Genre guide · Fiction
Crime Fiction: word count & book length
How long a crime fiction book should be, which trim sizes suit it and what that means in printed pages. Typical length: 80,000–100,000 words.
About crime fiction
Fiction about crimes, criminals and the people who investigate them — police procedurals, noir, heists and legal dramas all live here.
Printed length in recommended trim sizes
| Trim | Pages at 11 pt | Spine (white) |
|---|---|---|
| 5.5 x 8.5 in Digest | 320–398 pages | 0.72–0.9 in |
| 6 x 9 in US Trade | 274–348 pages | 0.62–0.78 in |
Page counts for these lengths
Tips for this category
- Procedural accuracy matters to this readership; credit expert readers in the acknowledgments.
About Crime Fiction
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, often a murder. Most crime drama focuses on criminal investigation and does not feature the courtroom. Suspense and mystery are key elements that are nearly ubiquitous to the genre. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as historical fiction and science fiction, but the boundaries are indistinct. Crime fiction has several subgenres, including detective fiction (such as the whodunit), courtroom drama, hard-boiled fiction, and legal thrillers.
From the Wikipedia article “Crime fiction”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Most-published crime fiction works in Open Library
| Title | Author | First published | Editions |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Hound of the Baskervilles | Arthur Conan Doyle | 1900 | 1,309 |
| Преступление и наказание | Fiódor Dostoievski | 1866 | 1,178 |
| The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes [12 stories] | Arthur Conan Doyle | 1892 | 1,134 |
| The Mysterious Affair at Styles | Agatha Christie | 1920 | 1,091 |
| Our Mutual Friend | Charles Dickens, Margeret Tarner | 1800 | 318 |
| And Then There Were None | Agatha Christie | 1939 | 215 |
| An American Tragedy | Theodore Dreiser | 1900 | 210 |
| Death on the Nile | Agatha Christie | 1937 | 188 |
| Major Barbara | George Bernard Shaw | 1909 | 175 |
| Dei delitte e delle pene | Cesare Beccaria | 1764 | 164 |
Open Library lists 23,517 works under this subject.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a crime fiction book be?
What trim size is best for crime fiction?
Sources & data
- Subject statistics from Open Library.
- Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).