The Crown Crime Companion

The Top 100 Mystery Novels Of All Time

Selected by the

Mystery Writers Of America

Annotated by 0tto Penzler and Compiled by Mickey Friedman

For The Crown Crime Companion, the Mystery Writers of America have compiled a list of the best 100 mystery novels of all time, as well as a list of favorites in ten categories.

Fully annotated and reviewed by Otto Penzler, this list of the top 100 mysteries will be a valuable resource to fans, introducing them to new novels and reminding them about books by favorite writers they may have missed.

Each of the ten category lists is introduced by a master of that category:

Classics:

Suspense:

Hardboiled/Private Eye:

Police Procedural:

Espionage/Thriller:

Criminal:

Cozy/Traditional:

Historical:

Humorous:

Legal/Courtroom:

H RF Keating

Mary Higgins Clark

Sue Grafton

Joseph Wambaugh

John Gardner

Richard Condon

Margaret Maron

Peter Lovesey

Gregory McDonald

Scott Turow