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The 100 Most Popular Mysteries and Thrillers on Goodreads
With clever detectives, missing jewels, murderous women, daring spies, and more, mysteries and thrillers deliver page-turning delight with every twist and turn. To celebrate our favorite sleuths (and favorite villains), we followed the footsteps to find the top 100 most popular mysteries and thrillers on Goodreads.
As all good mystery readers know, uncovering the howdunit is sometimes just as important as unveiling the culprit. To create our list, we first started with the most reviewed books on our site. Additionally, each title needed at least a 3.5 star rating to make it onto our rap sheet. And because some of your favorite authors are repeat offenders, when it came to books in a series, we kept the title with the most reviews and buried the rest. (Otherwise, the top of this list would be very full of Dan Brown, Janet Evanovich, and Stieg Larsson.)
We suspect you'll find a book or two you'll want to read in this lineup. Here are the top mysteries and thrillers on Goodreads, listed from 1 to 100.
How many have you read? Tell us in the comments below, and don't forget to add titles that catch your eye to your Want to Read shelf!
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How many of these books have you read? What's your favorite mystery of all time? Let's talk books in the comments!
Comments Showing 251-300 of 350 (350 new)
message 251:
by
Charalampidou
(new)
Apr 10, 2020 05:10AM
Glad to say I've read quite a few and can't wait to read many more.
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I have read 27 of these books, and a couple more of them are lined up waiting to be read. I am surprised not to see any Preston & Child, Tami Hoag or older Elizabeth George there.
I would also recommend the Sydney Parnell series by Barbara Nickless. An interesting lead character with a canine sidekick.
You've left out some brilliant mystery writers like Ann Cleves, Maureen Jennings, Anne Perry, and MC Beaton.
Have read 52, and about 5 were 5 stars! So many of the others were robotic, predictable, over-used premises or boring characters, that I wanted to toss them....but would never do that to a book
I've read 39 of the list but agreed that so many great mystery writers are missing:Sharon Bolton
CJ Sansom
Sarah Waters
Lars Kepler
Shirley Jackson
Georges Simenon
Emma Donoghue
to name a few off the top of my head...but it's an ok list...
Keyword: "Popular." And yeah, the deafening omissions...
No Crais? No Bidinotto? Really?
Dan Brown in the number one spot? Inconceivable.
Where is Dorothy Sayers? Josephine Try? Steven Saylor?
You know you are a die-hard thriller reader when you've read most of the books on this list! Although I did find a few that I've missed. Hopefully some are available in ebook format.
Books-fly-to-me wrote: "Alfred wrote: "No John Sandford?"Hear, hear,"
I agree - one of my absolute favorites!
Roseanne wrote: "Pam wrote: "Loved this list. For those who are looking for other great reads, try Half Broken Things by Morag Joss, any Dick Francis book, the Rizzoli and Isles series by Tess Gerritsen, and books ..."Scottoline wrote the 'Rosato & Associates' and 'Rosato & DiNunzio' series.
Hi All.....I have a couple of credits to use up from my Audible account. I can't boast about how many books I've read because I've already purchased more books on my Audible account than I will "ever" have time to listen to (I do genealogy and can't pull myself away from the researching.) However, my eyes are really tired and I am interested in taking a computer break. So, would everyone please list your TOP TWO (BEST) mystery/thriller books by any author? Then I'll have a great idea of what to get. Many Thanks! DB
At least one from the Martin Beck series by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo ought to be there with a Kurt Wallendar by Henning Mankell, too.
I have loved most all of John Grisham' s books that I have read. I'm anxious to read more.
What about any of the Wallander books? Henning Mankell? My ultimate favourite
I have saved the books I am interested. Indian authors books should have been included in these books.DRVRao
I have only read 12 of these; 8 are on my “want to read” shelf and 7 appear on other shelves I have created. I liked Verity and The Outsider. I love Karen Rose, so surprised none of her books are on here. Well, maybe those are classified differently than Mystery/Thriller. I am a bit ashamed to admit I have never read an Agatha Christie book. Perhaps its time.
Prathyusha wrote: "The "pendergast series " by douglas preston and lincoln child is the best thriller series i have read so far. I am yet to find a more interesting and awesome investigator as Aloysius pendergast. Gi..."Sold Prathyusha. Just added book one to my wait list at my local library. Cant wait to get started on this series! I have been looking for my next “great” series. Hope this fits the bill.
Absolutely the Pendergast series. One of my favorites! I also love every book by Louise Penny (Inspector Gamache).
