The Best Crime Books

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Our editorial panel includes Sarah Broadhurst, Liz Robinson and more

Hand-picked by the LoveReading editorial panel · Last reviewed 10 September 2026 · Meet the panel

There is no more reliable pleasure than a great crime novel. A body, a puzzle, a detective you'd follow anywhere - and the delicious certainty that, by the last page, the pieces will click into place.

From the country-house puzzles of the Golden Age to the bleak brilliance of Scandinavian noir, crime fiction is the genre readers return to again and again, and the one they finish fastest.

What makes a great crime novel?

A puzzle that plays fair but still fools you, a detective worth spending a series with, and a sense of place so strong it becomes a character in itself. The genre is gloriously wide - cosy or hard-boiled, whodunnit or whydunnit, a lone sleuth or a whole squad room - so we've spread the list from Agatha Christie to the present day.

Every one is a master class in plotting, and most are the first book of a series you'll happily binge.

Our pick of the best crime books

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Ten strangers, one island, and a killer among them; the best-selling crime novel of all time and a flawless Golden Age puzzle.
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
Sherlock Holmes against a spectral hound on the fog-bound moor; the most atmospheric of all the great detective's cases and the perfect place to meet him.Reviewed by the LoveReading team
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
Poirot retires to the country, and Christie pulls off the most audacious twist in detective fiction; a book that rewrote the rules of the whodunnit.
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Private eye Philip Marlowe walks into a Los Angeles of blackmail and bad money; Chandler's prose is so good the plot barely matters, and the hard-boiled novel was never the same.
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
A jewelled bird, a dead partner and a detective who trusts no one; the lean, ruthless thriller that gave American crime its template.
The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
A charming con man takes a stranger's life and likes it; Highsmith's coldly brilliant study of a killer you can't help rooting for.
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
A Franciscan monk investigates a string of deaths in a medieval abbey; a labyrinthine murder mystery wrapped in history, philosophy and dread.
Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell
Inspector Kurt Wallander works a brutal farmhouse murder through a Swedish winter; the weary, humane novel that launched Scandinavian noir.
Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin
Edinburgh detective John Rebus hunts a killer while his own past closes in; the gritty debut of Tartan noir's defining character.Reviewed by Sarah Broadhurst
The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
A young FBI trainee bargains with one monster to catch another; the serial-killer thriller every other one is measured against.
The Black Echo by Michael Connelly
LA detective Harry Bosch links a dead war veteran to a daring heist; the assured debut of modern crime's great loner cop.
Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
Three childhood friends bound by an old tragedy and a new murder; a dark, devastating American masterpiece.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
A disgraced journalist, a brilliant hacker and a decades-old disappearance; the Scandi-noir phenomenon that gripped the world.
In the Woods by Tana French
A detective haunted by his own childhood works a chilling case; literary, atmospheric crime writing at its very best.
The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith
Private eye Cormoran Strike investigates a supermodel's death; J.K. Rowling's superbly plotted modern detective series opener.
Killing Floor by Lee Child
The first Jack Reacher - a drifter, a small-town frame-up and relentless, propulsive action; the series that defined the modern thriller-detective.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
A wife vanishes on her wedding anniversary and nothing is as it seems; the razor-sharp thriller that made the unreliable narrator a household phrase.Reviewed by Sarah Broadhurst
The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
A quiet maths teacher constructs the perfect alibi for his neighbour; a Japanese puzzle of pure, chilling ingenuity.
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
Four sharp-witted pensioners turn amateur sleuth in their retirement village; the warm, funny mystery that became a worldwide sensation.
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
Botswana's first female private detective solves cases with warmth and wisdom; a gentle, joyful antidote to the noir.Reviewed by Sarah Broadhurst

Find your sub-genre: where to start

“Crime” is really a dozen genres wearing one coat, and knowing which you love is the fastest route to your next great read.

Golden Age whodunnits The classic puzzles - a closed circle of suspects, a brilliant detective, a solution that plays fair. Begin with Agatha Christie or Arthur Conan Doyle.

Hard-boiled noir Trades the country house for the mean streets and the gentleman sleuth for a cynical private eye; Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett wrote the rulebook.

Scandinavian noir Brings bleak landscapes, social conscience and damaged detectives - Henning Mankell began it and Stieg Larsson took it global.

Psychological crime Turns the lens on the criminal mind, where Patricia Highsmith and Gillian Flynn reign.

