | 1955 | British | English | |
| 6235 | Sadie When She Died | Ed McBain | 1972 | American | English | |
| 6255 | Six Four | Hideo Yokoyama | 2012 | Japanese | Japanese | |
| 6274 | Frost At Christmas | R. D. Wingfield | 1984 | British | English | |
| 6472 | The Neon Rain | James Lee Burke | 1987 | American | English | |
| 6548 | A Great Deliverance | Elizabeth George | 1988 | American | English | |
| 6592 | A Touch Of Frost | R. D. Wingfield | 1987 | British | English | |
| 6717 | A Man Lay Dead | Ngaio Marsh | 1934 | New Zealander | English | |
| 6789 | The Investigation | Stanislaw Lem | 1959 | Polish | Polish | |
| 6873 | The Late-night News | Petros Markaris | 1995 | Greek | Greek | |
| 7127 | The Redbreast | Jo Nesbø | 2000 | Norwegian | Norwegian | |
| 7137 | Bury Your Dead | Louise Penny | 2010 | Canadian | English | |
| 7198 | Hide And Seek | Ian Rankin | 1991 | British | English | |
| 7630 | Marks No Yama | Kaoru Takamura | 1993 | Japanese | Japanese | |
| 7741 | The Ice Princess | Camilla Läckberg | 2003 | Swedish | Swedish | |
| 7843 | Black And Blue | Ian Rankin | 1997 | British | English | |
| 7881 | 13 Hours | Deon Meyer | 2008 | South African | Afrikaans | |
| 7920 | Mr. Mercedes | Stephen King | 2014 | American | English | |
| 7945 | The Hanging Garden | Ian Rankin | 1998 | British | English | |
| 8161 | The Choirboys | Joseph Wambaugh | 1975 | American | English | |
| 8183 | Dead Time | Eleanor Taylor Bland | 1992 | American | English | |
| 8186 | One Step Behind | Henning Mankell | 1997 | Swedish | Swedish | |
| 8240 | Nineteen Seventy Seven | David Peace | 2000 | British | English | |
| 8305 | The Ghost Riders Of Ordebec | Fred Vargas | 2011 | French | French | |
| 8326 | The Night Sessions | Ken MacLeod | 2008 | Scottish | English | |
| 8326 | Lush Life | Richard Price | 2008 | American | English | |
| 8510 | The Broken Shore | Peter Temple | 2005 | Australian | English | |
| 8538 | Morituri | Yasmina Khadra | 1997 | Algerian | French | |
| 8557 | The Tall Man | Chloe Hooper | 2008 | Australian | English | |
| 8698 | Inner City Blues | Paula L. Woods | 1999 | American | English | |
| 8710 | The Dead Of Jericho | Colin Dexter | 1981 | British | English | |
| 8721 | Rules Of Prey | John Sandford | 1989 | American | English | |
| 8826 | Plenilunio | Antonio Muñoz Molina | 1997 | Spanish | Spanish | |
| 8882 | Hard Revolution | George P. Pelecanos | 2004 | American | English | |
| 8961 | Devices And Desires | P. D. James | 1989 | British | English | |
| 8955 | Money To Burn | Ricardo Piglia | 1997 | Argentinian | Spanish | |
| 9141 | Bangkok 8 | John Burdett | 2003 | British | English | |
| 9151 | Mercy | Jussi Adler-Olsen | 2007 | Danish | Danish | |
| 9314 | White Man Falling | Mike Stocks | 2006 | British | English | |
| 9365 | Night Watch | Terry Pratchett | 2002 | British | English | |
| 9613 | Exit Music | Ian Rankin | 2007 | British | English | |
| 10304 | Death Notice | Zhou Haohui | 2014 | Chinese | Chinese | |
| 10572 | Land Of Shadows | Rachel Howzell Hall | 2014 | American | English | |
| 10876 | Darkly Dreaming Dexter | Jeff Lindsay | 2004 | American | English | |
| 11422 | The Onion Field | Joseph Wambaugh | 1973 | American | English | |
| 13930 | The White Lioness | Henning Mankell | 1993 | Swedish | Swedish | |
| 13941 | Clockers | Richard Price | 1992 | American | English | |
| 14199 | Roseanna | Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö | 1965 | Swedish | Swedish | |
| 14232 | Knots and Crosses | Ian Rankin | 1987 | British | English | |
| 14232 | Rivers Of London | Ben Aaronovitch | 2011 | British | English | |
| 14719 | Monsieur Lecoq | Émile Gaboriau | 1869 | French | French | |
| 14773 | My Friend Maigret | Georges Simenon, Shaun Whiteside | 1949 | French | French | |
| 14936 | Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said | Philip K. Dick | 1974 | American | English | |
| 14963 | Laidlaw | William McIlvanney | 1977 | British | English | |
| 14985 | Accidental Death Of An Anarchist | Dario Fo | 1970 | Italian | Italian | |
| 14985 | Long Bright River | Liz Moore | 2020 | American | English | |
| 15616 | The New Centurions | Joseph Wambaugh | 1970 | American | English | |
| 15916 | Maigret And The Man On The Boulevard | Georges Simenon | 1953 | Belgian | French | |
| 15916 | 120, Rue De La Gare | Léo Malet | 1943 | French | French | |
| 15916 | Recollections Of A Detective Police Officer | William Russell Waters | 1856 | British | English | |
| 17163 | Fleshmarket Close | Ian Rankin | 2004 | Scottish | English | |
| 17163 | Coyote Waits | Tony Hillerman | 1990 | American | English | |
| 17163 | Stalker | Lars Kepler | 2014 | Swedish | Swedish | |
| 17163 | When You See Me | Lisa Gardner | 2020 | American | English | |
| 17163 | Look For Me | Lisa Gardner | 2018 | American | English | |
| 17163 | The 4th Man | Lisa Gardner | 2017 | American | English | |
| 17163 | Find Her | Lisa Gardner | 2016 | American | English | |
| 17163 | The 7th Month | Lisa Gardner | 2012 | American | English | |
| 17163 | Gone | Lisa Gardner | 2006 | American | English | |
| 17163 | The Next Accident | Lisa Gardner | 2001 | American | English | |
| 17163 | The Third Victim | Lisa Gardner | 2001 | American | English | |
| 17163 | Dark Sacred Night | Michael Connelly | 2018 | American | English | |
| 17163 | Catch Me | Lisa Gardner | 2012 | American | English | |
| 17163 | Hide | Lisa Gardner | 2007 | American | English | |
| 17163 | The Mermaids Singing | Val McDermid | 1995 | British | English | |
| 17163 | Ragdoll | Daniel Cole | 2017 | British | English | |
| 17163 | 1991 | Franck Thilliez | 2021 | French | French |