- And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie is the best-selling thriller/mystery book of all time, selling over 100 million copies.
- The “Millennium” series by Stieg Larsson which includes “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (2005), had sold over 100 million copies worldwide as of 2019.
- As of 2009, mystery thriller novel “The Da Vinci Code” (2003) by Dan Brown had sold 80 million copies.
- The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown was produced into a film in 2006 which grossed over $760 million worldwide.
- Within fiction, 12.5% of adult books sold (print and ebooks) are in the thriller genre.
- For the US, this makes an estimated 23.6 million in thriller print unit sales as of 2022.
- As of 2022, crime/mystery titles ranked second in the most profitable book titles on Amazon for the US.
- Mystery/thriller/suspense titles are ranked as the second best selling genres of audiobooks.
- Agatha Christie is the best selling thriller/mystery author of all time, who has sold between 2 billion and 4 billion copies of her books.
- Within the genres, she has sold at least 4 times as many copies as the second best selling author, Georges Simenon.
Best-selling thriller and mystery books of all time
- From the given list, And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie is the best-selling thriller/mystery book of all time, selling over 100 million copies.
- Five other titles exceeded 50 million copies sold, The Da Vinci Code, Vardi Wala Gunda, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Name of the Rose and The Eagle Has Landed.
- Three Dan Brown titles feature in the list, amassing over 149 million copies sold in total.
- The oldest title in the list is The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which was first published as a single volume in 1892.
| # | Title | Author | Year published | Page count | Estimated copies sold* |
| 1 | And Then There Were None | Agatha Christie | 1939 | 272 | 100 million |
| 2 | The Da Vinci Code | Dan Brown | 2003 | 689 | 80 million |
| 3 | Vardi Wala Gunda | Ved Prakash Sharma | 1992 | 368 | 80 million |
| 4 | The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | Arthur Conan Doyle | 1892 | 307 | 60 million |
| 5 | The Name of the Rose | Umberto Eco | 1980 | 512 | 50 million |
| 6 | The Eagle Has Landed | Jack Higgins | 1975 | 352 | 50 million |
| 7 | Angels & Demons | Dan Brown | 2000 | 768 | 39 million |
| 8 | The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | Stieg Larsson | 2005 | 544 | 30 million |
| 9 | The Lost Symbol | Dan Brown | 2009 | 528 | 30 million |
| 10 | The Girl on the Train | Paula Hawkins | 2015 | 395 | 23 million |
| 11 | The Godfather | Mario Puzo | 1969 | 448 | 21 million |
| 12 | Gone Girl | Gillian Flynn | 2012 | 432 | 20 million |
| 13 | Jaws | Peter Benchley | 1974 | 278 | 20 million |
| 14 | Where the Crawdads Sing | Delia Owens | 2018 | 368 | 18 million |
| 15 | The Silence of The Lambs | Thomas Harris | 1988 | 338 | 11 million |
Film adaptations of thriller and mystery books
- The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown was produced into a film in 2006 which grossed over $760 million worldwide.
- Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie has been adapted into two separate movies, once in 1974 grossing over $27.5 million worldwide and again in 2017 which grossed over $352 million worldwide.
- Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn was adapted into a film in 2014 that grossed over $369 million worldwide.
- The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins was adapted into a film in 2016 which grossed over $173 million worldwide.
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson was adapted in to a film in 2011 that grossed over $104 million worldwide.
Best selling thriller/mystery authors of all time
- The best selling thriller/mystery author of all time is Agatha Christie, who has sold between 2 billion and 4 billion copies of her books.
- She has sold at least 4 times as many copies as the second best selling author within the genres.
- Georges Simenon and Sidney Sheldon ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively.
- Georges Simenon also published the largest number of books on the list, with 570.
- Jirō Akagawa and Kyotaro Nishimura released the second and third largest number of books respectively, although the figures are estimates.