Cosy crime Keeps the puzzle but loses the gore, all amateur sleuths and twinkling wit - Richard Osman and Alexander McCall Smith are its modern masters.

From the Golden Age to now

Crime fiction has reinvented itself in every generation. The 1920s and 30s - the Golden Age - gave us the fair-play puzzle and its great detectives, Poirot and Lord Peter Wimsey. The American pulps answered with the hard-boiled private eye, all wisecracks and moral murk. The late twentieth century brought the police procedural and the rise of the profiler, while the 2000s belonged to Scandinavian noir and the domestic thriller.

Today the genre is broader than ever - funny, global, literary and ferociously popular. The books above trace that whole arc, from a fog-bound Victorian moor to a present-day retirement village.

Who chose these books, and why that matters

This is not a list pulled from a bestseller chart. Every title here was read and chosen by the LoveReading editorial panel, and we turn far more books down than we put forward.

The panel includes a judge of the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger; a past Chair of the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals; a former children’s editor of the Guardian, who is also Children’s Director of the Hay Festival; a Managing Director of the Hay Festival of twenty years; the founder of the Murder One bookshop, who has reviewed for the Guardian, The Times and the Daily Telegraph; and two UK School Librarians of the Year.

Each is named, with a photograph and full biography, on our editorial experts page.

Members of the panel include:

Sarah BroadhurstVeteran book trade critic and former Hatchards paperback buyer

Liz RobinsonLoveReading reviewer since 2014 and former judge of the CWA Gold Dagger

Maxim JakubowskiCrime writer, editor and critic, and founder of London’s Murder One bookshop

Alison FloodBooks journalist and critic whose work has appeared in the Guardian, Observer and Sunday Times

Their judgements are informed by our Reader Review Panel — several hundred readers across our adult and children’s sites who read titles before publication and tell us plainly whether a book delivers.

LoveReading has been recommending books since 2004 and has reviewed more than 33,000 titles in that time. We review for schools, for publishers and for readers, and we are a winner of the Small Business x Sage pop-up shop competition on London’s Oxford Street.

Every physical book bought through us donates 25% of the cover price to a school of your choice — more than £100,000 in books so far.

Find your next case

Crime readers are loyal - fall for one detective and you've found a dozen more books. The best way to choose your next is to follow what you loved: the puzzle, the place or the partnership. Browse our crime and mystery reviews and editors' picks to keep the cases coming.

Your questions answered

What's the difference between crime and a psychological thriller?

Crime fiction usually centres on solving a crime - a detective, a puzzle, a resolution. A psychological thriller centres on the mind, building suspense from unreliable narrators and hidden motives. There's plenty of overlap, but crime tends to reward the reader with a satisfying solution; the thriller, with a twist.

Are these crime recommendations chosen by an algorithm?

No - they're chosen by people who read crime for a living. Our editors and 800-strong Reader Review Panel weigh the things a chart can't: whether a mystery plays fair, whether the solution satisfies, whether a detective is worth a whole series. We've judged crime on merit, not sales rank, since 2004.

Where should I start with crime fiction?

For a perfect locked-room puzzle, begin with Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. For modern series you can binge, try The Cuckoo's Calling or Killing Floor. For something darker and more literary, In the Woods and Mystic River are the genre at its richest - and for warmth and wit, The Thursday Murder Club is the perfect way in.

Do I need to read these crime novels in order?

Most are perfect standalones - And Then There Were None, Mystic River and Gone Girl can be read in any order. Several are series openers: The Cuckoo's Calling, Killing Floor (the first Jack Reacher), Knots and Crosses (the first Rebus) and The Black Echo (the first Harry Bosch) all begin long, bingeable series from book one.

Who is the best-selling crime writer of all time?

Agatha Christie, by a wide margin - her novels have sold an estimated two billion copies, more than any other novelist in history. And Then There Were None alone is the best-selling crime novel ever written, which is why it opens our list.

What's the best crime book for someone who doesn't usually read crime?

Start somewhere warm and clever rather than dark and violent. The Thursday Murder Club and The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency are funny, gentle and impossible to dislike; And Then There Were None is a propulsive puzzle that turns non-readers into fans. Save the Scandi noir and the serial-killer thrillers for once you're hooked.

More guides from our editors

Browse every title we have reviewed in this genre: Crime & Mystery books.