3.80 avg rating — 57,321 ratings

"Rankin's Rebus is as dark a hero as the writer's Edinburgh is a city. Gritty stories throughout the series."

3.83 avg rating — 25,505 ratings

3.93 avg rating — 20,672 ratings

3.88 avg rating — 17,125 ratings

3.96 avg rating — 16,531 ratings

3.97 avg rating — 14,051 ratings

4.02 avg rating — 16,620 ratings

4.09 avg rating — 18,710 ratings

4.09 avg rating — 14,181 ratings

4.06 avg rating — 11,621 ratings

4.05 avg rating — 12,803 ratings

4.05 avg rating — 15,405 ratings

4.05 avg rating — 14,539 ratings

4.08 avg rating — 14,506 ratings

4.01 avg rating — 14,269 ratings

4.03 avg rating — 12,907 ratings

4.13 avg rating — 18,021 ratings

4.08 avg rating — 18,166 ratings

4.14 avg rating — 14,411 ratings

4.20 avg rating — 15,090 ratings

4.09 avg rating — 14,819 ratings

4.09 avg rating — 18,439 ratings

4.12 avg rating — 20,876 ratings

3.76 avg rating — 922 ratings

"Corcoran's plots can be confounding, peopled with a menagerie of Key Weirdos, but Rutledge is a reliable down-on-his-luck meets 007, and the portrayal of Key West is matchless."

3.97 avg rating — 796 ratings

3.95 avg rating — 527 ratings

4.11 avg rating — 437 ratings

4.12 avg rating — 547 ratings

4.28 avg rating — 334 ratings

4.45 avg rating — 210 ratings

4.41 avg rating — 193 ratings

4.16 avg rating — 349 ratings

3.46 avg rating — 1,717 ratings

"Get a PhD in Setting from John Straley. These Alaskan mysteries have Cecil Younger hopping on and off of bush planes and stepping in and out of fishing and frontier town taverns that are just the kind of place you would want to read one of these stories."

3.61 avg rating — 618 ratings

3.68 avg rating — 399 ratings

3.62 avg rating — 309 ratings

3.73 avg rating — 239 ratings

3.82 avg rating — 240 ratings

3.58 avg rating — 357 ratings

3.73 avg rating — 180 ratings

3.90 avg rating — 28,210 ratings

"Burke approaches poetry at times, reminding me of Cormac McCarthy, and his portrayal of Louisiana (and, later in the series, Montana) is loving and moving."

4.10 avg rating — 11,512 ratings

4.16 avg rating — 17,036 ratings

4.19 avg rating — 8,734 ratings

4.17 avg rating — 8,899 ratings

4.17 avg rating — 10,958 ratings

4.11 avg rating — 7,741 ratings

4.06 avg rating — 6,858 ratings

4.05 avg rating — 7,202 ratings

4.07 avg rating — 7,194 ratings

4.17 avg rating — 8,851 ratings

4.18 avg rating — 8,162 ratings

4.14 avg rating — 6,517 ratings

4.18 avg rating — 8,451 ratings

4.19 avg rating — 7,704 ratings

4.19 avg rating — 15,253 ratings

4.13 avg rating — 8,743 ratings

4.22 avg rating — 11,133 ratings

4.19 avg rating — 8,336 ratings

4.07 avg rating — 7,526 ratings

4.11 avg rating — 8,226 ratings

4.02 avg rating — 7,614 ratings

3.76 avg rating — 78,867 ratings

"Best of the best. Wallander is an antihero whose personal travails are only matched by his everyman heroism. Mankell has by far the widest aperture of any author on this list, taking on immigration and nationalism, technology and post-industrial capitalism, and more. The arc of this series is as heartbreaking as it is gripping."

3.72 avg rating — 30,470 ratings

3.87 avg rating — 23,783 ratings

3.95 avg rating — 25,952 ratings

4.08 avg rating — 24,833 ratings

4.04 avg rating — 28,232 ratings

4.11 avg rating — 22,363 ratings

3.97 avg rating — 20,708 ratings

3.98 avg rating — 18,933 ratings