PAUL HAGGARD [STEPHEN LONGSTREET] – Dead Is the Door-Nail.   J. B. Lippincott, US, hardcover, 1937.

   One of the many problems associated with a lack of a sense of humor by a reviewer is the inability to tell when an author is teasing the reader. What is one to make of this: “The paunch and jowl of raffish apartment houses catapulted their elegant heights above the streets in a pageant of foppish decadence.”

   And yet it is closely followed by: “…to the wise mob of drunks, hop-heads and flamboyant slatterns of both sexes, it was a sanctuary and first-aid station. In Hilton’s electric cabinets, steam baths, needle showers and sun booths, the elect were tried and found wanton.”

   In the first of four novels featuring Mike Warlock, sports reporter for the New York Globe, and his faithful companion and cameraman, Abner Gillaway, they are assigned by the paper to cover the murder of Doris Castle, rich and the World’s Champion Lawn Tennis Player.

   Lots of suspects here, despite a few getting knocked off along the way. Did Castle’s husband, crooner Ira Wells, kill her because the marriage was unconsummated after three months? Or one of Wells’s many lovers? Or the odious Professor Ott, who once peddled a combination cough medicine and dandruff cure? Or Ott’s assistant, a coward and a blackmailer? Or the devilish Dr. Delcro, up to who knows what?

   Considerable action in an amusing hard-boiled novel in which the author just may have had his tongue in cheek. And if he didn’t, it’s still funny.

      Bibliographic Data:    [Expanded from the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin.]

HAGGARD, PAUL. Pseudonym of Stephen Longstreet; other pseudonym: Henri Weiner.
      Dead Is the Door-Nail. Lippincott, 1937. Mike Warlock
      Death Talks Shop. Hillman-Curl, 1938. Mike Warlock.

      Death Walks on Cat Feet. Hillman-Curl, 1938. Also published as: The Case of the Severed Skull, as by Henri Weiner.
      Poison from a Wealthy Widow. Hillman-Curl, 1938. Mike Warlock.

LONGSTREET, STEPHEN. Born Chauncey Weiner; 1907-2002. Pseudonyms: Paul Haggard & Henri Weiner. Also a screenwriter.
      The Crime. Simon & Schuster, 1959.

       -The Pedlock Inheritance. McKay, 1972
       The Ambassador. Avon, pb, 1978.

WEINER, HENRI. Pseudonym of Stephen Longstreet; other pseudonym: Paul Haggard.
      Crime on the Cuff. Morrow, 1936.   “Introduces one-armed sleuth John Brass, former Secret Service man who is also a popular cartoonist, creator of the comic strip, ‘Georgie the G-Man.'”
      The Case of the Severed Skull. Mystery Novel of the Month, pb, 1940. Reprint of Death Walks on Cat Feet, as by Paul Haggard.

   Dan Stumpf’s recent review of Spin the Glass Web serendipitously uncovered the fact that it was published by Harper in hardcover as a sealed mystery, in which the final chapters were sealed with a paper flap. The gimmick was that if you brought it back to wherever you bought it with the seal still intact, you could get your purchase price fully refunded.

   This was nothing new. Back in the 1920s and 30s the same publisher published a full line of these books, designated as Harper Sealed Mysteries, and Victor Berch recently completed a full checklist of these.

   The official series ended in 1934, but some research on the part of Victor and myself, plus some input from Bill Pronzini, has uncovered a few more books for which Harper used the same promotional idea.

   There may be others, but this list should contain most of them:

JOHN DICKSON CARR Death Turns the Table, 1941.

BILL S. BALLINGER Portrait in Smoke, 1950.

MAX EHRLICH, Spin the Glass Web, 1952.

BILL S. BALLINGER The Tooth and the Nail, 1955.

NICHOLAS BLAKE A Penknife in My Heart, 1958.

NICOLAS FREELING Question of Loyalty, 1963.

   First a brief bit of definition. The Thriller as I am using the term is distinct from the Detective and Suspense novel by several factors which I’ll attempt to define as broadly and generally as possible.

   In the Thriller the primary emphasis is on incident, action, adventure, and movement with the protagonist — even when he is an innocent caught up in larger events — taking a proactive role in those events. The thriller to some extent has its models in Homer’s Odyssey and books like Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped (which is the model for the entire Buchan school). In a thriller all the elements are secondary to incident, action, and movement.

   In the Detective novel the emphasis is on method, motive, and the pursuit of clues. There may be colorful incident and action as well as considerable suspense involved, but at heart those things are secondary to the procedure of investigation. Atmosphere, locale, adventure, all the elements of the thriller may play a role, even a major role, but they are still secondary to the solution of the central problem.

   In the Suspense novel an individual or group is at the mercy of fate. Even when they try to take a proactive role they are still largely at the mercy of blind fate and seldom save themselves merely by skill, intelligence, courage, or even common sense. At best when the opportunity arises they may take advantage of it, but they are usually saved or damned not by their own actions but sheer fate.

   There is more crossover and argument about suspense vs thriller than any other area, but in general suspense novels are darker and more psychological. I’m including most Gothic novels under the broad suspense genre as well as most crime novels.

   For this little exercise I have defined four basic types of Thriller. Many books are combinations of these, so that Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household combines the novel of Chase and Pursuit with The Mission.

1. Chase and Pursuit — an innocent (usually) is drawn into a mysterious situation through no fault of his own, but using his intelligence (in some more comic versions his lack of it), cunning, and other untapped abilities he overcomes and usually not only survives but triumphs. Buchan’s The 39 Steps is the great model.

2. The Quest — the search for the Great Whatits, the McGuffin. It may be a place, a thing, a person, or even an idea, but it drives the action of the protagonist and the villains. Most of today’s thrillers in the Cussler school are quest novels.

3. The Journey — The protagonist or protagonists have to get from A to B. Why, how, and everything else related is still sublimated to the mere fact that they must reach the end of the journey. Elleston Trevor’s Flight of the Phoenix is a journey novel.

4. The Mission — this is often incorporated with the others and may feature an avenger hero, a tough professional of some sort, an amateur, or even a gentleman crook who sets out to accomplish some goal. It may be saving the world or swindling the crooks, rescuing a girl in trouble or destroying some evil. Most secret agent fiction is a mission style thriller such as From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming which also incorporates elements of the other three. Most Avenger style novels fit under the Mission category.

   But above all in a thriller incident, action, adventure, and movement are the predominant themes. Elements of horror, the supernatural, and even science fiction may appear. A few books on the list are closer to mainstream novels than genre novels, but that is another of the oddities about the thriller since it can run from the lowest denominator of the men’s action series to books that are clearly literature.

   The list is more or less chronological to when the writer in question first appeared, so in general even with a later book the writer in question will appear when his first work was published (though with Andrew Garve, Victor Canning, and Hammond Innes I have chosen to place them in the post-war era though all debuted pre-war, and both Richard Sale and Richard Llewelyn are listed in the 1930’s for books published in the 1960’s as is Frank Gruber for books published in the late 1950’s). The dates are general however and not exact. Many of these writers had careers that ran thirty and more years.

   I’ve limited myself to one book per writer, and in general few short story collections since there are not a lot of short thriller collections out there. I’ve also allowed for ties in a many cases, a second or equal work since many of these writers wrote over long periods of time.

   The starting date is not as arbitrary as it may seem, the thriller as we know it grows a great deal out of the work of Robert Louis Stevenson and since Kidnapped appeared in 1886 and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde appeared in 1888, 1890 seemed a good starting place for the modern thriller, and since 1990 marked a natural cut off place I chose that, though obviously James Rollins, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Childs, Arturo Perez-Reverte, and Barry Eisler would all be represented if the list ran longer.

   I’ve also left out the crime novel which is often closer to the hard-boiled and or suspense school so certain writers such as W.R. Burnett, Peter Rabe, Dan J. Marlowe (whose best work in my opinion is in the crime school), Richard Stark, and the like are not listed. Most hard-boiled writers are closer to the detective story and not listed.

   As with my mystery and suspense list this is a list of favorites, not bests. Keep in mind many of these writers wrote other kinds of books that would be on other lists (Reginald Hill for instance) but this is confined to thrillers. It is very Anglo-centric since relatively few American writers worked in the thriller mode until recently.

   As in my previous list of 100 “best” mysteries, an * indicates a film or television adaptation.

         1890’s

Sant of the Secret Service or The Veiled Man [TIE] by William LeQueux
Dr. Nikola by Guy Boothby
The Iron Pirate or The Diamond Ship by Max Pemberton
The Brotherhood of the Seven Kings by L.T. Meade & Robert Eustace
The Prisoner of Zenda * by Anthony Hope

         1900’s-1910’s

El Dorado * by Baroness Orczy
Truxton King a Novel of Graustark by George Barr McCutcheon
The Four Just Men * or Dark Eyes of London * by Edgar Wallace
Phantom of the Opera * by Gaston Leroux
813 or The Countess Cagliostro * by Maurice Leblanc
The Adventures of Jimmie Dale the Gray Seal by Frank L. Packard
The Lone Wolf * by Louis Joseph Vance
The Day The World Ended or The Quest of the Sacred Slipper by Sax Rohmer
The Great Impersonation * or The Wrath To Come by E. Philips Oppenheim
The Riddle of the Sands * by Erskine Childers
The Three Hostages * or A Prince of the Captivity by John Buchan
Anthony Trent Gentleman Adventurer or The Secret of the Silver Car by Wyndham Martin

