Crime fiction and book clubs were made for each other. Everyone has an opinion on a villain, and nobody agrees on where the line is between a bad person and a person who did a bad thing.
This list leans towards British crime, and especially London gangland, because those are the books that get a room going. Families, loyalty, money, and the women who end up running things when the men get it wrong. There is a true crime classic and a lighter pick too, for the months when your group needs a breather.
| # | Book | Author | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dangerous Lady | Martina Cole | 1992 |
| 2 | Widows | Lynda La Plante | 1983 |
| 3 | The Take | Martina Cole | 2005 |
| 4 | Brighton Rock | Graham Greene | 1938 |
| 5 | The Long Firm | Jake Arnott | 1999 |
| 6 | The Feud | Kimberley Chambers | 2010 |
| 7 | Dirty Game | Jessie Keane | 2008 |
| 8 | Snap | Belinda Bauer | 2018 |
| 9 | In Cold Blood | Truman Capote | 1966 |
| 10 | Layer Cake | J. J. Connolly | 2000 |
What makes a crime novel good for a book club?
A whodunnit on its own can be over the moment you find out who did it. The crime novels that work best for groups ask a bigger question: why did they do it, and would you have done the same in their shoes?
Gangland fiction is brilliant for this. You spend three hundred pages with people who do terrible things for reasons that make complete sense to them, and by the end half your group will be defending somebody they should not be defending.
Gangland, true crime or cosy: which suits your group?
If your group likes big families, sharp dialogue and London streets, go gangland: Martina Cole, Lynda La Plante, Kimberley Chambers. If they want something that leaves a mark, try true crime, which always brings out the strongest opinions. If you have just done something heavy, a cosy crime novel is the perfect palate cleanser.
Whichever you choose, our free book club questions for thrillers work just as well for crime.
10 of the best crime book club books for 2027
No spoilers, just what each book is about, what your group will argue about, and who it suits.
Dangerous Lady
Martina Cole · 1992
Maura Ryan grows up the only girl in a family of brothers in post-war London, and becomes the most feared woman in the city’s underworld. The book that launched Martina Cole.
What you’ll argue about: whether Maura had any other choice.
Your book club will love it if: you want the queen of gangland fiction at her rawest.
Find Dangerous Lady on AmazonWidows
Lynda La Plante · 1983
When their husbands are killed during an armed robbery, Dolly Rawlins finds the plans for the next job. She and the other widows decide to pull it off themselves.
What you’ll argue about: which widow you would be, and whether they owe their husbands anything at all.
Your book club will love it if: your group loves strong women, a heist and a plan that could go wrong at any moment.
Find Widows on AmazonThe Take
Martina Cole · 2005
Freddie Jackson comes out of prison convinced he owns the underworld. His wife Jackie just wants her husband home. Her sister Maggie is falling for Freddie’s cousin Jimmy, and is determined not to end up like Jackie.
What you’ll argue about: loyalty, sisters, and why anyone stays with a man like Freddie.
Your book club will love it if: you like family sagas where everyone wants something.
Find The Take on AmazonBrighton Rock
Graham Greene · 1938
Pinkie Brown, a seventeen-year-old gang leader in 1930s Brighton, marries a young waitress to keep her quiet about a murder. Ida Arnold, who barely knew the dead man, decides to find out what really happened.
What you’ll argue about: good and evil, and whether Rose is naive or brave.
Your book club will love it if: your group wants a classic that still feels shockingly modern.
Find Brighton Rock on AmazonThe Long Firm
Jake Arnott · 1999
Harry Starks is a 1960s London gangster who loves Judy Garland and has a terrifying temper. His story is told by five people whose lives he changed, not one of them for the better.
What you’ll argue about: which narrator you trusted, and why charm works so well on all of us.
Your book club will love it if: you like swinging sixties London, real history and a villain you can’t stop watching.
Find The Long Firm on Amazon
An opening line to keep you up tonight
“At midnight he asked for a bacon sandwich. By 4am he was dead.”
The Feud
Kimberley Chambers · 2010
Two East End families, the Mitchells of Canning Town and the O’Haras, a travelling family from Stratford, have been at war for years over pub protection. Caught between them are two children who grow up to love the wrong people.
