Esqiuire decided to create their own list of the best 50 mystery books of all time. Making such a list is no easy task. We will look at the 50 best mystery books according to Esquire and see how their list holds up!
I love a good mystery book which is why I will be taking this list seriously. Mystery books are difficult to rank because there are a lot of subgenres and people have their own preferences. A list can be compiled with 20 Agatha Christie novels and many people would be okay with it. Keep reading to see the full list!
The 50 Best Mystery Books
- Dracula by Bram Stoker
- My Annihilation by Fuminori Nakamura
- The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
- The Little Death by Michael Nava
- Tourist Season by Carl Hiaasen
- Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
- The Dry by Jane Harper
- The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji
- Books The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
- Havana Red by Leonardo Padura
- The Deep Blue Good-by by John D. MacDonald
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
- Maximum Bob by Elmore Leonard
- Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell
- Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers
- The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
- The Snowman by Jo Nesbo
- The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley
- Killing Floor by Lee Child
- Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
- The Black Echo by Michael Connelly
- Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
- In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes
- Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
- Out, by Natsuo Kirino
- Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke
- A is For Alibi by Sue Grafton
- Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy, by John Le Carré
- The Name of The Rose by Umberto Eco
- The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy
- The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
- Dead Time by Eleanor Taylor Bland
- The Neon Rain by James Lee Burke
- In the Woods by Tana French
- The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
- Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
- An Easy Thing by Paco Ignacio Taibo II
- The Chill by Ross Macdonald
- Miami Blues by Charles Willeford
- A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes
- The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
- Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosely
- Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
- The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
- Cold Blood by Truman Capote
- The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
- The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Murders in the Rue Morgue & Other Tales by Edgar Allan Poe
- Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
A Great List
The first thing I want to say about is that it this is a great list. It has many amazing mystery books and somehow was able to include books from many subgenres with ease. Having Dracula as the 50th best mystery book is a great choice because it is iconic but there are a lot if mystery books that are better.
This list includes many mystery classics that are must reads such as The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon to name a few.
The top ten is interesting because I like most of the pics. I haven’t read Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem so I can’t say much about that. But the remaining books are all amazing and I recommend all of those books if you haven’t read any. I shall get to reading Motherless Brooklyn and see if it does deserve its stop in the top ten.
Conclusion
No list is perfect but this one is pretty close. I also love the inclusion of books that many readers have not read. Also, there are a bunch of foreign novels included which is something many lists don’t do well. That is all for the 50 best mystery books according to Esquire. Let us know what you thought of this list!
No fiction list should be with out
To kill a mockingbird
Catcher in the rye
Old man and the sea
On the road