Sat 5 Jun 2010
Reviewed by Marvin Lachman: H. R. F. KEATING – Crime and Mystery.
Posted by Steve under Reference works / Biographies , Reviews[5] Comments
by Marvin Lachman
H. R. F. KEATING – Crime and Mystery: The 100 Best Books. Carroll & Graf, US, hardcover, November 1987; trade paperback, October 1996. Xanadu, UK, hardcover, 1987.
Vol. 10, No. 2, Spring 1988.
H.R.F. Keating proves he is a man after my own heart by compiling a list of the one-hundred best mysteries in Crime and Mystery. One can quarrel with some of Keating’s selections; one always will with any list of “bests.”
He leaves out R. Austin Freeman, Alice Tilton, and Stuart Palmer because they are not presently available, but they certainly are in the US, thanks to recent reprints. Keating does not include Dick Francis because he only writes stories of “pure suspense.” Yet, Francis includes plenty of crime and mystery in his plots and has even given us a series detective, Sid Halley.
On the other hand, Keating does not like Nicholas Freeling (I don’t either) but includes him because he is considered “important.” There, Keating should have stuck with his personal taste.
No one could make up a list of one-hundred books and expect total agreement. What is remarkable about Crime and Mystery is that most of Keating’s selections are remarkably sound, and his two-page essays on each are masterpieces of succinct criticism, with superb use of metaphor. This is an indispensable guide to the literature we like best.
Editorial Comment: This is the second in a series of reviews in which Marv covered reference works published in 1987, books about the field of mystery and crime fiction. Preceding this one was Son of Gun in Cheek, by Bill Pronzini. You can find it here.
June 5th, 2010 at 8:32 pm
A good book, and a very good critique of its strength’s and weaknesses. Even if you disagree with Keating’s choices you could do a lot worse than read these 100 books, and not a lot better.
June 5th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
Whenever I browse my way through a book like this, I’m always embarrassed by the large percentage of books that I either haven’t read or haven’t read in 30 or 40 years. Which is almost the same thing. Not quite, but almost.
— Steve
June 5th, 2010 at 11:29 pm
I looked this one over after reading the review and realized I had read all but about seven of the 100 titles. Though I didn’t always agree with Keating’s choices (not sure I would have included the Sayers and Eustace DOCUMENTS IN THE CASE)I agree that those two page comments are models of the form and I defy you to read them and not want to at least try to read the book in question.
Still, I disagree with Marv and Keating about Freeling (a favorite) and can’t imagine how he managed to leave Dick Francis out, but I’m glad he managed to fit Creasey’s GIDEON’S WEEK in and so rightly showed what Creasey at his best did so well.
In virtually every case Keating manages to find what sets the book in question apart from the writers other work and from other good books, which is the hardest thing to do in any list like this. That’s why my 100 best usually end up a top 500.
June 14th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
[…] field of mystery and crime fiction. Preceding this one was , by H. R. F. Keating. You can find it here. […]
June 21st, 2010 at 8:17 pm
[…] by H.R.F. Keating for his Crime and Mystery Stories The 100 Best Books (reviewed by Marv Lachman here […]