Steve suggested we might try our hands at a 100 best list, so here with some reservations is mine. Reservation number 1:   I have limited myself to mystery and suspense novels, so no thrillers, adventure, or spy novels.

   Number 2:   I have no short story collections on the list — I couldn’t top the Queen’s Quorum anyway.

   Number 3:   I am skipping the early classics from The Moonstone to The Hound of the Baskervilles. For all practical purposes this list begins with the birth of the Golden Age which most would place with E. C. Bentley’s Trent’s Last Case. The books before that are deserving of a list of their own.

   Also, I have limited myself to one title per writer though obviously some writers should have multiple entries.

   The final reservation is that this is no “best” list. More a favorites list, and of course at different times there would be some variation. Some favorite writers don’t make the list because another, sometimes lesser, writer wrote one very good book. And though they wrote well after the cut off date I’m leaving R. Austin Freeman to the earlier period along with Conan Doyle and Chesterton.

   And warning, this list is extremely eclectic.

   It struck me too how many of these had been filmed so a * marks a film version.

   With those caveats, herewith:

About the Murder of The Circus Queen by A. Abbott *
The Death of Achilles by Boris Akunin
Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham *
Terror on Broadway by David Alexander
Perish By the Sword by Poul Anderson
Hell Is a City by William Ard
The Unsuspected by Charlotte Armstrong *
Murder in Las Vegas by W. T. Ballard
Death Walks in Eastrepps by Francis Beeding
Charlie Chan Carries On by Earl Derr Biggers *
The Beast Must Die by Nicholas Blake *
Bombay Mail by Lawrence G. Blochman *
No Good From a Corpse by Leigh Brackett
Green For Danger by Christianna Brand *
The Clock Strikes Thirteen by Herbert Brean
A Case for Three Detectives by Leo Bruce
The Screaming Mimi by Fredric Brown *
Asphalt Jungle by W. R. Burnett *
The Secret of High Eldersham by Miles Burton
Fast One by Paul Cain *
Circus Couronne by R. Wright Campbell
The Man Who Could Not Shudder by John Dickson Carr
Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler *
Elsinore by Jerome Charyn
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie *
First Prize by Edward Cline
Stolen Away by Max Allan Collins
Brass Rainbow by Michael Collins
The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin
The Wrong Case by James Crumley
Snarl of the Beast by Carroll John Daly
Sally in the Alley by Norbert Davis
The Poisoned Oracle by Peter Dickinson
To Catch A Thief by David Dodge *
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier *
End of the Game (aka The Judge and His Hangman) by Friedrich Duerrenmatt *
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco *
The Naked Spur by Charles Einstein *
The Eighth Circle by Stanley Ellin
L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy *
Mirage by Walter Ericson (Howard Fast) *
Double Or Quits by A. A. Fair
The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing *
Death Comes to Perigord by John Ferguson
Isle of Snakes by Robert L. Fish
High Art by Rubem Fonseca *
King of the Rainy Country by Nicholas Freeling
Operation Terror by the Gordons *
Take My Life by Winston Graham *
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene *
It Happened In Boston by Russell Greenhan
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett *
Violent Saturday by W. L. Heath *
Why Shoot a Butler by Georgette Heyer
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith *
Night Has 1000 Eyes by George Hopley (Cornell Woolrich) *
Flush as May by P. M. Hubbard
Ride the Pink Horse by Dorothy B. Hughes *
One Man Show by Michael Innes
An Unsuitable Job For a Woman by P. D. James *
The 10:30 From Marseilles by Sebastian Japrisot *
The Last Express by Baynard Kendrick
Night and the City by Gerald Kersh *
Fata Morgana by William Kotzwinkle
Murder of a Wife by Henry Kuttner
Headed for a Hearse by Jonathan Latimer *
Curtain for a Jester by Richard and Francis Lockridge
Let’s Hear it For the Deaf Man by Ed McBain *
Through a Glass Darkly by Helen McCloy
The Green Ripper by John D. MacDonald
The List of Adrian Messenger by Philip MacDonald *
Black Money by Ross Macdonald
Gideon’s Day by J. J. Marric (John Creasey) *
Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh
Guilty Bystander by Wade Miller *
A Neat Little Corpse by Max Murray *
Sleeper’s East by Frederic Nebel *
Let’s Kill Uncle by Rohan O’Grady *
Puzzle for Fools by Q. Patrick
Fracas in the Foothills by Eliot Paul
To Live and Die in L.A. by Gerald Petivich *
Shackles by Bill Pronzini
Cat of Many Tails by Ellery Queen *
Footprints on the Ceiling by Clayton Rawson
Trial by Fury by Craig Rice
The Erasers by Alain Robbe-Grillett *
The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers *
So Evil My Love by Joseph Shearing *
Stain on the Snow (aka The Snow is Black) by Georges Simenon *
The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjowall & Per Waloo *
Death Under Sail by C. P. Snow
Blues for the Prince by Bart Spicer
One Lonely Night by Mickey Spillane
Judas Inc. by Kurt Steel
Some Buried Caesar by Rex Stout
Rim of the Pit by Hake Talbot
The Bishop Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine *
Above the Dark Circus by Hugh Walpole
Death Takes the Bus by Lionel White
Death in a Bowl by Raoul Whitfield

Editorial Comment:   Previously on this blog have been top 100 lists from Barry Gardner and Jeff Meyerson. Coming tomorrow is another such list from Geoff Bradley, editor and publisher of CADS (Crime and Detective Stories) . Thanks to all!

