The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time

The CWA List

  1. Josephine Tey: The Daughter of Time (1951)
  2. Raymond Chandler: The Big Sleep (1939)
  3. John le Carré: The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1963)
  4. Dorothy L. Sayers: Gaudy Night (1935)
  5. Agatha Christie: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
  6. Daphne du Maurier: Rebecca (1938)
  7. Raymond Chandler: Farewell My Lovely (1940)
  8. Wilkie Collins: The Moonstone (1868)
  9. Len Deighton: The IPCRESS File (1962)
  10. Dashiell Hammett: The Maltese Falcon (1930)
  11. Josephine Tey: The Franchise Affair (1948)
  12. Hillary Waugh: Last Seen Wearing … (1952)
  13. Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose (1980)
  14. Geoffrey Household: Rogue Male (1939)
  15. Raymond Chandler: The Long Goodbye (1953)
  16. Francis Iles: Malice Aforethought (1931)1
  17. Frederick Forsyth: The Day of the Jackal (1971)
  18. Dorothy L. Sayers: The Nine Tailors (1934)
  19. Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None (1939)
  20. John Buchan: The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915)
  21. Arthur Conan Doyle: The Collected Sherlock Holmes Short Stories (1892-1927)
  22. Dorothy L. Sayers: Murder Must Advertise (1933)
  23. Edgar Allan Poe: Tales of Mystery & Imagination (1852)
  24. Eric Ambler: The Mask of Dimitrios (1939)
  25. Edmund Crispin: The Moving Toyshop (1946)
  26. Margery Allingham: The Tiger in the Smoke (1952)
  27. Peter Lovesey: The False Inspector Dew (1982)
  28. Wilkie Collins: The Woman in White (1860)
  29. Barbara Vine: A Dark-Adapted Eye (1986)
  30. James M. Cain: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934)
  31. Dashiell Hammett: The Glass Key (1931)
  32. Arthur Conan Doyle: The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
  33. John le Carré: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974)
  34. E. C. Bentley: Trent’s Last Case (1913)
  35. Ian Fleming: From Russia, with Love (1957)
  36. Ed McBain: Cop Hater (1956)
  37. Colin Dexter: The Dead of Jericho (1981)
  38. Patricia Highsmith: Strangers on a Train (1950)
  39. Ruth Rendell: A Judgement in Stone (1977)
  40. John Dickson Carr: The Hollow Man (1935)
  41. Anthony Berkeley: The Poisoned Chocolates Case (1929)
  42. Ellis Peters: A Morbid Taste for Bones (1977)
  43. Ellis Peters: The Leper of St. Giles (1981)
  44. Ira Levin: A Kiss Before Dying (1953)
  45. Patricia Highsmith: The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955)
