Fri 1 Oct 2010
MY 100 BEST MYSTERIES, by BARRY GARDNER.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists[10] Comments
by BARRY GARDNER
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.
October 1st, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Really good list, and while it wouldn’t reflect my list it would be a good list for anyone (My own 100 Best lists inevitably end up with about 500 titles on them), and an excellent place to start.
I think I’ve read about 90% of the titles and perhaps 95% of the writers listed.
Combine this with Keating’s 100 Best and you’d have a heck of an overview of the genre.
October 1st, 2010 at 8:10 pm
There are about half of these that might show up on my list, and most of those are the ones from 1970 and before.
Many of Barry’s were published fairly close to the year he devised this list, in 1993.
Don’t know why, but when I think of my favorites, I go back in time. I seldom think of anything that’s come out recently.
October 1st, 2010 at 8:26 pm
Barry’s writing was always worth reading and I got a lot of ideas on books and authors to read from him. In fact, he often generously let me (and others) borrow his books and trusted he’d get them back (which he certainly did from me).
He is sorely missed.
As to the list, I’ve read about two-thirds of the titles (at a guess). I agreed with his likes way more often than not, but one place we certainly disagreed was on Kinky Friedman. Maybe it was the Texan in him that attracted him to someone whose books I wouldn’t have expected him to like.
I’ll be curious to see my own list and how much my tastes have changed since 1993.
Thanks, Steve.
October 2nd, 2010 at 12:48 am
I sat down and was toying with my own 100 best and quickly noticed that almost everything on it was from the past and most of it books I read before I turned 40.
I honestly can’t say there would be many books on my list past about 1970 — a few, but not many, and thrillers would have to be an entirely separate list from mystery and suspense.
But it does focus you on what it is you look for and value, and I found looking at my list that rather than plot and puzzle the thing that stood out was character, atmosphere, and that indefinable frisson certain books leave you with.
The ones that stood out on the list often included good puzzles and plots, but for the most part were the ones I recall reaching the last page of and thinking to myself what a good story it was.
Virtually every book was one that has satisfied me emotionally in some way and not just intellectually — even the ones that were exceptional in that area as well.
Looking at Barry’s list, a good many of them fit that definition, books that you connect with on a visceral level and not merely an analytical one, and often books that you could reread with pleasure even knowing what the surprises were the writer had in store for you.
October 2nd, 2010 at 7:42 am
I didn’t know I was on this list, and am very honored to be.
October 2nd, 2010 at 10:55 am
Max
I was going to say that you’re in good company, but this time I think I’ll turn it around and say that they’re in good company, too.
— Steve
October 2nd, 2010 at 11:02 am
David
We’re on the same wave length. I’ve been mulling over my own would-be list (it would be a list if I ever finished one, in writing), and I still can’t think of more than a small handful of recent books I’d include on it.
Mine would be heavy on John Dickson Carr, Ellery Queen, Rex Stout and Agatha Christie, unless I restricted myself to only one book per author. Then would come the private eye or “pulp” writers like Woolrich, Hammett, Chandler and Ross Macdonald.
Lots of puzzle plots in the first grouping, and lots of atmosphere in the second. But I think you’re right about good, solid storytelling being the key, unifying factor.
Which is not to say that recent books are missing in that regard. They just haven’t been in my mind long enough to compete with books I’ve known for a far longer time.
— Steve
October 2nd, 2010 at 5:38 pm
Steve
My problem with these list is I always have to compartmentalize. I can’t come up with just 100 best (or favorite) mixing different genres because you end up leaving so much out. Generally I end up doing 100 best mystery and suspense, 100 best hardboiled, 100 best thrillers … and even then in the mystery and suspense and thriller categories I have to do cut off points or not include short story collections with novels.
As someone once observed when trying to pick the 12 best short stories in the genre you started out with two Poe’s and six Sherlock Holmes stories to begin with if you were honest, and again if you were honest the rest were Father Brown. You almost had to either limit yourself to one per author or state they were the 12 best not by Poe, Conan Doyle, and Chesterton.
My problem with a 100 Best list of mystery and suspense is there are at least ten books on it published before WW I and another twenty five to thirty between the wars — then the rest pretty much published between 1939 and 1970 so that I never get within forty years of contemporary books.
I always end up with things like ten best Gothic Novels, ten best modern hardboiled, ten best caper novels, and the like — and as I said, my 100 best ends up with 500 titles on it.
Or else you do your list and then realise you left out THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES or forgot Agatha Christie.
Of course there are absolutes; Poe’s Tales, THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, THE INNOCENCE OF FATHER BROWN, ASHENDEN, THE THIRTY NINE STEPS, MALTESE FALCON … but in some ways they complicate the process rather than simplfying it.
Maybe we should confine ourselves to 100 Books We Really Liked in no Particular Order of Importance …
October 3rd, 2010 at 2:57 pm
[…] 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 […]
October 4th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
[…] 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, publisher and editor of […]