The 25 Must Read Mystery Books of All Time

One of my favorite things to do is read a good mystery novel. The genre is filled with thousands of amazing novels, making it hard to choose your next read. That is why we made a list of the 25 best mystery books of all time. Keep reading to see which books made our list! 

Mystery novels have been around for hundreds of years. Something about them makes them hard to put down. Our love for the genre had led to many amazing novels as well as authors. You can see the full list below! 

The 25 Best Mystery Books of All Time 

• Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie   
• The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle  
• The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris   
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson   
• The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler   
• The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins   
• Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon   
• The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco   
• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier  
• The Alienist by Caleb Carr   
• In the Woods by Tana French   
• The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett 
• Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown   
• The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith   
• The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey   
• Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane   
• The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides   
• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie   
• The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón   
• The Secret History by Donna Tartt   
• Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
• We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
• The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
• The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Murder on the Orient Express

No mystery list is complete without Agatha Christie. She has helped push the genre forward and you can see her influence on many modern novels. Murder on the Orient Express is one of her best novels if not her best. The mystery at hand is clever and while it may not be as popular as And Then There Were None, it is just as good if not better!

The Hounds of the Baskerville

When talking about crime novels and the best detective novels, Sherlock Holmes can’t be forgotten. And with m a bunch of books to his name, a few could have made this list. But the best book in the Sherlock Holmes series has to be The Hounds of the Baskerville. Even if Doyle loathed writing Sherlock Holmes novels, their impact on the crime genre cannot be ignored.

The Big Sleep

The Hardboiled fiction genre thrived from the 1930s to the 1950s and Raymond Chandler was one of its most influential writers. The Big Sleep captures the magic that swept the nation and made hardboiled fiction the go-to for many readers. Now, the genre is mostly forgotten but its impact can still be felt in many detective novels and movies that is has influenced over the decades.

The Maltese Falcon

It has been almost a century since hardboiled fiction novels have had their heyday. But the classics that these era produced are still worth reading such as The Maltese Falcon is a detective novel filled with lots of murder and blood. One of my favorite elements of a hardboiled fiction novel is the constant plot twists as if you are in a maze. There is never a dull moment and Dashiell Hammett’s novel delivers on all fronts.

The Talented Mr. Ripley

A classic thriller that I loved is The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. It is a fun novel that follows the descent into madness of Ripley and what he will do to keep his new life going. Highsmith is a unique character that explores the true nature of a person and what people are capable of.

Shutter Island

One of my favorite all time novels on this list is Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane. If you like reading novels where you can’t trust the protagonist, then this is for you. The movie is also great and I recommend watching it after reading the novel so the plot twist is spoiled. But even if you have seen the movie, you will still enjoy the brilliant writing by Lehane.

The Secret History

One of my favorite novels of all time has to be The Secret History by Donna Tartt. It is a murder mystery that takes place on a college campus and recalls the events that led to the murder of one of the members of the club. This novel gave birth to the dark academia subgenre and established Tartt as a one of a kind author.

Conclusion 

That is all for our list of the 25 best mystery books of all time. How many of these books have you read? What other mystery books should we have included on the list? Let us know in the comments below! 

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