Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time - UK Crime Writers' Association

Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time - UK Crime Writers' Association


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.


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