Thu 26 Oct 2023
100 Notable Novels of Detection, Selected by Marvin Lachman
Posted by Steve under General[9] Comments
From A Reader’s Guide to the American Novel of Detection (1993) by Marvin Lachman, and posted previously on the Rara Avis Internet group by Tony Baer:
The Shudders, Anthony Abbot
Charlie Chan Carries On, Earl Derr Biggers
Wilders Walk Away & Hardly a Man is still Alive, Herbert Brean
Triple crown, Jon Breen
The Junkyard Dog, Robert Campbell
Hag’s Nook, 3 coffins, crooked hinge, case of the constant suicides, Patrick butler for the defense, the burning court, John Dickson Carr
Kill Your darlings, Max Allan Collins
The James Joyce Murder & death in a Tenured Position, Amanda Cross
The Hands of Healing Murder, Barbara D’Amato
A Gentle Murderer, Dorothy Salisbury Davis
The Judas Window, The reader is Warned, The Gilded Man, She Died a lady, He wouldn’t Kill Patience & Fear is the same, Carter Dickson
Method in Madness & who Rides a Tiger, Doris miles Disney
Old Bones, Aaron Elkins
The horizontal Man, Helen Eustis
The case of the Howling Dog, …the counterfeit eye, ….lame canary, …perjured parrot, …crooked candle, …black eyed blonde, Erle stanley Gardner
What a Body!, Alan Green
The Leavenworth Case, Anna Katherine Green
The Bellamy trial, Frances Noyes Hart
The Devil in the Bush, Matthew head
The Fly on the Wall, Tony Hillerman
9 times 9, Rocket to the Morgue, H.H. Holmes
A Case of Need, Jeffery Hudson
Friday the Rabbi Slept Late, Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry, Harry Kemelman
Obelists Fly High, C. Daly King
Emily Dickinson Is Dead, Jane Langton
Banking on Death, Accounting for Murder, Murder Makes the Wheels Go Rounds, Murder Against the Grain, When in Greece, Emma Lathen
The Norths Meet Murder, Murder Out of Turn, The Dishonest Murderer, Frances and Richard lockridge
Through a Glass Darkly, Helen mcCloy
Pick Your Victim, Pat McGerr
Rest You Merry, Charlotte MacLeod
Paperback thriller, Lynn Meyer
The Iron Gates, Ask For Me Tomorrow, vanish in an Instant, beast in View, Margaret Millar
Death in the Past, Richard Moore
Murder for Lunch, Haughton Murphy
The 120 Hour clock, Francis Nevins, Jr.
The body in the Belfrey, katherin Hall Page
The Puzzle of the Blue Banderilla, stuart Palmer
Remember to Kill Me, Hugh Pentecost
Generous Death & No Body, Nancy Pickard
Unorthodox Practices, Marissa Piesman
The roman Hat Mystery, the French Powder Mystery, The Greek Coffin Mystery, The Egyptian Cross Mystery, The Chinese Orange Mystery, Calamity town, Cat of Many Tails, Ellery Queen
Puzzle for Puppets, Parick Quentin
Death from a Top Hat, Clayton Rawson
The Gold gamble, Herbert resnicow
8 Faces at 3, Craig Rice
Strike Three You’re Dead, Richard Rosen
The Tragedy of X, The Tragedy of Y, Barnaby Ross
The Gray Flannel Shroud, Henry Slesar
Reverend Randollph and the wages of Sin, Charles Merrill Smith
Double Exposure, Jim Stinson
Carolina Skeletons, David Stout
Fer de Lance, The rubber band, too many cooks, some buried Caesar, the silent speaker, in the best families, the black mountain, the doorbell rang, a family affair, rex stout
Rim of the Pit, Hake Talbot
The Cut Direct, Alice Tilton
The Greene Murder Case, SS van Dine
October 26th, 2023 at 9:53 pm
“The intention of every other piece of prose may be discussed and even mistrusted; but the purpose of a cookery book is but one and unmistakable. Its object can conceivably be no other than to increase the happiness of mankind.â€â€”Joseph Conrad.
The same may be said to be true of reading lists like this one.
October 26th, 2023 at 10:18 pm
It’s a great list. I have read about 40 of them, and perhaps 30 more by the same authors but different books. Of these, I didn’t care for only one. Unfortunately detective fiction has become a lot less popular today. Present mystery fans might not even recognize many of these authors.
October 27th, 2023 at 4:54 am
I’ve read about sixty of them, with probbly a dozen more that have been on my Gotta Read Real Soon Pile for many years. I might quibble about some of the books on the list, but I’m sure I’d lose the argument.
Time to dig out my GRRS Pole.
October 27th, 2023 at 12:18 pm
Marv’s list is vastly superior to the recent TIME magazine list of THE BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME: http://georgekelley.org/the-100-best-mystery-and-thriller-books-of-all-time/
October 27th, 2023 at 2:13 pm
The books on TIME’s list from 1992 and earlier are all good, but notable more for books and authors left out. After 1992 the books on their list tend to be mysteries and thrillers, not detective fiction, which was the basis for Marv’s. Apples and oranges, then, and I prefer apples.
October 27th, 2023 at 2:25 pm
Not an exact count, but I put the number read at 56.
October 27th, 2023 at 11:31 pm
Just a list of many happy hours of reading for any mystery fan. I;ve read 64 of them.
October 28th, 2023 at 7:32 am
Any list with Brean’s Hardly a Man is Now Alive, Green’s What a Body, McGerr’s Pick Your Victim, Carr and Resnicow on it, is a great list. Lately, I keep coming across Aaron Elkins and his Gideon Oliver series. So perhaps it’s time to take the hint and give Old Bones a try. I already enjoy the idea of an archaeological/anthropological mystery series.
October 28th, 2023 at 4:45 pm
Elkins was a very good mystery writer, and also a very prolific one, with 30 books to his credit between 1982 and 2016, but for some reason not ever very well-known one. As they say, it’s a mystery.