100 Best Fiction Crime Books of All Time

Bill GatesAs a longtime fan of The Daily Show, I loved reading this memoir about how its host honed his outsider approach to comedy over a lifetime of never quite fitting in. Born to a black South African mother and a white Swiss father in apartheid South Africa, he entered the world as a biracial child in a country where mixed race relationships were forbidden. Much of Noah’s story of growing up in South... (Source)

Mark SusterPlease don't read @Trevornoah's book "Born a Crime." It's such a remarkable story that you need to hear him narrate it on @audible_com. You'll laugh out loud, cry, get angry, be in disbelief. You'll have many "driveway moments" where you can't stop even though you're home (Source)

Heather ZynczakSo excited for our latest speaker announcement for #PSLIVE19! Trevor Noah! I am a huge @TheDailyShow fan! And his book -Born a Crime -and life story are amazing. Can't wait! Join us! https://t.co/N6ykJq7TOy https://t.co/r0dIx5RFVI (Source)

Bill GatesA bunch of my friends recommended this one to me. Carreyrou gives you the definitive insider’s look at the rise and fall of Theranos. The story is even crazier than I expected, and I found myself unable to put it down once I started. This book has everything: elaborate scams, corporate intrigue, magazine cover stories, ruined family relationships, and the demise of a company once valued at nearly... (Source)

Brad FeldEvery entrepreneur and VC should read this book. John Carreyrou has done something important here. Maybe this book will finally put a nail in the phrase “fake it till you make it”, but I doubt it. The amount of lying, disingenuousness, blatant and unjustified self-promotion, and downright deceit that exists in entrepreneurship right now is at a local maximum. This always happens when... (Source)

Andrew ChenFinished “bad blood” on the Theranos scandal. Wow. Just wow. It’s a must read for everyone in tech and startups. Just 1-click buy it :) Amazing how far charisma and social proof got them. Here’s the NYT review of the book https://t.co/PyMGxfoG2R (Source)

Nicky CullenThat is such a tough question. I'm going to say The Godfather because I couldn't stop until it was finished. (Source)

Michal PtacekMy most favourite book is Godfather by Mario Puzo. I think it is even slightly more interesting and better than a movie which is almost perfect. Total masterpiece :) (Source)

Kelly Vaughn@ceeoreo_ Great book! (Source)

James TwiningHarris breaks a story in that he popularised or exposed the workings of the FBI’s criminal profiling unit. He put them on the map. (Source)

Peter JamesIf you want to be a crime writer it is one of the books that you absolutely have to read. It has been one of the most successful, if not the most successful, crime novel of the 20th century. (Source)

Rian Johnson@AdamLanceGarcia I think And Then There Were None is her best book, but The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd and Curtain are probably tied for my personal favorite. (Source)

Neal O'GormanCertainly, a previous non-business book which I really enjoyed (along with many other people) was the Da Vinci Code. I was living in the States at the time, and it was a rare occasion to be on a plane and not see someone reading it. (Source)

Ben ShapiroThe best action novel ever written. By a looong shot! (Source)

James TwiningIt’s very well-written in a way that perhaps my next choices aren’t, and it depicts France in the 1960s in an incredibly convincing way. (Source)

Sam BourneWhat makes the book compelling is that you are observing the mechanics of an assassin who is a really blank character. He is unnamed, apart from being called ‘the Jackal.’ He should be very blank, but it works because you buy into the idea of a traceless, faceless, ruthless killer. (Source)

Eric BerkowitzThe case is about racism, but it’s also about white sexual fear of the black man, and the failed effort of white America to stop intermixing. I think the notion of the scary black man still permeates the American justice system today. I don’t think To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the greatest pieces of literature ever, but it is a very good window into the ingrained sexual fear that permeated at... (Source)

Scott TurowIt’s dated in many ways; it’s extremely sentimental. But it’s beautifully done – you can’t take a thing away from it. (Source)

David Heinemeier HanssonReally liking this one so far. I’m sure a lot of people here probably read it in high school or whatever, but it wasn’t on the Danish curriculum, so here I am! (Source)

Barack ObamaJust like us, the president enjoys a good beach read while relaxing in the sun. In 2016, he released his list of summer vacation books: Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, William Finnegan H Is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins Seveneves, Neal Stephenson The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead (Source)

Douglas Starr‘Alienist’ was the term for a psychiatrist or a psychologist at the time. They were called alienists because mentally deranged people were thought to be alienated from themselves. This is a wonderful historical novel, written in 1994, about one such alienist in New York City, who helps solve a series of grizzly serial killings at the time when Theodore Roosevelt was the commissioner of police. (Source)

Casey Neistatjust finished this yesterday. absolutely fantastic book. super recommend if you're into spycraft and espionage. bravo @BenMacintyre1 https://t.co/4OG4C1cBQ1 (Source)

Isabel Hardman@holland_tom @BenMacintyre1 Oh it’s a brilliant book isn’t it. Another one I was sad to finish. (Source)

