Our list of some of the best Crime Fiction books & series in recent years. Get inspired by one or more of the following books.
1. Crime Fiction (The New Critical Idiom) (2005)
Crime Fiction provides a lively introduction to what is both a wide-ranging and hugely popular literary genre. Using examples from a variety of novels, short stories, films and televisions series, John Scaggs: Accessible and clear, this comprehensive overview is the essential guide for all those studying crime fiction and concludes with a look at future directions for the genre in the twentieth-first century. #906,100 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #255 in Mystery Reference #9539 in Literary Movements & Periods #251 in Mystery & Detective Literary Criticism Would you like…
2. Armed and Glamorous: A Crime of Fashion Mystery (2008)
Unchallenged and unappreciated, fashion reporter Lacey Smithsonian slips on her trench coat and high-heeled gumshoes to pursue a course in private investigation and a shot at a better job. When a wealthy and erratic D.C. socialite is discovered quite dead outside the classroom, Lacey gets to test those sleuthing skills. Was the victim on her way to share a dangerous secret with Smithsonian? And what does it have to do with a missing Louis Vuitton vintage custom makeup case? Lacey must mix style with substance to unravel these tangled threads before she, or one of her best friends, gets caught in the sights of a cold-blooded…
3. An Innocent Client (Joe Dillard Series) (2012)
A preacher is found brutally murdered in a Tennessee motel room.A beautiful, mysterious young girl is accused.In this Mystery Readers International finalist for "Best Debut Mystery," criminal defense lawyer Joe Dillard has become jaded over the years as he's tried to balance his career against his conscience. Savvy but cynical, Dillard wants to quit doing criminal defense, but he can't resist the chance to represent someone who might actually be innocent. His drug-addicted sister has just been released from prison and his mother is succumbing to…
4. Ghost in the Machine (Detective Scott Cullen Mysteries) (2012)
‘Classic Scottish noir: bad food, bad moods, too much booze and tight plots’ @ey0k1, TwitterFor fans of Ian Rankin, Stuart McBride and Christopher Brookmyre, Ghost in the Machine is the novel that introduced readers to ambitious maverick Detective Constable Scott Cullen, whose series has set the bestseller charts alight.With a messy divorce behind her, Caroline Adamson’s future is finally looking up. But after her mutilated body is found, police think Caroline’s ex-husband is the main suspect. When one murder becomes three, Edinburgh faces up to the fact that it might have a serial killer in its midst….
5. Crime Fiction: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (2015)
Crime fiction has been one of the most popular genres since the 19th century, but has roots in works as varied as Sophocles, Herodotus, and Shakespeare. In this Very Short Introduction Richard Bradford explores the history of the genre, by considering the various definitions of “crime fiction” and looking at how it has developed over time. Discussing the popularity of crime fiction worldwide and its various styles; the role that gender plays within the genre; spy fiction, and legal dramas and thrillers; he explores how the crime novel was shaped by the work of British…
6. The Life We Bury (2014)
A USA Today bestseller and book club favorite! College student Joe Talbert has the modest goal of completing a writing assignment for an English class. His task is to interview a stranger and write a brief biography of the person. With deadlines looming, Joe heads to a nearby nursing home to find a willing subject. There he meets Carl Iverson, and soon nothing in Joe’s life is ever the same. Carl is a dying Vietnam veteran–and a convicted murderer. With only a few months to live, he has been medically paroled to a nursing home, after spending thirty years in prison for the crimes of rape…
7. Crime and Punishment (2019)
Crime and Punishment focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in Saint Petersburg who formulates a plan to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker for her money. Before the killing, Raskolnikov believes that with the money he could liberate himself from poverty and go on to perform great deeds. However, once it is done he finds himself racked with confusion, paranoia, and disgust for what he has done. His ethical justifications disintegrate completely as he struggles with guilt and horror and confronts the real-world moral consequences of his deed….