   Barry Gardner’s recent list has inspired me to do one of my own. I’ve tried to give a good variety by limiting myself to no more than two titles per author (or pseudonym). I’ve also tried to include books that impressed me greatly when read, even if it was twenty years ago and I’d probably not read that book today. On some heavily read authors (McBain, Simenon) titles were chosen nearly at random. Still, it’s a list that I can live with, and one you might find worth checking for titles to try.

Neil Albert, THE JANUARY CORPSE
Eric Ambler, A CORPSE FOR DIMITRIOS
Delano Ames, SHE SHALL HAVE MURDER
Linda Barnes, A TROUBLE OF FOOLS
Lawrence Block, WHEN THE SACRED GINMILL CLOSES
Christianna Brand, GREEN FOR DANGER
Jay Brandon, FADE THE HEAT
Herbert Brean, WILDERS WALK AWAY
Fredric Brown, THE FABULOUS CLIPJOINT
          NIGHT OF THE JABBERWOCK
Paul Cain, FAST ONE
John Dickson Carr, THE THREE COFFINS
Raymond Chandler, FAREWELL, MY LOVELY
         THE LADY IN THE LAKE
George C. Chesbro, BONE
Agatha Christie, AND THEN THERE WERE NONE
          PARTNERS IN CRIME
Liza Cody, BUCKET NUT
Max Allan Collins, TRUE DETECTIVE
K. C. Constantine, THE MAN WHO LIKED SLOW TOMATOES
William J. Coughlin, DEATH PENALTY
Bill Crider, SHOTGUN SATURDAY NIGHT
James Crumley, THE LAST GOOD KISS
Peter Dickinson, KING & JOKER
Jerome Doolittle, BODY SCISSORS
Arthur Conan Doyle, THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES
John Dunning, BOOKED TO DIE
Aaron Elkins, OLD BONES
James Ellroy, THE BLACK DAHLIA
Loren D. Estleman, SUGARTOWN
          PEEPER
Michael Gilbert, DEATH IN CAPTIVITY
Joe Goes, HAMMETT
James W. Hall, UNDER COVER OF DAYLIGHT
Parnell Hall, DETECTIVE
Donald Hamilton, DEATH OF A CITIZEN
Dashiell Hammett, RED HARVEST
          THE MALTESE FALCON
Joseph Hansen, A COUNTRY OF OLD MEN .
Thomas Harris, RED DRAGON
Carl Hiaasen, TOURIST SEASON
Tony Hillerman, DANCE HALL OF THE DEAD
          A THIEF OF TIME
William Hjortsberg, FALLING ANGEL
P. D. James, SHROUD FOR A NIGHTINGALE
Faye Kellerman, DAY OF ATONEMENT
Jonathan Kellerman, WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS
Joseph Koenig, FLOATER
Jonathan Latimer, MURDER IN THE MADHOUSE
Elmore Leonard, CITY PRIMEVIL
Ira Levin, A KISS BEFORE DYING
Michael Z. Lewin, NIGHT COVER
Dick Lochte, SLEEPING DOG
Peter Lovesey, WOBBLE TO DEATH
          THE FALSE INSPECTOR DEW
Arthur Lyons, CASTLES BURNING
Frank McAuliffe, OF ALL THE BLOODY CHEEK
Ed McBain, LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE DEAF MAN
Gregory Mcdonald, FLETCH
John D. MacDonald, THE END OF THE NIGHT
          THE DREADFUL LEMON SKY
Ross Macdonald, THE GALTON CASE
          THE CHILL
Dan J. Marlowe, THE NAME OF THE GAME IS DEATH
Margaret Maron, BOOTLEGGER’S DAUGHTER
Ngaio Marsh, ARTISTS IN CRIME
W. Somerset Maugham, ASHENDEN
Archer Mayor, OPEN SEASON
L. A. Morse, THE OLD DICK
Robert B. Parker, GOD SAVE THE CHILD
Marcia Muller, PENNIES ON A DEAD WOMAN’S EYES
Ridley Pearson, UNDERCURRENTS
Anthony Price, OTHER PATHS TO GLORY
Bill Pronzini, BONES
Ellery Queen, CALAMITY TOWN
          CAT OF MANY TAILS
Barnaby Ross (Queen), THE TRAGEDY OF Y
Dorothy L. Sayers, MURDER MUST ADVERTISE
Laurence Shames, FLORIDA STRAITS
Richard Shattuck, THE WEDDING GUEST SAT ON A STONE
Georges Simenon, MAIGRET GOES HOME
Roger L. Simon, THE BIG FIX
Gerald Sinstadt, THE FIDELIO SCORE
Maj Sjowall/Per Wahloo, THE LAUGHING POLICEMAN
Julie Smith, NEW ORLEANS MOURNING
Richard Stark (Westlake), BUTCHER’S MOON
Rex Stout, TOO MANY COOKS
Grif Stockley, PROBABLE CAUSE
Josephine Tey, THE DAUGHTER OF TIME
Ross Thomas, THE FOOLS IN TOWN ARE ON OUR SIDE
          CHINAMAN’S CHANCE
Jim Thompson, THE KILLER INSIDE ME
          A HELL OF A WOMAN
Arthur W. Upfield, DEATH OF A LAKE
Donald E. Westlake, DANCING AZTECS
Teri White, FAULT LINES
Kate Wilhelm, O, SUSANNAH!
Charles Willeford, MIAMI BLUES
Stuart Woods, CHIEFS
Eric Wright, FINAL CUT

Editorial Comment:   I have one more list like this one to post, and perhaps two. Yours would be welcome, if you’d like to do one. The ground rules are pretty much up to you; any restrictions or boundaries you’d like to place on it are yours to make and to abide by. If you’d care to come up with only a top 10, 15, or 50, that’s fine, too.

