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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),
Hard boiled/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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76. |
A Morbid Taste for Bones (First book in the Cadfael Chronicles, 1977.)(Filmed in 2000). An inquisitive 12th Century monk uses a combination of alchemy, medicine, and his wits to probe seemingly unsolvable mysteries. The excavation of the bones of a saint prove to be deadly, as hallucinations and murder follow their discovery.
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Ellis Peters |
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77. |
Time and Again (Illustrated novel, 1970, some would call it science fiction). In November 1969, Simon Morley, an advertising sketch artist, is approached by U.S. Army Major Ruben Prien to participate in a secret government project. He is taken to a huge warehouse on the West Side of Manhattan, where he views what seem to be movie sets, with people acting on them.
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Jack Finney |
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78. |
Devil in a Blue Dress (Easy Rawlins Mysteries) (1990, filmed in 1995). Easy Rawlins has few illusions about the world. This is a tale of an inherently decent man in a violent world of intrigue and corruption, who accepts money to find beautiful, mysterious French woman named Daphne Monet, last seen in the company of a well-known gangster, and gets no breaks.
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Walter Mosley |
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79. |
Crocodile on the Sandbank. (1975) Thirty-one-year-old Victorian gentlewoman Amelia Peabody has not only inherited her father's fortune, but she is also blessed with his strong will. Now she's headed for Cairo to indulge her passion for Egyptology. Little did she know that murder and a homicidal mummy lay in wait for her. |
Elizabeth Peters |
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80. |
The Devil in Velvet (1951). In 1925 a historian becomes obsessed with a murder committed in 1675. There seem to have been three possible suspects, but although several manuscripts exist that give an account of the events, none name the actual murderer. The historian makes a pact with the Devil, allowing him to travel back in time to 1675, and he finds himself inhabiting the body of the murder victim’s husband.
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John Dickson Carr |
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81. |
The Chinese Nail Murders: A Judge Dee Detective Story. (1961) In a story set in Imperial China, Judge Dee and his helpers solve three murders: that of an honored merchant, a master of martial arts, and the wife of a merchant, whose corpse has no head. Judge Dee soon comes under pressure from higher ranking officials to end his investigation. Naturally, Judge Dee refuses to give up until he has learned the whole truth.
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Robert Van Gulik |
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82. |
Fletch (1974).
(Filmed starring Chevy Chase.) A great mystery. When a wealthy California industrialist tells beach bum I. M. Fletcher that he wants to be murdered, the undercover journalist investigates the businessman's private life without loosing sight of the newspaper deadline.
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Gregory Mcdonald |
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83. |
The Hot Rock. (1970, flmed 1972) This is the classic that introduced John Archibald Dortmunder, the thief whose capers never quite come off, as he and his convict friends plot to steal the fabulous Balaboma Emerald. They almost carry it off, but then the guy carrying the stone is picked up by the cops. |
Donald E. Westlake |
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84 |
Bank Shot (1972).
When John Dortmunder sets out to rob a bank, he really means it. With the help of his usual crew, he steals the whole thing.
When the safe won't open and the cops close in, Dortmunder realizes he's got to find a place -- somewhere in suburban Long Island -- to hide a bank.
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Donald E. Westlake |
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85. |
God Save the Mark: A Novel of Crime and Confusion. (1967) Every itinerant grifter, hypester, bunk artist, short-conner, amuser, shearer, short-changer, green-goods worker, pennyweighter, ring dropper, and yentzer to hit New York City considers his trip incomplete until he's also hit Fred Fitch. He's sort of the con-man's version of Go: Pass Fred Fitch, collect two hundred dollars, and move on.
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Donald E. Westlake |
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86. |
Skin Tight (2001). Somebody wants Mick Stranahan dead, and the list of suspects is long: the plastic surgeon with the extremely shaky hands, the sleazy lawyer, the TV host whose taste for sensationalism is exceeded only by his vanity, and the hit man whose skin problems could fill a comprehensive medical textbook.
The whole thing is downright harrowing. It's Hiaasen at his best. And his best is very, very good.
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Carl Hiaasen |
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87. |
Rest You Merry (Peter Shandy Mysteries)(1979). Professor Peter Shandy hires professionals to decorate his house and departs for a cruise. Upon his return he discovers the body of his best friend's wife in his living room. Authorities agree that it was an accident but when Shandy finds the college's comptroller dead he is convinced that both deaths were not accidental. It is up to him to find the murderer. A cozy mystery!
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Charlotte MacLeod |
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88. |
Dancing Aztecs (1976). This book tells the tale of a hilarious crime caper set in New York. A hot hustler is searching for a million-dollar Aztec sculpture that is accidentally mixed with cheap plaster copies. From Harlem to Greenwich, a motley cast chases the lost piece.
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Donald E. Westlake |
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89. |
Bimbos of the Death Sun (1988). The guest of honor at the annual Rubicon science fiction and fantasy convention is bestselling author Appin Dungannon--a tiny man with a towering ego, who reviles his fans as much as they revere him. But finally rubbing the wrong person the wrong way gets Dungannon done in. Is the mystery whodunit--or who wouldn't?