  46. Graham Greene: Brighton Rock (1938)
  47. Raymond Chandler: The Lady in the Lake (1943)
  48. Scott Turow: Presumed Innocent (1987)
  49. Ruth Rendell: A Demon in My View (1976)
  50. John Dickson Carr: The Devil in Velvet (1951)
  51. Barbara Vine: A Fatal Inversion (1987)
  52. Michael Innes: The Journeying Boy (1949)
  53. P. D. James: A Taste for Death (1986)
  54. Jack Higgins: The Eagle Has Landed (1975)
  55. Mary Stewart: My Brother Michael (1960)
  56. Peter Lovesey: Bertie and the Tin Man (1987)
  57. Susan Moody: Penny Black (1984)
  58. Len Deighton: Game, Set & Match (1984-1986)
  59. Dick Francis: The Danger (1983)
  60. P. D. James: Devices and Desires (1989)
  61. Reginald Hill: Underworld (1988)
  62. Mary Stewart: Nine Coaches Waiting (1958)
  63. Paula Gosling: A Running Duck (1978)
  64. Michael Gilbert: Smallbone Deceased (1950)
  65. Lionel Davidson: The Rose of Tibet (1962)
  66. P. D. James: Innocent Blood (1980)
  67. Dorothy L. Sayers: Strong Poison (1930)
  68. Michael Innes: Hamlet, Revenge! (1937)
  69. Tony Hillerman: A Thief of Time (1989)
  70. Caryl Brahms & S. J. Simon: A Bullet in the Ballet (1937)
  71. Reginald Hill: Dead Heads (1983)
  72. Graham Greene: The Third Man (1950)
  73. Anthony Price: The Labyrinth Makers (1974)
  74. Adam Hall: The Quiller Memorandum (1965)
  75. Margaret Millar: Beast in View (1955)
  76. Sarah Caudwell: The Shortest Way to Hades (1984)
  77. Desmond Bagley: Running Blind (1970)
  78. Dick Francis: Twice Shy (1981)
  79. Richard Condon: The Manchurian Candidate (1959)
  80. Caroline Graham: The Killings at Badger’s Drift (1987)
  81. Nicholas Blake: The Beast Must Die (1938)
  82. Martin Cruz Smith: Gorky Park (1981)
  83. Agatha Christie: Death Comes as the End (1945)
  84. Christianna Brand: Green for Danger (1945)
  85. Cyril Hare: Tragedy at Law (1942)
  86. John Fowles: The Collector (1963)
  87. J. J. Marric: Gideon’s Day (1955)
  88. Lionel Davidson: The Sun Chemist (1976)
  89. Alistair MacLean: The Guns of Navarone (1957)
  90. Julian Symons: The Colour of Murder (1957)
  91. John Buchan: Greenmantle (1916)
  92. Erskine Childers: The Riddle of the Sands (1903)
  93. Peter Lovesey: Wobble to Death (1970)
  94. Dashiell Hammett: Red Harvest (1929)
  95. Ken Follett: The Key to Rebecca (1980)
  96. Ed McBain: Sadie When She Died (1972)
  97. H. R. F. Keating: The Murder of the Maharajah (1980)
  98. Simon Brett: What Bloody Man Is That? (1987)
  99. Gavin Lyall: Shooting Script (1966)
  100. Edgar Wallace: The Four Just Men (1906)