    When he agreed to let me reprint this list, Jeff promised to give his reactions when he saw it again. He came up with this list of books and authors 17 years ago, and he hasn’t seen or thought about it since.

   I was recently asked if I could produce a list of my “100 Best” mysteries, and list lover that I am I couldn’t resist. I wouldn’t call them my 100 best, though – “best” implies a more rigorously articulated set of standards than I can lay claim to.

   Let’s say that these are 100 books that, after 40-odd years of reading in the field, I might choose to build a basic library of the kinds of books I like most to read. If I were to go through the same process tomorrow a number of the individual titles might change, but there would be very few changes among the authors.

ADAMS, Harold – The Man Who Met the Train
ATLEE, Philip – The Green Wound
BLEECK, Oliver (Ross Thomas) – The Procane Chronicles
BLOCK, Lawrence – When the Sacred Ginmill Closes
         A Walk Among the Tombstones
BOYER, Rick – The Daisy Ducks
BROWN, Fredric – The Fabulous Clipjoint
BROWNE, Howard – The Taste of Ashes
BURKE, James Lee – The Neon Rain
      Black Cherry Blues
CAMP, John – The Empress File
CARR, John Dickson – Castle Skull
CHANDLER, Raymond – The Big Sleep
      The Long Goodbye
CHARTERIS, Leslie – The Last Hero
CHESTERTON, G. K. – The Man Who Was Thursday
CLEARY, Jon – Now and Then, Amen
COLLINS, Max Allan – Neon Mirage
COLLINS, Michael – Freak
CONSTANTINE, K. C. – The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes
DICKSON, Carter (J. D. Carr) – The Punch and Judy Murders
      The Judas Window
ESTLEMAN, Loren D. – Sugartown
FAULKNER, William – Knight’s Gambit
FREEMANTLE, Brian – Charlie M
      Charlie Muffin, U.S.A.
FRIEDMAN, Kinky – When the Cat’s Away
GAULT, William Campbell – Day ofthe Ram
GILBERT, Michael – Game Without Rules
      Mr. Calder and Mr. Behrens
GILL, Bartholomew – The Death of Love
GORES, Joe – A TIme of Predators
GRANGER, Bill – The November Man
GREENLEAF, Stephen – Fatal Obsession
HALL, Adam – The Quiller Memorandum
HAMILTON, Donald – Death of a Citizen
HAMMETT, Dashiell – Red Harvest
      Blood Money
      The Maltese Falcon
HARE, Cyril – An English Murder
      Tragedy at Law
HARVEY, John – Wasted Years
HEALY, Jeremiah – The Staked Goat
HILL, Reginald – Recalled To Life
HILLERMAN, Tony – Skinwalkers
HIMES, Chester – The Big Gold Dream
INNES, Michael – Seven Suspects
      Appleby’s End
JAMES, P. D. – An Unsuitable Job for a Woman
KAMINSKY, Stuart M. – A Cold Red Sunrise
KELLERMAN, Jonathan – Over the Edge
LINDSEY, David L. – In the Lake of the Moon
      Body of Truth
LYONS, Arthur – Dead Ringer
MacDONALD, John D. – A Purple Place for Dying
      The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything
MACDONALD, Ross – The Doomsters
      Black Money
MALCOLM, John – The Gwen John Sculpture
MARON, Margaret – Bootlegger’s Daughter
MAYOR. Archer – Open Season
McCLURE, James – The Song Dog
      Steam Pig
McGOWN, Jill – Murder at the Old Vicarage
McILVANNEY, William – Strange Loyalties
NEEL, Janet – Death on Site
OLIVER, Anthony – The Pew Group
PARKER. Robert B. – Mortal Stakes
      Early Autumn
PERRY, Thomas – The Butcher’s Boy
      Metzger’s Dog
PICKARD, Nancy – I.O.U.
PIERCE, David M. – Down in the Valley
PRICE, Anthony M. – The Labyrinth Makers
      Colonel Butler’s Wolf
      The ’44 Vintage
PRONZlNI, Bill – Shackles
QUEEN, Ellery – Calamity Town
RENDELL, Ruth – Murder Being Once Done
RIGGS, John R. – Haunt of the Nightingale
ROBERTS, Les – Deep Shaker
      Seeing the Elephant
ROSS, Jonathan – Here Lies Nancy Frail
SAYERS, Dorothy L. – The Nine Tailors
      Gaudy Night
SAYLOR, Steven – Roman Blood
SPICER, Bart – Blues for the Prince
STARK, Richard (Donald Westlake) – The Hunter
      The Outfit
      Butcher’s Moon
STOUT, Rex – Fer de Lance
      Too Many Cooks
      Black Orchids
      The Black Mountain
THOMAS, Ross – The Fools in Town Are on Our Side
      The Seersucker Whipsaw
      Chinaman’s Chance
      The Cold War Swap
VALIN, Jonathan – The Lime Pit
WOODRELL, Daniel – Under the Bright Lights

   Obviously, my preferences lean more to the modern than the classic, and to the hard-edged than the cozy. When I make one of these, I’m always surprised at some of my choices, and at how hard it is to make them. I could have done 200, and still been happy with the quality.

Editorial Comment:   If Barry were still with us today, it would be interesting to have him compare his favorites now with those he came up with back then. It’s hard work making up a list like this — I’ve never been able to do it myself — but if anyone would like to take up the challenge, I’d be glad to post it here.

