Time's 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time
A panel of celebrated authors created this list of the best 100 mystery and thrillers books for Time magazine in 2023.
- 1
Crime and Punishment
Fyodor Dostoevsky · 1866 · 22 lists
- 2
Rebecca
Daphne Du Maurier · 1938 · 15 lists
- 3
The Maltese Falcon
Dashiell Hammett · 1929 · 15 lists
- 4
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
John Le Carré · 1963 · 13 lists
- 5
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Patricia Highsmith · 1955 · 13 lists
- 6
2666
Roberto Bolaño · 2004 · 12 lists
- 7
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Arthur Conan Doyle · 1901 · 11 lists
- 8
The Name of the Rose
Umberto Eco · 1985 · 11 lists
- 9
The Woman in White
Wilkie Collins · 1860 · 11 lists
- 10
The Long Goodbye
Raymond Chandler · 1953 · 8 lists
- 11
The Secret History
Donna Tartt · 1992 · 8 lists
- 12
Gone Girl
Gillian Flynn · 2011 · 7 lists
- 13
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Agatha Christie · 1926 · 7 lists
- 14
The Silence of the Lambs
Thomas Harris · 1988 · 7 lists
- 15
Fingersmith
Sarah Waters · 2002 · 6 lists
- 16
The Sympathizer
Viet Thanh Nguyen · 2015 · 6 lists
- 17
The Hunt for Red October
Tom Clancy · 1984 · 5 lists
- 18
The Quiet American
Graham Greene · 1940 · 5 lists
- 19
Beast In View
Margaret Millar · 1955 · 4 lists
- 20
Gaudy Night
Dorothy L. Sayers · 1935 · 4 lists
- 21
Misery
Stephen King · 1978 · 4 lists
- 22
The Daughter of Time
Josephine Tey · 1951 · 4 lists
- 23
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Stieg Larsson · 2011 · 4 lists
- 24
The Hollow Man
John Dickson Carr · 1992 · 4 lists
- 25
The Mask of Dimitrios
Eric Ambler · 1939 · 4 lists
- 26
The Round House
Louise Erdrich · 2012 · 4 lists
- 27
The Shadow of the Wind
Carlos Ruiz Zafon · 2001 · 4 lists
- 28
A Dark Adapted Eye
Barbara Vine · 1986 · 3 lists
- 29
A Kiss Before Dying
Ira Levin · 1953 · 3 lists
- 30
Bluebird, Bluebird
Attica Locke · 2017 · 3 lists
- 31
Casino Royale
Ian Fleming · 1953 · 3 lists
- 32
Double Indemnity
James M. Cain · 1943 · 3 lists
- 33
Killing Floor
Lee Child · 1997 · 3 lists
- 34
Mystic River
Dennis Lehane · 2001 · 3 lists
- 35
Ordinary Grace
William Kent Krueger · 2013 · 3 lists
- 36
The Last Good Kiss
James Crumley · 1978 · 3 lists
- 37
What The Dead Know
Laura Lippman · 2007 · 3 lists
- 38
A Place Of Execution
Val McDermid · 1999 · 2 lists
- 39
Beat Not The Bones
Charlotte Jay · 1952 · 2 lists
- 40
Blacktop Wasteland
S.A. Cosby · 2020 · 2 lists
- 41
Bury Your Dead
Louise Penny · 2010 · 2 lists
- 42
Devil in a Blue Dress
Walter Mosley · 1990 · 2 lists
- 43
Djinn Patrol On The Purple Line
Deepa Anappara · 2020 · 2 lists
- 44
Faceless Killers
Henning Mankell · 2001 · 2 lists
- 45
If He Hollers Let Him Go
Chester Himes · 1945 · 2 lists
- 46
Out
Natsuo Kirino · 2003 · 2 lists
- 47
Smilla’s Sense of Snow
Peter Høeg · 1993 · 2 lists
- 48
The Sound of Things Falling
Juan Gabriel Vásquez · 2012 · 2 lists
- 49
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Michael Chabon · 2007 · 2 lists
- 50
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Shirley Jackson · 1962 · 2 lists
- 51
Where Are The Children?
