Not to be outdone by the British Crime Writers’ Association – Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time, the Mystery Writers of America came up with their list five years later. If you compare the lists, you will see that there are quite a few authors who appear on both. I am happy to see a few of the authors I follow on the list. There are also a few authors (like Thomas Harris and Joseph Wambaugh) who I read on occasion.

In 1995, the Mystery Writers of America comprised a list of:

The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time

1. Arthur Conan Doyle: The Complete Sherlock Holmes (1887-1927)
2. Dashiell Hammett: The Maltese Falcon (1930)
3. Edgar Allan Poe: Tales of Mystery & Imagination (1852)
4. Josephine Tey: The Daughter of Time (1951)
5. Scott Turow: Presumed Innocent (1987)
6. John le Carré: The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1963)
7. Wilkie Collins: The Moonstone (1868)
8. Raymond Chandler: The Big Sleep (1939)
9. Daphne du Maurier: Rebecca (1938)
10. Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None (1939)
11. Robert Traver: Anatomy of a Murder (1958)
12. Agatha Christie: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
13. Raymond Chandler: The Long Goodbye (1953)
14. James M. Cain: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934)
15. Mario Puzo: The Godfather (1969)
16. Thomas Harris: The Silence of the Lambs (1988)
17. Eric Ambler: A Coffin for Dimitrios (1939)
18. Dorothy L. Sayers: Gaudy Night (1935)
19. Agatha Christie: Witness for the Prosecution (1948)
20. Frederick Forsyth: The Day of the Jackal (1971)
21. Raymond Chandler: Farewell, My Lovely (1940)
22. John Buchan: The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915)
23. Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose (1980)
24. Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Crime and Punishment (1866)
25. Ken Follett: Eye of the Needle (1978)
26. John Mortimer: Rumpole of the Bailey (1978)
27. Thomas Harris: Red Dragon (1981)
28. Dorothy L. Sayers: The Nine Tailors (1934)
29. Gregory Mcdonald: Fletch (1974)
30. John le Carré: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974)
31. Dashiell Hammett: The Thin Man (1934)
32. Wilkie Collins: The Woman in White (1860)
33. E. C. Bentley: Trent’s Last Case (1913)
34. James M. Cain: Double Indemnity (1943)
35. Martin Cruz Smith: Gorky Park (1981)
36. Dorothy L. Sayers: Strong Poison (1930)
37. Tony Hillerman: Dance Hall of the Dead (1973)
38. Donald E. Westlake: The Hot Rock (1970)
39. Dashiell Hammett: Red Harvest (1929)
40. Mary Roberts Rinehart: The Circular Staircase (1908)
41. Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express (1934)
42. John Grisham: The Firm (1991)
43. Len Deighton: The Ipcress File (1962)
44. Vera Caspary: Laura (1942)
45. Mickey Spillane: I, the Jury (1947)
46. Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö: The Laughing Policeman (1968)
47. Donald E. Westlake: Bank Shot (1972)
48. Graham Greene: The Third Man (1950)
49. Jim Thompson: The Killer Inside Me (1952)
50. Mary Higgins Clark: Where Are the Children? (1975)
51. Sue Grafton: “A” is for Alibi (1982)
52. Lawrence Sanders: The First Deadly Sin (1973)
53. Tony Hillerman: A Thief of Time (1989)
54. Truman Capote: In Cold Blood (1966)
55. Geoffrey Household: Rogue Male (1939)
56. Dorothy L. Sayers: Murder Must Advertise (1933)
57. G. K. Chesterton: The Innocence of Father Brown (1911)
58. John le Carré: Smiley’s People (1979)
59. Raymond Chandler: The Lady in the Lake (1943)
60. Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)
61. Graham Greene: Our Man in Havana (1958)
62. Charles Dickens: The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870)
63. Peter Lovesey: Wobble to Death (1970)
64. W. Somerset Maugham: Ashenden (1928)
65. Nicholas Meyer: The Seven-Per-Cent Solution: Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson (1974)
66. Rex Stout: The Doorbell Rang (1965)
67. Elmore Leonard: Stick (1983)
68. John le Carré: The Little Drummer Girl (1983)
69. Graham Greene: Brighton Rock (1938)
70. Bram Stoker: Dracula (1897)
71. Patricia Highsmith: The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955)
72. Edmund Crispin: The Moving Toyshop (1946)
73. John Grisham: A Time to Kill (1989)
74. Hillary Waugh: Last Seen Wearing … (1952)
75. W. R. Burnett: Little Caesar (1929)
76. George V. Higgins: The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1972)
77. Dorothy L. Sayers: Clouds of Witness (1927)
78. Ian Fleming: From Russia, with Love (1957)
79. Margaret Millar: Beast in View (1955)
80. Michael Gilbert: Smallbone Deceased (1950)
81. Josephine Tey: The Franchise Affair (1948)
82. Elizabeth Peters: Crocodile on the Sandbank (1975)
83. P. D. James: Shroud for a Nightingale (1971)
84. Tom Clancy: The Hunt for Red October (1984)
85. Ross Thomas: Chinaman’s Chance (1978)
86. Joseph Conrad: The Secret Agent (1907)
87. John D. MacDonald: The Dreadful Lemon Sky (1975)
88. Dashiell Hammett: The Glass Key (1931)
89. Ruth Rendell: A Judgement in Stone (1977)
90. Josephine Tey: Brat Farrar (1950)
91. Ross Macdonald: The Chill (1963)
92. Walter Mosley: Devil in a Blue Dress (1990)
93. Joseph Wambaugh: The Choirboys (1975)
94. Donald E. Westlake: God Save the Mark (1967)
95. Craig Rice: Home Sweet Homicide (1944)
96. John Dickson Carr: The Three Coffins (1935)
97. Richard Condon: Prizzi’s Honor (1982)
98. James McClure: The Steam Pig (1974)
99. Jack Finney: Time and Again (1970)
100. Ellis Peters: A Morbid Taste for Bones (1977) Tied with Ira Levin: Rosemary’s Baby (1967)

