Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time

The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time is a list published in book form in 1990 by the British-based Crime Writers' Association. Five years later, the Mystery Writers of America published a similar list entitled The Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time. Many titles can be found in both Crime Companions.

The List

* 1. Josephine Tey: The Daughter of Time (1951)
* 2. Raymond Chandler: The Big Sleep (1939)
* 3. John le Carré: The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1963)
* 4. Dorothy L. Sayers: Gaudy Night (1935)
* 5. Agatha Christie: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
* 6. Daphne du Maurier: Rebecca (1938)
* 7. Raymond Chandler: Farewell My Lovely (1940)
* 8. Wilkie Collins: The Moonstone (1868)
* 9. Len Deighton: The Ipcress File (1962)
* 10. Dashiell Hammett: The Maltese Falcon (1930)
* 11. Josephine Tey: The Franchise Affair (1948)
* 12. Hillary Waugh: Last Seen Wearing ... (1952)
* 13. Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose (1980)
* 14. Geoffrey Household: Rogue Male (1939)
* 15. Raymond Chandler: The Long Goodbye (1953)
* 16. Francis Iles: Malice Aforethought (1931)
* 17. Frederick Forsyth: The Day of the Jackal (1971)
* 18. Dorothy L. Sayers: The Nine Tailors (1934)
* 19. Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None (1939)
* 20. John Buchan: The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915)
* 21. Arthur Conan Doyle: The Collected Sherlock Holmes Short Stories (1892-1927)
* 22. Dorothy L. Sayers: Murder Must Advertise (1933)
* 23. Edgar Allan Poe: Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1852)
* 24. Eric Ambler: The Mask of Dimitrios (1939)
* 25. Edmund Crispin: The Moving Toyshop (1946)
* 26. Margery Allingham: The Tiger in the Smoke (1952)
* 27. Peter Lovesey: The False Inspector Dew (1982)
* 28. Wilkie Collins: The Woman in White (1860)
* 29. Barbara Vine: A Dark-Adapted Eye (1986)
* 30. James M. Cain: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934)
* 31. Dashiell Hammett: The Glass Key (1931)
* 32. Arthur Conan Doyle: The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
* 33. John le Carré: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974)
* 34. E. C. Bentley: Trent's Last Case (1913)
* 35. Ian Fleming: From Russia with Love (1957)
* 36. Ed McBain: Cop Hater (1956)
* 37. Colin Dexter: The Dead of Jericho (1981)
* 38. Patricia Highsmith: Strangers on a Train (1950)
* 39. Ruth Rendell: A Judgement in Stone (1977)
* 40. John Dickson Carr: The Hollow Man (1935)
* 41. Anthony Berkeley: The Poisoned Chocolates Case (1929)
* 42. Ellis Peters: A Morbid Taste for Bones (1977)
* 43. Ellis Peters: The Leper of St. Giles (1981) (
* 44. Ira Levin: A Kiss Before Dying (1953)
* 45 Patricia Highsmith: The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955)
* 46. Graham Greene: Brighton Rock (1938)
* 47. Raymond Chandler: The Lady in the Lake (1943)
* 48. Scott Turow: Presumed Innocent (1987)
* 49. Ruth Rendell: A Demon in My View (1976)
* 50. John Dickson Carr: The Devil in Velvet (1951)
* 51. Barbara Vine: A Fatal Inversion (1987)
* 52 Michael Innes: The Journeying Boy (1949)
* 53. P.D. James: A Taste for Death (1986)
* 54. Jack Higgins: The Eagle Has Landed (1975)
* 55. Mary Stewart: My Brother Michae (1960)
* 56. Peter Lovesey: Bertie and the Tin Man (1987)
* 57. Susan Moody: Penny Black (1984)
* 58. Len Deighton: Game, Set & Match (1984-1986)
* 59. Dick Francis: The Danger (1983)
* 60. P.D. James: Devices and Desires (1989)
* 61. Reginald Hill: Underworld (1988)
* 62. Mary Stewart: Nine Coaches Waiting (1958)
* 63. Paula Gosling: A Running Duck (1978)
* 64. Michael Gilbert: Smallbone Deceased (1950)
* 65. Lionel Davidson: The Rose of Tibet (1962)
* 66. P.D. James: Innocent Blood (1980)
* 67. Dorothy L. Sayers: Strong Poison (1930)
* 68. Michael Innes: Hamlet, Revenge! (1937)
* 69. Tony Hillerman: A Thief of Time (1989)
* 70. Caryl Brahms & S. J. Simon: A Bullet in the Ballet (1937)
* 71. Reginald Hill: Dead Heads (1983)
* 72. Graham Greene: The Third Man (1950)
* 73. Anthony Price:The Labyrinth Makers (1974)
* 74. Adam Hall: The Quiller Memorandum (1965)
* 75. Margaret Millar: Beast in View (1955)
* 76. Sarah Caudwell: The Shortest Way to Hades (1984)
* 77. Desmond Bagley: Running Blind (1970)
* 78. Dick Francis: Twice Shy (1981)
* 79. Richard Condon: The Manchurian Candidate (1959)
* 80. Caroline Graham: The Killings at Badger's Drift (1987)
* 81. Nicholas Blake: The Beast Must Die (1938)
* 82. Martin Cruz Smith: Gorky Park (1981)
* 83. Agatha Christie: Death Comes as the End (1945)
* 84. Christianna Brand: Green for Danger (1945)
* 85. Cyril Hare: Tragedy at Law (1942)
* 86. John Fowles: The Collector (1963)
* 87. J. J. Marric: Gideon's Day (1955)
* 88. Lionel Davidson: The Sun Chemist (1976)
* 89. Alistair Maclean: The Guns of Navarone (1957)
* 90. Julian Symons: The Colour of Murder (1957)
* 91. John Buchan: Greenmantle (1916)
* 92. Erskine Childers: The Riddle of the Sands (1903)
* 93. Peter Lovesey: Wobble to Death (1970)
* 94. Dashiell Hammett: Red Harvest (1929)
* 95. Ken Follett: The Key to Rebecca (1980)
* 96. Ed McBain: Sadie When She Died (1972)
* 97. H. R. F. Keating: The Murder of the Maharajah (1980)
* 98. Simon Brett: What Bloody Man Is That? (1987)
* 99. Gavin Lyall: Shooting Script (1966)
* 100. Edgar Wallace: Four Just Men (1906)[1]