# The best Italian crime novels ever

From Sciascia to Camilleri and Carrisi: the Italian crime novels and noirs publishers and readers recommend most.

- 9 votes · 16 items
- Feb 4, 2025 · paola_grandeschermo
- https://even.best/en/l/3370/the-best-italian-crime-novels-ever

## Top 16

1. **To Each His Own** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Leonardo Sciascia, 1966. A teacher investigates a murder in Sicily.
2. **The Day of the Owl** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Leonardo Sciascia, 1961. The first great novel about the Mafia.
3. **The Shape of Water** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Andrea Camilleri, 1994. Inspector Montalbano is born.
4. **That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Carlo Emilio Gadda, 1957. A crime novel that is also a masterpiece of language.
5. **Private Venus** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Giorgio Scerbanenco, 1966. Duca Lamberti and noir Milan.
6. **Flowers over the Inferno** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Ilaria Tuti, 2018. Teresa Battaglia in the mountains of Friuli.
7. **Albergo Italia** (0 · ▲1 ▼1) — Carlo Lucarelli, 2014. Captain Colaprico in colonial Eritrea.
8. **The Name of the Rose** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Umberto Eco, 1980. Historical crime novel and philosophical novel at once.
9. **The Terra-Cotta Dog** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Andrea Camilleri, 1996. Perhaps the best-loved Montalbano.
10. **I Kill** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Giorgio Faletti, 2002. The best-selling Italian thriller, set in Monte Carlo.
11. **The Whisperer** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Donato Carrisi, 2009. A serial killer and a psychological hunt.
12. **The Sunday Woman** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Fruttero & Lucentini, 1972. A murder in bourgeois Turin.
13. **Involuntary Witness** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Gianrico Carofiglio, 2002. The debut of lawyer Guerrieri.
14. **I Will Have Vengeance** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Maurizio de Giovanni, 2007. Inspector Ricciardi in 1930s Naples.
15. **Black Run** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Antonio Manzini, 2013. Rocco Schiavone exiled to Aosta.
16. **Kill the Father** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Sandrone Dazieri, 2014. Colomba Caselli and Dante Torre.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.