If you take a look at both the 1990 British list and this 1995 USA list, you will no doubt notice that a lot of the authors are duplicated. I guess it just doesn’t matter on which side of the pond you live, good crime fiction is simply good crime fiction!

(I highlighted the authors who can be found on the Cozy Mystery site.)

Here’s a list you might enjoy looking at. It may just inspire you to go read one of these books. I know it has inspired me! (Yes, I’ve added a few to my TBR queue.)

In 1990, the Crime Writers’ Association (British) comprised a list of:

The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time

1. Josephine Tey: The Daughter of Time (1951)
2. Raymond Chandler: The Big Sleep (1939)
3. John le Carré: The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1963)
4. Dorothy L. Sayers: Gaudy Night (1935)
5. Agatha Christie: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
6. Daphne du Maurier: Rebecca (1938)
7. Raymond Chandler: Farewell, My Lovely (1940)
8. Wilkie Collins: The Moonstone (1868)
9. Len Deighton: The Ipcress File (1962)
10. Dashiell Hammett: The Maltese Falcon (1930)
11. Josephine Tey: The Franchise Affair (1948)
12. Hillary Waugh: Last Seen Wearing … (1952)
13. Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose (1980)
14. Geoffrey Household: Rogue Male (1939)
15. Raymond Chandler: The Long Goodbye (1953)
16. Francis Iles: Malice Aforethought (1931)
17. Frederick Forsyth: The Day of the Jackal (1971)
18. Dorothy L. Sayers: The Nine Tailors (1934)
19. Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None (1939)
20. John Buchan: The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915)
21. Arthur Conan Doyle: The Collected Sherlock Holmes Short Stories (1892-1927)
22. Dorothy L. Sayers: Murder Must Advertise (1933)
23. Edgar Allan Poe: Tales of Mystery & Imagination (1852)
24. Eric Ambler: The Mask of Dimitrios (1939) (aka A Coffin for Dimitrios)
25. Edmund Crispin: The Moving Toyshop (1946)
26. Margery Allingham: The Tiger in the Smoke (1952)
27. Peter Lovesey: The False Inspector Dew (1982)
28. Wilkie Collins: The Woman in White (1860)
29. Barbara Vine: A Dark-Adapted Eye (1986)
30. James M. Cain: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934)
31. Dashiell Hammett: The Glass Key (1931)
32. Arthur Conan Doyle: The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
33. John le Carré: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974)
34. E. C. Bentley: Trent’s Last Case (1913)
35. Ian Fleming: From Russia, with Love (1957)
36. Ed McBain: Cop Hater (1956)
37. Colin Dexter: The Dead of Jericho (1981)
38. Patricia Highsmith: Strangers on a Train (1950)
39. Ruth Rendell: A Judgement in Stone (1977)
40. John Dickson Carr: The Hollow Man (1935) (aka The Three Coffins)
41. Anthony Berkeley: The Poisoned Chocolates Case (1929)
42. Ellis Peters: A Morbid Taste for Bones (1977)
43. Ellis Peters: The Leper of Saint Giles (1981)
44. Ira Levin: A Kiss Before Dying (1953)
45. Patricia Highsmith: The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955)
46. Graham Greene: Brighton Rock (1938)
47. Raymond Chandler: The Lady in the Lake (1943)
48. Scott Turow: Presumed Innocent (1987)
49. Ruth Rendell: A Demon in My View (1976)
50. John Dickson Carr: The Devil in Velvet (1951)
51. Barbara Vine: A Fatal Inversion (1987)
52. Michael Innes: The Journeying Boy (1949)
53. P. D. James: A Taste for Death (1986)
54. Jack Higgins: The Eagle Has Landed (1975)
55. Mary Stewart: My Brother Michael (1960)
56. Peter Lovesey: Bertie and the Tin Man (1987)
57. Susan Moody: Penny Black (1984)
58. Len Deighton: Game, Set & Match (1984-1986)
59. Dick Francis: The Danger (1983)
60. P. D. James: Devices and Desires (1989)
61. Reginald Hill: Under World (1988)
62. Mary Stewart: Nine Coaches Waiting (1958)
63. Paula Gosling: A Running Duck (1978)
64. Michael Gilbert: Smallbone Deceased (1950)
65. Lionel Davidson: The Rose of Tibet (1962)
66. P. D. James: Innocent Blood (1980)
67. Dorothy L. Sayers: Strong Poison (1930)
68. Michael Innes: Hamlet, Revenge! (1937)
69. Tony Hillerman: A Thief of Time (1989)
70. Caryl Brahms & S. J. Simon: A Bullet in the Ballet (1937)
71. Reginald Hill: Deadheads (1983)
72. Graham Greene: The Third Man (1950)
73. Anthony Price: The Labyrinth Makers (1974)
74. Adam Hall: The Quiller Memorandum (1965)
75. Margaret Millar: Beast in View (1955)
76. Sarah Caudwell: The Shortest Way to Hades (1984)
77. Desmond Bagley: Running Blind (1970)
78. Dick Francis: Twice Shy (1981)
79. Richard Condon: The Manchurian Candidate (1959)
80. Caroline Graham: The Killings at Badger’s Drift (1987)
81. Nicholas Blake: The Beast Must Die (1938)
82. Martin Cruz Smith: Gorky Park (1981)
83. Agatha Christie: Death Comes as the End (1945)
84. Christianna Brand: Green for Danger (1945)
85. Cyril Hare: Tragedy at Law (1942)
86. John Fowles: The Collector (1963)
87. J. J. Marric: Gideon’s Day (1955)
88. Lionel Davidson: The Sun Chemist (1976)
89. Alistair MacLean: The Guns of Navarone (1957)
90. Julian Symons: The Colour of Murder (1957)
91. John Buchan: Greenmantle (1916)
92. Erskine Childers: The Riddle of the Sands (1903)
93. Peter Lovesey: Wobble to Death (1970)
94. Dashiell Hammett: Red Harvest (1929)
95. Ken Follett: The Key to Rebecca (1980)
96. Ed McBain: Sadie When She Died (1972)
97. H. R. F. Keating: The Murder of the Maharajah (1980)
98. Simon Brett: What Bloody Man Is That? (1987)
99. Gavin Lyall: Shooting Script (1966)
100. Edgar Wallace: The Four Just Men (1906)

