Detective novels are such a great genre of books, filled with with quirky private investigators, dark back alleys, sultry heiresses, and shocking villains.
I fell in love with Agatha Christie novels early on when I was young for reasons I don’t entirely understand, but I’ve loved detective novels ever since. Most of the authors on this list have written multiple detective novels, but I tried to limit most of them to one or two entries, usually the first book in a series unless there’s a particularly good or well-known book in the series. The only exception is Agatha Christia, who gets three because I love her!
Anyway, there’s the list of the Best Detective Books of All Time! Happy detecting slash reading! :)
The Big Sleep (Philip Marlowe #1) Raymond Chandler
What It's About:
Publication Date: July 12, 1988
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett
What It's About:
Publication Date: August 1, 1992
out of 5 on Goodreads
Murder on the Orient Express Christie Agatha
What It's About:
Publication Date: March 1, 1990
out of 5 on Goodreads
And Then There Were None Agatha Christie
What It's About:
Publication Date: May 3, 2004
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Murder of Roger Akroyd Agatha Christie
What It's About:
Publication Date: February 18, 2024
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Complete Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle
What It's About:
Publication Date: November 13, 2012
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Murders in the Rue Morgue Edgar Allan Poe
What It's About:
Publication Date: August 1, 1996
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Snowman (Harry Hole #7) Jo Nesbø
What It's About:
Publication Date: May 10, 2011
out of 5 on Goodreads
Killing Floor (Jack Reacher #1) Lee Child
What It's About:
Publication Date: April 25, 2006
out of 5 on Goodreads
Case Histories (Jackson Brodie #1) Kate Atkinson
What It's About:
Publication Date: November 9, 2004
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Stieg Larsson
What It's About:
Publication Date: June 23, 2009
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter #2) Thomas Harris
What It's About:
Publication Date: July 31, 2002
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Bone Collector (Lincoln Rhyme, #1) Jeffery Deaver
What It's About:
Publication Date: April 1, 1998
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1) Jasper Fforde
What It's About:
Publication Date: February 25, 2003
out of 5 on Goodreads
Shutter Island Dennis Lehane
What It's About:
Publication Date: August 25, 2009
out of 5 on Goodreads
Finders Keepers (Bill Hodges Trilogy #2) Stephen King
What It's About:
Publication Date: June 2, 2015
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Dry (Aaron Falk, #1) Jane Harper
What It's About:
Publication Date: January 10, 2017
out of 5 on Goodreads
The New York Trilogy Paul Auster
What It's About:
Publication Date: March 28, 2006
out of 5 on Goodreads
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency Douglas Adams
What It's About:
Publication Date: June 1, 1991
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco
What It's About:
Publication Date: February 17, 1994
out of 5 on Goodreads
In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad #1) Tana French
What It's About:
Publication Date: May 27, 2008
out of 5 on Goodreads
Gone Girl Gillian Flynn
What It's About:
Publication Date: June 5, 2012
out of 5 on Goodreads
Maisie Dobbs (Maisie Dobbs #1) Jacqueline Winspear
What It's About:
Publication Date: May 25, 2004
out of 5 on Goodreads
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #1) Alexander McCall Smith
What It's About:
Publication Date: February 6, 2003
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami
What It's About:
Publication Date: February 17, 1997
out of 5 on Goodreads
In Cold Blood Truman Capote
What It's About:
Publication Date: February 1, 1994
out of 5 on Goodreads
Brighton Rock Graham Greene
What It's About:
Publication Date: September 28, 2004
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike #1) Robert Galbraith
What It's About:
Publication Date: April 30, 2013
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Beekeeper's Apprentice (Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes #1) Laurie R. King
What It's About:
Publication Date: October 2, 2007
out of 5 on Goodreads
Rivers of London (Rivers of London #1) Ben Aaronovitch
What It's About:
Publication Date: February 18, 2024
out of 5 on Goodreads
Storm Front (The Dresden Files #1)
What It's About:
Publication Date: Not Available
out of 5 on Goodreads
Mystic River Dennis Lehane
What It's About:
Publication Date: January 30, 2001
out of 5 on Goodreads
Postmortem (Kay Scarpetta #1) Patricia Cornwell
What It's About:
Publication Date: December 29, 2009
out of 5 on Goodreads
Magpie Murders (Susan Ryeland #1) Anthony Horowitz
What It's About:
Publication Date: June 6, 2017
out of 5 on Goodreads
The City & the City China Mieville
What It's About:
Publication Date: May 26, 2009
out of 5 on Goodreads
Still Life (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #1) Louise Penny
What It's About:
Publication Date: June 30, 2015
out of 5 on Goodreads
A is for Alibi (Kinsey Millhone #1) Sue Grafton
What It's About:
Publication Date: November 1, 2005
out of 5 on Goodreads
Along Came a Spider (Alex Cross #1) James Patterson
What It's About:
Publication Date: August 1, 2003
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Black Dahlia (L.A. Quartet #1) James Ellroy
What It's About:
Publication Date: August 16, 2006
out of 5 on Goodreads
Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs #1) Richard K. Morgan
What It's About:
Publication Date: March 4, 2003
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Surgeon (Rizzoli & Isles, #1) Tess Gerritsen
What It's About:
Publication Date: August 21, 2001
out of 5 on Goodreads
Cover Her Face (Adam Dalgliesh #1) P.D. James
What It's About:
Publication Date: May 8, 2001
out of 5 on Goodreads
Whose Body? (Lord Peter Wimsey #1) Dorothy L Sayers
What It's About:
Publication Date: November 1, 2016
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Moonstone Wilkie Collins
What It's About:
Publication Date: September 11, 2001
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Mark Haddon
What It's About:
Publication Date: May 18, 2004
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Yiddish Policemen's Union Michael Chabon
What It's About:
Publication Date: May 1, 2007
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce #1) Alan Bradley
What It's About:
Publication Date: April 28, 2009
out of 5 on Goodreads
The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: The Greatest Detective Stories: 1837-1914 Graeme Davis
What It's About: Some of these stories are a bit hit and miss, but it's kinda interesting on an academic level if you're someone very interested in this genre.
Publication Date: June 4, 2019
out of 5 on Goodreads
Saving this post to use as a TBR list! So many great books and so many I haven’t read. Thanks for the list!
yay! happy reading and thanks for dropping by! :)
Falk, Murakami, Gone Girl, and Christie are in my TBR. Have read Holmes and LOVE the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson. 😍
And Reacher is the next series I’m going to read, event chronology wise.
you’ve never read an agatha christie book? oh you have to, I love her so much!
I’ll start this year. With And Then There Were None, hopefully. 🙈
excited for you, and interested to hear your thoughts if you end up getting a chance to read it! :)
that’s interesting! i’ve never read a detective book before but they do have a wide variety! thanks for sharing💞
I read Louise Penny’s 1st Ins. Gamache novel 20 years ago and instantly knew she and Three Pines were going to be famous. Her novels are beautifully written with fascinating characters and relationships and a magnificent setting. She truly is a genius.
A very doubtful list. What about Ross Macdonald, John D Macdonald, Robert B Parker, Lawrence Bloch, Carl Hiaasen & Ngaio Marsh?