There is no more reliable pleasure than a great crime novel - a body, a puzzle, and the certainty that by the last page the pieces will click into place.
The best crime books, chosen by LoveReading's editors and informed by our Reader Review Panel, spanning everything from Golden Age country-house puzzles to Scandinavian noir, are And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. The full list of 20, running from Golden Age puzzles to cosy crime, is below.
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.
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 the right book on the list below. New to crime altogether? Start with And Then There Were None. Series binge-readers should start with The Cuckoo's Calling or Killing Floor.
Golden Age whodunnits are 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. And 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.
The 20 best crime books, chosen by our editors
Curated by Liz Robinson, LoveReading Expert Reviewer, and the LoveReading editorial team - informed by our Reader Review Panel. Last updated July 2026.
Grouped by sub-genre, roughly by publication date within each group. Skip to: Golden Age classics (1-3) | noir and detective classics (4-12) | modern thrillers (13-18) | cosy crime (19-20)
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1
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (1939)
Start hereTen strangers, one island, and a killer among them; the best-selling crime novel of all time and a flawless Golden Age puzzle. Our editors rate it as the single best starting point in all of crime fiction: the plotting is watertight, the pace is relentless, and the solution still shocks nearly ninety years on. If you only ever read one Christie, make it this one.
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2
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (1902)
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. It earns its place over the short stories because it shows Holmes at full length - deduction, dread and a genuinely eerie Dartmoor setting in one compact novel. Ideal for readers who want to see where detective fiction began without it ever feeling like homework.
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3
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (1926)
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. Our editors picked it because its ending is still argued about a hundred years on - it plays scrupulously fair and fools almost everyone anyway. Best read after a Christie or two, when you think you know how she works.
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4
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (1939)
Noir essentialPrivate 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. For our editors this is the definitive hard-boiled novel, the one every noir writer since has been answering. Read it for the voice - wisecracking, weary, endlessly quotable - and stay for Marlowe, the private eye all others are measured against.
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5
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (1930)
A jewelled bird, a dead partner and a detective who trusts no one; choose this if you want crime at its leanest - Hammett strips every sentence to the bone, and Sam Spade set the template every American private eye has followed since. A standalone you can read in a weekend, and the natural next step if Chandler's Marlowe leaves you wanting the harder stuff.
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6
The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith (1955)
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. There's no detective and no mystery - just the slow, exquisite dread of waiting for Ripley to be caught. Choose it if you like your crime from the criminal's side of the table, told with icy elegance.
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7
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (1980)
A Franciscan monk investigates a string of deaths in a medieval abbey; read this if you want a murder mystery with real intellectual heft - history, philosophy and dread wrapped around a proper puzzle. It is a standalone, and by some distance the weightiest read here - one to live inside for a fortnight rather than race through in a weekend.
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8
Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell (1991)
Inspector Kurt Wallander works a brutal farmhouse murder through a Swedish winter; the weary, humane novel that launched Scandinavian noir. This is the true source of the Scandi-noir wave: the crime matters, but so do the politics, the weather and Wallander's fraying private life. Start here if you want detective fiction with a social conscience - and eleven more Wallander books waiting.
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9
Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin (1987)
Edinburgh detective John Rebus hunts a killer while his own past closes in; the gritty debut of Tartan noir's defining character. Rankin does for Edinburgh what Chandler did for Los Angeles - the city's dark side becomes a character in its own right. Perfect for readers who want a flawed, believable detective and a long series to settle into.
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10
The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris (1988)
Top thrillerA young FBI trainee bargains with one monster to catch another; the serial-killer thriller every other one is measured against. This is the high-water mark of the psychological thriller: Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter remain the genre's most electric pairing, and the interview scenes are a masterclass in tension. Dark, yes - but written with a precision most thrillers never approach.
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11
The Black Echo by Michael Connelly (1992)
LA detective Harry Bosch links a dead war veteran to a daring heist; the assured debut of modern crime's great loner cop. Connelly, a former crime reporter, gets the procedure right without ever letting it slow the story down. The best entry point to one of the most consistent long-running series in crime fiction.