         1920’s

The Final Count * or Jim Maitland by H. C. McNeile writing as Sapper
The Man With the Club Foot or Mr. Ramosi by Valentine Williams
Ashenden or the British Agent * by W. Somerset Maugham
Blind Corner or Storm Music by Dornford Yates
Chipstead of the Lone Hand or The Curse of Doone by Sydney Horler
Portrait of a Man With Red Hair* by Hugh Walpole
Solomon’s Quest by H. Bedford-Jones writing as Alan Hawkwood
Jimgrim or King of the Khyber Rifles * by Talbot Mundy
The Trail of the Black King by Anthony Armstrong
Death Rides the Forest or Gunston Cotton Secret Agent by Rupert Grayson
Blackshirt by Bruce Graeme
The Murderer Invisible * or Experiment in Crime by Philip Wylie
The Last Hero or The Saint in New York * by Leslie Charteris
The Mystery of the Dead Police (aka X vs Rex) * by Philip MacDonald
The Confidential Agent * or Our Man in Havana * by Graham Greene

         1930’s

The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck by Andrew Laing
The White Python or King Cobra by Mark Channing
The Wheel Spins * by Ethel Lina White
Without Armor * by James Hilton
The Nine Wax Faces by Francis Beeding
The Himalayan Assignment by Van Wyck Mason
A Toast to Tomorrow or Alias Uncle Hugo by Manning Coles
A Coffin for Dimitrios * or Dr. Frigo by Eric Ambler
Mr. Moto is So Sorry or Think Fast Mr. Moto * by John P. Marquand
Murder Chop Chop by James Norman
The Devil Rides Out * by Dennis Wheatley
A Knife for the Toff or Mists of Fear by John Creasey
The Stars Are Dark or Dark Duet by Peter Cheyney
Four Men and a Prayer * by David Garth
The General Died at Dawn * by Charles G. Booth
Bridge of Sand or Brothers of Silence by Frank Gruber
End of the Rug by Richard Llewelyn
Above Suspicion * or Assignment in Brittany* by Helen MacInnes
Most Secret or No Highway * by Nevil Shute
Rogue Male * or Watcher in the Shadows * by Geoffrey Household
Night Without Stars * or Take My Life * by Winston Graham
For The President’s Eyes Only by Richard Sale

         1940’s

Never Come Back * by John B. Mair
Colonel Blessington by Pamela Frankau
The Small Back Room * or Mine Own Executioner * by Nigel Balchin
Game Without Rules or The Long Journey Home by Michael Gilbert
The Megstone Plot (A Touch of Larceny) * by Andrew Garve
Levkas Man * or Doomed Oasis by Hammond Innes
Finger of Saturn or Queen’s Pawn by Victor Canning
The Three Roads by Kenneth Millar
Woman in the Picture by John August
Desperate Moment * by Martha Albrand
Odd Man Out * by F. L. Green
The Conspirators * or Nine Days to Muksala by Frederick Prokosh
Undertow or Deadfall * by Desmond Cory
The Last Quarter Hour or Cold Spell by Jean Bruce
The Sub Killers or Tough Justice by San Antonio
Girl on the Run or Assignment–Lily Lamaris by Edward S. Aarons
Run Mongoose or The Last Clear Chance by Burke Wilkinson
White Eagles Over Serbia by Lawrence Durrell
Cormorant Isle or House of Darkness by Allan MacKinnon

         1950’s

From Russia With Love * or On Her Majesty’s Secret Service * by Ian Fleming
Soldier of Fortune * by Ernest K. Gann
A Sunlit Ambush by Mark Derby
The Fifth Passenger by Edward Young
A Noble Profession by Pierre Boulle
Uhruhu or Something of Value * by Robert Ruark
Murder in Morocco or The Man With No Shadow by Stephen Marlowe
Free Agent by Frederic Wakeman
Dead Men of Sestos or Eye of the Devil * by Philip Loraine
The Breaking Strain by John Masters
Night Walker or Death of a Citizen by Donald Hamilton
The Silk Road or The Red Road by Simon Harvester
The Rose of Tibet or Kolmsky Heights by Lionel Davidson
The Old Dark House of Fear by Russell Kirk
Maneater * or The Buckingham Palace Connection by Ted Willis
The High Road to China * or The Golden Sabre by Jon Cleary
The Achilles Affair or Without Prejudice by Berkeley Mather
The Fever Tree by Richard Mason
Flaw in the Crystal by Godfrey Smith
Ossian’s Ride by Fred Hoyle
The League of Gentlemen * by John Boland
A Captive in the Land by James Aldridge
The Game of X * or Dead Run * by Robert Sheckley
Wildfire at Midnight or Airs Above Ground by Mary Stewart
The White Tower * by James Ramsey Ullman
Third Side of the Coin or The Green Fields of Eden by Francis Clifford
The Expedition or Nine Hours to Rama * by Stanley Wolpert
The Last Mandarin or The Chinese Bandit by Stephen Becker
The Guns of Navarone * or The Satan Bug * by Alistair MacLean
High Wire or The Telemann Touch by William Haggard
Rampage * by Allan Calliou
Kill Claudio by P. M. Hubbard
High Citadel or Running Blind * by Desmond Bagley
Winter’s Madness by David Walker
Flight of the Phoenix * as Elleston Trevor or The Kobra Manifesto as Adam Hall
Midnight Plus One by Gavin Lyall

         1960’s

Season of Assassins by Geoffrey Wagner
River of Diamonds or Hunter Killer by Geoffrey Jenkins
Gibraltar Road or The Man From Moscow by Philip McCutchan
The Manchurian Candidate* by Richard Condon
A Small Town in Germany or Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy * by John Le Carre
Ring of Roses or A Scent of New Mown Hay by John Blackburn
Rather a Vicious Gentleman by Frank McAuliffe
No Road Home by Geoffrey Rose
Village of Stars by Paul Stanton
Red Alert * by Peter George
Seven Days in May * by Fletcher Knebel and Charles Bailey II
Charade * by Peter Stone
Dark of the Sun (aka The Mercenaries and Last Train From Katanga) * by Wilbur Smith
Not Only the Same Sun by John Gordon Davis
Isle of Snakes or The Hoffman Miniatures by Robert L. Fish
False Beards (aka Barbouze) or Holy of Holies by Alan Williams
The Ordeal of Major Grigsby by John Sherlock
A Dandy in Aspic * by Derek Marlowe
The Liquidator * by John Gardner
I, Lucifer or A Taste for Death by Peter O’Donnell
Diecast by Michael Brett
Otley by Martin Waddell
For Kicks or The Edge by Dick Francis
The Wrath of God* as James Graham or East of Desolation as Jack Higgins
Black Camelot by Duncan Kyle
Passport for a Pilgrim (aka Where the Spies Are) * by James Leasor
Sergeant Death by James Mayo
Callan * as James Mitchell or The Man Who Sold Death as James Munro
The Ipcress File * or Funeral in Berlin * by Len Deighton
Spargo by Jack Denton Scott
Murderer’s Burning by S. H. Courtier
Tree Frog or Blue Bone by Martin Wodehouse
The Dolly Dolly Spy by Adam Diment
The Yermakov Transfer as Derek Lambert or Blackstone and the Scourge of Europe as Richard Falkirk
Chinaman’s Chance or The Singapore Wink by Ross Thomas
Assassin by Evelyn Anthony
Deadlight by Archie Roy
Her Cousin John or Crocodile On the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters
Nightclimber by Jon Manchip White
Our Man in Camelot or Colonel Butler’s Wolf by Anthony Price (I’m not sure if one or both of these was adapted for the Terence Stamp David Audley series or not)
The Man From Greek and Roman by James Goldman
Night Probe or Treasure by Clive Cussler
Dolly and the Singing Bird or Dolly and the Starry Bird by Dorothy Dunnett

         1970’s

Stained Glass or Who’s On First? by William F. Buckley
A Flock of Ships by Brian Callison
The Wilby Conspiracy * by Peter Driscoll
The Scarlatti Inheritance or The Bourne Identity * by Robert Ludlum
Tank In Armor or The Heights of Zervos by Colin Forbes
Shibumi by Trevanian (Rod Whitaker)
Vandenberg * by Oliver Lange
The Day of the Dolphin * by Robert Merle
Day of the Jackal* by Frederick Forsyth
The Other Side of Silence by Ted Allbeury
Royal Flash or Flashman at the Charge by George MacDonald Fraser
Heights of Rim Ring by Duff Hart-Davis
Firefox * by Craig Thomas
Madonna Red by James Carroll
Eye of the Needle * or Night Over Water by Ken Follett
The Spy Who Sat and Waited by R. Wright Campbell
The Trans-Siberian Express by Warren Adler
Kiss Me Once as Thomas Maxwell or Assassini as Thomas Gifford
A Flag for Sunrise by Robert Stone
Sisters by Robert Littell
The Better Angels by Charles McCarry
The Sixth Directive by Joseph Hone
Code Name: Grand Guignol by Ib Melchior
Marathon Man by William Goldman
The Man Who Loved Mata Hari by Dan Sherman

         1980’s

November Man by Bill Granger
Metzger’s Dog by Thomas Perry
Daddy by Loup Durand
The Queen’s Messenger by W. L. Duncan
Yellowfish by John Keeble
Who Guards a Prince? as Reginald Hill or The Long Kill as Patrick Ruell
Shipkiller by Justin Scott
The Quest by Richard Ben Sapir
The Names by Don Delillo
The Two Thyrdes by Bertie Denhem
Winner Harris by Iain St. James
In Honour Bound by Gerald Seymour
The Frog and the Moonflower or The Power of the Bug by Ivor Drummond
Red Dragon * by Thomas Harris
The Seventh Sanctuary or Brotherhood of the Tomb by Daniel Easterman
The Eight by Katherine Neville
Embassy House by Nicholas Proffett
Imperial Agent by T. N. Murari
Sharpe’s Gold or Wildtrack by Bernard Cornwell
The Beasts of Valhalla by George Chesbro
Night Soldiers by Alan Furst
The Scorpion by Andrew Kaplan

   I’m sure someone will notice I did not choose a Fu Manchu novel for Sax Rohmer. Much as I like the Devil Doctor, I think the two I chose are among Rohmer’s best thrillers and better than any individual Fu Manchu titles. However if forced to pick a Fu Manchu I suspect The Masks of Fu Manchu and Daughter of Fu Manchu would be my choices.