   I do have one ready in hand from Jeff Meyerson, one he also did in 1993, and in fact it was in direct response to this one from Barry. I’ll post it here on Sunday.

Steve and David —

   Hi, it’s me again. I’m the one who suggested the recent “Man on the Run” lists which appeared on your blog, for which I am eternally grateful. They have been of enormous assistance.

   Here’s another question, based on a thought that came to me, one somewhere between screwball and noir. It is about a retired single man who places a Personal ad in a sailing magazine (this is very common) seeking a woman to sail around the world with him “as long as it’s fun.” He finds the right woman and they set off, he falls in love and they get married. But of course she has another husband who wants her to kill the new husband to collect the insurance.

    So it’s a noir on a boat.

    Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice certainly come to mind but I’m sure I’m missing some good ones. Murder on the High Seas (1932, aka Love Bound) is very dated. Body Heat meets Dead Calm meets A Fish Called Wanda is probably what I’m going for.

   If there are any films you could recommend I would be even more eternally grateful. Thank you.

         Josh

       — —

   Steve here first. I believe the most recent variation of the “Man on the Run” movie lists was actually a “Couples on the Run” list, which you can find here. (There are links in that post that you can use to find most if not all of the earlier ones.)

   David Vineyard is much better at this than I am. Here’s his reply, which I received soon after I sent Josh’s new inquiry on to him:

DEAD CALM was the first to come to mind, but I can’t think of a lot of films with a similar premise. Most of the films with a sailing theme tend to be adventure films involving treasure or pearls, deep sea diving, and some tough skipper like John Payne (CROSSWINDS), Errol Flynn (MARA MARU), or John Wayne (WAKE OF THE RED WITCH).

John Sturges’s UNDERWATER with Jane Russell, Richard Egan, and Gilbert Roland is typical, but again it’s a treasure hunt movie, and existed mostly to exploit the then new technology allowing for extensive technicolor photography underwater.

There is a true story with a similar theme — minus the murder — Nicholas Roeg’s CASTAWAY from 1987 where Oliver Reed advertises for a woman to be marooned on a desert island with him and Amanda Donohoe answers the ad; based on Lucy Irvine’s book about her experiences. Oddly enough Irvine is every bit the knockout Donohoe is and the odder bits of the film are true.

As I said, there is no murder or crime — other than criminal stupidity on the part of Reed’s character — but you might pick up some ideas and Donohoe is nice to look at nude, semi nude, and in a bikini while the book is fully illustrated with color photos of Irvine in the same state.

You might also check out the miniseries AND THE SEA WILL TELL with Richard Crenna, based on Vincent Bugliosi’s book of the trial and investigation of a couple accused of murdering another couple on a yacht who were sharing a deserted island with them. Rachel Ward played Bugliosi’s client, on trial for murder. It used to show up regularly on cable and there may be a VHS or DVD.

Again, no murder, but THE LITTLE HUT with Ava Gardner, Stewart Granger, and David Niven has the wife, husband, and boyfriend all stranded on a desert island together after a shipwreck. Diverting little sex comedy handsomely shot in technicolor. At least you get to see what sort of a Tarzan Granger might have made.

Most of these are going to be set on islands rather than the boat.

A TOUCH OF LARCENY is a wry tale based on Andrew Garve’s THE MEGSTONE PLOT where Naval officer James Mason contrives to shipwreck himself on his holiday and be accused of treason while missing in hopes of making a fortune suing the British tabloids when he is rescued — everything goes wrong of course. You can check out my review here on the blog

A RAW WIND IN EDEN has wealthy Esther Williams plane crash and she is rescued on a remote island by Jeff Chandler where jealousy, murder, and every other complication ensues.

L’AVVENTURA by Michelangelo Antonioni is of course the classic film (skip the remake with Madonna) of a spoiled rich woman (Monica Vitti) ship wrecked with a crude sailor (Gabriele Ferzetti) .

At least a small section of ARRIVEDERCI BABY! features lonely hearts killer Tony Curtis and Black Widow Rossano Shiaffano trying to kill each other while sailing in a black comedy.

And you might check out CAPTAIN RON a particularly unfunny comedy in which Martin Short and family inherit a sail boat and take on captain Kurt Russell an eye patched drunken lecher for a vacation from Hell — if you are masochistic enough to sit through it.

Almost as bad is THE ISLAND based on Peter Benchley’s book about a modern man (Michael Caine) and his son whose yachting holiday is disturbed when they are taken hostage by latter day pirates. This is the one where Leonard Maltin’s terrible review noted “You know you are in trouble when David Warner is the most normal guy on the island.” He’s absolutely right, if anything he is too kind, though in fairness he has no lower rating than BOMB.

Again most are going to be the shipwreck theme more than the boat itself, everything from THE ADMIRABLE CRICHTON (Kenneth More, Diane Cliento) — which was also a Bing Crosby musical PARADISE LAGOON — to SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON.

You might check out EBB TIDE, a tough little adventure film based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s story with Ray Milland, Oscar Homloka, and Lloyd Nolan and remade as ADVENTURE ISLAND with Rory Calhoun. Nolan is quite good as the monomaniacal madman in the original, shot in early color.

There is a little British film from the post war period where a honeymooning couple sailing to Calais pick up a ship wreck survivor and find themselves involved in a smuggling plot, but the name escapes me — it’s a slight and very short comedy.

And there is another with John Cassavettes (of all people) where a honeymooning couple try living on a small island in the Caribbean, but again the name eludes me — should be easy enough to find though as Cassavettes didn’t do a lot of comedy. Laurel and Hardy’s last feature involved them on a small boat, shipwrecked, and with a nuclear bomb if my memory is right.

