The 20 Best Mystery Books of All Time 

Nothing beats reading a great mystery novel. But finding one is not that easy. That is why we decided to make a list of the 20 best mystery books of all time. Keep reading to see which books made our list! 

It is always difficult to choose a limited amount and that was also true for this list. Mystery books are hard to judge because the genre is vast and has a bunch of subgenres. Depending on what you like, your list will look a lot different from another person who is also a big mystery fan. You can see the full list below! 

The 20 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   

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie   

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. And Murder on the Orient Express is one of her best novels. 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 Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle  

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 Baskervilles. Even if Doyle loathed writing Sherlock Holmes novels, their impact on the crime genre cannot be ignored.

The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris   

Is there a better thriller novel than Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris? When you are reading the novel, it doesn’t feel like there is. What makes this novel interesting is that it isn’t even the first novel in the Hannibal series. But it is definitely the best book partly because it centers around Hannibal. 

Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon   

If you haven’t read a novel by Donna Leon, then you are missing out on an amazing author. She writes the Commissario Guido Brunetti series which has over 30 books. It takes place in Venice, Italy and follows detective Guido Brunetti solving crime. A fun fact that I love is that Leon didn’t want her books to be translated to Italian even though her books take place in Italy and she lived for a while.

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler   

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 by Dashiell Hammett   

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 Secret History by Donna Tartt   

One of my favorite novels 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 20 best mystery books of all time. How many of these novels have you read?What books should we have included on the list? Let us know in the comments below! 

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