   And just for arguments sake, here is a quick list of supernatural, lost world, and science fiction thrillers that only just miss the list:

Dracula * by Bram Stoker
The Beetle by Richard Marsh
The Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Marching Sands by Harold Lamb
The Flying Legion by George Allan England
Seven Footprints to Satan * and Creep Shadow * by A. Merritt
The Ghoul * by Frank King
The Aerodrome by Rex Warner
Ninth Life by Jack Mann
Undying Monster * by Jessie Douglas Keruish
The Ka of Gifford Hillary or The Star of Ill Omen by Dennis Wheatley
The Edge of Running Water * by William Sloane
Dark Freehold (aka The Uninvited) * by Dorothy MacArdle
Conjure Wife * by Fritz Leiber
Darker Than You Think by Jack Williamson
Sinister Barrier by Eric Frank Russell
Heroes Walk by Robert Crane
The Haunting of Hill House * by Shirley Jackson
Beyond Eden by David Duncan
The Main Experiment by Christopher Hodder-Williams
A is For Andromeda* or Andromeda Breakthrough* by Fred Hoyle and John Elliott
Fire Past the Future by Charles Eric Maine
The Man With Two Shadows by Roderick Macleish
The Other * by Tom Tryon
Salem’s Lot * by Stephen King
Lord of the Trees by Philip Jose Farmer
Neither the Sea Nor the Sand * by Gordon Honeycombe
Catholics * by Brian Moore
Somewhere in Time * or Hell House * by Richard Matheson
Running Wild by J. G. Ballard
The Further Adventures of Captain Gregory Dangerfield by Jeremy Lloyd
Runes by Christopher Fowler
Mutant 59 the Plastic Eaters * by Kit Pedler & Gerry Davis
The Andromeda Strain * by Michael Crichton

   Finally, honorable mention who did not make the list with a single book, but who deserve credit: George Goodchild, Hugh Cleverly, Berkeley Gray, Edmund Snell, Captain A. O. Pollard, Gerard Fairlie, Ernest Dudley, L. F. Hay, Francis Gerard, Richie Perry, John Newton Chance, Francis Durbridge, William Diehl, William Martin, Phyllis Whitney, Kenneth Royce, George B. Mair, Achmed Abdullah, A. E. Apple, Walter Wager, William Stevenson, Eric Van Lustbader, David Morrell, R. Vernon Beste, Nicholas Luard, Norman Lewis, David Gurr, A.W. Mykel, Michael Malone, David Lindsey, Dan Simmons, Hans Helmut Kirst, Lindsay Hardy, Alan Dipper, Marvin Albert, Ken Crossen, and too many others to list.

   Plus as a small army of writers whose work has appeared since my cut off date of 1990, including James Rollins, Jack Du Brul, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Barry Eisler, Neal Stephenson, Matt Reilly, Anthony Horowitz, Boris Akunin, and many more.

   This list follows (or precedes) my list of “50 Favorite Golden Age Generation British Detective Novels,” which you may find here. This list consists of more worthy British works of detection, both novels and short story collections, but with the additional restriction that the books that follow all came from the 1920s. One may notice that, once again, men predominate, in this case accounting for 75% of the books.

   The top authors, accounting for 70% of the books, are: Freeman Wills Crofts (5), R. Austin Freeman (4), John Rhode (4), Agatha Christie (3), Dorothy L. Sayers (2), G.D.H and Margaret Cole (2), Gladys Mitchell (2), J.J. Connington (2) and Henry Wade (2).

   Looking overall at the Twenties, 43% of the books come from just two years, 1928 and 1929, suggesting that the genre was improving as the decade wore on and was heading into its most golden years yet, those of the 1930s.

         NOVELS (36)

   Omissions include Herbert Adams, Lynn Brock, A. Fielding, Ronald Knox and Philip Macdonald; but I am not crazy about Brock, I have not read enough Adams, and I believe the other three did much better work in the next decade.

1. Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920)
   A fine country house mystery that gave the world Hercule Poirot. A bit old-fashioned, but all in all one of the strongest debuts in the literature.

2. Freeman Wills Crofts, The Cask (1920)
   Another significant debut, for its apotheosis of alibi-busting and astonishing devotion to material detail. Over- long, as the author himself admitted, but one that should be read.

3. Eden Phillpotts, The Grey Room (1921)
   Unfairly dismissed by Julian Symons, this tale is an appealing take on the haunted room theme. Though it exhibits the venerable author’s penchant for philosophical digressions (which became even more pronounced as he aged), it is shorter than many of his works — and is none the worse for that.

4. A.A. Milne, The Red House Mystery (1922)
   Infamously dismantled by Raymond Chandler, this charming tale is still enjoyable even if one concedes logical faults in the plot structure.

5. Edgar Wallace, The Crimson Circle (1922)
   A deservedly once-celebrated tale by the British Golden Age King of the Thriller. This one allows scope for deduction by the reader and clearly influenced the genre.

6. R. Austin Freeman, The Cat’s Eye (1923)
   Another thrillerish tale, but still one with plenty of ratiocination by the author’s Great Detective, Dr. Thorndyke.

7. Dorothy L. Sayers, Whose Body? (1923)
   Another fine debut. Some may find Great Detective Lord Peter Wimsey too facetious, but the tale is very clever, with a memorable culprit.

8. Freeman Wills Crofts, Inspector French’s Greatest Case (1924)
   The debut of Inspector French sees the author moving away from dependence on alibis, but still prolific with clever devices of deception. Too much travelogue and dialect speech, but still a good case.

9. A. E. W. Mason, The House of the Arrow (1924)
   A major work by an author who contributed only sparingly to mystery. Beautifully written.

10. G. D. H. and Margaret Cole, The Death of a Millionaire (1925)
   While flawed in some ways, this tale demonstrates that British Golden Age mystery could be used as a vehicle for leftist-tinged satire.

11. R. Austin Freeman, The Shadow of the Wolf (1925)
   Freeman’s most famous inverted mysteries are the tales collected in The Singing Bone and the 1930s novel Mr. Pottermack’s Oversight, but this inverted tale, an expansion of an earlier version, is very good indeed.

12. Anthony Wynne, The Mystery of the Evil Eye (1925)
   The debut of Great Detective Dr. Hailey, who later revealed a marked penchant for locked room problems. No such problem here, but another noteworthy debut.

13. Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
   Brilliant; one of the landmarks of the genre, probably the archetypal twenties detective novel, wrongly or rightly.

14. G. D. H. and Margaret Cole, The Blatchington Tangle (1926)
   A humorous country house tale, but with more detection than we get in, say, Agatha Christie’s similar (and better- known) The Secret of Chimneys (which was published the previous year).

15. John Rhode, Dr. Priestley’s Quest (1926)
   The author’s second Dr. Priestly tale, but more striking than the first in its impressively rigorous application of the principles of logical deduction.

16. J. J. Connington, Murder in the Maze (1927)
   In some ways repellent in attitude, yet inspired in its central notion (multiple slayings in one of those country house garden hedge mazes) and told with verve.

17. Freeman Wills Crofts, Inspector French and the Starvel Tragedy (1927)
   One of the great original uses of burned bodies, even if laborious at times in the telling.

18. Dorothy L. Sayers, Unnatural Death (1927)
   Offers a notably celebrated how? problem and an interesting why? one, plus some amusing writing and a very well-observed spinster.

19. Victor L. Whitechurch, The Crime at Diana’s Pool (1927)
   Archetypal country house, village tale. Drawn mildly, but pleasantly (thanks David!).

20. Freeman Wills Crofts, The Sea Mystery (1928)
   One of the author’s shorter works and none the worse for that. Some very clever devices, and characters less stodgy than usual. It should have been called The Crate, however.

21. Anthony Gilbert, The Murder of Mrs. Davenport (1928)
   One of the early detective novels by a prolific author who was more comfortable, in my opinion, with mystery than true detection. But this is one of her best efforts at true detection.

22. Robert Gore-Browne, Murder of an M. P.! (1928)
   One of two mysteries by a forgotten playwright and mainstream novelist. The second, a thriller, is much inferior in my view. The first, praised in A Catalogue of Crime, is a clever tale with a memorable amateur detective.

23. R. Austin Freeman, As a Thief in the Night (1928)
   An impressive achievment. Though somewhat old-fashioned in tone, the novel boasts good characterization, suspense and fascinating science.

24. John Rhode, The Murders in Praed Street (1928)
   Notable use of a particular plot gambit involving multiple murders (the first?). Good opening setting, some good characters and fiendish murders, though Dr. Priestley, Rhode’s Great Detective, is a bit imperceptive on one matter!

25. Henry Wade, This Missing Partners (1928)
   Second genre effort by one of the major figures of the period. More “Croftsian” than later works, but with interesting and original characterization.

26. Agatha Christie, The Seven Dials Mystery (1929)
   The Crime Queen’s take on an Edgar Wallace thriller, but with all the detection of her straight detective novels. Some good humor as well.

27. Freeman Wills Crofts, The Box Office Murders (1929)
   Another thriller with detection. We know who the criminals are, but just what they are up to is an interesting question.

28. J. J. Connington, The Case with Nine Solutions (1929)
   The Case with Nine Possibilities might have been a more accurate title, but this is a strong work, with an interesting situation and even detective case notes at the end!

29. C. H .B. Kitchin, Death of My Aunt (1929)
   Once celebrated (and still fairly well-remembered) detective novel by a mainstream novelist successfully aiming here at a more realistic treatment of character in a genre novel.

30. & 31. Gladys Mitchell, Speedy Death (1929), The Mystery of a Butcher’s Shop (1929)
   An impressive one-two debut punch by a truly unique mystery writer. The first, a country house tale, is original in myriad ways. So is the second, though for many it may be too farcical and bizarre. Both have Mrs. Bradley, one of the great women detectives.