 The Mystery Writers of America List (1995)

  1. Arthur Conan Doyle: The Complete Sherlock Holmes (1887-1927)
  2. Dashiell Hammett: The Maltese Falcon (1930)
  3. Edgar Allan Poe: Tales of Mystery & Imagination (1852)
  4. Josephine Tey: The Daughter of Time (1951)
  5. Scott Turow: Presumed Innocent (1987)
  6. John le Carré: The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1963)
  7. Wilkie Collins: The Moonstone (1868)
  8. Raymond Chandler: The Big Sleep (1939)
  9. Daphne du Maurier: Rebecca (1938)
  10. Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None (1939)
  11. Robert Traver: Anatomy of a Murder (1958)
  12. Agatha Christie: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
  13. Raymond Chandler: The Long Goodbye (1953)
  14. James M. Cain: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934)
  15. Mario Puzo: The Godfather (1969)
  16. Thomas Harris: The Silence of the Lambs (1988)
  17. Eric Ambler: A Coffin for Dimitrios (1939)
  18. Dorothy L. Sayers: Gaudy Night (1935)
  19. Agatha Christie: The Witness for the Prosecution (1948)
  20. Frederick Forsyth: The Day of the Jackal (1971)
  21. Raymond Chandler: Farewell My Lovely (1940)
  22. John Buchan: The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915)
  23. Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose (1980)
  24. Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Crime and Punishment (1866)
  25. Ken Follett: Eye of the Needle (1978)
  26. John Mortimer: Rumpole of the Bailey (1978)
  27. Thomas Harris: Red Dragon (1981)
  28. Dorothy L. Sayers: The Nine Tailors (1934)
  29. Gregory Mcdonald: Fletch (1974)
  30. John Le Carré: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974)
  31. Dashiell Hammett: The Thin Man (1934)
  32. Wilkie Collins: The Woman in White (1860)
  33. E. C. Bentley: Trent’s Last Case (1913)
  34. James M. Cain: Double Indemnity (1943)
  35. Martin Cruz Smith: Gorky Park (1981)
  36. Dorothy L. Sayers: Strong Poison (1930)
  37. Tony Hillerman: Dance Hall of the Dead (1973)
  38. Donald E. Westlake: The Hot Rock (1970)
  39. Dashiell Hammett: Red Harvest (1929)
  40. Mary Roberts Rinehart: The Circular Staircase (1908)
  41. Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express (1934)
  42. John Grisham: The Firm (1991)
  43. Len Deighton: The IPCRESS File (1962)
  44. Vera Caspary: Laura (1942)
  45. Mickey Spillane: I, the Jury (1947)
  46. Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö: The Laughing Policeman (1968)
  47. Donald E. Westlake: Bank Shot (1972)
  48. Graham Greene: The Third Man (1950)
  49. Jim Thompson: The Killer Inside Me (1952)
  50. Mary Higgins Clark: Where Are the Children? (1975)
  51. Sue Grafton: “A” is for Alibi (1982)
  52. Lawrence Sanders: The First Deadly Sin (1973)
  53. Tony Hillerman: A Thief of Time (1989)
  54. Truman Capote: In Cold Blood (1966)
  55. Geoffrey Household: Rogue Male (1939)
  56. Dorothy L. Sayers: Murder Must Advertise (1933)
  57. G. K. Chesterton: The Innocence of Father Brown (1911)
  58. John le Carré: Smiley’s People (1979)
  59. Raymond Chandler: The Lady in the Lake (1943)
  60. Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)
  61. Graham Greene: Our Man in Havana (1958)
  62. Charles Dickens: The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870)
  63. Peter Lovesey: Wobble to Death (1970)
  64. W. Somerset Maugham: Ashenden (1928)
  65. Nicholas Meyer: The Seven Per-Cent Solution (1974)
  66. Rex Stout: The Doorbell Rang (1965)
  67. Elmore Leonard: Stick (1983)
  68. John le Carré: The Little Drummer Girl (1983)
  69. Graham Greene: Brighton Rock (1938)
  70. Bram Stoker: Dracula (1897)
  71. Patricia Highsmith: The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955)
  72. Edmund Crispin: The Moving Toyshop (1946)
  73. John Grisham: A Time to Kill (1989)
  74. Hillary Waugh: Last Seen Wearing … (1952)
  75. W. R. Burnett: Little Caesar (1929)
  76. George V. Higgins: The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1972)
  77. Dorothy L. Sayers: Clouds of Witness (1927)
  78. Ian Fleming: From Russia, with Love (1957)
  79. Margaret Millar: Beast in View (1955)
  80. Michael Gilbert: Smallbone Deceased (1950)
  81. Josephine Tey: The Franchise Affair (1948)
  82. Elizabeth Peters: Crocodile on the Sandbank (1975)
  83. P. D. James: Shroud for a Nightingale (1971)
  84. Tom Clancy: The Hunt for Red October (1984)
  85. Ross Thomas: Chinaman’s Chance (1978)
  86. Joseph Conrad: The Secret Agent (1907)
  87. John D. MacDonald: The Dreadful Lemon Sky (1975)
  88. Dashiell Hammett: The Glass Key (1931)
  89. Ruth Rendell: A Judgement in Stone (1977)
  90. Josephine Tey: Brat Farrar (1950)
  91. Ross Macdonald: The Chill (1963)
  92. Walter Mosley: Devil in a Blue Dress (1990)
  93. Joseph Wambaugh: The Choirboys (1975)
  94. Donald E. Westlake: God Save the Mark (1967)
  95. Craig Rice: Home Sweet Homicide (1944)
  96. John Dickson Carr: The Three Coffins (1935)
  97. Richard Condon: Prizzi’s Honor (1982)
  98. James McClure: The Steam Pig (1974)
  99. Jack Finney: Time and Again (1970)
  100. Ellis Peters: A Morbid Taste for Bones (1977) and Ira Levin: Rosemary’s Baby (1967)

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