The Best Classic and Contemporary Crime Novels

Two women haunted by their sisters’ unsolved disappearances band together in this captivating mystery from the author of All Good People Here and host of the #1 true crime podcast Crime Junkie.

It’s a blazing summer when two men arrive in a small village in the West of Ireland. One of them is coming home. Both of them are coming to get rich. One of them is coming to die … From the writer who is “in a class by herself” (The New York Times), a nuanced, atmospheric tale that explores what we’ll do for our loved ones, what we’ll do for revenge, and what we sacrifice when the two collide.

From “Japan’s Agatha Christie” (The Sunday Times): A secluded bay. An apparent lovers’ suicide. And a pair of detectives with a nagging suspicion that the pieces don’t add up. Can you solve one of the most astonishing literary puzzles ever written?

The two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author of Harlem Shuffle continues his Harlem saga in a powerful and hugely-entertaining novel that summons 1970s New York in all its seedy glory. Crook Manifesto is a darkly funny tale of a city under siege, but also a sneakily searching portrait of the meaning of family. Colson Whitehead’s kaleidoscopic portrait of Harlem is sure to stand as one of the all-time great evocations of a place and time.

In this gripping thriller, truth and justice are called into question when a Black man is gunned down in cold blood — the first novel in a riveting series from renowned civil rights attorney Ben Crump.

From the bestselling author of The Passenger and the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Road comes a “profoundly disturbing and gorgeously rendered” (The Washington Post) novel that returns to the Texas-Mexico border, setting of the famed Border Trilogy. Here, McCarthy simultaneously strips down the American crime novel and broadens its concerns to encompass themes as ancient as the Bible and as bloodily contemporary as this morning’s headlines. No Country for Old Men is a triumph.

An electrifying, whip-smart whodunit about the dastardly misbehavior of London’s high society — where being “in” or “out” can be a life-and-death matter. As Detective Inspector Caius Beauchamp investigates parallel cases, he plunges into the exclusive world of money, title, and power as only England can dish it up, where justice is available only to the privileged.

Deftly shifting through time and perspective in contemporary India, Age of Vice is an epic, action-packed story propelled by the seductive wealth, startling corruption, and bloodthirsty violence of the Wadia family — loved by some, loathed by others, feared by all. Equal parts crime thriller and family saga, transporting readers from the dusty villages of Uttar Pradesh to the urban energy of New Delhi, Age of Vice is an intoxicating novel of gangsters and lovers, false friendships, forbidden romance, and the consequences of corruption. It is binge-worthy entertainment at its literary best.

From the New York Times bestselling author, here is the first novel in the explosive Power of the Dog series — an action-filled look at the drug trade that takes you deep inside a world riddled with corruption, betrayal, and bloody revenge. From the streets of New York City to Mexico City and Tijuana to the jungles of Central America, this is the war on drugs like you’ve never seen it.

Annie “Anh Le” Shaw grew up poor, but seems to have it all now: a dream career, a stunning home, and a devoted husband and daughter. When Annie’s mother, a Vietnam War refugee, dies suddenly one night, Annie’s carefully curated life begins to unravel.  With dizzying twists, You Know What You Did is both a harrowing thriller and a heartfelt exploration of the refugee experience, the legacies we leave for our children, and the unbreakable bonds between mothers and daughters.

The story that made Agatha Christie famous ends with one of her most dramatic twists. The villagers of King’s Abbot are shocked when a wealthy local widow commits suicide and the very next day her fiancé, Roger Ackroyd, is stabbed to death. All the guests and staff at Ackroyd’s country house seem to have solid alibis — except for his missing stepson. But as the authorities hone in on their most obvious suspect, the recently retired detective Hercule Poirot unexpectedly turns up and joins the fray …

In the latest installment of the Easy Rawlins series from beloved and bestselling author Walter Mosley, the L.A. private eye has his hands full with the investigation of a racially charged murder.

Three detectives descend into the underbelly of Los Angeles, where all the classic elements of an Ellroy novel — police corruption, Hollywood scandal, and organized crime — collide in this bestselling installment in the L.A. Quartet.

In a major novel unlike anything he has written before, John Grisham takes us on an incredible journey, from the Jim Crow South to the jungles of the Philippines during World War II; from an insane asylum filled with secrets to a Mississippi courtroom.

The Chalk Man is a riveting and relentlessly compelling psychological suspense debut that weaves a mystery about a childhood game gone dangerously awry, and will keep readers guessing right up to the shocking ending.