The 20 Best Crime and Mystery Books of All Time

The classic 1934 detective novel that introduced America to the dashing crime-solving couple Nick and Nora Charles takes place around Christmas time during the last days of prohibition, where the hedonistic duo are trying to track down a missing client while eating and drinking their way through New York City. It’s a twisty romp through a bygone era filled with wisecracks and Martinis, yet readers will find the book “a little darker” than the slew of Hollywood adaptations it inspired, according to the Daily Beast.

The acclaimed Italian author’s bestselling historical mystery stars a brilliant monk tasked with solving a series of baffling murders in a fourteenth-century Italian abbey, and is sure to be a hit “whether you're into Sherlock Holmes, Montaillou, Borges, the nouvelle critique, the Rule of St. Benedict, metaphysics, library design, or The Thing from the Crypt, you'll love it,” according to the Sunday Times.

In this locked-room masterpiece from one of the genre’s undisputed greats, ten strangers are lured to an island by a mysterious host who never shows. The deadly caper that ensues “is utterly impossible and utterly fascinating. It is the most baffling mystery Agatha Christie has ever written," raved the New York Times.

Twenty-one escapist mysteries headlined by a beloved, swashbuckling Florida boat bum who moonlights as an amateur detective. That’s the premise behind these propulsive, slightly pulpy, exquisitely written capers that kick off during the innocence and hedonism of 1960s South Florida and work their way up through the flash and fire of the '70s and '80s. You can read them in any order, or choose your favorite color and dive in: each title references a distinct hue. One of these gems, The Scarlet Ruse, follows Trav and his Fort Lauderdale marina buddies as they get mixed up in a dangerous scam involving rare stamps.

A Nigerian woman’s beautiful younger sister has a habit of killing off her boyfriends in this darkly comical, Booker Prize-nominated slasher satire that the New York Times called “Lagos noir--pulpy, peppery and sinister, served up in a comic deadpan....This scorpion-tailed little thriller leaves a response, and a sting, you will remember."

The search for a runaway bride turns deadly in the 11th book from the acclaimed Lew Archer series, which nabbed the 1964 Silver Dagger award from the Mystery Writers of America. Fans of hardboiled detectives like the Continental Op and Phillip Marlowe should take note of The New York Times Book Review's high praise: "The American private eye, immortalized by Hammett, refined by Chandler, brought to its zenith by MacDonald."

As the book jacket declares, this 'thinking person’s thriller' would be a cult classic — if you can have a cult that's 5 million people strong. Tartt's debut novel delves into the lives of a group of elite college students whose fascination with Greek classics leads to a murder within their circle. Long credited with sparking the whole dark academia craze, this bestseller is still keeping Book Tok ablaze more than three decades after its release.

The Agatha Award is one of the most prestigious prizes for mystery writers, and this Canadian author took home the prize a record nine times! In this latest installment of her bestselling Inspector Gamache series, the eponymous Chief Inspector confronts a long-buried secret that threatens to bring mayhem to the village of Three Pines.

Set against the gritty backdrop of 1930s Los Angeles, Chandler's 1938 debut novel introduced readers to his beloved private eye Philip Marlowe, as he’s hired by a dying millionaire to help his wild child daughter who’s ensnared in a sinister blackmail scheme. "Raymond Chandler invented a new way of talking about America, and America has never looked the same to us since," declared Paul Auster.

The Washington Post hailed this “profoundly disturbing and gorgeously rendered" western from the bestselling author of The Passenger and the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Road, about a man on the Texas-Mexico border who stumbles upon a heroin and blood-soaked fortune in cash, setting off a chain of catastrophic events.