Mary Higgins Clark · 1975 · 2 lists
- 52
A Man Lay Dead
Ngaio Marsh · 1934 · 1 list
- 53
Big Little Lies
Liane Moriarty · 2014 · 1 list
- 54
Blanche Passes Go
Barbara Neely · 2000 · 1 list
- 55
Case Histories
Kate Atkinson · 2004 · 1 list
- 56
Daisy Miller
Henry James · 1879 · 1 list
- 57
Dead Time
Eleanor Taylor Bland · 2008 · 1 list
- 58
Death Of A Red Heroine
Qiu Xiaolong · 2006 · 1 list
- 59
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
Olga Tokarczuk · 2009 · 1 list
- 60
Everything I Never Told You
Celeste Ng · 2014 · 1 list
- 61
Fade Away
Harlan Coben · 1996 · 1 list
- 62
Faithful Place
Tana French · 2010 · 1 list
- 63
Hollywood Homicide
Kellye Garrett · 2017 · 1 list
- 64
In a Lonely Place
Dorothy B. Hughes · 1947 · 1 list
- 65
Inner City Blues
Paula L. Woods · 1999 · 1 list
- 66
Lady Joker
Kaoru Takamura · 2022 · 1 list
- 67
Land Of Shadows
Rachel Howzell Hall · 2014 · 1 list
- 68
Mean Spirit
Linda Hogan · 1991 · 1 list
- 69
Mexican Gothic
Silvia Moreno-Garcia · 2020 · 1 list
- 70
Miracle Creek
Angie Kim · 2019 · 1 list
- 71
Morituri
Yasmina Khadra · 1897 · 1 list
- 72
My Sister, the Serial Killer
Oyinkan Braithwaite · 2018 · 1 list
- 73
Postmortem
Patricia Daniels Cornwell · 1990 · 1 list
- 74
Queenpin
Megan Abbott · 2007 · 1 list
- 75
Six Four
Hideo Yokoyama · 2012 · 1 list
- 76
Snakeskin Shamisen
Naomi Hirahara · 2006 · 1 list
- 77
Survivor’s Guilt
Robyn Gigl · 2022 · 1 list
- 78
The Conjure Man Dies
Rudolph Fisher · 1932 · 1 list
- 79
The Crime At Black Dudley
Margery Allingham · 1929 · 1 list
- 80
The Decagon House Murders
Yukito Ayatsuji · 1987 · 1 list
- 81
The Devotion Of Suspect X
Keigo Higashino · 2005 · 1 list
- 82
The Emperor Of Ocean Park
Stephen L. Carter · 2002 · 1 list
- 83
The Honjin Murders
Seishi Yokomizo · 2020 · 1 list
- 84
The Ice Princess
Camilla Läckberg · 2003 · 1 list
- 85
The Leavenworth Case
Anna Katharine Green · 1878 · 1 list
- 86
The Lincoln Lawyer
Michael Connelly · 2005 · 1 list
- 87
The Need
Helen Phillips · 2014 · 1 list
- 88
The Other Americans
Laila Lalami · 2019 · 1 list
- 89
The Patient In Room 18
Mignon G. Eberhart · 1929 · 1 list
- 90
The Plotters
Un-su Kim · 2019 · 1 list
- 91
The Redbreast
Jo Nesbø · 2000 · 1 list
- 92
The Surgeon
Tess Gerritsen · 2001 · 1 list
- 93
The Turn of the Key
Ruth Ware · 2019 · 1 list
- 94
The Widows Of Malabar Hill
Sujata Massey · 2018 · 1 list
- 95
Those Bones Are Not My Child
Toni Cade Bambara · 1999 · 1 list
- 96
When Death Comes Stealing
Valerie Wilson Wesley · 1994 · 1 list
- 97
When No One Is Watching
Alyssa Cole · 2020 · 1 list
- 98
Wife Of The Gods
Kwei Quartey · 2009 · 1 list
- 99
Winter Counts
David Heska Wanbli Weiden · 2020 · 1 list
- 100
Your House Will Pay
Steph Cha · 2019 · 1 list