Amrullah SalehI had a great conversation with Ambassador Micheal Lund Jeppesen of @DKinAfghanistan . On the sidelines of our rich conversation we spoke of the Spy & the Traitor a great book in which Denmark's intelligence features highly. Proud of our alliance & cooperation. https://t.co/47GMb7ETWr (Source)

Michael DirdaIt really has a superbly eerie atmosphere. Most Sherlockians, if they had to pick just one story to represent the canon, would choose this one. (Source)

Douglas StarrIn a world beset by uncertainty and chaos and fear, it’s comforting to imagine there is someone out there who, with keen intelligence and a scientific method, can put things back in order, and make the world safe again. I think that’s part of Holmes’s enduring appeal. (Source)

Andrew LeesIt is often claimed that Holmes is the epitome of the rational, cold-blooded scientist but, in fact, most of his crimes are solved by backing his hunches and a fair amount of guesswork. (Source)

Peter JamesHe researches things, has rich characters and a real sense of pace. He is a former court reporter. You can pick up any of his books and feel you are in the hands of somebody who knows their subject, who knows the police and the law and the world in which he has set his books. (Source)

Jessica Northeyshaw@TheBrandyClark It's awesome! Did you read the book? It's super twisted and dark. Enjoy! 😘 (Source)

Michael DirdaIf you’ve never read any Sherlock Holmes books you really need to start with that one because it introduces this rather mysterious and romantic character. At the beginning, Doctor Watson tries to puzzle out the profession of his strange roommate at 221b Baker Street. He makes lists of what Holmes seems to know a lot about and what he doesn’t seem to know about at all – including the Copernican... (Source)

Simon BrettI think the writing is just so beautiful. Raymond Chandler’s hopeless at plots, as we know. He said himself, if he couldn’t think of what to do, he brought in a man with a gun. But the language… I remember some years ago an American publisher got the rights to do a book called Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe and got various contemporary crime writers to write a Philip Marlowe story. I was asked... (Source)

The Secret BarristerThis was the holiday-reading book which, as a teenager, inspired me to pursue criminal law. The gritty reality of criminal practice is of course somewhat removed from the fictionalised ideal, and any lawyer acting in the way that our hero Jake Brigance does in securing a just outcome for his innocent client would have to deal with fairly serious professional consequences, but the underlying... (Source)

Michael DirdaHolmes turns to Mortimer and says, A man’s or a woman’s? and Mortimer delivers the greatest reply in 20th century literature, Mr Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound! I shivered with pleasure and realised that life didn’t get much better than that. (Source)

Peter JamesIt actually scared me the first time I read it as a kid. And I have always liked it. It is my favourite of all his books and it has a very clever ending. (Source)

Kelly Ellis@elanpin @Nicole_Cliffe Like a favorite song, just thinking about this book immediately takes me back to the point in my life when I first read it. I really enjoyed The Goldfinch, as well. (Source)

Jess Brammar@StigAbell Love that book (Source)

Dave ChildIn my 20s, it would have been The Secret History by Donna Tartt. It's a shame you can only read a book for the first time once, because this doesn't fare so well the second time around, when you already know what happens. I'm not sure I've found another book quite like it since, but then I'm not really sure what sort of book it is. It isn't a murder mystery, except when it is. It isn't a crime... (Source)

Devon Sawa“Savages” has knocked out “Power Of The Dog” for my new favorite @donwinslow book. It’s so damn good. Haven’t read “Frankie Machine” yet,though. Like I did with king’s “STAND”, I’m waiting, cause once I’ve read it, I’ve read it and it’s gone. Saving it for the beaches of Vietnam. (Source)

Cristian-Dragos BaciuAnd let's not forget Along Came a Spider by James Patterson. Actually, Patterson is really something else. He doesn't even write the books himself. He just puts together a very detailed brief, that he hands over to a talented writer and bang!, you have a best-seller. (Source)

Vanora BennettI read this a few years ago and it was one of those books you always remember because it creates a whole new way of thinking. I had no idea at the time that the medieval mindset was any different to the modern one. It is about the adventure of a Franciscan friar and his novice in medieval Italy and it is part murder mystery, part game with semiotics and medieval knowledge. At university I read... (Source)

Mathew PrichardHugh Fraser reads it wonderfully. (Source)

Denise HamiltonIt’s a very lush, richly imagined book. It just bursts with sensuality and the smells of Paris in the 18th century. (Source)

Kurt Busiek Resists…rereading FINDERS KEEPERS by Stephen King instead. I’ve only read it once and I was probably ill at the time, so I don’t remember the details all that well, but it’s pretty much exactly the right book for my mood right now. I love libraries and e-books. (Source)

Cat Williams-TreloarA close second favourite is "I am Pilgrim" by Terry Hayes. I was gifted this book from a close friend who was living in the Middle East. I was blown away by the intricacies, empathy and human angle of conflict. I hadn't walked in someone else's shoes like that for a very long time. (Source)

Doris Kearns Goodwin[Doris Kearns Goodwin recommended this book on the podcast "The Tim Ferriss Show".] (Source)