Ship board crime and murder is a little better represented, with THE PRINCESS COMES ACROSS (Carol Lombard and Fred MacMurray, reviewed here, DANGEROUS CROSSING (based on John Dickson Carr’s “Cabin B-13” with Jeanne Crain and Michael Rennie remade for television as TREACHEROUS CROSSING), THE GREAT LOVER ( Bob Hope and Rhonda Fleming), JUGGERNAUT (Richard Harris, Anthony Hopkins, Omar Sharif battle an extortionist), DARKER THAN AMBER (Rod Taylor as Travis McGee), and THE LAST OF SHEILA (James Mason, James Coburn, Anthony Perkins …).

That last one is an outstanding mystery/suspense film with an all star cast including Dyan Cannon, Joan Hackett, and Raquel Welch and written by mystery fans Perkins and composer Stephen Sondheim (who collaborated on Broadway with Hugh Wheeler, one half of Q. Patrick).

And of course disaster at sea is well represented in all three films entitled TITANIC (1943, 1953, 1997), A NIGHT TO REMEMBER, THE LAST VOYAGE, SHIP OF FOOLS, VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED (the last two more drama than disaster— save the emotional kind), ABANDON SHIP, ARISE MY LOVE, THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, TWILIGHT OF THE GODS, GOLDEN RENDEZVOUS, CAPTAIN CHINA, KRAKATOA EAST OF JAVA (and it’s not East of Java, in fact it is West of Java), and Hitchcock’s LIFEBOAT.

Hammond Innes THE WRECK OF THE MARY DEARE was filmed by Michael Anderson with Charlton Heston and Gary Cooper and involved the skipper of small salvage ship uncovering skullduggery at sea. BREAK IN THE CIRCLE (based on the novel by Philip Loraine), THE HOUSE OF SEVEN HAWKS (based on Victor Canning’s HOUSE OF TURKISH FLIES), NEVER LET ME GO (based on Andrew Garve’s TWO IF BY SEA), ACTION OF THE TIGER (based on John Welland’s novel), and A TWIST OF SAND (based on Geoffrey Jenkins novel) all deal with international intrigue and small boats,

S.O.S. PACIFIC is a solid little suspense film about a plane load of Grand Hotel types who crash on an island that is about to be used for nuclear test — Eddie Constantine (for once in his own voice), Pier Angelli, Richard Attenborogh (outstanding), and John Gregson star and Guy Green directed. Really nerve wracking suspense — sort of a South Pacific version of Dick Powell’s SPLIT SECOND.

Hopefully this will be some help. Nothing really fits quiet as well as DEAD CALM, but some of these are in the same general area. There are a handful of horror and sf films that come close — everything from THE CREATURE OF THE BLACK LAGOON to some of the made for television Bermuda Triangle movies, but that list could go on forever, and I really don’t think you are interested in mutant sharks, zombies, aliens, and man eating fish.

But that’s all I can come up with off hand. Book wise you might try the novels of J.R.L. Anderson and Bernard Cornwell’s thrillers, they are to small boats what Dick Francis is to racing, and of course Charles Williams who wrote the novel DEAD CALM.

Dorothy Dunnett’s Johnson Johnson books usually involve sailing too, and so do many of the thrillers in the Buchan mold by Hammond Innes, Geoffrey Jenkins, Wilbur Smith, Desmond Bagley, Eric Ambler (as Eliot Reed with Charles Rodda), Andrew Garve, and such.

TAFFY CANNON – A Pocket Full of Karma. Nan Robinson #1. Carroll & Graf, hardcover, 1993. Reprint paperback: Fawcett Crest, 1995. This is Cannon’s first mystery, though she has had one novel published previously.

   Nan Robinson is an investigator with the State Bar of California, single and in her late thirties. She is surprised when a letter arrives at the office for her ex-secretary, Debra, who hadn’t worked there in three years.

   More puzzling still, it was from her mother. Nan and her secretary were from the same town, and though they had never been close friends, Nan feels guilty for not having kept better track of her.

   She decides to deliver the letter in person, but finds an empty house, with signs that the woman had vanished rather abruptly. Her curiosity aroused, she begins to try to track her down, and discovers that she has been working for a firm specializing in hypnotic regression to past incarnations.

   Just to complicate things, Nan finds herself attracted strangely to one of the owners of the firm. But what’s happened to Debra, and where is she?

   We know where Debra is, or at least what happened to her, because the book opens with a couple of pages from the mind of the killer. There are several other such interludes, though the rest of the story is told third-person from Nan’s viewpoint.

   This is a competently told first mystery, with only a few unlikely aspects to the plot. Nan is a likable enough character, though in all honesty not someone who really grabbed my attention or enlisted my sympathies.

   One saving grace is that she doesn’t fall in love with a cop. All told, this is a decent if not exceptional book, making it better than many.

      The Nan Robinson series —

    A Pocketful of Karma. Carroll & Graf, hc, 1993.
    Tangled Roots. Carroll & Graf, hc, 1995.

    Class Reunions Are Murder. Gold Medal, pb, 1996.

D. B. OLSEN [aka DOLORES HITCHENS] – Cats Don’t Smile. Doubleday Doran/Crime Club, hardcover, 1945. Later published in Two Complete Detective Books #36, pulp magazine, January 1946 (with She Fell Among Actors, by James Warren).

