# The 28 Best Crime Novels of the 1990s

> Nineties crime fiction ran from hard-boiled LA noir to Nordic cold cases and Sicilian sunshine, with a few series debuts that went on to own the bestseller lists.

*By YPB Team · Published October 25, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-28-best-crime-novels-of-the-1990s*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **In the Electric Mist** — score 1000/1000
   James Lee Burke's 1993 Dave Robicheaux novel, where a Louisiana murder case meets Civil War ghosts.
2. **One for the Money** — score 773/1000
   Janet Evanovich's 1994 comic debut for Stephanie Plum, a broke Trenton lingerie buyer turned bounty hunter.
3. **Smilla's Sense of Snow** — score 591/1000
   Peter Høeg's 1992 Danish bestseller about a woman investigating a boy's fall from a Copenhagen rooftop.
4. **Faceless Killers** — score 590/1000
   Henning Mankell's 1991 first Kurt Wallander novel, a cornerstone of the Nordic noir boom.
5. **Postmortem** — score 590/1000
   Patricia Cornwell's 1990 debut introducing medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, winner of the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony and Macavity awards.
6. **The Mermaids Singing** — score 590/1000
   Val McDermid's 1995 Gold Dagger winner introducing profiler Tony Hill on the trail of a serial killer.
7. **Along Came a Spider** — score 590/1000
   James Patterson's 1993 first Alex Cross thriller, about a kidnapping at an elite Washington school.
8. **Déjà Dead** — score 590/1000
   Kathy Reichs's 1997 debut introducing forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan in Montreal.
9. **Hannibal** — score 590/1000
   Thomas Harris's 1999 sequel to The Silence of the Lambs, following Hannibal Lecter to Florence.
10. **The Sculptress** — score 590/1000
   Minette Walters's 1993 Edgar-winning psychological mystery about a writer interviewing a convicted killer.
11. **American Tabloid** — score 500/1000
   Ellroy's 1995 conspiracy novel tracing the underworld road to the Kennedy assassination.
12. **Devil in a Blue Dress** — score 500/1000
   Walter Mosley's 1990 debut introducing Easy Rawlins, a reluctant detective in postwar Los Angeles.
13. **Out** — score 500/1000
   Natsuo Kirino's 1997 Japanese novel of factory night-shift workers who help dispose of a husband's body.
14. **The Shape of Water** — score 500/1000
   Andrea Camilleri's 1994 first Inspector Montalbano novel, set in a fictional Sicilian town.
15. **The Poet** — score 388/1000
   Michael Connelly's 1996 thriller about a reporter hunting a serial killer who targets homicide detectives.
16. **Killing Floor** — score 388/1000
   Lee Child's 1997 debut introducing drifter Jack Reacher, caught up in a murder in small-town Georgia.
17. **White Jazz** — score 388/1000
   Ellroy's 1992 fever-dream finale to the L.A. Quartet, narrated by a crooked police lieutenant.
18. **The Black Echo** — score 388/1000
   Michael Connelly's 1992 debut and the first Harry Bosch novel, an Edgar winner for best first novel.
19. **Black and Blue** — score 388/1000
   Ian Rankin's 1997 Gold Dagger-winning Rebus novel shadowing the hunt for a copycat of Bible John.
20. **Clockers** — score 388/1000
   Richard Price's 1992 street-level novel of a young drug dealer and the homicide detective circling him.
21. **Gone, Baby, Gone** — score 388/1000
   Dennis Lehane's 1998 Kenzie and Gennaro mystery about a missing girl and a brutal moral dilemma.
22. **The Firm** — score 388/1000
   John Grisham's 1991 bestseller about a young lawyer who discovers his firm works for the Mob.
23. **The Long Firm** — score 388/1000
   Jake Arnott's 1999 novel of a gay gangster in 1960s Soho, told through five voices.
24. **Rum Punch** — score 0/1000
   Elmore Leonard's 1992 caper of a flight attendant and a bail bondsman scheming against a gun runner.
25. **L.A. Confidential** — score 0/1000
   James Ellroy's 1990 epic of three LAPD cops tangled in corruption and murder in 1950s Los Angeles.
26. **The Secret History** — score 0/1000
   Donna Tartt's 1992 literary murder story about a clique of classics students at a Vermont college.
27. **Get Shorty** — score 0/1000
   Elmore Leonard's 1990 comic crime novel about a Miami loan shark who tries his hand at Hollywood.
28. **The Alienist** — score 0/1000
   Caleb Carr's 1994 historical thriller of an early psychologist profiling a killer in 1896 New York.

Tags: books, 90s, thriller, crime, mystery