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
  2. 2.
    Tales of Mystery and Imagination
    by Edgar Allen Poe
  3. 3.
    The Moonstone (Modern Library Classics)
    by Wilkie Collins
  4. 4.
    The Woman in White (Penguin Classics)
    by Wilkie Collins
  5. 5.
    Crime and Punishment (Penguin Classics)
    by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  6. 6.
    ?
    Trent's Last Case
    by E. Clerihew Bentley
  7. 7.
    The Circular Staircase
    by Mary Roberts Rinehart
  8. 8.
    The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Penguin Classics)
    by Charles Dickens
  9. 9.
    The Innocence of Father Brown
    by G. K. Chesterton
  10. 10.
    Dracula (Norton Critical Editions)
    by Bram Stoker
  11. 11.
    Rebecca
    by Daphne Du Maurier
  12. 12.
    Silence of the Lambs
    by Thomas Harris
  13. 13.
    Red Dragon
    by Thomas Harris
  14. 14.
    Where Are the Children?
    by Mary Higgins Clark
  15. 15.
    Laura (Femmes Fatales: Women Write Pulp)
    by Vera Caspary
  16. 16.
    Beast in View
    by Margaret Millar
  17. 17.
    A Judgement in Stone
    by Ruth Rendell
  18. 18.
    Rosemary's Baby
    by Ira Levin
  19. 19.
    The Big Clock (New York Review Books Classics)
    by Kenneth Fearing
  20. 20.
    Brighton Rock (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    by Graham Greene
  21. 21.
    The Maltese Falcon
    by Dashiell Hammett
  22. 22.
    The Big Sleep
    by Raymond Chandler
  23. 23.
    The Long Goodbye
    by Raymond Chandler
  24. 24.
    Farewell, My Lovely
    by Raymond Chandler
  25. 25.
    The Thin Man
    by Dashiell Hammett
  26. 26.
    Red Harvest
    by Dashiell Hammett
  27. 27.
    I, the Jury
    by Mickey Spillane
  28. 28.
  29. 29.
    The Lady in the Lake
    by Raymond Chandler
  30. 30.
    The Doorbell Rang (Nero Wolfe Mysteries)
    by Rex Stout
  31. 31.
    Dance Hall of the Dead
    by Tony Hillerman
  32. 32.
    The Laughing Policeman
    by Maj Sjowall
  33. 33.
    Gorky Park
    by Martin Cruz Smith
  34. 34.
    A Thief of Time (Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Novels)
    by Tony Hillerman
  35. 35.
    The First Deadly Sin (The Deadly Sins Novels)
    by Lawrence Sanders
  36. 36.
    Last Seen Wearing (Pan Classic Crime)
    by Hillary Waugh
  37. 37.
    The Steam Pig (Crime Club)
    by James McCLure
  38. 38.
    The Choirboys
    by Joseph Wambaugh
  39. 39.
  40. 40.
    ?
    Ice
    by Ed McBain
  41. 41.
    In the Heat of the Night (Mystery Scene Books)
    by John Ball
  42. 42.
    The Spy Who Came In from the Cold
    by John le Carre
  43. 43.
    A Coffin for Dimitrios
    by Eric Ambler
  44. 44.
    Eye of the Needle
    by Ken Follett
  45. 45.
    The Day of the Jackal
    by Frederick Forsyth
  46. 46.
    Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
    by John le Carre
  47. 47.
    The Thirty-Nine Steps (Penguin Classics)
    by John Buchan
  48. 48.
    The Ipcress File
    by Len Deighton
  49. 49.
    Smiley's People
    by John le Carre
  50. 50.
    Rogue Male (Crime Masterworks)
    by Geoffrey Household

Pages: 1 3

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Created by bah on Dec 08, 2006.
 

Comments

RobT2

Thanks for creating this list... — 5 years 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.)

Dec 08, 06:59PM | 1 comment | Reply to this



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