3.80 avg rating — 58,502 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 — 26,150 ratings

3.93 avg rating — 21,255 ratings

3.89 avg rating — 17,753 ratings

3.96 avg rating — 17,102 ratings

3.97 avg rating — 14,538 ratings

4.03 avg rating — 17,090 ratings

4.09 avg rating — 19,241 ratings

4.09 avg rating — 14,676 ratings

4.07 avg rating — 12,034 ratings

4.05 avg rating — 13,233 ratings

4.05 avg rating — 15,850 ratings

4.05 avg rating — 14,965 ratings

4.08 avg rating — 14,985 ratings

4.01 avg rating — 14,729 ratings

4.03 avg rating — 13,337 ratings

4.13 avg rating — 18,491 ratings

4.08 avg rating — 18,668 ratings

4.14 avg rating — 14,790 ratings

4.19 avg rating — 15,510 ratings

4.09 avg rating — 15,320 ratings

4.09 avg rating — 18,850 ratings

4.12 avg rating — 21,322 ratings

3.76 avg rating — 944 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 — 801 ratings

3.95 avg rating — 534 ratings

4.11 avg rating — 443 ratings

4.12 avg rating — 555 ratings

4.28 avg rating — 339 ratings

4.45 avg rating — 212 ratings

4.39 avg rating — 200 ratings

4.17 avg rating — 353 ratings

3.46 avg rating — 1,764 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 — 632 ratings

3.67 avg rating — 406 ratings

3.62 avg rating — 319 ratings

3.71 avg rating — 243 ratings

3.82 avg rating — 244 ratings

3.57 avg rating — 360 ratings

3.72 avg rating — 186 ratings

3.90 avg rating — 29,032 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 — 11,780 ratings

4.17 avg rating — 17,406 ratings

4.19 avg rating — 8,926 ratings

4.16 avg rating — 9,070 ratings

4.17 avg rating — 11,132 ratings

4.11 avg rating — 7,894 ratings

4.06 avg rating — 6,992 ratings

4.05 avg rating — 7,315 ratings

4.07 avg rating — 7,317 ratings

4.18 avg rating — 8,973 ratings

4.18 avg rating — 8,248 ratings

4.14 avg rating — 6,611 ratings

4.18 avg rating — 8,556 ratings

4.20 avg rating — 7,791 ratings

4.19 avg rating — 15,374 ratings

4.13 avg rating — 8,824 ratings

4.22 avg rating — 11,234 ratings

4.19 avg rating — 8,425 ratings

4.07 avg rating — 7,634 ratings

4.11 avg rating — 8,396 ratings

4.02 avg rating — 7,760 ratings

3.76 avg rating — 80,189 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 — 31,094 ratings

3.87 avg rating — 24,343 ratings

3.95 avg rating — 26,495 ratings

4.08 avg rating — 25,384 ratings

4.05 avg rating — 28,786 ratings

4.11 avg rating — 23,006 ratings

3.97 avg rating — 21,224 ratings

3.98 avg rating — 19,257 ratings