The Top-100 Crime Novels of All Time

1-10 | 11-20 | 21-30 | 31-40 | 41-50 | 51-60 | 61-70 | 71-80 | 81-90 | 91-100

John Le Carré (2005) The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.

In Le Carré's first masterpiece Alec Leamas, a British agent in early Cold War Berlin, is responsible for keeping the double agents under his care undercover and alive. When the East Germans start killing them, Leamas is sent deep into Communist territory to find out why. But nothing is quite what it seems. "The finest spy story ever written" (Graham Green).

Dennis Lehane (2009) Shutter Island. (Reprint)

Shutter Island is an army facility turned hospital for the criminally insane. When a patient escapes, U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his partner, Chuck Aule, are called in to investigate. This is one of the best psychological thrillers of all time. One mind-bending plot twist after another!

Ann Rule (2001) The Stranger Beside Me.

Ted Bundy, a most violent sociopath, murderer, and mutilator of women, is the subject of this true-crime book. Ann Rule's chilling account, from the time she unsuspectingly met and worked with the savage slayer to the moment of his death by electrocution in Florida, is one of the greatest books in the true crime genre.

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.

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.

Raymond Chandler (1988) The Big Sleep. (First 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.

Tom Clancy (1992) The Hunt for Red October (Jack Ryan Series).

Somewhere under the Atlantic, a Soviet submarine commander has made a fateful decision: the Red October is heading west. This trademark military thriller has launched Tom Clancy's phenomenal career.

William Diehl (1994) Primal Fear.

A sainted archbishop is murdered, mutilated, and dismembered in his rectory. Aaron Stampler, an angelic-looking young man, is found crouched in a confessional, covered with blood, clutching a butcher's knife, swearing his innocence. Martin Vail is the brilliant lawyer who uncovers the horrifying truth about the crime.

Ken Follett (2004) Eye of the Needle.

During World War II, The Needle, a ruthless German spy, a young Englishwoman and an investigator are linked together in a breathtaking tale of espionage. This superb thriller is one of the best spy novels ever written.

In cooperation with Amazon.com

< Page 3 >