Romance
My Crime Book Reviews
My favourite crime books
| The Maltese Falcon | Dashiell Hammett | Hard boiled noir. Defined the tough talking detective style; iconic atmosphere. |
| The Big Sleep | Raymond Chandler | Noir detective. Philip Marlowe’s debut; razor sharp dialogue and complex plotting. |
| Murder on the Orient Express | Agatha Christie | Classic whodunit. One of the most ingenious solutions in crime fiction. |
| The Hound of the Baskervilles | Arthur Conan Doyle | Detective mystery. Holmes at his most atmospheric; gothic tension on the moors. |
| The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | Stieg Larsson | Modern crime thriller. Dark, layered investigation with unforgettable characters. |
| The Silence of the Lambs | Thomas Harris | Psychological crime. Hannibal Lecter’s chilling brilliance reshaped the genre. |
| Gone Girl | Gillian Flynn | Psychological thriller. Twisty, unreliable narrator crime that changed modern thrillers. |
| The Godfather | Mario Puzo | Organised crime. Epic mafia saga blending violence, loyalty, and power. |
| In Cold Blood | Truman Capote | True crime. A pioneering, haunting reconstruction of a real murder case. |
| The Name of the Rose | Umberto Eco | Historical crime. Medieval murder mystery with intellectual depth and tension. |
| The Postman Always Rings Twice | James M. Cain | Noir crime. Brutal, lean, and shocking; a cornerstone of American noir. |
| The Talented Mr Ripley | Patricia Highsmith | Psychological crime. A chilling portrait of charm, deceit, and identity theft. |
| LA Confidential | James Ellroy | Crime noir. Corruption, violence, and sprawling, gritty storytelling. |
| The Woman in White | Wilkie Collins | Victorian crime. One of the earliest and best mystery crime novels. |
| The Murder of Roger Ackroyd | Agatha Christie | Classic whodunit. Famous for its bold, rule breaking twist. |
| The Snowman | Jo Nesbø | Nordic noir. Dark, atmospheric, and relentlessly tense. |
| The Reversal | Michael Connelly | Legal crime thriller. Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller combine for a gripping case. |
| I, The Jury | Mickey Spillane | Hard boiled action crime. Violent, fast paced, and hugely influential in pulp crime. |
| The Day of the Jackal | Frederick Forsyth | Political crime thriller. Meticulous, high tension manhunt; a masterclass in plotting. |
| Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy | John le Carré | Spy crime. Intricate, intelligent investigation into betrayal and espionage. |