32. E. R. Punshon, The Unexpected Legacy (1928)
   First of five Inspector Carter and Sergeant Bell mysteries by a longtime mainstream novelist who had written mystery before but not really detection. There is detection here, though the author would produce better examples of it later. What appeals most are his two police detectives, who are very original for the period.

33. & 34. John Rhode, The Davidson Case (1929), The House on Tollard Ridge (1929)
   The first novel boasts one of the most complex plots of the decade, the second pleasingly adult characters, a spooky house and some neat gadgets. Both have the acerbic Dr. Priestley.

35. P[eter] R[edcliffe] Shore, The Bolt (1929)
   A strong village take by an author about whom I know absolutely nothing beyond the name and that he was born in 1892, ostensibly. He published a second mystery, The Death Film, in 1932. Of this later book a review states: “It consists of detection, and more detection, and then some, and it was all needed. Straight investigation of crooked involution can hardly be better done.” Apparently it involves murder at the cinema, but I have never seen a copy of it.

36. Henry Wade, The Duke of York’s Steps (1929)
   Another notable work of detection by this author, with better-than-average characterization and writing.

         SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS (4)

   Omissions here include collections by Christie, the Coles, and Sayers, as well as one by the Grand Old Man himself, Arthur Conan Doyle. I believe the four collections below are superior, coming from supreme masters of the short form who were still at the top of their games.

37. Ernest Bramah, The Eyes of Max Carrados (1923)

38. H. C. Bailey, Mr. Fortune’s Trials (1925)

39. G. K. Chesterton, The Incredulity of Father Brown (1926)

40. R. Austin Freeman, The Magic Casket (1927)

   These are from the gray dawn of the origins of the genre up to 1913. Short story collections are included and a few novels that are only related (but closely) to the genre. They appear here in approximate chronological order, but not strictly so. Some books by an author are listed together even though they were published later.

   My rule on these was simple. They had to fit within the dates and I had to have read them. The end date of 1913 marks the publication of Trent’s Last Case by E. C. Bentley, recognized as the beginning of the Golden Age. A few toward the end were not published in book form until after Bentley, but had been serialized before and so fit in the pre-Golden Age category.

   Historians of the genre will note that Dickens was not writing detective stories and I agree, but many of these early books are direct progenitors of the detective novel as we know it and in their handling of crime and criminals important to the genre.

●   Captain Singleton by Daniel Defoe (the memoirs of a privateer, mostly the imagination of Defoe)

●   The Newgate Calendar by Anonymous (romanticized accounts of the likes of Dick Turpin, George Barrington, and Jonathan Wild)

●   Jonathan Wild by Henry Fielding (while the novel is satirical it could almost be a playbook for the career of Vidoq)

●   Caleb Williams by William Godwin (the first crime novel — and still a rousing tale of chase and pursuit as well as an early social reform novel)

●   The Romance of the Forest by Mrs. Radcliffe (many of the Gothic trappings used by the genre later on and all the supernatural is rationally — if not always logically — explained)

●   The Tales of Hoffman by E. T. A. Hoffman (he may actually predate Poe with the first detective story)

●   Rookwood by Hugh Ainsworth (most notable for the long section of the novel known as Dick Turpin’s Ride, a forerunner of Raffles, the Saint, and the gentlemen crooks)

●   The Bride of Lammermoor by Sir Walter Scott (a fictional account of an actual murder with some Gothic trappings, one of Scott’s Tales of the Landlord series)

●   Wieland by Charles Brockden-Brown

●   Confessions of an Unjustified Sinner by James Hogg (both this and Wieland are examples of the foundations of the psychological crime novel)

●   The Spy by James Fenimore Cooper (the story of one of Washington’s agents during the American Revolution)

●   The Memoirs of Vidoq by Eugene Francois Vidoq (non-fiction, more-or-less about the thief turned detective who gave us Dupin, Vautrin, Jean Valjean, Lecoq, and Sherlock Holmes as well as the modern police force as we know it — and the origin of ‘cherchez la femme’)

●   Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe (no comment needed)

●   The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

●   Memoirs of a Bow Street Runner by Richardson (again non-fiction, more-or-less)

●   Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (Fagin an early model for the criminal mastermind)

●   A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (international intrigue)

●   Bleak House by Charles Dickens (Inspector Bucket)

●   The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens

●   The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (the first and still one of the best detective novels)

●   The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (Collins’ best book and with the wonderful villainy of Count Fosco)

●   Armadale by Wilkie Collins

●   No Hero by Wilkie Collins

●   John Devil by Paul Feval pere (the first Scotland Yard detective in Gregory Temple and an early prototype for Moriarity)

●   The Black Coats by Paul Feval pere (an early novel of organized crime)

●   The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas pere (all the mystery men in literature owe a debt to Edmund Dantes)

●   The Horror at Fontenay by Alexandre Dumas pere

●   The Mysteries of Paris by Eugene Sue (a huge crime novel by the Dickens of Paris)

●   The Wandering Jew by Eugene Sue (the use of a Tontine as a plot device and an early use of the reading of the will for dramatic purpose)

●   Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (politics, crime, injustice, Jean Valjean — yet another Vidoq figure — and the implacable Javert)

●   The History of the Thirteen by Honore de Balzac (Vidoq yet again, here as Vautrin)

●   Monsieur Lecoq by Emile Gabiorou (Gabiorou was Feval’s secretary and took the name of his hero from one of Feval’s villains — Lecoq is the most important figure between Dupin and Holmes)

●   Uncle Silas by J. Sheridan Le Fanu (still one of the seminal books in the genre)

●   Wylder’s Hand by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

●   The Leavenworth Case by Anna Katherine Greene (one of the classics and likely her best)

●   The Trail of the Serpent by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (splendid nonsense recently republished in a trade paperback edition with extensive notes and introduction)

●   Mystery of a Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume (helped to make the cab of the title the symbol of Victorian London — even though Hume is a colonial and a terrible writer)

●   The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (most editions also include “Pavilion on the Links” and “The Sire De Maltroit’s Door,” both seminal to the genre)

●   The New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson (virtually at the birth of the genre Stevenson is already poking fun at it)

●   The Wrong Box by Robert Louis Stevenson & Lloyd Osborne (humorous use of the Tontine plot beloved by the Victorians)

●   The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (again, no comment needed)

●   The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

●   The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

●   The Big Bow Mystery by Israel Zangwill (an early and great locked room)

●   The Chronicles of Martin Hewitt by Arthur Morrison (the first reaction against the colorful detective as represented by Holmes, and good in their own right)

●   The Hole in the Wall by Arthur Morrison (a fine crime novel worthy of Dickens or Stevenson)

●   As a Thief in the Night by E.W. Hornung (the first Raffles collection)

●   The Experiences of Loveday Brooke: Lady Detective by C. L. Pirkis (early female sleuth — if not the first — written by a woman)

●   The Shooting Party by Anton Chekov (Chekov’s only novel and it’s a murder mystery)

●   Hilda Wade by Grant Allen (completed by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, an exceptional mystery of the chase and pursuit kind)

●   Pudd’nhead Wilson by Mark Twain (if not a detective story, good use of detectival skills)

●   The Old Man in the Corner by Baroness Orczy (still the best of the armchair sleuths and the final story still has a kick)

●   The Man in Gray by Baroness Orczy (an early example of the historical mystery)

●   Secrets of the Foreign Office by William Le Queux (spy stories featuring Duckworth Drew — fun in the right mood)

●   The Count’s Chauffeur by William LeQueux (an early and influential use of the automobile in crime fiction)

●   The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton (first and best of the paradoxical priest)

●   The Secrets of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton (ironically these were written almost twenty years before Chesterton became a Catholic in 1922)

●   The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton (the detective novel as parable and allegory)

●   My Adventure on the Flying Scotsman by Eden Phillipotts ( a novella really — Phillipotts is important both on his own — The Red Redmaynes — and because he encouraged young Agatha Christie to keep writing)

●   The Passenger From Scotland Yard by Henry Wood (murder, smuggling, and trains)

●   The Great Tontine by Hawley Smart (one of the best of uses of the Tontine plot)     [1]

●   The Rome Express by Major Arthur Griffith (this helped to popularize the idea of intrigue on a train)     [1]

●   Mr. Meeson’s Will by H. Rider Haggard (a mix of adventure story and trial novel with a somewhat racy finale)

●   The Red Thumb Mark by R. Austin Freeman (no sooner had fingerprints been accepted as evidence in court than Freeman proved they could be forged — not unlike the detective work that would break the real Sir Harry Oakes case in 1943 in the Bahamas)

●   The Singing Bone by R. Austin Freeman (the invention of the inverted detective story, the most important innovation since Holmes)

●   John Silence by Algernon Blackwood (the finest of the psychic detectives, everyone a classic — you may never look at cats or French villages the same again)

●   November Joe by Hesketh Prichard (fine tec tales of a Canadian half-breed trapper)

●   The Eyes of Max Carrados by Ernest Bramah (Carrados is a bit of a superman, but these are still great reading)

●   The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope (prototype for a thousand books of international intrigue to come)

●   The Brotherhood of the Seven Kings by L.T. Meade & Robert Eustace (an international criminal conspiracy not unlike those so popular today)

●   The Exploits of Valmont by Robert Barr (highly entertaining stories and an early forerunner of Poirot)

●   The Gentle Grafter by O. Henry (clever stories about charming con man Jeff Peters)

●   The Beetle by Richard Marsh (a mix of horror and detective story, in many ways second only to Dracula for genuine chills)     [1]

●   Dr. Nikola by Guy Boothby (the Italian Peril and great fun, Nikola one of the great villains in the literature)

●   The London Adventures of Mr. Collin by Frank Heller (Philip ‘Flip’ Collin is the Danish Raffles)

●   Carnaki, Ghost Finder by William Hope Hodgson (supernatural sleuth and some real chills)

●   The Thinking Machine by Jacques Futrelle (Futrelle of course perished on the Titanic, but luckily there are two good collections of this series)

●   Cleek, the Man With Forty Faces by Thomas Hanshew ( a great favorite of John Dickson Carr with an penchant for impossible crimes almost as impossible as the hero, but fun in the right mood and who can resist a Scotland Yard man named Maverick Narcom?)

