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 few 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 abbreviated post-read notes will be in italics below each book.
Some books may bleed over into thriller or espionage, but have the elements I wish to read about.
The MM/YY at the end of some entries is when I finished the 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 05/20/26
* - reader suggestion
DNF - did not finish
MM/YY after the title is when I read it
Underlined titles go to my YouTube reviews of them
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 - 4/26
A rich, cultural education disguised as a mystery.
We get to travel along with a Buddhist detective,
which brings far different insights than we see in Western-set novels. 5/5
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 - 12/25
I can see how it may have caused a stir upon release,
but it seems boring now. 3/5
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 - 3/26
A slow, methodical grind. More procedural than Scandinavian noir.
Great, rounded introduction to a character to start a new series. 5/5
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 - 2/26
Stellar! Tight, angry prose. Well-deserving of every scrap of praise and then some.
So intricate, with all the lines woven together, dissected, and clarified.
The amount of racism and sexism in there is an indictment of the 1950s LAPD. 5/5
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 (The Keeper of Lost Causes) - Jussi Adler-Olsen - 2007 - 1/26
Very exciting story and a great use of the timeline, but blandly written.
I’m guessing that much was lost in the translation.
The main character wasn’t terribly interesting, though he was fleshed out well. 3/5
- Metzger's Dog - Thomas Perry - 1983
Mystic River - Dennis Lehane - 2002 - 4-26*
So good that it may affect the way I write.
Each sentence was stunning. 5/5
- 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* - 2/26
Tight, tense, nothing wasted. Excellent character descriptions.
Great start to a series. 4/5
- 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 - 4/25
Superbly detailed world; a political and historical education. 5/5
- 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 - 4/26
Great character build-up, you really become attached to her.
Great use of dual flashbacks and Iceland’s landscape. 5/5
- 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 - 1973 - 11/25
Great snapshot of the NYPD in the 70s,
but way too problematic regarding race and sexism. 3/5
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? Among the best. 5/5
The Hunt for Red October - Tom Clancy - 1984
In my top 10 5/5
- The Hypnotist - Lars Kepler - 2018
The Invisible Guardian - Dolores Redondo - 2013
The Ipcress File - Len Deighton - 1962 - 3/26
Slow and languid by design to lull you. Very British, and the dry humor sneaks up on you.
The novel reads like a time capsule of the era. 4/5
- 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 - 7/25
In my Top 5. Inspired me to write.
The Long Goodbye - Raymond Chandler - 1953 - 7/25
Top 5 material
The Last Good Kiss - James Crumley - 2016*
The Lost Man - Jane Harper - 2018 - 5/26
The Outback is a powerful character here, but the novel is as much
an intense family drama as it is a mystery novel.
A slow, quiet burn 5/5
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 - 2/26
Spectacular. Literally every page has a piece of writing craft or
scene detail that caught my attention.
Not a wasted thread in the entire novel. 5/5
- 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
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - John le Carré - 1974 - 3/26
Stellar! Rich in betrayal on many levels. Assumes a very smart reader.
Great use of backward research to forward the story. 5/5
- Tourist Season - Carl Hiaasen - 1986
Unnatural Causes - P. D. James - 1967