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

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.)

Crime Writers’ Association – Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time

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.)

 

Three Cozy Mystery Authors, and No More…

I got a letter this week from Alfred suggesting a topic that sounds really interesting for a lot of us Cozy Mystery readers. Thank you, Alfred, for this great entry idea!

“The reason I am writing is that I had a column idea for you and thought it might be a good one to do. What if you asked the readers if they could only choose 3 or 4 authors to read, who would they choose and why? I gave this some thought and my three would be Laura Childs’ Tea Shop Mysteries and Emily Brightwell, of course I really like her. For my third one I would have to say Lorna Barrett’s Bookshop series. But what really takes center place on my bookshelf is my entire run of Tales of Grace Chapel Inn – this is an excellent series and you can’t wait to read each book to see what happens next.”

I’m going to start by telling you who my three Cozy Mystery authors would be:

Agatha Christie – She’s simply one of the best story tellers, her sleuths are great characters, she writes classic stories/plots with phenomenal settings, the mysteries are difficult to guess – yet make sense in the end because they are character-driven mysteries.

Ngaio Marsh – Her mysteries are really good classic stories that make sense, yet they are complicated. They (again) are character-driven. The characters are three dimensional, not caricatures. Marsh is a another truly good story teller. The sleuth and his team are a comfort to read about, there are no wild changes in the characters’ personalities. Her stories usually open with very long exposition of the crime setting and the characters, but the pay-off is well worth the wait – once the sleuth and his team arrive, the unfolding investigation of the crime makes interesting reading.

As for my third Cozy Mystery author, I’ll have to continue to think about this. There are so many other authors who I enjoy reading. I cannot imagine having to limit myself to only one out of all my favorite authors.

So, if you only had three Cozy Mystery authors who you could read, who would they be AND why?

(Here are all of your answers in list form: Three Cozy Mystery Authors, and No More – Part 2

September 2012 Mystery Book New Releases

The following Mystery Books will be released in September 2012:

Susan Wittig Albert (aka 1/2 of Robin Paige): The Darling Dahlias and the Confederate Rose (This will be the 3rd in the Darling Dahlias Mystery Series.)

Sandra Balzo: Dead Ends (This will be the 2nd in the Main Street Mystery Series.)

M. C. Beaton (aka Marion Chesney): Hiss and Hers (This will be the 23rd in the Agatha Raisin Mystery Series.)

Jennie Bentley (aka Jenna Bennett  & Bente Gallagher): Wall-to-Wall Dead (This will be the 6th in the Do-It-Yourself Mystery Series.)

Stephen Booth: Dead and Buried (This will be the 13th in the Cooper & Fry Mystery Series.)

Emily Brightwell: Mrs. Jeffries Takes a Second Look (This is an omnibus with  books 4,  5, & 6 of the Mrs. Jeffries Mystery Series.)

Lucy Burdette (aka Roberta Islieb): Death in Four Courses (This will be the 2nd in the Key West Food Critic Mystery Series.)

Nancy Bush: Nowhere To Hide (This will be a Stand Alone.) (Actually, August 29)

Grace Carroll (aka Carol Culver): Died with a Bow (This will be the 2nd in the Accessories Mystery Series.)

Harlan Coben: Seconds Away (This will be the 2nd in the Young Adult Mickey Bolitar Mystery Series.)

Margaret Coel: Buffalo Bill’s Dead Now (This will be the 16th in the Wind River Reservation Mystery Series.)

Lesley Cookman: Murder at the Manor (This will be the 9th in the Libby Sarjeant Mystery Series.)

Clive Cussler & Thomas Perry: The Tombs (This will be the 4th in the Fargo Adventure Series.)

Clive Cussler & Jack Du Brul: Mirage (This will be the 9th in the Oregon Files Series.)

Casey Daniels (aka Miranda Bliss & Kylie Logan): Supernatural Born Killers (This will be the 9th in the Pepper Martin Mystery Series.)

Joanne Dobson & Beverle Graves Myers: Face of the Enemy  (This will be the 1st in the NEW Helluva War Mystery Series.)

Sharon Fiffer: Lucky Stuff (This will be the 8th in the Jane Wheel Mystery Series.) (This is a St. Patrick’s Day theme mystery.)

Shelley Freydont: Foul Play at the Fair (This will be the 1st in the NEW Celebration Bay Mystery Series…) (This is a Halloween theme mystery.)

Rebecca M. Hale: How to Tail a Cat (This will be the 4th in the Cats and Curios Mystery Series.)

Veronica Heley: Murder in Mind (This will be the 13th in the Ellie Quicke Mystery Series.)

Sue Ann Jaffarian: Hide & Snoop (This will be the 7th in the Odelia Grey Mystery Series.)

Tracy Kiely: Murder Most Austen (This will be the 4th in the Elizabeth Parker Mystery Series.)

Josi S. Kilpack: Tres Leches Cupcakes (This will be the 8th in the Culinary Mystery Series.)

Laurie R. King: Garment of Shadows (This will be the 12th in the Mary Russell & Sherlock Holmes Mystery Series.)

Joyce and Jim Lavene: Treacherous Toys (This will be the 5th in the Renaissance Faire Mystery Series.) (This is a Christmas theme mystery.)

Meg London (aka Peg Cochran): Murder Unmentionable (This will be the 1st in the NEW Sweet Nothings Mystery Series.)

Beverle Graves Myers & Joanne Dobson: Face of the Enemy  (This will be the 1st in the NEW Helluva War Mystery Series.)

James Patterson & Maxine Paetro: Confessions of a Murder Suspect (This will be a Stand Alone.)

James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge: Zoo  (This will be a Stand Alone.)

Spencer Quinn (aka Peter Abrahams): A Fistful of Collars (This will be the 5th in the Chet and Bernie Mystery Series.)

J. D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts): Delusion in Death (This will be the 36th in the Eve Dallas Mystery Series.)

Sara Rosett: Mistletoe, Merriment and Murder (This will be the 7th in the Ellie Avery Mystery Series.) (Actually, Oct. 1) (This is a Christmas theme mystery.)

Hank Phillippi Ryan: The Other Woman (This will be the 1st in the Jane Ryland & Jake Brogan Mystery Series.)

Denise Swanson: Murder of the Cat’s Meow (This will be the 15th  in the Scumble River Mystery Series.)

Peggy Webb: Elvis and the Blue Christmas Corpse (This will be the 5th in the Southern Cousins Mystery Series.) (This is a Christmas theme mystery.)

To go back to the Cozy Mystery New Book Release page, click here.

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