- The lowest number of books published in the list were by Sidney Sheldon (21 titles), John Grisham (22 titles) and Jeffrey Archer (33 titles).
| # | Author name | Min. estimated sales (million copies) | Max. estimated sales (million copies) | Number of Books |
| 1 | Agatha Christie | 2,000 | 4,000 | 85 |
| 2 | Georges Simenon | 500 | 700 | 570 |
| 3 | Sidney Sheldon | 370 | 600 | 21 |
| 4 | Gilbert Patten | 125 | 500 | 209 |
| 5 | Dean Koontz | 325 | 400 | 91 |
| 6 | Jirō Akagawa | 300 | 330 | 500+ |
| 7 | Jeffrey Archer | 250 | 330 | 33 |
| 8 | Erle Stanley Gardner | 100 | 325 | 140 |
| 9 | Edgar Wallace | N/A | 300 | 175 |
| 10 | Robert Ludlum | 110 | 290 | 40 |
| 11 | James Patterson | 150 | 275 | 98 |
| 12 | Frédéric Dard | 200 | 270 | 300 |
| 13 | John Grisham | 100 | 250 | 22 |
| 14 | Mickey Spillane | 100 | 200 | N/A |
| 15 | Kyotaro Nishimura | N/A | 200 | 400+ |
A graph is given below to show the top 5 best selling thriller/mystery authors of all time by max. estimated copies sold:
A graph is given below to show the top 5 best selling thriller/mystery authors of all time by number of titles published:
Fastest growing thriller authors
- For US print sales, as of 2021 the fastest growing thriller author was James Patterson.
- In total, women made up 50% of the fastest growing thriller authors.
- Additionally, 75% of the new entries into the fastest growing thriller authors list were women.
- 80% of the authors on the list were American and 20% were British.
- None of the authors on the list were British males.
| # | Nationality | Author |
| 1 | American | James Patterson |
| 2 | British | Sarah Pearse |
| 3 | British | Lucy Foley |
| 4 | American | Douglas Preston |
| 5 | American | Stacey Abrams |
| 6 | American | Jack Carr |
| 7 | American | Peter Swanson |
| 8 | American | Janet Evanovich |
| 9 | American | C.J. Box |
| 10 | American | Jeneva Rose |
A graph is given below to show the fastest growing thriller authors by gender and nationality:
Top reasons for book purchase – mystery vs. general fiction
- A 2010 survey found the biggest reason for a book purchase within the mystery genre was its author (53%).
- This was 3% higher than for general fiction books.
- Books as part of a series (39%) were the second biggest reason for a book purchase within the mystery genre.
- This was 11% higher than for general fiction books.
- Specific characters (29%) were the third biggest reasons for a book purchase within the mystery genre.
- This was 13% higher than for general fiction books, the highest given difference shown.
| Reason* | Mystery | General fiction |
| Author | 53% | 50% |
| Series | 39% | 28% |
| Character | 29% | 16% |
| Topic | 21% | 22% |
| Price | 16% | 15% |
| Cover descriptions | 11% | 11% |
| Special offer | 10% | 9% |
| Looked through | 9% | 11% |
| Book title | 9% | 11% |
| Personal recommendation | 7% | 10% |
A graph is given below to show the top 5 reasons for book purchasing* – mystery against general fiction:
Readership in thriller/mystery genres
- Thriller/mystery/crime genres combined are the most popular book genres in the US.
- A 2015 study found that for the mystery/crime genres, 47% of readership is 55 and older.
- 28% of mystery/crime genre readers are 65 and older.
- Less than 20% of books within the mystery/crime genres are read by people under the age of 30.
- 14% of readers are aged between 18 and 29 years.
- Those aged between 13 and 17 only made up 4%.
- In total, more than 2/3 of readers within the mystery/crime genre are women.
- A 2010 survey found that around 20% of readers borrow mysteries from libraries.
Diversity within the thriller/mystery genres
- The thriller category has traditionally been dominated by male authors.
- According to a 2020 sample of books within the mystery genre, 32% had a female author.
- 26% of books featured a female detective.
- 59% of female authors included a female detective.
- 11% of male authors included a female detective.
- Female authors were 48% more likely to include a female detective than male authors.
Thriller/mystery titles on Kindle
- As of 2015, only 11% of bestselling Kindle thriller titles were self-published.
- Kindle self-published titles for science-fiction (56%), romance (49%) and fantasy novels (49%) were significantly higher.
- Of all Kindle thriller/mystery/suspense novels:
- 58% were published by the big 5 publishers.
- 26% were self-published.
- 15% were published by Amazon.
- 1% were published by small and medium publishers.