# The 15 Greatest Mystery Writers of All Time

> Golden Age puzzle-setters face hardboiled stylists and the writers keeping the genre alive today.

*By YPB Team · Published October 13, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-15-greatest-mystery-writers-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Agatha Christie** — score 1000/1000
   Creator of Poirot and Miss Marple and the best-selling novelist of all time.
2. **Dashiell Hammett** — score 700/1000
   Former Pinkerton agent who wrote The Maltese Falcon.
3. **Michael Connelly** — score 667/1000
   Former crime reporter behind Harry Bosch and The Lincoln Lawyer.
4. **Ngaio Marsh** — score 642/1000
   New Zealand Golden Age author of the Roderick Alleyn novels.
5. **Arthur Conan Doyle** — score 577/1000
   Scottish author who created Sherlock Holmes.
6. **Edgar Allan Poe** — score 576/1000
   Wrote The Murders in the Rue Morgue in 1841; the Edgar Awards carry his name.
7. **Ross Macdonald** — score 500/1000
   Californian author of the Lew Archer private-eye novels.
8. **Tana French** — score 409/1000
   Author of the Dublin Murder Squad novels, starting with In the Woods.
9. **Dorothy L. Sayers** — score 409/1000
   Golden Age author of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels.
10. **Ruth Rendell** — score 300/1000
   British author of the Inspector Wexford series.
11. **Rex Stout** — score 300/1000
   Creator of the orchid-growing armchair detective Nero Wolfe.
12. **Walter Mosley** — score 300/1000
   Author of the Easy Rawlins novels, starting with Devil in a Blue Dress.
13. **Wilkie Collins** — score 0/1000
   Victorian author of The Moonstone and The Woman in White.
14. **Georges Simenon** — score 0/1000
   Belgian creator of Inspector Maigret, with 75 Maigret novels.
15. **G. K. Chesterton** — score 0/1000
   English author of the Father Brown stories.

Tags: books, crime, mystery, writers