●   The Man in Lower 10 by Mary Roberts Rinehart (this was serialized before The Circular Staircase was published — my own choice as her best)

●   Kim by Rudyard Kipling (granddaddy of the Great Game)

●   In the Fog by Richard Harding Davis (too little read today, a splendid little book, and be sure to get the edition with the color plates by Frederic Dorr Steele)     [1]

●   At the Villa Rose by A. E. W. Mason (without Hanaud there is no Poirot)

●   The Exploits of Arsene Lupin by Maurice Leblanc (the French Raffles and in much of the world a rival to Holmes himself)

●   813 by Maurice Leblanc (Lupin’s greatest case in which is client is the Kaiser)

●   The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux (one of the great locked room tales of all time)

●   The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

●   Stories of the Railroad by Victor L. Whitechurch (these tales of Thorpe Hazel are some of the best short detective stories of their era)

●   Uncle Abner: Master of Mysteries by Melville Davidson Post (the finest collection of American detective stories since Poe)

●   The Strange Schemes of Randolph Mason by Melville Davidson Post (Perry’s last name is no coincidence)

●   Ashton Kirk Investigator by John McIntyre (McIntyre went on to become a serious novelist about gangsters; A-K also features in Ashton Kirk Secret Agent and others)

●   Prince Zaleski by M. P. Shiel (the last gasp of the Decadent era — unique is plot and execution)

●   The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad (the first serious novel about terrorism)

●   The Four Just Men by Edgar Wallace (the birth of the modern thriller)

●   The Romance of Terence O’Rourke, Gentleman Adventurer by Louis Joseph Vance

●   The Lone Wolf by Louis Joseph Vance (Vance’s Michael Lanyard would become the standard for most the gentleman crooks to come, and his adventures are still worth reading)

●   The Achievements of Luther Trant by Edwin Balmer & William McHarg (perhaps the first psychological sleuth)

●   The Power House by John Buchan (Graham Greene calls it the first modern spy novel)

●   The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer (say what you will — I love it — one of the most influential books in the genre — Racist? Yes, the Anglo-Saxons are all idiots as S. J. Perlman pointed out)

●   The Silent Bullet by Arthur B. Reeve (the introduction of Craig Kennedy the Scientific Detective, dated, but these stories show some energy)

●   The Great Impersonation by E. Phillips Oppenheim (the last of the great Edwardian spy novels, within the next year both The Thirty Nine Steps and Riddle of the Sands would leave if forever behind)

●   The Lodger by Mrs. Belloc Lowdnes (the classic novel of Jack the Ripper)

●   Fantomas by Marcel Allain & Pierre Souvestre (the newspaper serialization barely squeezes in — the surreal criminal Fantomas is unique in the genre)

[1]   The Great Tontine by Hawley Smart, The Rome Express by Major Arthur Griffith, In the Fog by Richard Harding Davis, and The Beetle by Richard Marsh, are all collected in one volume as Victorian Villainies edited by Graham and Hugh Greene

   These are all real detective stories: tales in which a mystery is solved by a detective. Real detective fiction tends to go invisible in modern society, in which many people prefer crime fiction without mystery.

   The list is in chronological order but unfortunately omits many major short story writers: G. K. Chesterton, Jacques Futrelle, H. C. Bailey, Edward D. Hoch, and other greats.

Émile Gaboriau, Le Crime d’Orcival (1866)
Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone (1868)
Israel Zangwill, The Big Bow Mystery (1891)
Anna Katherine Green, The Circular Study (1900)
Edgar Wallace, The Four Just Men (1905)
Cleveland Moffett, Through the Wall (1909)
John T. McIntyre, Ashton-Kirk, Investigator (1910)
R. Austin Freeman, The Eye of Osiris (1911)
E. C. Bentley, Trent’s Last Case (1913)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Valley of Fear (1914)
Clinton H. Stagg, Silver Sandals (1914)
Johnston McCulley, Who Killed William Drew? (1917)
Octavus Roy Cohen, Six Seconds of Darkness (1918)
Mary Roberts Rinehart & Avery Hopwood, The Bat (1920)
Donald McGibeny, 32 Caliber (1920)
Carolyn Wells, Raspberry Jam (1920)
Freeman Wills Crofts, The Cask (1920)
A. A. Milne, The Red House Mystery (1922)
G. D. H. Cole, The Brooklyn Murders (1923)
Carroll John Daly, The Snarl of the Beast (1927)
Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest (1927)
Horatio Winslow and Leslie Quirk, Into Thin Air (1929)
Samuel Spewack, Murder in the Gilded Cage (1929)
Thomas Kindon, Murder in the Moor (1929)
Mignon G. Eberhart, While the Patient Slept (1930)
Victor L. Whitechurch, Murder at the College / Murder at Exbridge (1932)
Ellery Queen, The Greek Coffin Mystery (1932)
Anthony Abbot, About the Murder of the Circus Queen (1932)
S. S. Van Dine, The Dragon Murder Case (1933)
Helen Reilly, McKee of Centre Street (1933)
Dermot Morrah, The Mummy Case (1933)
Dorothy L. Sayers, The Nine Tailors (1934)
Milton M. Propper, The Divorce Court Murder (1934)
John Dickson Carr, The Three Coffins / The Hollow Man (1935)
Georgette Heyer, Merely Murder / Death in the Stocks (1935)
David Frome, Mr. Pinkerton Has the Clue (1936)
Nigel Morland, The Case of the Rusted Room (1937)
Cyril Hare, Tenant for Death (1937)
Baynard Kendrick, The Whistling Hangman (1937)
Ngaio Marsh, Death in a White Tie (1938)
R. A. J. Walling, The Corpse With the Blue Cravat / The Coroner Doubts
(1938)
Dorothy Cameron Disney, Strawstacks / The Strawstack Murders (1938-1939)
Rex Stout, Some Buried Caesar (1938-1939)
Rufus King, Murder Masks Miami (1939)
Theodora Du Bois, Death Dines Out (1939)
Erle Stanley Gardner, The D.A. Draws a Circle (1939)
Agatha Christie, One Two, Buckle My Shoe / An Overdose of Death (1940)
J. J. Connington, The Four Defences (1940)
Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely (1940)
Frank Gruber, The Laughing Fox (1940)
Anthony Boucher, The Case of the Solid Key (1941)
Stuart Palmer, The Puzzle of the Happy Hooligan (1941)
Kelley Roos, The Frightened Stiff (1942)
Cornell Woolrich, Phantom Lady (1942)
Frances K. Judd, The Mansion of Secrets (1942)
Helen McCloy, The Goblin Market (1943)
Anne Nash, Said With Flowers (1943)
Mabel Seeley, Eleven Came Back (1943)
Norbert Davis, The Mouse in the Mountain (1943)
Robert Reeves, Cellini Smith: Detective (1943)
Hake Talbot, The Rim of the Pit (1944)
John Rhode, The Shadow on the Cliff / The Four-Ply Yarn (1944)
Allan Vaughan Elston & Maurice Beam, Murder by Mandate (1945)
Walter Gibson, Crime Over Casco (1946)
George Harmon Coxe, The Hollow Needle (1948)
Wade Miller, Fatal Step (1948)
Alan Green, What a Body! (1949)
Hal Clement, Needle (1949)
Bruno Fischer, The Angels Fell (1950)
Jack Iams, What Rhymes With Murder? (1950)
Richard Starnes, The Other Body in Grant’s Tomb (1951)
Richard Ellington, Exit for a Dame (1951)
Lawrence G. Blochman, Recipe For Homicide (1952)
Day Keene, Wake Up to Murder (1952)
Isaac Asimov, The Caves of Steel (1953)
Henry Winterfeld, Caius ist ein Dummkopf / Detectives in Togas (1953)
Craig Rice, My Kingdom For a Hearse (1956)
Frances and Richard Lockridge, Voyage into Violence (1956)
Harold Q. Masur, Tall, Dark and Deadly (1956)
James Warren, The Disappearing Corpse (1957)
Seicho Matsumoto, Ten to sen (Point and Lines) (1957)
Michael Avallone, The Crazy Mixed-Up Corpse (1957)
Ed Lacy, Shakedown for Murder (1958)
Lenore Glen Offord, Walking Shadow (1959)
Allen Richards, To Market, To Market (1961)
Christopher Bush, The Case of the Good Employer (1966)
Randall Garrett, Too Many Magicians (1967)
Michael Collins, A Dark Power (1968)
Merle Constiner, The Four from Gila Bend (1968)
Bill Pronzini, Undercurrent (1973)
Nicholas Meyer, The West End Horror (1976)
Thomas Chastain, Vital Statistics (1977)
William L. DeAndrea, Killed in the Ratings (1978)
Clifford B. Hicks, Alvin Fernald, TV Anchorman (1980)
Donald J. Sobol, Angie’s First Case (1981)
Kyotaro Nishimura, Misuteri ressha ga kieta (The Mystery Train
Disappears) (1982)
K. K. Beck, Murder in a Mummy Case (1986)
Jon L. Breen, Touch of the Past (1988)
Stephen Paul Cohen, Island of Steel (1988)
Earl W. Emerson, Black Hearts and Slow Dancing (1988)

Editorial Comment: This will do it for today, but I do have one more list to post. David Vineyard sent it to me this morning. It’s a followup to his previous list, consisting of what he calls “100 Important Books From Before the Golden Age.” The cutoff date for these is 1913, which is where his earlier list began. While not all of the books on this new list may be crime fiction, they’re all important to the field. Look for it soon!

   Qualifications are the writers had to publish their first true detective novel between 1920 and 1941 (the true Golden Age) and be British or close enough (Carr). So writers like, say, R. Austin Freeman, Michael Gilbert and S. S. Van Dine get excluded.