What you’ll argue about: which family you would side with, and whether love ever stands a chance.
Your book club will love it if: you want a trilogy your group can stick with for three months.
Find The Feud on AmazonDirty Game
Jessie Keane · 2008
Annie Bailey has always lived in her older sister Ruthie’s shadow. Then Ruthie gets her hands on Max Carter, head of the feared Carter family, and Annie ends up caught between two rival gangs.
What you’ll argue about: sisters, jealousy, and what Annie should have done.
Your book club will love it if: you love a heroine who refuses to stay down.
Find Dirty Game on AmazonSnap
Belinda Bauer · 2018
Three children wait in a broken-down car on the hard shoulder while their mother walks off to find help. She never comes back. Years later, Jack, the eldest, is still looking for answers, and taking care of his sisters any way he can.
What you’ll argue about: what a child should be allowed to do to keep his family together.
Your book club will love it if: you want a crime novel with real heart, and a little dark humour.
Find Snap on AmazonIn Cold Blood
Truman Capote · 1966
The true story of the murder of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, in 1959, and of the two men who killed them. Capote spent years on it, and it changed crime writing for good.
What you’ll argue about: how much a writer should get to know a killer, and whether it is fair to feel for them.
Your book club will love it if: your group wants true crime that is also a brilliant book.
Find In Cold Blood on AmazonLayer Cake
J. J. Connolly · 2000
A London cocaine dealer who never gives his name plans to retire young with his money. One last favour for his boss drags him into a mess of stolen pills, dangerous people and a missing girl.
What you’ll argue about: whether anyone ever really gets out.
Your book club will love it if: you want a fast, funny, very London read with a narrator full of attitude.
Find Layer Cake on Amazon
A quick detour
Which kind of psychological thriller reader are you?
Not sure where to start? Take the 60-second quiz.
Kadie Vellis crime books for your book club
Kadie Vellis writes London crime with dark families at the heart of it, set around Islington, Hackney and the canal. These are the ones to put to the vote.
Who Killed Lenny Gunn? Queenie Gunn is dying, and whoever finds her husband’s killer inherits the family business. It is a whodunnit and a family saga at once, so your group can play detective and pick sides.
Dead by 06:00. Danny went to prison at seventeen for something he didn’t do, and everyone knew it. Thirty-two years later, at two in the morning, his old best friend rings. A brilliant pick for talking about class, friendship and keeping quiet.
Little Apples Grow, out 1 December. A carer moves in with the dying matriarch of a gangland family to take revenge, and slowly gets to know the woman she came to hurt. It includes scenes of domestic abuse, so check with your group first.
A three-month Gunn book club for 2027
If your group likes to settle into a series, the Gunn Family Trilogy makes a perfect run for the start of the year.
January: Who Killed Lenny Gunn?. Everyone keeps a list of suspects, and you compare them at the meeting.
February: I Am Queenie Gunn, the prequel, going back to how a market girl met Lenny Gunn. Ask whether knowing her past changes how you see the Queenie of book one.
March: Carol Gunn Returns, the darkest of the three. Read it last, as the books intend.
Your questions answered
What are good crime books for a book club?
Dangerous Lady by Martina Cole, Widows by Lynda La Plante, Brighton Rock by Graham Greene and Snap by Belinda Bauer all give a group plenty to argue about, from loyalty to whether the villain had a choice.
What is the best gangland book for a book club?
Martina Cole’s Dangerous Lady is the classic. For something new, Who Killed Lenny Gunn? by Kadie Vellis is a London crime family saga with a whodunnit at its heart.
Is true crime good for a book club?
Very. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote is the classic choice, and true crime tends to bring out stronger opinions than fiction, so give it plenty of time.
What should a book club read after MobLand?
Try the Gunn Family Trilogy by Kadie Vellis, starting with Who Killed Lenny Gunn?, or see our full list of books like MobLand.
Can a book club read a crime series?
Yes, and it works well. A trilogy like the Gunn books or Kimberley Chambers’ Mitchells and O’Haras gives your group a three-month run with a cliffhanger feeling between meetings.
Where can I find discussion questions for a crime novel?
Our free, printable book club questions for thrillers work for any crime novel too.
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