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Sharyn Mccrumb |
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90. |
Home Sweet Homicide (Rue Morgue Vintage Mystery)(1944, filmed in 1946). The three (very independent) children of a mystery writing mother solve a murder and play matchmaker for their mother at the same time. Home Sweet Homicide is well written, funny, and charming. |
Craig Rice |
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91. |
The Moving Toyshop (1946)(Classic Crime) A poet-friend of Fen's stumbles late at night into a toystore and discovers a dead body, and then the next day the body is gone and the toyshop has vanished--and no one can remember anything other than a grocer's on the site. Great characters, excelent read! |
Edmund Crispin |
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92. |
Presumed Innocent (1987). (Filmed 1990.) This is a realistic portrait of big city political corruption that climaxes with a dramatic murder trial in which every dark twist of legal statute and human nature is convincingly revealed. The novel puts the reader firmly in the mind of narrator Rusty Sabich, a married prosecuting attorney whose affair with a colleague comes back to haunt him after she is brutally raped and murdered. Sabich's professional and personal lives begin to mingle painfully when he becomes the accused.
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Scott Turow |
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93. |
Anatomy of a Murder (1958). This is probably the most popular courtroom drama in American fiction, as well as one of the most popular novels of our time. A gripping tale of deceit, murder, and a sensational trial. Anatomy of a Murder is unmatched in the authenticity of its settings, events, and characters. |
Robert Traver |
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94. |
Witness for the Prosecution (1953, filmed 1957) A murder trial takes a diabolical turn when the wife of the accused takes a stand. A woman's sixth--and a loaded revolver--signal premonitions of doom...A stranded motorist seeks refuge in a remote mansion, and is greeted with a dire warning...Detective Hercule Poirot faces his greatest challenge when his services are enlisted--by the victim--in a bizarre locked-room murder.
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Agatha Christie |
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95. |
Rumpole of the Bailey. (First book 1978) This series is about the English barrister, Horace Rumpole, an Old Bailey hack who has been around the London courts for many years. Rumpole has no aspirations to "take silk"-becoming a Queens Counsel, and is perfectly happy as a defence lawyer, mostly representing criminals of the non-violent variety. We also meet his wife Hilda, "She Who Must Be Obeyed", who, after all these years, still envisions herself as the wife of Head of Chambers.
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John Clifford Mortimer
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96. |
The Firm.(1991) Mitch McDeere, the hero, is a poor kid whose only assets are a first-class mind, a Harvard law degree, and a beautiful, loving wife. When a Memphis law firm makes him an offer he can't refuse, he trades his old Nissan for a new BMW, his cramped apartment for a house in the best part of town, and puts in long hours finding tax shelters for Texans who'd rather pay a lawyer than the IRS. . He'd be set for life, if only associates at the firm didn't have a funny habit of dying. The tempo and pacing are brilliant and the thrills keep coming.
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John Grisham |
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97. |
To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Pernnial Moderns Classics)(1960). Takes place during the Great Depression. The main character is 6-year-old Scout Finch who lives with her older brother Jem and their father. Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Dill, who has come to live with their neighbor. They are terrified and fascinated by a phantom neighbor named "Boo" Radley, who is a mysterious recluse the adults are hesitant to speak about, and few have seen for a long time.
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Harper Lee |
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98. |
A Time to Kill(1989). In Canton, Mississippi, 10-year-old Tonya Hailey is viciously brutalized by two white racist rednecks -- James Louis "Pete" Willard and Billy Ray Cobb. Almost immediately after Tonya is found and rushed to a hospital, Pete and Billy Ray are found at a roadside bar, where they had been bragging about what they did to Tonya. Grisham's first, and in our opinion, best book.
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John Grisham |
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99. |
The Case of the Velvet Claw (Pocket Book #73)(1933).  The first book in the series about Perry Mason, and a classic in the legal thriller genre. Mason does anything and everything for a client, but in this novel, his client tries to set him up as the killer. In order to save himself, Mason has to turn the tables on his client. Not the best book in the series, but well worth a read.
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Erle Stanley Gardner |
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100. |
The Burden of Proof (1990). "Scott Turow writes literature. Like John La Carre, the joy of reading his works lies in the journey through the book. Characters come alive; scenes are rich with description. Though not stream of consciousness novels, we are able to witness the thoughts of the actors, and discern their emotions as well as their understanding of life." Robert Derenthat at amazon.com
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Scott Turow |
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101. |
The Caine Mutiny. (A Pulitzer winning novel from 1951, filmed 1954.) About mutiny on U.S.S. Caine, commanded by by Lieutenant Commander Philip Francis Queeg, a strong, authoritarian figure who is also a coward and incompetent. He runs away from combat, loses a gunnery training target by running over the ship's towline while disciplining a sailor, and overall makes the crew very unhappy. A great book. |
Herman Wouk |
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More books by
Walter Mosley.
More books by
Donald E. Westlake.
More books by
John Grisham.
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Scott Turow.
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