- 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:
Thrillers and mysteries are built on misdirection and the careful reveal of information, which is exactly how the best Connections categories work. WordsRated’s Wordle Solver is updated daily, and we publish hints for today’s Connections and today’s Wordle every morning. If you missed yesterday’s Connections, yesterday’s answers and hints are always available.
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.