   I wanted to get outside the box a bit and so I’m sure I made what will strike some as some odd choices. This is a personal list. If I were making a totally representative list John Dickson Carr’s The Three Coffins, Nicholas Blake’s The Beast Must Die, Michael Innes’ Lament for a Maker, Anthony Berkeley’s The Poisoned Chocolates Case, Sayers’ Gaudy Night, etc., would all be there). And lists evolve over time. It’s highly likely, for example, that as I read more of Anthony Wynne and David Hume, for example, they would get more listings.

   Also I excluded great novels like And Then There Were None, The Burning Court and Trial and Error, for example, because I felt like they didn’t fully fit the definition of true detective novels. In any list list I would make of great mysteries, they would be there.

   If people conclude from this list that my five favorite Golden Age generation British detective novelists are Christie, Street, Mitchell, Carr and Bruce, that would be fair enough, though I must add that they were very prolific writers, so more listings shouldn’t be so surprising.

   The 150 novels break down by decade as follows:

       1920s 9 (6%)
       1930s 87 (58%)
       1940s 30 (20%)
       1950s and beyond 24 (16%)

   A pretty graphic indicator of my preference for the 1930s!

   Also, of the 61 writers, I believe 40 are men and 21 women — I hope my count is right! — which challenges the conventional view today that most British detective novels of the Golden Age were produced by women. Of these, 31, or just over half, eventually became members of the Detection Club. I exclude a few of these luminaries, such as Ronald Knox and Victor Whitechurch (am I anti-clerical?!).

   JOHN DICKSON CARR (8)
The Crooked Hinge (1938)
The Judas Window (1938) (as Carter Dickson)
The Reader Is Warned (1939) (as Carter Dickson)
The Man Who Could Not Shudder (1940)
The Case of the Constant Suicides (1941)
The Gilded Man (1942) (as Carter Dickson)
She Died a Lady (1944) (as Carter Dickson)
He Who Whispers (1946)
   â— It’s probably sacrilege not to have The Three Coffins on the list (especially when you have The Gilded Man!), but when I read Coffins I enjoyed it for the horror more than the locked room, which seemed overcomplicated too me (need to reread though).

   AGATHA CHRISTIE (8)
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd 1926
Murder at the Vicarage 1930
The ABC Murders 1936
Death on the Nile 1937
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe 1940
Five Little Pigs 1942
A Murder Is Announced 1950
The Pale Horse 1961
   â— Haven’t reread The ABC Murders recently; was somewhat disappointed with Murder on the Orient Express when rereading and thus excluded from the list. And Then There Were None regretfully excluded, because I wasn’t sure it really qualifies as a detective story (there’s not really a detective and the solution comes per accidens).

   GLADYS MITCHELL (8)
Speedy Death (1929)
The Mystery of a Butcher’s Shop (1929)
The Saltmarsh Murders (1932)
Death at the Opera (1934)
The Devil at Saxon Wall (1935)
St. Peter’s Finger (1938)
The Rising of the Moon (1944)
Late, Late in the Evening (1976)
   â— A true original, but not to everyone’s taste.

   JOHN RHODE (MAJOR CECIL JOHN CHARLES STREET) (8)
The Davidson Case (1929)
Shot at Dawn (1934)
The Corpse in the Car (1935)
Death on the Board (1937)
The Bloody Tower (1938)
Death at the Helm (1941)
Murder, M.D. (1943) (as Miles Burton)
Vegetable Duck (1944)
   â— The Golden Age master of murder means, underrated in my view.

   LEO BRUCE (8)
Case for Three Detectives (1936)
Case with Ropes and Rings (1940)
Case for Sergeant Beef (1947)
Our Jubilee is Death (1959)
Furious Old Women (1960)
A Bone and a Hank of Hair (1961)
Nothing Like Blood (1962)
Death at Hallows End (1965)
   â— In print but underappreciated, he carried on the Golden Age witty puzzle tradition in a tarnishing era for puzzle lovers.

   J. J. CONNINGTON (5)
The Case With Nine Solutions (1929)
The Sweepstake Murders (1935)
The Castleford Conundrum (1932)
The Ha-Ha Case (1934)
In Whose Dim Shadow (1935)
   â— An accomplished, knowledgeable puzzler.

   E.C.R. LORAC (EDITH CAROLINE RIVETT) (5)
Death of An Author (1935)
Policemen in the Precinct (1949)
Murder of a Martinet (1951)
Murder in the Mill-Race (1952)
The Double Turn (1956) (as Carol Carnac)
   â— Has taken a back seat to the Crime Queens, but was very prolific and often quite good (my favorites, as can be seen, are more from the 1950s, when she became a little less convention bound).

   E. R. PUNSHON (5)
Genius in Murder (1932)
Crossword Mystery (1934)
Mystery of Mr. Jessop (1937)
Ten Star Clues (1941)
Diabolic Candelabra (1942)
   â— Admired by Sayers, this longtime professional writer (he published novels for over half a century) is underservingly out of print.

   MARGERY ALLINGHAM (4)
Death of a Ghost (1934)
The Case of the Late Pig (1937)
Dancers in Mourning (1937)
More Work for the Undertaker (1949)
   â— Her imagination tends to overflow the banks of pure detection, but these are very good, genuine puzzles.

G. D. H. and MARGARET COLE (4)
Burglars in Bucks (1930)
The Brothers Sackville (1936)
Disgrace to the College (1937)
Counterpoint Murder (1940)
   â— Clever tales by husband and wife academics not altogether justly classified as “Humdrums.”

   FREEMAN WILLS CROFTS (4)
The Sea Mystery (1928)
Sir John Magill’s Last Journey (1930)
The Hog’s Back Mystery (1933)
Mystery on Southampton Water (1934)
   â— The “Alibi King,” he’s more paid lip service (particularly for genre milestone The Cask) than actually read today, but at his best he is is worth reading for puzzle fans.

   NGAIO MARSH (4)
Artists in Crime (1938)
Seath in a White Tie (1938)
Surfeit of Lampreys (1940)
Opening Night (1951)
   â— Art, society and theater all appealingly addressed by a very witty writer, with genuine detection included.

   DOROTHY L. SAYERS (4)
Strong Poison (1930)
The Five Red Herrings (1931)
Have His Carcase (1932)
Murder Must Advertise (1933)
   â— As can be guessed I prefer middle period Sayers — less facetious than earlier books, but also less self-important than later ones.

   HENRY WADE (4)
The Dying Alderman (1930)
No Friendly Drop (1931)
Lonely Magdalen (1940)
A Dying Fall (1955)
   â— Very underrated writer — some other good works (Mist on the Saltings, Heir Presumptive) were left out because they are more crime novels.

   JOSEPHINE BELL (3)
Murder in Hospital (1937)
From Natural Causes (1939)
Death in Retirement (1956)
   â— Far less known than the Crime Queens, but a worthy if inconsistent author.

   NICHOLAS BLAKE (3)
A Question of Proof (1935)
Thou Shell of Death (1936)
Minute for Murder (1949)
   â— His most important book in genre history is The Beast Must Die, but I prefer these as puzzles.

   CHRISTIANNA BRAND (3)
Death in High Heels (1941)
Green for Danger (1945)
Tour de Force (1955)
   â— One of the few who can match Christie in the capacity to surprise while playing fair.

   JOANNA CANNAN (3)
They Rang Up the Police (1939)
Murder Included (1950)
And Be a Villain (1958)
   â— Underrated mainstream novelist who dabbled in detection.

   BELTON COBB (3)
The Poisoner’s Mistake (1936)
Quickly Dead (1937)
Like a Guilty Thing (1938)
   â— Almost forgotten, but an enjoyable, humanist detective novelist (B. C. worked in the publishing industry and was the son of novelist Thomas Cobb, who also wrote mysteries)

   JEFFERSON FARJEON (3)
Thirteen Guests (1938)
The Judge Sums Up (1942)
The Double Crime (1953)
   â— A member of the famous and talented Farjeon family (both his father Benjamin and sister Eleanor were notable writers), he wrote mostly thrillers but produced some more genuine detection.

   ELIZABETH FERRARS (3)
Give a Corpse a Bad Name (1940)
Neck in a Noose (1942)
Enough to Kill a Horse (1955)
   â— Came in at the tail-end of the Golden Age, like Brand, though she was more prolific (and not as good). She started with an appealing Lord Peter Wimsey knock-off (Toby Dyke), but eventually helped found the more middle class and modern “country cottage” mystery (downsized from the country house).

   CYRIL HARE (3)
When the Wind Blows (1949)
An English Murder (1951)
That Yew Trees Shade (1954)
   â— Another one who came in near the end of the Golden Age proper, his best is considered to be Tragedy at Law (see P. D. James), but I like best the tales he produced in postwar years.

   R. C. WOODTHORPE (3)
The Public School Murder (1932)
A Dagger in Fleet Street (1934)
The Shadow on the Downs (1935)
   â— A surprisingly underrated writer, witty and clever in the the way people like English mystery writers to be (why has no one reprinted him?).

   ROGER EAST (2)
The Bell Is Answered (1934)
Twenty-Five Sanitary Inspectors (1935)
   â— Another mostly forgotten farceur of detection.

GEORGE GOODCHILD & BECHHOFER ROBERTS (2)
Tidings of Joy (1934)
We Shot an Arrow (1939)
   â— Working together, these two authors (one, Goodchild, a prolific thriller writer) produced some fine detective novels (their best-known works are a pair based on real life trials).

GEORGETTE HEYER (2)
A Blunt Instrument (1938)
Detection Unlimited (1953)
   â— Better known for her Regency romances (still read today), Heyer produced some admired exuberantly humorous (if a bit formulaic) detective novels (plotted by her husband).

   ELSPETH HUXLEY (2)
Murder on Safari (1938)
Death of an Aryan (1939)
   â— After a decent apprentice genre effort, this fine writer produced two fine detective novels, interestingly set in Africa, with an excellent series detective.