    Rachel and Jennifer Murdock, whose exploits — if Jennifer can be said to engage in exploits — Olsen has chronicled before and after this novel, go to Sacramento, Calif., to house-sit for Cousin Julia, who for reasons she doesn’t explain must leave the house and does not want her roomers unsupervised.

    Miss Rachel embroils herself in the roomers’ affairs and those of the next-door neighbors. Before she can meddle much, one of the roomers is murdered.

    For those who enjoy Little-Old-Lady detectives, this should be a pleasing mystery, particularly if active LOL’s are preferred. For my part, I have always thought Jane Marple was the perfect type. Not for her the burglary at dead of night or skulking in gardens eluding who knows what.

    Both interesting and unusual is the motive for murder. However, I had difficulty in accepting the solution, for reasons which I won’t go into since it would reveal the murderer’s identity.

    Warning: Cat lovers may be upset by one of the incidents in the novel.

       The Rachel & Jennifer Murdock series —

    The Cat Saw Murder. 1939. [Doubleday Crime Club for all but one.]

    The Alarm of the Black Cat, 1942.

    Cat’s Claw. 1943.
    Catspaw for Murder. 1943.
    The Cat Wears a Noose. 1944.
    Cats Don’t Smile. 1945.
    Cats Don’t Need Coffins, 1946.
    Cats Have Tall Shadows. Ziff-Davis, 1948

    The Cat Wears a Mask. 1949.
    Death Wears Cat’s Eyes. 1950.
    The Cat and Capricorn. 1951.

    The Cat Walk, 1953.
    Death Walks on Cat Feet. 1956.

RICHARD BARTH – Deadly Climate. St. Martin’s, hardcover, 1988. Reprint paperback: Fawcett Crest, 1989.

   The fifth caper for septuagenarian New Yorker Margaret Binton is Deadly Climate, by Richard Barth. Here Margaret wins a $40,000 RV in a raffle, and she and three friends of comparable vintage head for Miami, where they plan to vacation a bit and sell the vehicle.

   On arrival they are rousted from street parking by one of Police Capt. Diamond’s minions. Complaints fall on deaf Diamond ears; he’s more concerned with the cocaine importation industry, flourishing of late. So Margaret and friends turn to good works, giving rides to housebound retirees.

   Curiously, the management of Forstman’s Rest Home won’t let its inhabitants out for a ride. Strangely, those inhabitants seem more prisoners than anything else. But of course none of this could put Margaret and cohorts in deadly danger, none of this could have anything to do with cocaine… Of course not.

   Very enjoyable fun and games.

       The Margaret Binton series:

   The Rag Bag Clan (n.) Dial 1978.

   A Ragged Plot (n.) Dial 1981.
   One Dollar Death (n.) Dial 1982.

   The Condo Kill (n.) Scribner 1985.
   Deadly Climate (n.) St. Martin’s 1988.
   Blood Doesn’t Tell (n.) St. Martin’s 1989.

   Deathics (n.) St. Martin’s 1993.

JOSEPH HONE – The Valley of the Fox. St. Martin’s Press, US, hardcover, 1984. Reprint paperback: Collier, US, 1989. First edition: Secker & Warburg, UK, hardcover, 1982.

   Joseph Hone has written some fine espionage novels — The Oxford Gambit, The Sixth Directorate and The Private Sector — so The Valley of the Fox comes as a surprise.

   Peter Marlow, retired spy featured in the earlier Hone books, marries a beautiful but mysterious widow named Laura whose anthropologist husband was killed in Africa. Laura has a daughter named Clare who doctors have pronounced “autistic” but who holds many surprises.

   Marlow’s life is idyllic until a masked man enters his house and kills Laura and attempts to kill Peter. Marlow, finding out he’s being framed fqr his wife’s murder, flees into the surrounding English countryside. There he meets a bizarre woman named Alice who helps him rescue Clare from the nearby hospital and allows Peter and Clare the run of her strange estate.

   The plot continues to twist and turn as Marlow investigates his dead wife’s past and the deadly secrets Clare holds. This is not an espionage novel in the conventional sense but Hone manages to pull off an off-beat novel about a retired spy in an incredible plot.

   Recommended!

   Bibliography [Taken from the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin.]

HONE, JOSEPH. 1937– .
       The Private Sector (n.) H. Hamilton 1971. Peter Marlow.
       The Sixth Directorate (n.) Secker 1975. Peter Marlow.
       The Paris Trap (n.) Secker 1977

       The Flowers of the Forest (n.) Secker 1980. US title: The Oxford Gambit. Peter Marlow.

       The Valley of the Fox (n.) Secker 1982. Peter Marlow.

Hi Steve,

A while ago I asked you about man-on-the-run novels and you and David Vineyard gave me a magnificent reply. I am still working my way through that long list of books and shall be for quite some time! In the process I have already discovered several fine authors whom I had not known of, or read, before.

I have another enquiry that perhaps you and David can help me with. As well as man-on-the-run stories I enjoy reading tales of searches for buried treasures and artefacts. This type of story seems to have made a big comeback in recent years but it’s really the older novels I’m interested in. For example, one that I read a few weeks ago was David Dodge’s Plunder of the Sun, about lost treasure in Peru. Another was Archie Roy’s Deadlight, about a search on the Scottish Island of Arran for buried scientific notes that disclose a new technology.

Of course, once found, the “treasure” can turn out to be a Pandora’s Box, releasing something malicious or vengeful or deadly, and I like these kinds of stories too.

Can you and David, and the readers of your excellent blog, suggest any more such novels?

Thank you in anticipation,     — D.

