The best crime novels for all of you who say, "I don't read crime fiction": must reads before you die

The first book I read by the Swedish master of suspense.

There's nothing like being caught by a good book: Just one more chapter, even though it's the middle of the night and work starts in three hours.

Almost like getting kidnapped with a small but significant difference: you don't want to be released.

Without Mankell, there would be no Millennium series, and this book is one of the reasons I started to write in the same genre. It's a long but, at the same time, quick read.

The characters are portrayed as real human beings with multiple flaws and shortcomings. I don't want to reveal the plot here, but I promise you: this murder case is like nothing else.

It was Nordic Noir before the genre got its name.

You've probably heard about it, but maybe you never read it. I think you should.

The story plays out in 18th-century France, where an unloved orphan is born with an exceptional sense of smell. He becomes a perfumer constantly searching for scent above all other scents, which he finds in young girls who are still virgins.

But to get the scent out, he needs to kill them. I read it in one sitting, and apart from the character arcs, the well-told story, and the suspense, this novel made me understand that a good idea can be both crazy and unbelievable and still work if you craft it correctly.

Since then, instead of digging at the place where I stand, advice many aspiring writers get, I started to let the big "impossible" ideas get some oxygen in my writing.

This is one of the best debuts I have ever read.

It is often described as an inverted detective story narrated by one of the six students, who, years later, reflect upon the situation that led to the murder of a mutual friend. For me it was much more about the characters and the dense atmosphere.

I read it when it was published, so it was a long time ago, but I still remember some scenes as I’ve actually been there myself, and I think it’s in all the small descriptions and details you'll find genuine gold in this modern classic.

Maybe you have seen the film. If not, or even if you have, I suggest you read the novel.

Throughout the story, we follow the two narratives of a married couple. The wife mysteriously disappears on the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary, and the husband becomes the prime suspect.

While he is the main narrator, her point of view leading up to the disappearance is told through her own diary. I don't want to reveal too much, but the way Flynn uses the two narrator voices to unfold the story in this psychological thriller is nothing but brilliant.

One could almost think that it was from here I got the idea to my own diary-narrator in my debut novel, and I’m sure that it would have been the case if it was published a couple of years earlier.

There is no way around not adding this book to the list.

You cannot overestimate how much this single crime novel has done for the Nordic Noir genre. If you haven't read it, you probably wonder if it is as good as everyone says. The answer is 'yes'.

The subject is deadly serious: 'Men who hate women,' which is also the original Swedish title. At the same time, you can sense that Larsson had a lot of fun writing the book.

So much fun, in fact, that he penned down ideas that no established writer would consider good writing at that time, such as creating Lisbeth Salander, a character inspired by Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking.

One of the big publishing houses even turned him down twice. No other Swedish novel has instated a before and an after like this one did.