Collider has published a ranked list of the ten best crime novels of all time, arguing that written crime fiction often outstrips film adaptations because books can sustain suspense and paranoia across many pages rather than fleeting on-screen moments. The list traces the genre's development, crediting early works with establishing conventions that later became genre staples, and highlights how these novels actively draw readers into piecing together evidence alongside the detective rather than simply observing the plot unfold.

The ranking spans from 19th-century foundational texts to modern classics, opening at number ten with Wilkie Collins's 1868 novel "The Moonstone", credited with introducing tropes such as the country-house crime and unreliable multiple narrators, and Dashiell Hammett's 1929 "Red Harvest" at number nine, praised for its morally ambiguous detective and gritty depiction of institutional corruption. The list continues up to Thomas Harris's 1988 novel "The Silence of the Lambs" and presumably further towards the number-one spot, though the full top rankings were not detailed in the available text.