Crime Novels

Noir is as much an aesthetic as it is a genre of book or movie, explains the film director Simon Hawkins; and though it might be set anywhere, Los Angeles is its spiritual home. Here, he recommends five of the best noir novels—each defined by their strong settings, seedy atmospheres and suspenseful plotting.

The city of Oxford has been a popular location for fictional murders for nearly a century, the ancient university and its beautiful buildings also lending themselves to wonderful screen adaptations. Bestselling British novelist Cara Hunter—author of the DI Fawley series and Murder in the Family—talks us through some of her favourite crime novels set in the city of dreaming spires. (If you'd like to see Cara in person, she's speaking at two events at the Oxford Literary Festival on 16 March, 2024)

From a police procedural set in World War II Berlin to a man pushing his in-laws off a wall in Ningbo, the variety of settings for crime fiction continue to provide a lot of opportunities for armchair travel. Our editor, Sophie Roell, an avid reader of crime novels, picks out some of her favourites of 2023. Read more fiction recommendations on Five Books

From high-stakes thrillers to cosy mysteries, from South African township life to Zimbabwe's independence, Southern African crime fiction is a flourishing genre. Michael Sears, half of the crime-writing duo Michael Stanley, talks us through some of the best Southern African crime books out there and explains how they shed light on important issues.

If you like your crime novels with a good dose of black humor, Canadian activist and author Cory Doctorow has some recommendations for you. He picks out five of his favorite noir thrillers, from urban fantasy to Jewish alt-history by way of 'Vantablack' noir.

Many of us enjoy thrillers because of the pacy story, but good crime fiction has always been about society, says American novelist Karin Slaughter. She recommends five crime novels that are not only great reads but "pry the scab off the human condition."

The crime book genre is massive and caters to all sorts of tastes, but once you find a detective or main character you love, there are few pleasures greater than reading the entire series. British journalist Stig Abell, author of Death Under a Little Sky, picks some of the best classic crime, books he's read over and over again.

Since the early stories of the 18th and 19th centuries, crime fiction has been an incredibly popular and enduring genre, the investigation of murder somehow capturing the imagination of millions of readers around the globe. Here, Sophie Roell, editor of Five Books, uses strict but simple criteria to pick out the best classic crime fiction, from the Victorian age through to the 1950s.

Crime fiction told from the point of view of the police investigating a crime is hugely popular, with dozens of books published each year. Here British writer Louisa Scarr, author of a series set in Southampton and featuring DS Robin Butler and DC Freya West, talks us through some of her favourite police procedurals and explains why they're so fun to read and write.

With so many works of detective fiction coming out each year, which books stand the test of time? Here, bestselling British author Jeffrey Archer talks us through some of his favourites, the books he found completely unputdownable and made him want to read everything the author had written.