   MICHAEL INNES (2)
The Daffodil Affair (1942)
What Happened at Hazelwood (1946)
   â— So exuberantly imaginative, he is hard to contain within the banks of true detection, but these are close enough, I think, and I prefer them to his earlier, better-known works.

   MILWARD KENNEDY (2)
Death in a Deck Chair (1930)
Corpse in Cold Storage ((1934)
   â— A neglected mainstay of the Detection Club, hardly read today.

   C. H. B. KITCHIN (2)
Death of My Aunt (1929)
Death of His Uncle (1939)
   â— These are fairly well-known attempts at more literate detective fiction, by an accomplished serious novelist.

   PHILIP MACDONALD (2)
Rynox (1930)
The Maze (1932)
   â— A writer who often stepped into thriller territory (and produced some classics of that form), he produced with these two books closer efforts at true detection (indeed, the latter is a pure puzzle)

   CLIFFORD WITTING (2)
Midsummer Murder (1937)
Measure for Murder (1941)
   â— Clever efforts by an underappreciated author.

   FRANCIS BEEDING
He Should Not Have Slipped! (1939)
   â— About the closest I would say that this author (actually two men) came to full dress detection.

   ANTHONY BERKELEY
Not to be Taken (1938)
   â— A true detective novel and first-rate village poisoning tale by this important figure in the mystery genre, who often tweaked conventional detection.

   DOROTHY BOWERS
The Bells of Old Bailey (1947)
   â— Best of this literate lady’s detective novels, her last before her untimely death.

   CHRISTOPHER BUSH
Cut-Throat (1932)
   â— Prolific writer who is not my favorite, but I liked this one, with its clever alibi problem.

   A. FIELDING
The Upfold Farm Mystery (1931)
   â— Uneven, prolific detective novelist, but this one has much to please.

   ROBERT GORE-BROWNE
Murder of an M.P.! (1928)
   â— One of my favorite 1920s detective novels, by a mere dabbler in the field.

   CECIL FREEMAN GREGG
Expert Evidence (1938)
   â— Surprisingly cerebral effort by a “tough” British thriller writer.

   ANTHONY GILBERT
Murder Comes Home (1950)
   â— My favorite books by this author tend to be more suspense than true detection.

   JAMES HILTON
Murder at School (1931)
   â— Good foray into detection by well-regarded straight novelist.

   RICHARD HULL
The Ghost It Was (1936)
   â— About the closest I would say that this crime novelist came to detection.

   DAVID HUME
Bullets Bite Deep (1932)
   â— Though this series later devolved into beat ’em up thrillers, this first effort has genuine detection (and American gangsters). More reading of this author’s other series may yield additional results.

   IANTHE JERROLD
Dead Man’s Quarry (1930)
   â— One of the two detective novels by a forgotten member of the Detection Club, more a mainstream novelist (though forgotten in that capacity as well).

   A. G. MACDONELL
Body Found Stabbed (1932) (as John Cameron)
   â— Detective novel by writer better known for his satire.

   PAUL MCGUIRE
Burial Service (1939)
   â— Mostly forgotten Australian-born writer of detective fiction, mostly set in Britain. This tale, his finest, is not. It one of the most original of the period.

   JAMES QUINCE
Casual Slaughters (1935)
   â— A very good, virtually unknown village tale.

   LAURENCE MEYNELL
On the Night of the 18th…. (1936)
   â— More realistic detective novel for the place and period, in terms of its depiction of often unattractive human motivations, by a writer who veered more toward thrillers and crime novels.

   A. A. MILNE
The Red House Mystery (1922)
   â— A well-known classic, mocked by Chandler — but, hey, what a sourpuss he was, what?

   EDEN PHILLPOTTS
The Captain’s Curio (1933)
   â— Counted because his true detection started in the Golden Age. His best work, however, is found in crime novels (and straight novels)

   E. BAKER QUINN
One Man’s Muddle (1937)
   â— A strikingly hardboiled tale by a little-known author who was written of on this website fairly recently.

   HARRIET RUTLAND
Knock, Murderer, Knock! (1939)
   â— Mysterious individual who wrote three acidulous detective novels. This is the first, a classic spa tale.

   CHRISTOPHER ST. JOHN SPRIGG
The Perfect Alibi (1934)
   â— A fine farceur of detection, whose genre talent was purged when he became a humorless Stalinist ideologue (he was killed in action in Spain).

   W. STANLEY SYKES
The Missing Moneylender (1931)
   â— Controversial because of comments about Jews (as the title should suggest), yet extremely clever.

   JOSEPHINE TEY
The Franchise Affair (1948)
   â— Genuine detection, though veering into crime novel territory (and veering very well, thank you).

   EDGAR WALLACE
The Clue of the Silver Key (1930)
   â— One of the closest attempts at true detection by the famed thriller writer.

   ETHEL LINA WHITE
She Faded Into Air (1941)
   â— See Edgar Wallace. A classic vanishing case, with some of the author’s patented shuddery moments.

   ANTHONY WYNNE
Murder of a Lady (1931)
   â— Fine locked room novel by an author who tended to be too formulaic but could be good (can probably add one or two more as I read him).

Editorial Comment:   Coming up soon (as soon as I can format it for posting) and covering some of the same ground as Curt’s, is a list of “100 Good Detective Novels,” by Mike Grost. The emphasis is also on detective fiction, so obviously some of the authors will be the same as those in Curt’s list, but Mike doesn’t restrict himself to British authors, and the time period is much wider, ranging from 1866 to 1988, and the actual overlap is very small.

   This is a list of books that appealed to me as I read them. I have simply gone on my fond memories of reading them, some many years ago, in a few cases when I was just a boy. I haven’t re-assessed and no doubt a stint of re-reading would lead to a change of mind for several of them.

   No doubt there are many books on the list that you can’t imagine why they are there. No doubt, also, there are some that you can’t imagine why they are not there but many are probably absent because I haven’t read them as I would make no claims to be widely read.

   I have restricted myself to one title per author, pseudonyms included.

   I haven’t counted as I compiled the list but I think there are 81 titles there. I’m sure there are other I should add if they came to mind. In the meantime this listing should be regarded as a work in progress rather than the finished thing.

