We asked our booksellers to share some of their evergreen crime reads – the ones they find themselves recommending again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and… You get the picture!

Fiona Hardy recommends Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil by Melina Marchetta

Honestly, there is so much good stuff out there that of course it’s impossible to pick a favourite. I’m selecting Melina Marchetta’s brilliant Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil because she’s gone back to writing non-crime and I’m feeling very indignant about it and want her to come back to the noir side, and am hoping to build an equally indignant army to support me.

When a bomb explodes on a school bus in France, everyone immediately points to one of the students, who is also the daughter of a convicted terrorist. She immediately goes on the run. Back in England, the father of one of the survivors of the blast is desperate with relief that his daughter is alive, but barely has time to rush and help her before he becomes wrapped up in the hunt for whoever caused this. Marchetta is so perfect at writing characters – everyone is alive on the page, complete and real, under her deft touch. Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil is an enthralling read, a thriller that touches on terrorism, immigration, the media’s heavy hand and so much more. I can’t wait for Marchetta to write another one.

Julia Jackson recommends The Pursued by C.S. Forester

The Pursued is a gritty, claustrophobic noir thriller from C.S. Forester, the chap who created Horatio Hornblower.

Finally published in 2011, after being lost for several decades, the plot centres on the young housewife Marjorie, who returns home to find her sister Dorothy dead. When suspicion and evidence points to Marjorie’s husband Ted, whose relationship with his wife is anything but domestic bliss, Forester ups the ante by adding new characters – including a lodger at Marjorie’s house – to create greater meaning and complexity. The narrative becomes increasingly claustrophobic as the ménage a trois of Marjorie, Ted and George plays out under the scrutiny of pseudo-respectable working-class neighbours. Even though it was actually written in 1935, The Pursued still feels like a contemporary work.

Ellen Cregan recommends I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark is one of my favourite (true) crime books of all time. In methodical prose, Michelle McNamara pieces together the case of the Golden State Killer, who terrorised California in the 1970s. McNamara unexpectedly passed away before she could see her book published, or indeed discover the identity of the killer who she had become completely obsessed with – at the time the book was being written, the Golden State Killer had not been apprehended. Finally caught by police in April 2018, he was revealed to be former police officer Joseph James DeAngelo, and was tracked down using DNA data from genealogy websites.

This is an all-consuming, terrifying book – I had nightmares while I was reading it – but it’s also a really fascinating one. I highly recommend it to people who don’t mind a bit of a scare, and are interested in the nuts and bolts of an infamous almost-cold case murder.

Deborah Crabtree recommends The Broken Shore by Peter Temple

I recently revisited The Broken Shore by Peter Temple after first reading it many years ago. What a thing it is, with its melancholy air and its pages dripping with guilt, regrets, secrets and, of course, murders. Joe Cashin is such a sympathetic character: perhaps it’s his two poodles or his penchant for opera, seemingly at odds with his tough-guy homicide detective exterior, and his clipped, blokey way of talking. The book moves at an ambling, injured pace, but is no less compelling for it. It’s a meditation to be savoured that gradually strips away the layers of a complex and much deeper story, while exploring politics, racism, corruption and tragedy. Temple wrote crime with so much heart. If you haven’t read him you’re missing out.

Leanne Hall recommends She Be Damned by M.J. Tija

I’m not normally one for reading about gruesome murders, but She Be Damned has stayed with me for a long time, mostly for its brilliant heroine, Heloise Chancey. Heloise is a courtesan who has lifted herself from ignominious beginnings to a higher level of society – she’s successful enough to live in style in her own house, with her faithful maid, Amah Li Leen. She also has a side hustle as a detective for hire, complete with an irrepressible curiosity and the ability to handle herself on the streets. Both these attributes come in handy when she’s hired to investigate a serial killer preying upon prostitutes in the Waterloo area. The crimes in this novel are nasty and misogynist, and I very much enjoyed Heloise’s barely-suppressed feminist rage, even while she kept her investigative cool. As well as the main case, there’s a juicy mystery involving Heloise’s identity to be revealed.

