Crime Novel Reading List
“Best” lists are always sure to rile folks up. This isn’t that. This is merely a starting point for a discussion and a way for me to fill out my crime novel TBR list and immerse myself in what the great crime writers create, and hopefully learn more about how they do it. I’m sure there are others out there with strong opinions on which books are on here and which should be, and I’m open to hearing them.
A notes on the list:
Some are only available in their native language, so I may not be able to get to them
Some are part of a series, and I may have to read earlier books to catch up.
I will DNF books I don’t enjoy. I’m too busy to spend time reading something I don’t like. I do that for school already.
I do not enjoy books with humorous tones. Just not my thing.
My post-read notes will be in italics below each book.
My list is based on THIS list from The Greatest Books website, which lists the greatest crime novels since 1945. I’ve added a couple I felt should be on there, and I’m happy to add more if I get suggestions from people who feel strongly enough about the book and can tell me why it belongs on the list or why I should read them. The site also has a list of the 100 greatest crime novels of all time, but honestly, I just don’t like reading the older ones. Sure, the noir classics are must-reads, but anything from the 19th century is a trudge for me. I’ll leave them for others to enjoy.
As time goes on, I’ll make notations as to which I’ve read.
The List
updated 11/23/25
* - reader suggestion
DNF - did not finish
13 Hours - Deon Meyer - 2008
A Book Of Scars - William Shaw - 2015
A Fatal Inversion - Barbara Vine - 1987
A Time To Kill - John Grisham - 1989
Read it years ago. May read again
About The Author - John Colapinto - 2001
Absolute Power - David Baldacci - 1996
Read it years ago. May read again
Acqua Alta - Donna Leon - 1996
Alex - Pierre Lemaitre - 2011
August Heat - Andrea Camilleri - 2006
Bangkok 8 - John Burdett - 2003
Beast In View - Margaret Millar - 1955
Black Water Rising - Attica Locke - 2009
Blacklands - Belinda Bauer - 2010
Bleeding Heart Square - Andrew Taylor - 2008
Blue Lightning - Ann Cleeves - 2010
Bluebird, Bluebird - Attica Locke - 2018
Casino Royale - Ian Fleming - 1953
I can see how it may have caused a stir upon release, but it seems boring now.
City Of Veils - Zoë Ferraris - 2009
Cotton Comes To Harlem - Chester Himes - 1965
Death Notice - Zhou Haohui - 2014
Devil in a Blue Dress - Walter Mosley - 1990
Dodgers - Bill Beverly - 2016
Dogstar Rising - Parker Bilal - 2013
Faceless Killers - Henning Mankell - 1991
Fatherland - Robert Harris - 1992
Read it years ago. May read again
Frozen Moment - Camilla Ceder - 2010
Forty Words for Sorrow - Giles Blunt - 2002*
Get Shorty - Elmore Leonard - 1990
Ghostman - Roger Hobbs - 2013
Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn - 2012
Hardball - Sara Paretsky - 2009
Harry’s Game - Gerald Seymour - 1975
DNF. Way too pro-British imperialism.
Heartstone - C. J. Sansom - 2010
Hide And Seek - Ian Rankin - 1991
In A Lonely Place - Dorothy B. Hughes - 1947
Jack’s Return Home - Ted Lewis - 1970
Killing Floor - Lee Child - 1997
Good, but just a mass-market thriller
Kolymsky Heights - Lionel Davidson - 1994
L.A. Confidential - James Ellroy - 1990
Last Seen In Massilia - Steven Saylor - 2000
Little Face - Sophie Hannah - 2006
London Rules - Mick Herron - 2018
Magpie Murders - Anthony Horowitz - 2016
Maigret And The Headless Corpse - Georges Simenon - 1955
March Violets - Philip Kerr - 1989
Mercy - Jussi Adler-Olsen - 2007
Metzger's Dog - Thomas Perry - 1983
Mystic River - Dennis Lehane - 2002*
No Way Out - Cara Hunter - 2019
Out - Natsuo Kirino - 1997
Point Blank - Richard Stark - 1962
Tight, tense, ready to punch someone.
Postmortem - Patricia Cornwell - 1991*
Presumed Innocent - Scott Turow - 1987
Ratking - Michael Dibdin - 1988
Sanctum - Denise Mina - 2002
She Rides Shotgun - Jordan Harper - 2018 *
Six Four - Hideo Yokoyama - 2012
Smilla's Sense of Snow - Peter Høeg - 1992
Smoke And Ashes - Abir Mukherjee - 2018
Sparkling Cyanide - Agatha Christie - 1945
Strange Shores - Arnaldur Indriðason - 2010
The Andromeda Strain - Michael Crichton - 1969
The Asphalt Jungle - W. R. Burnett - 1949
The Bellini Card - Jason Goodwin - 2008
The Border - Don Winslow - 2019
The Bottoms - Joe R. Lansdale - 2000
The Bourne Identity - Robert Ludlum - 1980
Read it years ago. May read again
The Collini Case - Ferdinand Von Schirach - 2011
The Company - Robert Littell - 2002
The Cuckoo’s Calling - J. K. Rowling - 2013
The Darkness - Ragnar Jonasson - 2015
The Day of the Jackal - Frederick Forsyth - 1971
Read it years ago. May read again
The Deadly Percheron - John Franklin Bardin - 1946
The First Deadly Sin - Lawrence Sanders - 1980
Great snapshot of the NYPD in the 70s, but way too problematic regarding race and sexism.
The Franchise Affair - Josephine Tey - 1948
The Frozen Dead - Bernard Minier - 2011
The Ghost Riders Of Ordebec - Fred Vargas - 2011
The Girl On The Train - Paula Hawkins - 2015
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson - 2005
The Godfather - Mario Puzo - 1969
What’s to say?
The Hunt for Red October - Tom Clancy - 1984
In my top 10
The Hypnotist - Lars Kepler - 2018
The Invisible Guardian - Dolores Redondo - 2013
The Ipcress File - Len Deighton - 1962
The Keys To The Street - Ruth Rendell - 1996
The Killer Inside Me - Jim Thompson - 1952
The Lady In The Car With Glasses And A Gun - Sebastien Japrisot - 1966
The Last Coyote - Michael Connelly - 1995
In my Top 5. Inspired me to write.
The Long Goodbye - Raymond Chandler - 1953
Top 5 material
The Last Good Kiss - James Crumley - 2016*
The Lost Man - Jane Harper - 2018
The Man with the Golden Arm - Nelson Algren - 1949
The Manchurian Candidate - Richard Condon - 1959
Read it years ago. May read again
The Moving Toyshop - Edmund Crispin - 1946
The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco - 1980
The Pledge - Friedrich Dürrenmatt - 1958
The Secret History - Donna Tartt - 1992
The Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris - 1988
The Silence Of The Sea - Yrsa Sigurdardottir - 2012
The Snowman - Jo Nesbø - 2007
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold - John le Carré - 1963
The Talented Mr. Ripley - Patricia Highsmith - 1955
The Third Man - Graham Greene - 1949
The Trees: A Novel - Percival Everett - 2022*
The Weight Of Blood - Laura McHugh - 2014
The Zebra Striped Hearse - Ross Macdonald - 1962
Thus Was Adonis Murdered - Sarah Caudwell - 1981
Tourist Season - Carl Hiaasen - 1986
Unnatural Causes - P. D. James - 1967