Do you recognize any of these mysteries? I must admit, I haven’t read a lot of them! I now feel like I should expand my repertoire of mystery authors.

Five years later:

Mystery Writers of America – 1995 List of Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time

(I highlighted the authors who can be found on the Cozy Mystery site.)

 

I finally posted the nominees for the 2012 Nero Awards. Most of you, I am sure, know exactly what the Nero Awards stand for:

The “Nero” is an annual award presented to an author for literary excellence in the mystery genre. The award is presented at the Black Orchid Banquet, which is traditionally held on the first Saturday in December in New York City. Past winners of the award include Fred Harris, Martha Grimes, Dennis Lehane, and Sharyn McCrumb.

(I copied the above statement from the Wolfe Pack site.)

Congratulations to all of the nominees!

2012: Guilt by Association by Marcia Clark 
The Silent Girl by Tess Gerritsen
The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz
Spiral by Paul McEuen
Though Not Dead by Dana Stabenow
Black Orchid Blues by Persia Walker

(And, here’s a fun tidbit: Jane K. Cleland, author of the popular Josie Prescott Antiques Mystery Series,  is the Wolfe Pack’s literary awards chair!)

The Bouchercon Convention was held in San Francisco from the 14th to the 17th of October  – 2010. What a great honor to receive a nomination for Bouchercon’s Anthony Awards. Here are both the nominees and winners for bouchercon’s 2010 Anthony Awards:

Best Novel: The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny (Winner)
The Last Child by John Hart
The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson (translated by Reg Keeland)
The Shanghai Moon by S.J. Rozan

Best First Novel: A Bad Day for Sorry by Sophie Littlefield (Winner)
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
Starvation Lake by Bryan Gruley
The Twelve/The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville
In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff

Best Paperback Original: Starvation Lake by Bryan Gruley (Winner)
Bury Me Deep by Megan Abbott
Tower by Ken Bruen & Reed Farrel Coleman
Quarry in the Middle by Max Allan Collins
Death and the Lit Chick by G.M. Malliet
Air Time by Hank Phillippi Ryan

Best Short Story: On the House by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Quarry: Crime Stories by New England Writers) (Winner)
Last Fair Deal Gone Down by Ace Atkins (Crossroad Blues)
Femme Sole by Dana Cameron (Boston Noir)
Animal Rescue by Dennis Lehane (Boston Noir)
Amapola by Luis Alberto Urrea (Phoenix Noir)

Best Critical Non-Fiction Work: Talking about Detective Fiction by P.D. James (Winner)
The Line Up: The World’s Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives by Otto Penzler, ed.
Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King by Lisa Rogak
Dame Agatha’s Shorts: An Agatha Christie Short Story Companion by Elena Santangelo
The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith by Joan Schenkar

And, here are some of the Guests of Honor who attended Bouchercon 2010 with Eddie Muller as the Toastmaster:

Distinguished Contribution to the Genre: Lee Child
International Guest of Honor: Denise Mina
American Guest of Honor: Laurie R. King

♦For more Mystery Book Awards, click here.♦