Send to Printer

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

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)

Pages: Pages: 1 3
1. The Complete Sherlock Holmes
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
  
2. Tales of Mystery and Imagination
by Edgar Allen Poe
  
3. The Moonstone (Modern Library Classics)
by Wilkie Collins
  
4. The Woman in White (Penguin Classics)
by Wilkie Collins
  
5. Crime and Punishment (Penguin Classics)
by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  
6.
?
 Trent's Last Case
by E. Clerihew Bentley
  
7. The Circular Staircase
by Mary Roberts Rinehart
  
8. The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Penguin Classics)
by Charles Dickens
  
9. The Innocence of Father Brown
by G. K. Chesterton
  
10. Dracula (Norton Critical Editions)
by Bram Stoker
  
11. Rebecca
by Daphne du Maurier
  
12. Silence of the Lambs
by Thomas Harris
  
13. Red Dragon
by Thomas Harris
  
14. Where Are the Children?
by Mary Higgins Clark
  
15. Laura (Femmes Fatales: Women Write Pulp)
by Vera Caspary
  
16. Beast in View
by Margaret Millar
  
17. A Judgement in Stone
by Ruth Rendell
  
18. Rosemary's Baby
by Ira Levin
  
19. The Big Clock (New York Review Books Classics)
by Kenneth Fearing
  
20. Brighton Rock: (Penguin Classic Deluxe Edition) (Penguin Classics Deluxe Editio)
by Graham Greene
  
21. The Maltese Falcon
by Dashiell Hammett
  
22. The Big Sleep
by Raymond Chandler
  
23. The Long Goodbye
by Raymond Chandler
  
24. Farewell, My Lovely
by Raymond Chandler
  
25. The Thin Man
by Dashiell Hammett
  
26. Red Harvest
by Dashiell Hammett
  
27. I, the Jury
by Mickey Spillane
  
28. A Is for Alibi (The Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mystery Series)
by Sue Grafton
  
29. The Lady in the Lake
by Raymond Chandler
  
30. The Doorbell Rang (The Rex Stout Library)
by Rex Stout
  
31. Dance Hall of the Dead
by Tony Hillerman
  
32. The Laughing Policeman
by Maj Sjowall
  
33. Gorky Park
by Martin Cruz Smith
  
34. A Thief of Time (Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Novels)
by Tony Hillerman
  
35. The First Deadly Sin
by Lawrence Sanders
  
36. Last Seen Wearing (Pan Classic Crime)
by Hillary Waugh
  
37.
?
 The Steam Pig (Crime Club)
by James McCLure
  
38. The Choirboys
by Joseph Wambaugh
  
39. Shroud for a Nightingale
by P.D. James
  
40.
?
 Ice
by Ed McBain
  
41. In the Heat of the Night (Mystery Scene Books)
by John Ball
  
42. The Spy Who Came In from the Cold
by John le Carre
  
43. A Coffin for Dimitrios
by Eric Ambler
  
44. Eye of the Needle
by Ken Follett
  
45. The Day of the Jackal
by Frederick Forsyth
  
46. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
by John le Carre
  
47. The Thirty-Nine Steps (Penguin Classics)
by John Buchan
  
48. The Ipcress File
by Len Deighton
  
49. Smiley's People
by John le Carre
  
50. Rogue Male (Crime Masterworks)
by Geoffrey Household
  
This is a community list. You can contribute, edit, or help maintain it by adding it to your lists.
Created by The Subjected Reader on Dec 08, 2006.