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The best classic crime books of all time

The best classic crime books of all time

by Penguin editors

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With eccentric main characters, sinister motives and dark deeds aplenty, the best classic crime novels established all the rules – and then broke them. The result? Some of the most iconic, clever and timeless books around that never fail to entertain time and time again.

Read on to discover our pick of the must-read crime books that have come to define the crime genre, from hard-boiled detective fiction to intricately plotted spy thrillers and murder mysteries, to the literary inspiration behind film noir masterpieces.

Classic detective novels

A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle

The godfather of great detectives, Sherlock Holmes looms large in our cultural imagination and has been adapted for the screen, reinvented, and pastiched innumerable times, but A Study in Scarlet is where it all began. After taking up lodgings with Holmes, Dr Watson is quickly embroiled in a chilling murder mystery that perplexes the police. Amazed by his new friend’s singular powers of observation and deduction, he decides to record Holmes’s exploits for posterity – and thus the series is born.

Maigret's Doubts by Georges Simenon

No list of classic crime books would be complete without a title from Belgian author Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret series, which rewrote the rules of the detective novel with its character-driven (but no less addictive) storytelling. In this particular volume, the eponymous detective finds himself caught in the middle of a feud between husband and wife: Monsieur and Madame Manton each seek out Maigret and confide in him their worries about the other – leaving him unsure who to believe, and investigating a crime before it's been committed...

The Black Lizard by Edogawa Rampo

Edogawa Rampo (real name Taro Hirai) is widely regarded as one of Japan's best mystery and thriller writers, with some of his many works adapted for the screen. In this particular novel, we are transported to Tokyo's upmarket Ginza neighbourhood, where master detective Akechi Kogoro has met his match: a beautiful, wily super-criminal. The pair are engaged in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, locked in a constant power struggle as they take it in turns to outwit each other.

Golden Age detective novels

The Mystery of a Butcher’s Shop by Gladys Mitchell

Mrs Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley is the amateur sleuth you’ve been dying to read – think a female version of Poirot with all the arrogance and eccentricities of the famed Belgian detective plus a steely, uncompromising determination. In this particular outing, the inhabitants of Wandles Parva are all under suspicion as universally disliked moneylender Rupert Sethleigh’s body is found without its head. Who better to solve the mystery than Lestrange, who happens to be passing through? If you love Agatha Christie, you’ll adore the Great Gladys.

The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham

Take one monstrous murderer on the loose, combine with a misfit band of musically inclined villains, throw in a soupçon of smog… and you have one of amateur sleuth Albert Campion’s trickiest and darkest cases yet. Margery Allingham’s The Tiger in the Smoke is a bona fide classic from the Golden Age of crime writing, and it’s easy to see why: Jack ‘the Tiger’ Havoc is a terrifying villain, post-war London has never felt so dangerous, and as a masterful exploration of evil, it’s totally timeless.

Hard-boiled detective novels

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

If you're looking for a dark gritty urban detective, deep in the underworld of 1920s New York, cloaked in cigar smoke and hints of his femme fatale’s perfume, then Sam Spade is the one for you. Played by Humphrey Bogart in the 1941 classic, this stubborn, cold and principled private eye is considered the first hard-boiled private detective. He was also a huge influence for Raymond Chandler when he invented his own fictional detective, Philip Marlowe.

The Real Cool Killers by Chester Himes

The second of Chester Himes' award-winning Harlem Detective novels, The Real Cool Killers sees hard-boiled detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones investigate a racially charged murder over the course of one chaotic, raucous night in the slums of Harlem. Complications in the case lead them to a smoking gun that only fires blanks, a mysterious street gang, a disappearing suspect, and even Coffin Ed's own daughter.

Classic mystery novels

The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe

Long before the arrival of the capricious, inscrutable and uncommonly acute Sherlock Holmes, the dark Gothic mind of Edgar Allan Poe created C. Auguste Dupin, a man who roams the streets of Paris by night, applying his powerful rational mind to the most fiendish logic puzzles. This is the first ‘locked room’ mystery in our top ten; unlock the door to discover a grisly double-murder and the most surprising killer.