And here’s David Vineyard’s reply:

Hmm, if you don’t mind I will forget anything past about 1990 so I don’t have to do too many of the Cussler and other types. Here is a quick list and perhaps it can be expanded upon by myself and others. I won’t go back so far as Rider Haggard and Stevenson, and I’ll limit myself to thrillers too.

THE THIRD HOUR by Geoffrey Household

VIVIERO LETTER and THE GOLDEN KEEL by Desmond Bagley

LEVKAS MAN, THE GOLDEN SOAK, and ISVIK by Hammond Innes

TREASURE by A.E. Hotchner

GIRL ON THE RUN by Edward S. Aarons

TROJAN GOLD and HER COUSIN JOHN and the entire Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters

THE SALZBURG CONNECTION by Helen MacInnes

BOY ON A DOLPHIN by David Divine

PLUNDER IN THE SUN, THE RED TASSEL by David Dodge

MURDER IN NEW GUINEA by John Vandercook

GRAIL by Ben Sapir

THE SECRET SCEPTRE and PRISONER OF THE PYRAMID by Francis Gerard

THE GYRTH CHALICE MYSTERY by Margery Allingham

GUARDIAN OF THE TREASURE (aka ISLAND OF TERROR) by Sapper

LIVE AND LET DIE by Ian Fleming

THE ROSE OF TIBET and THE MENNORAH MAN by Lionel Davidson

THE TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE by B. Traven

THE LAST PLACE GOD LEFT by Jack Higgins

THE EYE OF THE TIGER and THE DIAMOND HUNTERS by Wilbur Smith

TWIST OF SAND, RIVER OF DIAMONDS and GRUE OF ICE by Geoffrey Jenkins

BRIDGE OF SAND and BROTHERS OF SILENCE by Frank Gruber

FEAR IS THE KEY by Alistair MacLean

BLACK ORCHID by Nicholas Meyer and Barry Jay Kaplan

THE Q DOCUMENT by James Robert Duncan

THE THIRTEENTH APOSTLE by Eugene Vale

PEKING MAN IS MISSING by Claire Tardashian

THE SAINT AND THE TEMPLAR TREASURE by Leslie Charteris

THE TOMB OF T’SIN by Edgar Wallace

THE GHOUL by Frank King

PRESTER JOHN by John Buchan

QUEST FOR THE SACRED SLIPPER by Sax Rohmer

THE WHITE SAVAGE by Edison Marshall

THE VENUS OF KOMPARA by John Masters

STONES OF ENCHANTMENT by Wyndham Martin (lost world novel featuring Anthony Trent)

THE SAPPHIRE by A.E.W. Mason

TREASURE FOR TREASURE by Justin Scott

TREASURE OF SAINTE-FOY by Macdonald Harris

TREASURE TRAIL by Roland Pertwee

Many of the Doc Savage novels as by Kenneth Robeson

GOLD BAIT by Walt J. Sheldon

MR. RAMOSI by Valentine Williams

GOLD IS WHERE YOU FIND IT by James B. Hendryx

BURNING DAYLIGHT by Jack London

GOLD OF ST. MATTHEW by Duff Hart-Davis

GOLD OF TROY by Robert L. Fish

GOLDEN BUDDHA by Capt. A. O. Pollard

THE GOLDEN SPANIARD by Dennis Wheatley

A DEADLY SHADE OF GOLD by John D. MacDonald

THE RAINBOW TRAIL by John Cunningham

MACKENNA’S GOLD by Will Henry

THE LAST TOMB by John Lange (Michael Crichton)

CONGO by Michael Crichton

APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH by Agatha Christie

THE TREASURE OF MATACUMBE by Robert Louis Taylor

TREASURE by Clive Cussler (and most of the Dirk Pitt novels)

THE MESSIAH STONE by Martin Caidin

THE MEDUSA STONE by Jack Du Bruhl

BLOOD ROYAL, BLIND CORNER, SHE FELL AMONG THIEVES, BERRY AND COMPANY by Dornford Yates (many of Yates novels involve some sort of treasure or loot)

THE PINK JUNGLE by Alan Williams

HIS BONES ARE CORAL and THE GOLDEN SALAMANDER by Victor Canning (both films, the former as SHARK by Sam Fuller with Burt Reynolds)

ANY OLD IRON by Anthony Burgess ( a modern family of British Jews are guardians of Excalibur)

APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH by Agatha Christie

THE GOLDEN HOARD by Philip Wylie (when the government called in gold a miser’s hoard becomes the focus of gangsters)

TREASURE OF MATACUMBE by Robert Louis Taylor

MARCHING SANDS and THE GARDEN OF EDEN by Harold Lamb (also some of his shorts from ADVENTURE about Khlit the Cossack deal with the lost treasures of Genghis Khan and the Hashishin)

THE MASK OF FU MANCHU and THE DRUMS OF FU MANCHU by Sax Rohmer

THE SANDS OF KARAKORAM by James Ramsey Ullman

THE MYSTERY OF KHUFU’S TOMB, THE NINE UNKNOWN, THE DEVIL’S GUARD, KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES, THE IVORY TRAIL by Talbot Mundy

SPHINX by Robin Cook

THE GOLD OF MALABAR by Berkley Mather

THE NAUTICAL CHART by Arturo Perez-Reverte (a recent one, but worth reading)

THE ARROW OF GOLD by Joseph Conrad

IMPERIAL EXPRESS by James Bellah

TERENCE O’ROURKE GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER and THE POOL OF FLAME (both with Terence O’Rourke) by Louis Joseph Vance

THE SECRET OF SAREK, THE COUNTESS CAGLIOSTRO, 813, THE BLOND LADY, THE HOLLOW NEEDLE by Maurice LeBlanc (all Arsene Lupin and most dealing with his quest for the lost treasures of the Kings of France)