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12
Mystic River by Dennis Lehane (2001)
Three childhood friends bound by an old tragedy and a new murder; choose this when you want character over puzzle - it hurts more than it twists, and it stays with you long after the case is closed. A standalone, and the pick for readers who come to crime for the people rather than the puzzle.
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13
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (2005)
A disgraced journalist, a brilliant hacker and a decades-old disappearance; the Scandi-noir phenomenon that gripped the world. Lisbeth Salander is the reason it's here - one of the great modern crime creations, damaged, brilliant and impossible to look away from. A big, immersive read for anyone who likes their mysteries dark, twisty and generously plotted.
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14
In the Woods by Tana French (2007)
A detective haunted by his own childhood works a chilling case; read this if you like your crime literary and atmospheric, and don't mind an ending that leaves a little mystery in your hands. It opens the bingeable Dublin Murder Squad series - six loosely linked books, each led by a different detective.
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15
The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (2013)
Private eye Cormoran Strike investigates a supermodel's death; J.K. Rowling's superbly plotted modern detective series opener. This is the best contemporary take on the classic private-eye novel - the Strike and Robin partnership gives it a warmth most PI fiction lacks. Ideal for readers who want a modern series with old-fashioned, clue-driven plotting.
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16
Killing Floor by Lee Child (1997)
The first Jack Reacher - a drifter, a small-town frame-up and relentless, propulsive action; the series that defined the modern thriller-detective. The first-person voice is irresistible from the opening page, and the plotting is far cleverer than the action-hero reputation suggests. The right choice for readers who want pure momentum - and two dozen more books when they finish.
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17
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (2012)
Biggest twistA wife vanishes on her wedding anniversary and nothing is as it seems; the razor-sharp thriller that made the unreliable narrator a household phrase. This is the defining domestic thriller of the modern era - the mid-book twist genuinely resets everything you thought you were reading. It suits readers who like their crime psychological, savage and impossible to put down.
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18
The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino (2005)
A quiet maths teacher constructs the perfect alibi for his neighbour; a Japanese puzzle of pure, chilling ingenuity. Our editors chose it as the finest howdunnit on the list - you know who did it from the first chapter, and the tension comes entirely from watching the alibi hold. Essential for puzzle-lovers, and the perfect gateway into Japanese crime fiction.
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19
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (2020)
Best cosyFour sharp-witted pensioners turn amateur sleuth in their retirement village; the warm, funny mystery that became a worldwide sensation. No book on this list has won over more new crime readers: it revived cosy crime for a whole generation, pairing a properly satisfying puzzle with characters you'd happily have tea with. The perfect pick for readers who want the mystery without the menace - and the start of a hugely bingeable series.
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20
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith (1998)
Botswana's first female private detective solves cases with warmth and wisdom; a gentle, joyful antidote to the noir. It closes the list because Precious Ramotswe proves crime fiction can be kind without being dull - the cases are small, the humanity is enormous. The ideal pick for readers who want charm, humour and a sense of place over body counts.
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If you've read all the classics, try these
If the list above reads like your bookshelf rather than your to-be-read pile, our editors' recent favourites are where to go next.
The Appeal by Janice Hallett (2021)
A whodunnit told entirely in emails and messages - the cleverest reinvention of the fair-play mystery in years.
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The Last Devil To Die by Richard Osman (2023)
The Thursday Murder Club series growing richer and more moving with every book - the fourth outing is the best yet.
View on LoveReading →For the crime novels our editors and Reader Review Panel are championing right now, browse the latest crime and mystery reviews.
How we chose this list
This list is curated by the LoveReading editorial team, led by Liz Robinson, LoveReading's Expert Reviewer, who has reviewed crime fiction for LoveReading for two decades, and informed by our 900-strong Reader Review Panel, who read widely across every genre. LoveReading has recommended books this way since 2005, with more than 36,000 books reviewed over that time. These are the crime novels our reviewers and readers rate most highly - chosen on merit, not by a sales chart. List last updated July 2026.
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, explore our thriller reviews or see this month's new books to keep the cases coming.