Thank you for this great List, I've found a lot of books that I've want to read in the future :))
I'm sorry not to see books by:Louise Penny
Jac
Last one got away from me. Authors missing from the list (I understand about the criteria):Louise Penny
Donna Leon
P.D. James
Elizabeth George
Val McDermid
Minette Walters
Peter Lovesey
Jacqueline Winspear
Martin Walker
C.J. Sansom
Elliott Peters
Margaret Fraser
Peter Tremayne
and so many more that I can't think of at the moment, but all with international, and sometimes historical, settings.
Lawrence Block, Lawrence Sanders: has no one read the Scudder series, or Sanders' Commadment or Deadly Sins novels? They are among the best of any mystery genre! And surely several of the Wilkie Collins mysteries, and Parker's Spenser and Mathew Hope...and the Precinct procedurals. Too many left unmentioned. I know lists must be finite, but I'm concerned that too many of ourcontemporary readers have not explored the genesis of our "drug of choice": Mystery and Thriller books!
Riju wrote: "But such a list completely disregards British classics..."No, it doesn't.
Rather than comment on who IS on the list, I have a difficult time with the omission of the following:John Le Carre
Ian Rankin
Ken Bruen
James Lee Burke
Vicki wrote: "I've read 31 of these, but they range from the 5-star Still Life to the 1-star Gone Girl. The Ruth Ware selections look interesting; I'll have to try her when/ir my library ever reopens."Ruth Ware is so so good. One of my fav authors!
I cannot believe John Connolly is not on the list, beautifully written, scary, complex and with brilliant characters ..... I have read quite a few on the list but find some a bit predictable i.e the friend who isn't, the husband who is the killer, blah, blah.
Riju wrote: "This list seems to be entirely based upon ratings bestowed by American teenagers. Nothing wrong with that. But such a list completely disregards British classics, short-story collections, entire ge..."Totally. Not to tell of non English written fictions like the very popular Nordic crime (only Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbo in the list which is no longer Nordic but has become world literature) let alone other great crime writers not in the US (Robert van Gulik - China -, George Simenon - France -, Arturo Perez Reverte - Spain -, Andrea Camilieri - Italy - etc ...)
Barry wrote: "I agree with the first post in the list. No evidence of any great mysteries and thrillers (with a few exceptions); just the suspense/horror books of the past several years. Those aren't really myst..."I agree, I love Nero Wolf.
I've read 21, including 7 of the top 10. I have another 24 on my shelves at home waiting patiently for me to read them. I only have one 5-star rating on this list - The Secret History - but there are a few others that I would highly recommend (4 stars):
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (don't bother with the sequels)
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Firm by John Grisham (one caveat: I read this almost 30 years ago when it first came out - it's possible it hasn't quite held up over time)
The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris (read Red Dragon first - it's even better!)
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
I have read 19 of these and plan to read most (if not all) eventually, but it would have been cool to include some independent authors. Blake Crouch's Dark Matter would be an example I was surprised not to see here--maybe because it's sci-fi thriller?I'm also interested in the criteria for 'most popular,' seeing as how almost none of these have higher than a 3.5 rating. Maybe 'most shelved? Most read? Popular implies liked; not sure all of these are (I love Tana French, for example, but her books are really polarizing, if also widely read).
I confess, I didn't recognize more than half of these ... probably because I'm still finding great new mysteries among the"oldies." I'd recommend people check out the '20s -'40s ... Chandler, Stout, Sayers, Bentley...
Prathyusha wrote: "The "pendergast series " by douglas preston and lincoln child is the best thriller series i have read so far. I am yet to find a more interesting and awesome investigator as Aloysius pendergast. Gi..."I totally agree.
I've read 39 of these and agree with a lot of previous comments that some great authors are missing. Especially historical mysteries and those not written in the USA. Missing are most of the Scandanavian authors such as Jo Nesbo, all of the Japanese authors, Peter Treymayne, Charles Finch, Anne Perry, Martha Grimes, Ngaio Marsh, Lindsay Faye, Dick Francis, Gillian Flynn, Harlan Coban, Donna Leon, Jonathon & Faye Kellerman, and others I can't remember.
Only 7/100 but, to be fair, this isn't my favourite genre. Having said that, there are a few that do appeal to me so maybe I'll up my score..
Rosa wrote: "I only read 12 books from those, but I miss a few of my favorites thriller's authors like John Katzenbach or Camilla Lackberg or John Verdon."I have to agree about Camilla Lackberg!
Am I the only one disappointed and disliking the latest mystery/thriller trends such as "Woman in the Window", "The Girl on the Train"? I saw the end coming miles away, and it was so predictable, but now books like this are everywhere. I just don't get it.
Elly Griffiths' series starring Ruth Galloway is my favourite. I also like Phil Rickman's Merrilly Watkins' mysteries.
Elly Griffiths' series starring Ruth Galloway is my favourite. I also like Phil Rickman's Merrilly Watkins' mysteries.
