THE 100 BEST MYSTERY & THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME

The genre's most gripping, twist-filled, satisfying, and influential books, in chronological order

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ESSAY
A SATISFYING, MYSTIFYING THRILL
BY TANA FRENCH

I WAS 6 WHEN I FELL IN LOVE WITH mysteries. Some schoolbook had a (not very accurate) comprehension page about the Mary Celeste, a ship that was found drifting in the Atlantic in 1872, intact-a meal still cooking in the galley-with the crew, passengers, and lifeboat missing, never to be seen again. I was totally enthralled. I can still remember lying on the living-room rug with the book, promising myself that when I died, I would ask God for the answer. I could probably trace a direct line from that moment, through all the fictional and real mysteries I've devoured since then, to where I am today.

Mystery books, for me, divide themselves into two kinds. One kind-Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes-is all about restoring order. The central questions concern concrete facts: Who did it? How did they do it? Truth in these stories is an objective thing, and answers are solid and definitive. By the end of the book, every baffling clue connects up to the others, and the killer's motive is clear; good is separated from evil, the guilty are locked up, dead, or at least identified, and the innocent are free to move on with their lives.