The Top-50 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

Matt B. Rees (2007) The Collaborator of Bethlehem.

Omar Yussef, a modest 56-year-old schoolteacher in the Dehaisha Palestinian refugee camp, becomes an unlikely detective amid the violence of modern Bethlehem. Former Time magazine's Jerusalem bureau chief Matt Rees unfolds his plot with tragic inevitability.

Dorothy L. Sayers (1995) Gaudy Nights. (First published in 1935)

This Lord Peter Wimsey mystery unfolds at the all-female Shrewsbury College at Oxford. Harriet Vane, mystery writer and alumna of the College, comes back for the annual Gaudy night, where she receives a note full of hatred. Some time later she is called back by the Dean because the unpleasant events have intensified. Academic life, mixed with vitriolic hate.

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.

Lisa Scottoline (2005) Devil's Corner.

Scottoline's 12th novel was inspired by a real-life drug trafficking case. While Assistant U.S. Attorney Vicki Allegretti is interviewing an informant, he and her partner are shot. Vicki's gutsy investigation of the two deaths leads her to "Devil's Corner", a drug-riddled neighborhood in Philadelphia.

Georges Simenon (2006) The Strangers in the House.

Hector Loursat has been a hermit in his own house ever since his wife abandoned him years ago. Only when a gunshot raises him from his alcohol-induced stupor he takes notice of his teenage daughter and her dangerous friends living in his house. Simenon's dispassionate masterpiece is a philosophically profound examination of emotional decay and resurrection.

Georges Simenon (2005) Tropic Moon.

In the former French colony of Gabon, Joseph Timar has taken on a job with a timber company. He stays at a small hotel in Libreville, where he gets obsessed with the hotelier's wife, Adèle. In the sweltering heat of the tropical sun, Joseph is dragged into the moral decay of crude lust, drinking and brutality of the French expatriates.

Georges Simenon (2003) Dirty Snow. (First published in 1950)

Set in occupied France during WWII, Simenon's bleak masterpiece is a dispassionate description of human cruelty. No other writer has achieved the psychological intensity of Simenon. “What many regard as the finest of all noir novels…"--Tim Rutten, The Los Angeles Times

Maj Sjowall / Per Wahloo (1993) Roseanna.

The first book in the Martin Beck series of crime novels by the Swedish writer couple Sjowall / Wahloo. Written from a left-wing political perspective, the novel portrays the social and political climate of Sweden in the late 1960s and 1970s. Fortunately, the political propaganda is packaged in intelligent suspense and a plot populated by authentic characters.

Maj Sjowall / Per Wahloo (1992) The Locked Room.

Smart, well trained and tough policemen, who competently investigate crime scenes may be the personnel of CSI TV series. In this crime novel the police force is understaffed, incompetent and poorly motivated. Their investigation of a series of bank burglaries ends in a pathetic disaster, typical for the social condition in Sweden during the late 1960s.

Scott Smith (2007) A Simple Plan.

Three men accidentally stumble upon a plane that has crashed with millions of dollars in cash on board in a rural area. They decide to keep the money, but hide it for one year and live a normal live to make sure no one else is looking for it. A simple plan, but then things get horribly wrong as greed turns into deceit, treachery, and murder. Excellent psycho thriller!

In cooperation with Amazon.com

< Page 9 >