Platinum Revolver Awards — The Best Mystery Writers of All Time (2025 Edition) Top 10

The StoryBUZZ Platinum Revolver Award (2025) recognizes the Top 10 mystery writers of all time — writers whose works have profoundly shaped the genre and considered foundational pillars of mystery literature.

For each writer, you can click on their name for an article that provides:

• The elements making up the scoring for their rank on the list (peer recognition, reader preference, and critics assessments)
• Main series characters and key standalone mystery novels
• Contributions to the mystery genre
• Why you may like to read their mysteries
• Our recommendation on a good place to start reading the writer's works (often the start of a series or a very popular and/or award-winning book)
• Similar mystery writers

If you're already familar with the writer and just interested in the recommended book to start with, you can click on the link to that book in the list below.

The Full List of the 100 Best Mystery Writers of All Time

You can see the full list of the 100 Best Mystery Writers of All Time in this article. 

But even better ...  do you want the full list of the Best Mystery Writers of All Time, with entries for each of the best mystery writers all in one convenient document? 

Check out this link to get the FREE download: "The 100 Best Mystery Writers of All Time".

It's a 233-page reference that you can read on a computer, tablet, upload to your Kindle or other favorite e-book reader, or even print a hardcopy if that's your preference.  

Before You Leave ... Are You a Writer? 

Do you want to join the ranks of the best mystery writers?

Do you want to write fiction faster, while practicing your craft and your writing process to consistently get better? 

Check out this link to the "Write Fiction Faster ... and better" course with 23 bite-sized video lessons, 4 worksheets, a guide, and a workbook.