The Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time Mystery Writers of America

Given by Mystery Writers of America (MWA)

100 Works 601,407 Books 12,865 Reviews 4.1
WorkOrder Label
The Complete Sherlock Holmes: All 4 Novels and 56 Short Stories (1887) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1
The Maltese Falcon (1930) by Dashiell Hammett
2
Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1832) by Edgar Allan Poe
3
The Daughter of Time (1951) by Josephine Tey
4
Presumed Innocent (1987) by Scott Turow
5
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1963) by John le Carré
6
The Moonstone (1868) by Wilkie Collins
7
The Big Sleep (1939) by Raymond Chandler
8
Rebecca (1938) by Daphne Du Maurier
9
And Then There Were None (1939) by Agatha Christie
10
Anatomy of a Murder (1958) by Robert Traver
11
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) by Agatha Christie
12
The Long Goodbye (1953) by Raymond Chandler
13
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934) by James M. Cain
14
The Godfather (1969) by Mario Puzo
15
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) by Thomas Harris
16
The Mask of Dimitrios (1939) by Eric Ambler
17
Gaudy Night (1935) by Dorothy L. Sayers
18
The Witness for the Prosecution [short story] (1925) by Agatha Christie
19
The Day of the Jackal (1971) by Frederick Forsyth
20
Farewell, My Lovely (1940) by Raymond Chandler
21
The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915) by John Buchan
22
The Name of the Rose (1980) by Umberto Eco
23
Crime and Punishment (1866) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
24
Eye of the Needle (1978) by Ken Follett
25
Rumpole of the Bailey (1978) by John Mortimer
26
Red Dragon (1981) by Thomas Harris
27
The Nine Tailors (1934) by Dorothy L. Sayers
28
Fletch (1974) by Gregory Mcdonald
29
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974) by John le Carré
30
The Thin Man (1934) by Dashiell Hammett
31
The Woman in White (1859) by Wilkie Collins
32
Trent's Last Case (1913) by E. C. Bentley
33
Double Indemnity (1936) by James M. Cain
34
Gorky Park (1981) by Marin Cruz Smith
35
Strong Poison (1930) by Dorothy L. Sayers
36
Dance Hall of the Dead (1973) by Tony Hillerman
37
The Hot Rock (1970) by Donald E. Westlake
38
Red Harvest (1929) by Dashiell Hammett
39
The Circular Staircase (1908) by Mary Roberts Rinehart
40
Murder on the Orient Express (1934) by Agatha Christie
41
The Firm (1991) by John Grisham
42
The Ipcress File (1962) by Len Deighton
43
Laura (1942) by Vera Caspary
44
I, the Jury (1947) by Mickey Spillane
45
The Laughing Policeman (1970) by Maj Sjöwall
46
Bank Shot (1972) by Donald E. Westlake
47
The Third Man (1949) by Graham Greene
48
The Killer Inside Me (1952) by Jim Thompson
49
Where Are the Children? (1975) by Mary Higgins Clark
50
A is for Alibi (1982) by Sue Grafton
51
The First Deadly Sin (1972) by Lawrence Sanders
52
A Thief of Time (1988) by Tony Hillerman
53
In Cold Blood (1965) by Truman Capote
54
Rogue Male (1939) by Geoffrey Household
55
Murder Must Advertise (1933) by Dorothy L. Sayers
56
Smiley's People (1979) by John le Carré
58
The Lady in the Lake (1943) by Raymond Chandler
59
To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) by Harper Lee
60
Our Man in Havana (1958) by Graham Greene
61
The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870) by Charles Dickens
62
Wobble to Death (1970) by Peter Lovesey
63
Ashenden, or, The British Agent (1928) by W. Somerset Maugham
64
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1974) by Nicholas Meyer
65
The Doorbell Rang (1965) by Rex Stout
66
Stick (1983) by Elmore Leonard
67
The Little Drummer Girl (1983) by John le Carré
68
Brighton Rock (1938) by Graham Greene
69
Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker
70
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) by Patricia Highsmith
71
The Moving Toyshop (1946) by Edmund Crispin
72
A Time to Kill (1989) by John Grisham
73
Last Seen Wearing... (1952) by Hillary Waugh
74
Little Caesar (1929) by W. R. Burnett
75
The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1971) by George V. Higgins
76
Clouds of Witness (1926) by Dorothy L. Sayers
77
From Russia with Love (1957) by Ian Fleming
78
Beast in View (1955) by Margaret Millar
79
Smallbone Deceased (1950) by Michael Gilbert
80
The Franchise Affair (1948) by Josephine Tey
81
Crocodile on the Sandbank (1975) by Elizabeth Peters
82
Shroud for a Nightingale (1971) by P. D. James
83
The Hunt for Red October (1984) by Tom Clancy
84
Chinaman's Chance (1978) by Ross Thomas
85
The Secret Agent (1907) by Joseph Conrad
86
The Dreadful Lemon Sky (1974) by John D. MacDonald
87
The Glass Key (1931) by Dashiell Hammett
88
A Judgement in Stone (1977) by Ruth Rendell
89
Brat Farrar (1949) by Josephine Tey
90
The Chill (1964) by Ross Macdonald
91
Devil in a Blue Dress (1990) by Walter Mosley
92
The Choirboys (1975) by Joseph Wambaugh
93
God Save the Mark (1967) by Donald E. Westlake
94
Home Sweet Homicide (1944) by Craig Rice
95
The Three Coffins (1935) by John Dickson Carr
96
Prizzi's Honor (1982) by Richard Condon
97
The Steam Pig (1971) by James McClure
98
Time and Again (1970) by Jack Finney
99
Rosemary's Baby (1967) by Ira Levin
100
A Morbid Taste for Bones (1977) by Ellis Peters
100

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