Reading a great mystery novel while sipping your tea is a great feeling. But only if the book you are reading is a good one. We decided to list the five best mystery books of all time to see which books are the best of the best.
It is never easy to make a shortened list like this but that also makes it fun. Choosing only five is going to leave many great books off the list. You can see the full list of the best mystery books here. You can see the five books selected below.
The Five Best Mystery Books of All Time
- Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
- The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
- The Secret History by Donna Tart
- The Woman in White by Wilkie Colins
Classics
Agatha Christie has a ton of great books and you can most of her books and nobody would really argue. We opted to go with Murder on the Orient Express as it is an iconic book that had a lot of twists and turns. The other author that deserves a spot on this list is Arthur Conan Doyle and his novel The Hound of the Baskervilles. It is a classic work and one of the best detective novels ever written.
The three other books to make the list are great mystery books that we enjoyed a lot. We know that many people will contest these selections and insert their favorite mystery books and that is fine. Everyone has different preferences. But as a lover of mystery novels, these books are must reads that most people would say they enjoyed.
Conclusion
What did you think of out five best mystery books of all-time list? What books should have made the list? Let us know in the comments below. Until next time, happy reading!
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I would add The Cabinet of Curiosities by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. I also think that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle s A Study in Scarlet is almost as good as Hound of the Baskervilles
The Secret History is an awfully boring and dull pretentious drivel. Scrap it and put Dostoevskij Crime and Punishment in its place
I think Conan Doyle was much better writing short stories than novels; so if you like Sherlock Holmes go for “The Adventures of S.H.” and “The Memoirs of S.H.” Then you can go to Chesterton’s Father Brown and I hope you’ll be delighted.
Thanks 👍 I’ll check it out 😊
But I do agree that the best novel by Doyle is “The Hound of…”.
Why have you deleted my various Top Fives???
I can assure you I haven’t deleted anything. Either it was WordPress or something weird happened. You are welcome to submit your own top five as an article as a guest post if you want to 🙂
Well sorry. Then I really don’t know what has happened.
This six books are (today!!) my TOP 5 in no particular order :
Gaston Leroux The Yellow Room Mystery
Patricia Highsmith The Talented Mr. Ripley
Carter Dickson The Judas Window
Elizabeth George A Traitor to Memory
Anthony Berkeley The Poisoned Chocolates Case
Francis Iles Malice Aforethought
Thank you for these suggestions. I have noted them down. Do you like Martha Grimes and P.D. James?
Oooh Ahaqir sorry. I also don’t understand what happened !!!
Of course Francis Iles is Anthony Berkeley in disguise.
If you like your mysteries more hard boiled you can delete the Elizabeth George novel and add Dashiell Hammett’s The Glass Key.
Today I would delete the Gaston Leroux novel and would add
ELLERY QUEEN’s The Greek Coffin Mystery.
The Nine Taylors by Dorothy L. Sayers
I am going to be controversial here and say Murder on the Orient Express is not one of my favourite Agatha Christie books.
My favourite on this list would be Hound of the Baskervilles absolutely loved it growing up but not far behind for me is Wilkie Collins The Woman in White .
One I would add is Wilkie Collins The Moonstone
Hammett and Chandler – and James M. Cain – are the kings of noir. Personally, I gave up on Christie when I discovered Rex Stout, Ngaio Marsh, and Mignon Everhart. Marsh and Eberhart’s novels are quietly well-crafted, and Stout may be unconventional but his stories are smart.