With Vera Stanhope, Jimmy Perez and Matthew Venn, Ann Cleeves has given us some of the most beloved detectives in British crime fiction, with her bestselling novels inspiring three hit television series in , and .

As such, over the past four decades, she has become a queen of crime, celebrated for her atmospheric mysteries and brilliantly drawn characters. But when Cleeves isn’t dreaming up murders of her own, whose mysteries keep her turning the pages? Here, she shares her five favourite crime novels…

Love in Amsterdam by Nicolas Freeling

“This slight novel is the first to feature Van Der Valk, and it changed crime fiction for ever for me. It bears no resemblance at all to either of the television adaptations nor, I think, to Freeling’s later work, which became a little more conventional.

“This is a book about sexual obsession, and a detective who is fascinated by both the victim and the presumed killer. It breaks all the rules of the tradition.

“Freeling was British, but spent much of his working life in Europe, and although he wrote in English, he encouraged me to read crime in translation. I became fascinated by other cultures’ preoccupations and the domestic lives explored in their popular fiction.”

The Murder Room, £10.99

The Saint-Fiacre Affair by Georges Simenon

“I love all the Maigret books by Simenon, but I think this is my favourite. It takes the policeman away from the bars and clubs of Paris and back to the rural village where he was born, after he has received an anonymous letter threatening that a crime will take place during the All Souls Mass.

“This gives us a depth and context to the character we’ve met in the other books. Simenon is brilliant at evoking memories of the past through the sounds and smells of the present. I always recommend that aspiring writers read him. In one sentence he can pin down a character, bring a place to life and move on the plot.”

Penguin Classics, £9.99

The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham

“Margery Allingham’s Albert Campion books are classic Golden Age crime fiction. Albert is an amateur sleuth with a mysterious but aristocratic background and enough money to allow him to play at detective without worrying about paying the bills.

“This story is firmly set in post-war London. In a November smog, a murderer is haunting the bomb sites and poverty-stricken streets. It is a story of blackmail and terror, engrossing as a mystery, but also a morality tale of the battle against evil. This is Allingham’s most sophisticated and atmospheric novel.”

Vintage, £9.99

Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell

“This is the first of the Wallander novels and it sets the tone for many of the others. It introduces the dysfunctional and unhappy detective, but more importantly, it provides the background against which most of his books are set.

“Mankell is brilliant at shocking visual images to start his stories. Here, Wallander is called out to a murder in a lonely farmhouse. An old man has been tortured and beaten to death – his wife is barely alive.

Vintage, £9.99

The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas

“This is perhaps my favourite Fred Vargas novel, but I love the wit and the playfulness of all her Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg series. Like many fictional detectives, the commissaire is unlike his more conventional colleagues – he is easily distracted and seems unwilling to follow the obvious route of an investigation.

“When strange chalk circles start appearing on the pavements of Paris, only Adamsberg takes them seriously. And when a woman’s body is found in one, only Adamsberg will find the killer.”

Vintage, £10.99

‘The Dying Light’ by Ann Cleeves is out now