We asked 30 different crime authors to pick 3 crime books they would recommend to EVERYONE.
With thanks to Alexandra Burt, Anya Lipska, Ben McPherson, Bonnie MacBride, Bruce Holsinger, Chris Curran, Chris Nickson, Emma Kavanagh, Fergus McNeill, Ian Sansom, Isabelle Grey, James Craig, Jax Miller, Jilliane Hoffman, JJ Durham, JS Law, Lars Kepler, Malcolm Mackay, Mark Sennen, Neil Broadfoot, Patrick Kendrick, Paul Finch, Peter Jones, Rosie Claverton, Sheena Lambert, SJI Holliday, SK Tremayne, Tony Schumacher, Will Smith and William Shaw
Here’s their list:
** denotes recommended multiple times
- Any of Robert Parker’s early Spenser books.
- A Gun for Sale by Graham Greene
- Alex by Pierre le Maitre**
- A Line of Blood, by Ben MacPherson
- A Moment of Silence by Anna Dean
- And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
- A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
- Blue Rondo by John Lawton
- Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
- Chinatown – Robert Towne’s screenplay
- Cold Granite by Stuart MacBride
- Complicity by Iain Banks
- Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin**
- Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
- Dead Simple by Peter James
- Dirty White Boys by Stephen Hunter
- Endless Night by Agatha Christie
- GB84 by David Peace
- Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn**
- Great Expectations by Dickens
- Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton
- Heaven’s Prisoners, James Lee Burke
- HELL IS A CITY by Maurice Procter
- Human Remains by Elizabeth Haynes
- In Cold Blood by Truman Capote**
- In the Woods by Tana French
- JACK RETURNS HOME by Ted Lewis
- LA Confidential by James Elroy
- Laidlaw by William McIlvanney**
- Live by Night by Dennis Lehane
- Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey
- Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg
- Mr Mercedes by Stephen King
- Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
- Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
- The Hunter by Richard Stark
- Pop 1280 by Jim Thompson
- Raven Black by Ann Cleeves
- Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
- Red Dragon by Thomas Harris
- Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
- Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer
- Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
- The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
- Sleepyhead by Mark Billingham
- Smiley’s People by John le Carre
- Someone Else’s Skin by Sarah Hilary
- Sovereign by C. J. Sansom
- The Wolfen by Whitley Strieber
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
- The Blackhouse by Peter May
- The Bone Collector by Jeffrey Deaver
- The Client by John Grisham
- The Distance by H Giltrow
- The Exception by Christian Jungersen
- The Expats by Chris Pavone
- The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson
- The Last Child by John Hart
- The Lion’s Game by Nelson DeMille
- The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett**
- The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
- The Murder Farm by Andrea Maria Schenkel
- The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
- The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly
- Power of the Dog Don Winslow
- The Quiet Girl by Peter Hoeg
- The Secret History by Donna Tartt
- The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale
- The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
- The Thirty Nine Steps by John Buchan
- The Three Evangelists by Fred Vargas
- The Walking Stick by Winston Graham
- Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carre
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- Tokyo by Mo Hayder
- Unravelling Oliver by Liz Nugent