The other thing that I found unforgettable about this novel is the nineteenth-century London setting. I read a lot of historical fiction, and I’m always impressed by authors who can conjure up a complete, yet economical, picture of the past, without research-dumping on the reader. I’m also always eager to learn more about women’s lives in different time periods, and in this case the lesson comes in the form of a brilliant and macabre murder mystery.

Jason Austin recommends Lullaby by Leïla Slimani (translated by Sam Taylor)

I’ve not long ago finished reading Leïla Slimani’s quietly unnerving Lullaby. This novel won France’s top literary award, the Prix Goncourt in 2016.

I’m not giving anything away by saying that this story deals with the uncomfortable subject of infanticide at the hands of the children’s nanny, Louise, as this event happens on page one. Not so much a whodunit as a whydunit, Lullaby is not just a tale of murder, as there is much more going on. Themes of racism, parental anxiety, economic disparity and gender inequality all chirp in the background. In Louise, Slimani has gently created a nuanced, multi-faceted and haunted psychopath whose past and emotional fragility leads her to this devastating end and Lullaby is a fascinating read.

Bronte Coates recommends My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Last year I described My Sister, the Serial Killer as the perfect summer read and I meant every word. Set in Lagos, Nigeria, the story follows methodical Korede and her stunningly beautiful younger sister Ayoola who has the unfortunate habit of murdering her boyfriends, only ever in self-defence of course! An experienced nurse, Korede has always felt duty-bound to clean up her sister’s messes, but when Ayoola attracts the attention of a doctor at the hospital where Korede works – a doctor that Korede has long been in love with – things get complicated.

This pulpy, blackly comedic and punchy thriller can be read in a single sitting and like all of the best crime reads, there’s far more to it than just the crime itself. Through its characters, Braithwaite slyly critiques Nigeria’s patriarchal society and explores the legacy of abuse. This is one of my most-often recommended crime reads!

Chris Gordon recommends The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

The Goldfinch would perhaps not be considered a straight crime novel, but certainly I think of it as one of the most beguiling crime-related stories ever written. The plot is simple – told by a young unreliable narrator, Theo Decker, it examines the consequences of a single thoughtless decision. Theo and his mother are visiting the MET when they are caught in a terrorist attack. Theo’s mother is killed, and while Theo is finding his way out, he takes a painting of a goldfinch, a minor masterpiece, with him. And thus his life (of crime) is set in motion.

Jackie Tang recommends The Secret Place by Tana French

The moment I turned the final page of Tana French’s The Secret Place – the first of her books that I picked up thanks to the missionary zeal of my very smart colleagues – I knew I had to go out and devour all of her other books immediately. I then proceeded to read the other five books in her dangerously addictive Dublin Murder Squad series in two months and cursed myself at the end of it all for not pacing my reading with more restraint. These books are smart psychological procedurals that emphasise character and power dynamics over gory details. Like an archeologist of human feeling, French intricately excavates the ambitions, biases, blind spots and manipulations of her characters, always keeping that laser focus as much on the detectives and their inner workings as she does the victims and suspects.

Of the six books in the series, my heart still belongs to The Secret Place, which combines so many elements I love: campus novels, a twisty plot, loyalties tested and the deep bonds of teenage friendship. The story starts at a prestigious private girl’s school where a note has been found on a communal message board. The note bears the image of the teenage boy whose body was found on the school grounds the year before, and five short but explosive words: ‘I know who killed him’. As two detectives arrive on the scene, they must carefully wade into the heady and toxic fog of truths, half-truths and lies that permeate this suffocating world of young women. Everyone has secrets, particularly teenage girls, but which strand of deception hides something far more sinister? This book is such a satisfying look at power dynamics – between teenagers, between colleagues and between men and women.

Ingeniously plotted and at times even deliciously Gothic, this is perfect compulsive summer reading for anyone who hasn’t yet discovered French’s greatness. With a new TV adaptation of the first two books in the series already airing in the UK and Ireland, I highly recommend hoping aboard the French Express before you get left behind!