The 50 Best Mysteries of All Time

If you have a crime, a question, and someone looking for answers, then you've got a mystery. Our all-time favorites include whodunits, horror novels, police procedurals, and more. [View in Browser]( [Esquire Sunday Reads]( [The 50 Best Mysteries of All Time]( The 50 Best Mysteries of All Time Selecting the 50 best mysteries of all time is an impossible task. There, I said it. Mysteries are narratives in which the who, why, or how of an event, usually a murder or some other type of crime, remains unknown until the end and drives the story forward. To write a successful mystery, authors must perform literary magic tricks—which is to say literary sleight of hand. They have to create a mystery, populate their story with believable characters, and then sustain the suspense while simultaneously giving readers clues and distracting them with the ever-so-tricky red herrings. In other words, mystery fiction is the art of juggling the unknown and all of its answers in front of readers, all while making sure they become obsessed with the latter and only see the former when the time is right. So here, in an incomplete list that merely scratches the surface of what the genre has to offer, are the best 50 mysteries ever written, in ranked order. [Read the Full Story]( [MORE FROM ESQUIRE]( [Nobody Is Doing Sneakers Like New Balance MADE in the USA]( Nobody Is Doing Sneakers Like New Balance MADE in the USA I've never really put much thought into where the sneakers I wear are being produced. When I'm lacing up my shoes, I don't find myself wondering where the laces came from, or how long it took for the upper of the shoe to be stitched to the lower, or what the production—despite it dictating the overall quality of my shoes—is like. Last month, though, that all changed. New Balance is the brand that needs no introduction. 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