The 99 Greatest Thrillers

In the argument about whether The Woman in White or The Moonstone is Wilkie Collins's first great mystery novel—and thus arguably the first great mystery novel ever—a compromise is generally found.... Critique • Quotes • At the movies • Buy

The first part of Dracula, when Britisher Jonathan Harker travels to Transylvania to inform his firm's mysterious client about its purchase of real estate in London on his behalf, has got to be some of the most entrancing.... Critique • Quotes • Text • At the movies • Buy

First thing you have to do is forget all the movie and television productions you might have seen of this tale. Those misty, moody scenes on the moors.... The horror of the hound from hell, eyes blazing as it attacks.... Critique • Quotes • At the movies • Buy

After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Joseph Conrad's novel of a century earlier was apparently widely read again, especially in Western intelligence circles. I'm not sure, though, what those new readers.... Critique • Quotes • At the movies • Buy

There is not a lot to say about the narrative structure or the characters or the writing in this famous novel. The Thirty-Nine Steps is a seminal tale of intrigue, a classic early story of an innocent man drawn into dark.... Critique • Quotes • At the movies • Buy

Everyone who loves classic film noir knows the complicated storyline from the 1941 flick starring Humphrey Bogart. The Maltese Falcon involves intrigue among shady, eccentric characters to find a black bird made of gold.... Critique • Quotes • At the movies • Buy

What a debut. The Postman Always Rings Twice was James M. Cain's first novel, published relatively late in life for a writer, when he was in his forties. But already his writing is as tight and intense as any work of the past.... Critique • Quotes • At the movies • Buy

A superior espionage novel can engage your sympathy with opposing characters. At the fantasy end of the thriller spectrum one can dreamily identify with a super-heroic agent and cheer the demise of a villainous.... Critique • Quotes • At the movies • Buy

Nordic noir had been around before the The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and its sequels made it a worldwide fad. For at least a decade earlier, Scandinavian crime writers, like Henning Mankell, had been winning.... Critique • Quotes • Buy