THE SPOTTED PANTHER by James Francis Dwyer

THE MATING OF THE BLADES (many titles) by Achmed Abdullah (NIck Romanov, a career Brit solider and the son of an Indian Princess and a Russian aristocrat, author of THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD and the screenplay for LIVES OF THE BENGAL LANCERS)

THE BLUE EYED MANDARIN by Stephen Becker

GOLD OF THE SEVEN SAINTS by Steve Frazee (western)

THE DEEP by Peter Benchley

WHITE WITCH OF THE SOUTH SEAS and ISLAND WHERE TIME STOOD STILL by Dennis Wheatley

JOURNEY TO ORASSIA by Alan Caillou

ZADOK’S TREASURE by Margot Arnold (Toby Glendower mystery)

THE FAMILY TOMB by Michael Gilbert

THE RIDDLE OF SAMPSON by Andrew Garve

THE CUP OF GOLD, THE ETRUSCAN TOMB, THE GREEK AFFAIR by Frank Gruber

THE DANCING MAN by P.M. Hubbard (one of the great thriller writers on any theme)

FIGUREHEAD by Bill Knox (a lost gold ship and a deadly feud on a Scottish island plus a possible monster — one of the Webb Carrick Fisheries Protection Service novel — yes, the Fish Police — also check out his Talos Cord series and as Noah Webster, his Jonathan Gaunt books)

THE CROWN OF COLUMBUS by Louise Edrich and Michael Dorris (good example of the literary version of the treasure hunt)

TARZAN AND THE FORBIDDEN CITY by Edgar Rice Burroughs (search for the ‘Mother of Diamonds’ also known as THE RED STAR OF TARZAN and basis for the serial THE NEW ADVENTURES OF TARZAN serialized on radio)

SEA GOLD by Ian Slater

OUT OF THE DEPTHS by Leonard Holton (Father Bredder on holiday goes scuba diving for treasure and murder)

RIPTIDE and ICE LIMIT by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Childs (okay, they are well into the later period but both outstanding)

THAI GOLD by Jason Shoonover ( not the greatest writer in the world, but interesting because the author is a treasure hunter and relic hunter in real life)

Many of Jonathan Gash’s Lovejoy books touch on treasure hunts

TEMPLE TOWER by Sapper aka H.C. McNeile (Bulldog Drummond hunts a treasure and battles a master criminal,Le Bossu, the Hunchback, in France)

THE NAME OF THE ROSE by Umberto Eco

THE CLUB DUMAS by Arturo Reverte-Perez

THE TAKERS by Jerry Ahern (UFO’s, lost Atlantis, the Antarctic — everything but the kitchen sink)

ICEBOUND by Rick Spenser (paperback original series but better written than usual, the VIKING CIPHER series)

THE ABOLITION OF DEATH by James Anderson

MYSTIC WARRIOR by Ryder Jorgenson [NOTE: See Comment #3 for the correction to this entry.]

THE POLLENBERG INHERITANCE by Evelyn Anthony

GRAVE DOUBT by Ivor Baker

THE TEMPLE TREE by David Beatty (gold-carrying plane crashes on a sacred Asian temple)

THE BUCKINGHAM PALACE CONNECTION by Ted Willis

SOLOMON’S QUEST by H. Bedford-Jones writing as Alan Hawkwood. A classic pulp adventure by the King of the Pulps one of the long running John Solomon series about cherubic Cockney businessman and adventurer Solomon — in this one he races to prevent evidence from being produced that could set the Mid-East aflame — namely that Mohammed converted to Christianity… Needless to say not politically correct. Also JOHN SOLOMON SUPER CARGO and many others.

BLACK CORAL by Nancy Ferguson

DAUGHTER OF THE HAWK by C. S. Forester. Englishwoman’s father leads a South American revolution.

THE WIND CHILL FACTOR, THE GLENDOWER LEGACY, ASSASSINI by Thomas Gifford

THE HOLLOW SEA, CLEFT OF STARS by Geoffrey Jenkins

A TASTE FOR DEATH by Peter O’Donnell. Modesty and Willie battle criminals looking for ancient treasure and using slave labor to do it.

THE LABYRINTH MAKERS by Anthony Price

TERROR KEEP by Edgar Wallace — Mr. J.G. Reeder finds love and treasure.

THE DIAMONDS OF LORETA by Ivor Drummond (Sandro, Colly, and Lady Jenny adventure)

SARAH RAYNE – Tower of Silence. Simon & Schuster, UK, softcover, August 2003; reprint edition: Pocket, UK, July 2009.

   Something of a modern Gothic thriller, with long-buried secrets that are teasingly hinted at throughout the novel.

   Selina March has lived by herself in a “remote Scottish hamlet” since the death of her uncle and two aunts, but when she accepts a paying boarder, crime novelist Joanna Saville, her secluded life will be significantly altered.

   Saville has come to interview inmates of Moy, an asylum for the criminally insane. Moy’s most notorious resident is Mary Maskelyne, who, as an adolescent, murdered three people.

   Mary is cunning and resourceful, and when she, predictably, escapes, she sets in motion events that will precipitate buried secrets into the light where long-ago events will finally be brought to a climax and resolved.

      Bibliography [Novels] —

Tower of Silence (2003)
A Dark Dividing (2004)

Roots of Evil (2005)
Spider Light (2007)
The Death Chamber (2007)

Ghost Song (2009)
House of the Lost (2010)
What Lies Beneath (2011)