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

Tired of blood and gore and murderous intent? Feast your eyes on the moonstone, an incomparable diamond with a sad, strange history. When Rachel Verinder inherits the stone and wears it at her eighteenth birthday party, she sets in motion a series of misfortunes, misunderstandings and mysteries that threaten to divide her forever from the handsome Franklin Blake. Generally considered one of the first detective stories in the English language, this sweeping and romantic tale is the perfect read for long winter evenings.

The Beast Must Die by Nicholas Blake

In The Beast Must Die, one of The Observer‘s ‘1000 novels everyone must read’, a crime writer plans to commit the perfect murder. But when his intended victim is found dead, the writer insists he’s innocent and someone has beaten him to it. Is this an elaborate double bluff or has an innocent man been framed? With twists, turns, and clever plotting, this is one of those perfect crime books that keeps you guessing right to the end.

Laura by Vera Caspary

In the doorway of an elegant New York apartment, blood seeps over silk negligee, over polished wood floors and plush carpet: a beautiful young woman lies dead, her face disfigured by a single gunshot. Even if the silver-screen adaptation of Laura was not feted as the first film noir, this gripping thriller would make our list for its hard-boiled detective, its catty narrator, Waldo Lydecker, and the most perfect of dramatic plot twists.

Classic thriller books

Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith

Two desperate men with their minds on murder meet on a train and make a dreadful pact to commit the perfect crime: they will swap victims, so the murders can't be traced back to either of them. But when only one man follows through on the deal, the other is caught in a nightmarish spiral of guilt and madness. The first novel by Patricia Highsmith, author of The Talented Mr Ripley, Strangers on a Train was adapted to the big screen with Alfred Hitchcock's 1951 film of the same name.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by
John le Carré

John le Carré's name has become synonymous with the spy thriller, in large part due to his hugely influential George Smiley novels. This particular novel sees Smiley assume a supporting role, as British Intelligence officer Alec Leamas returns from East Germany to take on one last mission: avenging the colleagues who died at the hands of a ruthless counterintelligence chief. This is a dark tale of Cold War espionage, bluffs and double bluffs that’ll make your head spin. You’ll want read it a second time to enjoy all the intricacies, and marvel at le Carré’s plotting.

The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan

Richard Hannay is an unassuming man bored with his quiet life in London, until stranger informs him of an assassination plot with far-reaching consequences. When the stranger is found dead in his flat the next day, Hannay finds himself on the run from the police and desperately trying to stay one step ahead of a dangerous enemy. Set in 1914, on the eve of war, this adventure story crackles with tension.

Frequently asked questions

What was the first detective novel?

The Notting Hill Mystery by Charles Felix, serialised between 1862 and 1863, was the first detective novel, according toThe British Library and Guinness World Records. Other early examples of detective fiction include The Moonstone (1868) by Wilkie Collins, and The Murders in the Rue Morgue, a short story by Edgar Allan Poe published in 1841.

What are the best classic crime books if I like Agatha Christie?

For fans of Agatha Christie, there are plenty of brilliant authors from the Golden Age of detective fiction like Gladys Mitchell, who was considered one of the great female crime writers of the time alongside Christie Dorothy L. Sayers. Mitchell's Mrs Bradley detective novels, starting with Speedy Death, are perfect for fans of Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries.

What is Golden Age detective fiction?

The Golden Age detective fiction is a style of "whodunit" murder mystery that flourished in the 1920s and 1930s, with Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, Josephine Tey, and Gladys Mitchell among some of the genre's most accomplished and prolific authors.

Common tropes of Golden Age detective novels include settings in English country houses and upper-class characters, with the reader closely following the detective as they uncover clues and unravel the mystery, before finally landing on an unlikely culprit. This style of crime writing contrasted with the gritty hard-boiled detective novels gaining popularity in the US at the same time.

While Golden Age fiction largely found its footing in the interwar years, examples of the genre precede this period, and its legacy is still visible today, especially with the rising popularity of cosy mysteries.

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Classic detective novels

Golden Age detective novels

Hard-boiled detective novels

Classic mystery novels

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