Eric Ambler: Passage of Arms (1959)
   I read a lot of Ambler back in the ’60s but this was the one that gripped me more than the others.
H.C. Bailey: Call Mr Fortune (1920)
   I bought an omnibus of the first four Mr Fortune short story collections. I started reading intending to just read this first book but ended reading all four straight off.
Francis Beeding: Death Walks in Eastrepps (1931)
   I can’t remember the details but I remember enjoying it.
Nicholas Blake: The Beast Must Die (1938)
   An author sets out to find the hit-and-run driver who killed his son.
Lawrence Block: A Stab In The Dark (1981)
   The best of the earlyish Scudders.
Edward Boyd and Bill Knox: The View From Daniel Pike (1974)
   Short stories about a Glasgow private eye. Boyd wrote the tv scripts Knox turned them into stories.
Ernest Bramah: Max Carrados (1914)
   Classic short stories about a blind detective.
Howard Browne: The Taste Of Ashes (1957)
The best of Paul Pine, private detective.
Curt Cannon [1]: I’m Cannon — For Hire (1958)
   I enjoyed this story of the down-and-out detective.
Sarah Caudwell: Thus Was Adonis Murdered (1981)
   Witty badinage in the legal chambers and in Greece.
Raymond Chandler: Farewell My Lovely (1940)
   My favourite of the Chandlers.
G. K. Chesterton: The Innocence of Father Brown (1911)
   Another classic short story collection.
Erskine Childers: The Riddle of the Sands (1903)
   Immaculate adventure/spy story
Agatha Christie: Death on the Nile (1938)
   An intricately contrived crime that ties up the loose ends.
Tucker Coe: Kinds of Love, Kinds of Death (1966)
   I enjoyed the whole Mitch Tobin sequence and this first one set the tone nicely.
John Collee: Paper Mask (1987)
   The tale of a doomed hospital porter who steps out of his station.
J. J. Connington: Nemesis at Raynham Parva (1929)
   Domestic crime set in the country, with a cunning twist. [2]
Freeman Wills Crofts: The Groote Park Murder (1925)
   A pre-French Crofts but the intricate plot works.
Len Deighton: The Ipcress File (1962)
   The spy novel becomes working class.
Carter Dickson [3]: The Judas Window (1938)
   One of Carr’s intricate impossible crimes.
Warwick Downing: The Player (1974)
   I’ve forgotten the details but I know I enjoyed it.
Arthur Conan Doyle: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
   Probably Doyle’s best set of short stories. (I’m not chickening out by selecting The Complete SH.)
Friedrich Dürrenmatt: The Pledge (1959)
   Short tale of a detective’s mental deterioration as he seeks a child killer.
Stanley Ellin: Mystery Stories (1956)
   Excellent and varied set of short stories.
G. J. Feakes: Moonrakers and Mischief (1961)
   A little weak in the plot but hilariously funny.
Dick Francis: Enquiry (1970)
   My favourite among many excellent racing thrillers.
R. Austin Freeman: The Red Thumb Mark (1907)
   The meticulous Thorndyke at his intricate best.
Stephen Greenleaf: Beyond Blame (1986)
   My favourite of the Tanner books. The ending stood up which it often didn’t in Greenleaf’s other books, good as they were to read.
Michael Gilbert: Death in Captivity (1952)
   Whodunit and PoW escape novel all in one book.
Donald Hamilton: Death of a Citizen (1960)
   First in an excellent series.
Dashiell Hammet: Red Harvest (1928)
   My favourite of his novels, otherwise I might have gone for a short story collection.
Cyril Hare: Tragedy at Law (1942)
   Pettigrew and the murder of a judge on the circuit that the author knew so well.
Thomas Harris: Red Dragon (1981)
   Excellent story with a captivating villain.
Jeremiah Healy: So Like Sleep (1987)
   My favourite of the early Cuddy’s.
Patricia Highsmith: Deep Water (1957)
   I enjoyed this murderous tale better than her more famous works.
Edward D. Hoch: Diagnosis Impossible (1996)
   Excellent collection of ‘impossible’ crimes concerning Dr Sam Hawthorne.
E. W. Hornung: The Amateur Cracksman (1899)
   First of the tales of Raffles. gentleman-thief.
Geoffrey Household: Rogue Male (1939)
   The best thriller I have read.
Richard Hull: The Murder of My Aunt (1934)
   Excellently humorous ‘inverted’ tale.
Stanley Hyland: Who Goes Hang? (1958)
   The details have gone but I know I enjoyed this tales set in the House of Commons.
Francis Iles [4]: Malice Aforethought (1931)
   Excellent inverted novel.
Dan Kavanagh: Putting the Boot In (1985)
   The best book I have read set around football.
Harry Stephen Keeler: The Amazing Web (1929)
   Typically intricate Keeler tale that all ties together neatly at the end.
Maurice Leblanc: The Confessions of Arsène Lupin (1912)
   Amusing and intricate tales of the French rogue.
John le Carré: Call For the Dead (1961)
   Excellent detective story set in the world of espionage.
Ira Levin: A Kiss Before Dying (1953)
   Has the best single moment I can recall reading.
Dick Lochte: Sleeping Dog (1985)
   Funny and yet enthralling p.i. tale.
Peter Lovesey: A Case of Spirits (1975)
   Excellent impossible crime about the excellent Sergeant Cribb.
Arthur Lyons: All God’s Children (1975)
   A very enjoyable p.i. tale with Jacob Asch.
John D. MacDonald: A Deadly Shade of Gold (1965)
   I read, and enjoyed, the McGee’s a long while ago but this is the one I seem to remember enjoying most.
Philip MacDonald: The Nursemaid Who Disappeared (1938)
   Colonel Gethryn on a case with very little to work on.
Ross Macdonald: The Underground Man (1971)
   My favourite of the Lew Archer books.
Raymond Marshall [5]: Hit and Run (1958)
   Outstanding first person tale of a man who is enticed and becomes wanted for murder.
L.A. Morse: The Old Dick
   I enjoyed this tale of an elderly detective.
John Mortimer: Rumpole of the Bailey (1978)
   The first collection of stories about the Old Bailey hack.
Sara Paretsky: Bitter Medicine (1987)
   My favourite of the Warshawski’s.
Robert B. Parker: Paper Doll (1993)
   Spenser finds the murderer of a businessman’s wife without Hawk’s help.
David Pierce: Down in the Valley (1989)
   The first about private eye Vic Daniel.
Jeremy Pikser: Junk on the Hill (1984)
   I’ve forgotten the details of this but I remember I enjoyed it.
Joyce Porter: Dover and the Unkindest Cut of All (1967)
   Dover investigates forcible castrations.
Talmage Powell: The Girl’s Number Doesn’t Answer (1960)
   The strongest of the five books about Tampa p.i. Ed Rivers
Bill Pronzini: Shackles (1988)
   Nameless is imprisoned and left to die, while working out who his captor is.
Ellery Queen: The Glass Village (1954)
   My favourite Queen though Ellery is not in it.
Patrick Quentin: Puzzle for Fiends (1946)
   Intriguing tale of Peter Duluth institutionalised with amnesia.
Ruth Rendell: A Demon in my View (1976)
   Excellent plot and beguiling story.
Sax Rohmer: The Mystery of Dr Fu-Manchu (1913)
   I loved this as a youngster; Fu-Manchu dominates every page he is on.
James Sallis: The Long-Legged Fly (1992)
   I enjoyed this first in the Lew Griffin series and the second, too, though they started to pall after that.
Sapper: The Female of the Species (1928)
   Bulldog Drummond was racist and objectionable but as a boy I raced through his exploits. This was my favourite as he had to decipher a message to rescue his wife.
Gunnar Staalesen: At Night All Wolves Are Grey (1986)
   Excellent, if bleak, p.i. tale set in Norway.
Rex Stout: In the Best Families (1950) [6]
   Wolfe’s routine is disrupted in this tale.
Josephine Tey: The Franchise Affair (1948)
   A slow build up to a revealing climax as a country solicitor defends two women accused of kidnapping.
Jim Thompson: Pop. 1280 (1964)
   One of Thompson’s riveting tales of a descent into madness.
June Thomson: The Secret Files of Sherlock Holmes (1990)
   Excellent Holmes short story pastiches.
Masako Togawa: The Lady Killer (1985)
   A serial killer in Tokyo.
Peter Tremayne: The Return of Raffles (1981)
   Excellent tale following Raffles’s return from the Boer War.
S. S. Van Dine: The Bishop Murder Case (1929)
   Van Dine is out of favour nowadays but this is one I really enjoyed.
Roy Vickers: The Department of Dead Ends (1947)
   Classic tales of cold cases revived from a single clue.
Henry Wade: Mist on the Saltings (1933)
   A nicely turned out story in which things are as they seemed.
Edgar Wallace: The Fellowship of the Frog
   Another author I read extensively as a boy. This is one of my favourites that I suspect might not stand up to a second reading.
Colin Watson: Hopjoy Was Here (1962)
   A funny, yet involving detective story.
Charles Williams: Dead Calm (1963)
   A riveting tale of skulduggery on the high seas.

      FOOTNOTES:

1. aka Evan Hunter or Ed McBain
2. This is a title that should be read after sampling several of the earlier Connington’s
3. aka John Dickson Carr
4. aka Anthony Berkeley
5. aka James Hadley Chase
6. This is a title that should be read after sampling several of the earlier Nero Wolfe tales, especially And Be a Villain and The Second Confession.

Editorial Comment:   I have one more list of favorite or “best” mysteries to go. I’ll post one from Curt Evans tomorrow. If you’ve been following his reviews on this blog, you won’t be surprised to know that his list consists solely of Golden Age British Detective Novels. Even with that restriction, his list is the longest: 120 books in all. So far.

ANTHONY BOURDAIN – Bone in the Throat. Bloomsbury, reprint softcover, September 2000; hardcover edition: Villard, June 1995.

   Before he gained fame and fortune as a food writer/celebrity chef, Anthony Bourdain was an obscure, but damn fine, crime fiction writer.

   Tommy Pagano, a sous-chef at the Dreadnaught, accidentally gets mixed up in a murder committed by his misfit gangster uncle, Sally “Wig,” and his creepy sidekick “Skinny,” who kills in the nude to avoid getting evidence on his clothes.

   The feds are convinced Tommy’s dirty — and he doesn’t know that the restaurant where he works is an elaborate federal sting operation. Can this end well for anyone?

   Bone in the Throat is wickedly humorous, which only serves to intensify the noir tension. The few scenes set in a heroin house are truly terrifying. Dark, funny, fine and recommended.

ANTHONY BORDAIN – Crime Fiction:

      Bone in the Throat. Villard, 1995.
      Gone Bamboo. Villard, 1997.

      The Bobby Gold Stories. Bloomsbury, 2003.

   I quickly went through the list of books I’ve read since 1993 to see potential additions to my earlier list and came up with quite a few. I tried to pick books I really liked when I read them, though I might not choose them today, if that makes any sense. In any case, they are more or less chronological from when I read them (except if there is a second book by the same author).

Brian Freemantle, The Inscrutable Charlie Muffin
Minette Walters, The Sculptress
Reginald Hill, Exit Lines
Mary Willis Walker, Zero at the Bone (also Under the Beetle’s Cellar)
S. J. Rozan, China Trade (also The Shanghai Moon)
Thomas Perry, The Butcher’s Boy (also Metzger’s Dog)
Edward D. Hoch, Diagnosis…Impossible (ss)
Gerry Boyle, Deadline
Robert Barnard, Out of the Blackout (also The Masters of the House)
Lee Child, Killing Floor
Bill Fitzhugh, Pest Control (also Radio Activity)
Michael Connelly, Blood Work
Alan Beechey, An Embarrassment of Corpses
Barbara Seranella, No Offense Intended
Ed Gorman, Famous Blue Raincoat (ss, plus other ss collections)
Donald Harstad, Eleven Days
Joe Gores, Cases (also Spade and Archer and the DKA File collection, Stakeout on Page Street)
William Deverell, Trial of Passion
Owen Parry, Faded Coat of Blue
Clark Howard, Challenge to the Widow-Maker (ss)
Brendan Dubois, Resurrection Day (also The Dark Snow & Other Stories – ss)
Lawrence Block, The Collected Mystery Stories
Val McDermid, A Place of Execution
Joe R. Lansdale, The Bottoms
Fred Willard, Down on Ponce
Sarah Caudwell, Thus Was Adonis Murdered
Julia Spencer-Fleming, In the Bleak Midwinter
Ken Bruen, The Guards (also The White Trilogy)
P. J. Tracy, Monkeewrench
James Sallis, Cypress Grove (also Drive)
James Swain, Grift Sense
Cornell Woolrich, Night & Fear: A Centennial Collection (ss)
Edward Wright, Clea’s Moon
Bill Crider, We’ll Always Have Murder
Joseph Commings, Banner Deadlines (ss)
Michael Gruber, Tropic of Night
Terence Faherty, The Confessions of Owen Keane (ss)
Duane Swierczynski, The Wheelman (also Severance Package)
Charlie Huston, Already Dead
Craig Johnson, The Cold Dish
Erle Stanley Gardner, The Casebook of Sidney Zoom (ss)
Norbert Davis, Sally’s in the Alley
Charles McCarry, The Tears of Autumn
Ross Macdonald, The Archer Files (ss)
Colin Cotterill, The Coroner’s Lunch
Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Josh Bazell, Beat the Reaper
Alan Bradley, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind
Rebecca Cantrell, A Trace of Smoke
Tarquin Hall, The Case of the Missing Servant
Jamie Freveletti, Running From the Devil