The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time, by Category (from The Crown Crime Companion)

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From the back of the book: "For The Crown Crime Companion, the Mystery Writers of America have compiled a list of the best 100 mystery novels of all time, as well as a list of favorites in ten categories."

These are the top books (in descending order) from each category:
  • Classics (1-10)
  • Suspense (11-20)
  • Hardboiled/Private Eye (21-30)
  • Police Procedural (31-41 – there was a tie between #40 and #41)
  • Espionage/Thriller (42-51)
  • Criminal (52-61)
  • Cozy/Traditional (62-71)
  • Historical (72-81)
  • Humorous (82-91)
  • Legal/Courtroom (92-101)

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  1. 1.
    The Complete Sherlock Holmes
    by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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  2. 2.
    Tales of Mystery and Imagination
    by Edgar Allen Poe

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  3. 3.
    The Moonstone (Modern Library Classics)
    by Wilkie Collins

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  4. 4.
    The Woman in White (Penguin Classics)
    by Wilkie Collins

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  5. 5.
    Crime and Punishment (Penguin Classics)
    by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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  6. 6.
    ?
    Trent's Last Case
    by E. Clerihew Bentley

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  7. 7.
    The Circular Staircase
    by Mary Roberts Rinehart

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  8. 8.
    The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Penguin Classics)
    by Charles Dickens

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  9. 9.
    The Innocence of Father Brown
    by G. K. Chesterton

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  10. 10.
    Dracula (Norton Critical Editions)
    by Bram Stoker

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  11. 11.
    Rebecca
    by Daphne du Maurier

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  12. 12.
    Silence of the Lambs
    by Thomas Harris

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  13. 13.
    Red Dragon
    by Thomas Harris

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  14. 14.
    Where Are the Children?
    by Mary Higgins Clark

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  15. 15.
    Laura (Femmes Fatales: Women Write Pulp)
    by Vera Caspary

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  16. 16.
    Beast in View
    by Margaret Millar

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  17. 17.
    A Judgement in Stone
    by Ruth Rendell

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  18. 18.
    Rosemary's Baby
    by Ira Levin

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  19. 19.
    The Big Clock (New York Review Books Classics)
    by Kenneth Fearing

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  20. 21.
    The Maltese Falcon
    by Dashiell Hammett

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  21. 22.
    The Big Sleep
    by Raymond Chandler

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  22. 23.
    The Long Goodbye
    by Raymond Chandler

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  23. 24.
    Farewell, My Lovely
    by Raymond Chandler

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  24. 25.
    The Thin Man
    by Dashiell Hammett

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  25. 26.
    Red Harvest
    by Dashiell Hammett

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  26. 27.
    I, the Jury
    by Mickey Spillane

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  27. 28.

  28. 29.
    The Lady in the Lake
    by Raymond Chandler

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  29. 30.
    The Doorbell Rang (The Rex Stout Library)
    by Rex Stout

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  30. 31.
    Dance Hall of the Dead
    by Tony Hillerman

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  31. 32.
    The Laughing Policeman
    by Maj Sjowall

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  32. 33.
    Gorky Park
    by Martin Cruz Smith

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  33. 34.
    A Thief of Time (Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Novels)
    by Tony Hillerman

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  34. 35.
    The First Deadly Sin
    by Lawrence Sanders

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  35. 36.
    Last Seen Wearing (Pan Classic Crime)
    by Hillary Waugh

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  36. 37.
    The Steam Pig (Crime Club)
    by James McCLure

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  37. 38.
    The Choirboys
    by Joseph Wambaugh

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  38. 39.
    Shroud for a Nightingale
    by P.D. James

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  39. 40.
    ?
    Ice
    by Ed McBain

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  40. 41.
    In the Heat of the Night (Mystery Scene Books)
    by John Ball

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  41. 42.
    The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
    by John Le Carre

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  42. 43.
    A Coffin for Dimitrios
    by Eric Ambler

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  43. 44.
    Eye of the Needle
    by Ken Follett

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  44. 45.
    The Day of the Jackal
    by Frederick Forsyth

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  45. 46.
    Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
    by John le Carre

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  46. 47.
    The Thirty-Nine Steps (Penguin Classics)
    by John Buchan

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  47. 48.
    The Ipcress File
    by Len Deighton

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  48. 49.
    Smiley's People
    by John le Carre

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  49. 50.
    Rogue Male (Crime Masterworks)
    by Geoffrey Household

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Created by The Subjected Reader on Dec 08, 2006.
 

Comments

Thanks for creating this list... — 1 year ago

...even if it’s not exactly what it says it is. I thought this was going to be the top 100 list from all categories together. (I meant to put that list up here after doing the Hatchards list, but my computer was down for a while and I never got around to it after the computer cam back up.)