10 Classic Crime Novels to Check Out
When you’re picking out your next mystery to read, sometimes you’re eager to check out the newest and latest crime reads. Other times, you’d love a good tried-and-true classic that’s been providing thrills and chills for a few decades, or even a century or more. Some of these books marked the debut appearance of well-loved sleuths such as Amelia Peabody, Hamish Macbeth, and Lord Peter Wimsey. Other books are the continued adventures of established sleuths like Sherlock Holmes, Jules Maigret and Hercule Poirot. And others, like REBECCA, are stand-alone chillers that have stood the test of time. Polish up your magnifying glass and take a close look at some of these classic mystery and suspense novels, from cozy to hard-boiled and everything in between.
This is the very first novel in Elizabeth Peters’s long-running Amelia Peabody series. Peabody is an independent, self-reliant woman determined to see the world, never mind what Victorian-era society says in 1884. She travels to Egypt, and her travels bring her to an archaeological dig run by the handsome but short-tempered archaeologist Radcliffe Emerson. There are strange doings afoot, and Peabody thinks that her new friend Evelyn Barton-Forbes, whom she had rescued earlier, may be in danger.
Daphne du Maurier’s classic novel has fascinated and frightened readers since its publication in 1938. The unnamed protagonist, a young woman working as a rich lady’s companion, makes the acquaintance of Max de Winter. Soon after, they are married, and the new Mrs. de Winter finds herself at Manderley, the de Winters’ country estate. She soon finds herself at odds with Mrs. Danvers: the housekeeper and former lady’s maid to the late Rebecca de Winter, who resents her new mistress as an interloper and a usurper of her late mistress’s role. Mrs. de Winter finds herself trying to outwit Mrs. Danvers’s increasingly frightening attempts at psychological manipulation while trying to unravel the mysteries that hang heavily over Manderley’s past.
Georges Simenon’s detective Jules Maigret continues his adventures in this 1946 classic, in spite of having recently retired. Maigret is enjoying his retirement when he receives a request for help. The son of a prominent New York lawyer is worried about his father; the older man seems to be acting very strangely of late, and the son is convinced that his father may be in danger. Maigret agrees to accompany the younger man back to New York to investigate, but the situation takes a sharp turn after it is the lawyer’s son who vanishes.
Lochdubh Constable Hamish Macbeth made his debut in Death of a Gossip, the first book of the long-running series by M.C. Beaton. Snobbish, sharp-tongued, and eager to complain about anyone and anything, gossip columnist Lady Jane Winters is not popular when she joins a fishing class in Lochdubh. Macbeth is among the people who are on the receiving end of Lady Jane’s horrible manners and propensity for finding out secrets. But when a killer permanently silences Lady Jane, Macbeth is tasked to investigate with the aid of Priscilla Halburton-Smythe. He soon discovers that with many people nursing a grudge against the late columnist, there will be no lack of suspects.
This Agatha Christie classic has kept readers sifting through clues and guessing who the killer is since 1934. Hercule Poirot, traveling in Turkey after completing a case, is unexpectedly summoned home on urgent business. He books passage on the Orient Express. The train’s Istanbul-Calais coach is fully booked, which is highly unusual for that time of year. One night, a first-class passenger is stabbed to death in his berth: twelve times. Every one of the twelve passengers in the Istanbul-Calais coach claims to have a solid alibi, but as Poirot digs deeper, he finds that everyone in the coach, including the murdered man, is hiding a secret.
The second installment of James Ellroy’s L.A. Quartet was released in 1988. Los Angeles in the late 1940s and early 1950s is nowhere near as glamorous as it is in the movies. The Red Scare is getting underway, and the city has started a task force to investigate communism in the city. Among the task force’s members are L.A. Deputy Sheriff Danny Upshaw, ex-cop-turned-enforcer Buzz Meeks, and LAPD Lt. Malcolm Considine. However, Upshaw is also investigating a series of sex-related murders, while wrestling with some personal secrets. When tragedy strikes, Meeks and Considine take over the case, and discover some very disturbing connections between the murders and a stagehands’ labor union under investigation by the task force.
The most popular of the full-length Sherlock Holmes novels has been a favorite with mystery fans since its serialization in 1901. A Devonshire doctor approaches Holmes and Watson with a surprising story. Sir Charles Baskerville, a baronet from an old family, has been found dead outside his home, and the baronet’s death may be connected to an old legend about a curse and a monstrous black dog. The doctor fears that Sir Charles’s heir, soon to arrive from Canada, is in danger as well. Holmes sends Watson to Dartmoor to see matters for himself while Holmes does his own investigation in London. The two find that there are indeed sinister forces at work, and of a highly unexpected sort.
Dorothy Sayers introduced the world to her aristocratic gentleman detective Lord Peter Wimsey in 1923. An architect is astounded to find the body of a man - wearing a pair of pince-nez spectacles and absolutely nothing else - in his bathroom. Wimsey finds himself investigating the matter alongside his friend and colleague, Scotland Yard Inspector Charles Parker. The body is believed to be that of a prominent London businessman who has recently gone missing. But the truth is far more complicated, and the investigation leads Wimsey and Parker along a trail of mistaken identity and revenge on a killer with an almost fool-proof plot for murder.
Ngaio Marsh’s Inspector Roderick Alleyn and his wife, the artist Agatha Troy, return in this 1968 installment of the Inspector Alleyn series. Alleyn has come to the United States to present a training program for new police officers. The case he presents to them is a most extraordinary one. Agatha had gone on a special river cruise, hoping for some relaxation and art appreciation. Instead, she discovered that a passenger was murdered just before she joined the cruise, and that the murder may have been the work of a renowned master criminal known only as Jampot.
Ellroy continues his L.A. Quartet series in this 1990 classic, which was adapted into a film in 1997. This installment follows three LAPD officers: Detective Ed Exley, trying to live up to the legacy of his detective father; spotlight-seeking Bud Vincennes, who seems to spend most of his time acting as a consultant for a popular television show; and tough-as-nails Bud White, who has no patience for men who beat up women. There has been a robbery and mass shooting at the Nite Owl. But the men arrested for the crime, all African Americans, may have been framed. So it falls to the three officers to investigate, and the search takes them deep into a seedy web of corruption, crime, sleaze, and violence.
By clicking 'Sign Up,' I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Hachette Book Group’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
What to Read Next
Erin Roll is a freelance writer, editor, and proofreader. Her favorite genres to read are mystery, science fiction, and fantasy, and her TBR pile is likely to be visible on Google Maps. Before becoming an editor, Erin worked as a journalist and photographer, and she has won far too many awards from the New Jersey Press Association. Erin lives at the top floor of a haunted house in Montclair, NJ. She enjoys reading (of course), writing, hiking, kayaking, music, and video games.