8. Seven Graves One Winter: Politics, Murder, and Corruption in the Arctic (Greenland Crime) (2018)
In the remote Arctic community of Inussuk, seven graves are dug at the end of each summer, before the ground freezes. As winter approaches, the question is, will they be enough?When Constable David Maratse is invalided off the force, he moves to a small settlement to live the life of a subsistence hunter and fisherman. But when his long line hooks the body of a politician’s daughter, he finds himself both prime suspect and lead investigator in Greenland’s most sensational murder case.“Seven Graves, One Winter” is the first full novel featuring Greenlandic Police Constable David Maratse. What…
9. Into Oblivion: An Icelandic Thriller (An Inspector Erlendur Series) (2017)
Into Oblivion, the follow-up to the gritty prequel Reykjavik Nights, gives devoted fans another glimpse of Erlendur in his early days as a young, budding detective.It’s 1979. A woman swims in a remote, milky-blue lagoon. Steam rises from the water and as it clears, a body is revealed in the ghostly light. Miles away, a vast aircraft hangar rises behind the perimeter fence of the US military base. A sickening thud is heard as a man’s body falls from a high platform.Many years before, a schoolgirl went missing. The world has forgotten her. But Erlendur has not. Erlendur is a newly promoted…
10. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood (2019)
Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his…
11. Broadland: A chilling Norfolk Broads crime thriller (British Detective Tanner Murder Mystery Series) (2019)
“I bloody loved the book. Loved the twists and turns!” Ali Dunn “A COLD DENSE shadow fell over Jane Richardson as she hurried along the concrete towpath. To her left, moonlight danced over the River Bure’s untroubled surface as it slipped silently past, heading back the way she’d come. A low-hanging branch scratched at her face as she ducked underneath. From somewhere far behind her came the shriek of laughter, slicing through the air, only to fall silent a moment later to leave nothing but the sound of her high heels, click-clacking out a stark but steady beat.”When a girl’s body is found strangled, raped, and horrifically mutilated by…
Best Crime Fiction Books to Read
We highly recommend you to buy all paper or e-books in a legal way, for example, on Amazon. But sometimes it might be a need to dig deeper beyond the shiny book cover. Before making a purchase, you can visit resources like Genesis and download some crime fiction books mentioned below at your own risk. Once again, we do not host any illegal or copyrighted files, but simply give our visitors a choice and hope they will make a wise decision.
Teaching Crime Fiction
Author(s): Charlotte Beyer
Publisher: Springer International Publishing;Palgrave Macmillan, Year: 2018, Size: 2 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 2251714
Irish Crime Fiction
Author(s): Brian Cliff
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK, Year: 2018, Size: 3 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 2254853
Detective Fiction and the Problem of Knowledge: Perspectives on the Metacognitive Mystery Tale
Author(s): Antoine Dechêne
Publisher: Springer International Publishing;Palgrave Macmillan, Year: 2018, Size: 3 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 2311186
Female Corpses in Crime Fiction: A Transatlantic Perspective
Author(s): Glen S. Close
Publisher: Springer International Publishing;Palgrave Macmillan, Year: 2018, Size: 4 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 2312167
Crime and Anti-Semitism in Pre-World War Germany and Austria: Theories, Cases and Fictional Depictions
Author(s): T S Kord
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Year: 2018, Size: 10 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 2373756
Fatal fictions : crime and investigation in law and literature
Author(s): LaCroix, Alison L.; McAdams, Richard H.; Nussbaum, Martha Craven
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Year: 2017, Size: 2 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 1679838
The Language of Suspense in Crime Fiction: A Linguistic Stylistic Approach
Author(s): Reshmi Dutta-Flanders
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK, Year: 2017, Size: 4 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 1701149
Crime Fiction and the Law
Author(s): Maria Aristodemou; Fiona Macmillan; Patricia Tuitt; (eds.)
Publisher: Birkbeck Law Press, Year: 2017, Size: 2 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 2182346
Crime Fiction as World Literature
Author(s): Louise Nilsson, David Damrosch, Theo D’haen
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, Year: 2017, Size: 7 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 2403988
Criminal Femmes Fatales in American Hardboiled Crime Fiction
Author(s): Maysaa Husam Jaber
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK, Year: 2016, Size: 1 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 1479764
Please note that this booklist is not final. Some books are absolutely chart-busters according to Los Angeles Times, others are written by unknown writers. On top of that, you can always find additional tutorials and courses on Coursera, Udemy or edX, for example. Are there any other relevant resources you could recommend? Leave a comment if you have any feedback on the list.