The Top-50 Crime Novels of All Time

1-10 | 11-20 | 21-30 | 31-40 | 41-50

Ann Rule (2007) Too Late to Say Goodbye: A True Story of Murder and Betrayal.

Idyllic life in Atlanta's wealthy suburbs turned into jealous rage. Perhaps Ann Rule's best book so far with detailed descriptions of cutting-edge forensic techniques.

Paul Schrader (1990) Taxi Driver.

Vietnam veteran Travis Bickler is a lonely man - disgusted with the street-scum of pimps, drug dealers, Mafiosi, and prostitutes in New York City. As a taxi driver on night shift he is longing for true love and beauty, which he thinks he has found in Betsy. But their relationship is doomed. In a state of psychotic rage, Travis goes on a murdering rampage.

Scott Turow (1989) Presumed Innocent.

Turow's first courtroom thriller is one of the best legal fiction novels. As a former U.S. prosecutor, Turow has intimate knowledge of legal procedures and can draw the reader into the grittily realistic drama of a murder trial. A dark twist of events transforms prosecutor Susty Sabich from the accuser to the accused.

Arthur W. Upfield (1998) Murder Down Under.

This is one of Upfield's best murder mysteries. His protégée, Napoleon (Bony) Bonaparte investigates a murder while on vacation in the wheat town of Burracoppin of Western Australia. In the fascinating scenery of the Australian Outback quirky characters will drag you into a complex puzzle.

Arthur W. Upfield (1998) The Bachelors of Broken Hill.

Set in a remote mining town, Upfield's murder mystery brings to life a long-ago forgotten world.

Barbara Vine (1993) A Dark-adapted Eye. (First published 1987)

Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine.

Eric Ambler (2001) The Mask for Dimitrios / A Coffin for Dimitrios. (First published 1939)

Ambler's story of a mystery writer in Istanbul, who gets himself involved with the criminal and spy Dimitrios, is a true classic. Dimitrios' corpse has just been fished out of the Bosporus by the police. As the writer sets out to discover Dimitrios' past, someone is stalking him on his trail from Smyrna to Athens to Sofia.

Robert Bloch (1991) Psycho.

Psycho all came from Robert Bloch's book (Alfred Hitchcock). The novel, originally published in 1959, describes the events surrounding the profoundly disturbed motel proprietor Norman Bates.

Raymond Chandler (1988) The Big Sleep. (Originally published in 1939)

First published in 1939, Chandler's book created the archetypal character of street-smart private investigator Philip Marlow. He works a case of blackmail in the underbelly of San Francisco, populated by con men, weird ladies, mobsters, cheap sluts, pornographers, gamblers, drunks, and other despicable characters. In this tough world, Marlow is the straight and loyal guy.

Richard Condon (2003) The Manchurian Candidate. (Reprint Ed.)

In Condon's 1959 Cold War thriller Sgt. Raymond Shaw is brainwashed during his captivity in North Korea. He returns to America programmed to assassinate a U.S. presidential nominee. The 1962 movie with Laurence Harvey and Frank Sinatra is considered one of the 100 top thriller movies of all times.

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