The Mystery Writers of Japan Lists Combined

The First and Last Word.

Before the top 100 mystery novels were surveyed by the Crime Writers' Association (CWA) in 1990 or the Mystery Writers of America (MWA) in 1995, in 1985 The Mystery Writers of Japan (MWJ), together with Tozai Magazine, presented a list of the top 100 "Western" Mystery Novels, mainly those haling from the United States and Europe. This survey was repeated in 2012. 

The lists were presented on this site. In order of rank: 1985.  2012.
By author:  1985.  2012. 

The lists agreed on 53 choices, with 47 unique entries for each date. This represents a total of 147 entries. Twenty-six entries on the 2012 list were published after 1985, too late to be considered for the original list; 24 of these were novels originally written in English.

In this post, I will combine the rankings of the two lists. I used a method similar to that used to merge the CWA and MWA lists. First I excluded short stories, short story collections and foreign translations into English. For those entries which made both MWJ lists, I added the two rankings and divided by two get the average. For those entries that came after 1985 which appeared on the 2012 lists, I made the broad assumption that the 1985 list would have given them the same rank if the book were available. For those entries before 1985 which appeared on only one list, I assumed they would have ranked on the corresponding list if the list was extended long enough to include them. The average place they would have appeared on an extended list was added to the value of their ranking on the list in which they appeared. Those novels which did not make the combined top 100 were those appearing on just one list and ranked 77th or below.

Beyond noting the general good taste represented on this list, we see a fondness for Ellery Queen and James Ellroy (excluded from the CWA and MWA lists). John Dickson Carr and Cornell Woolrich (Irish) are better represented while Dorothy Sayers suffers.

 Rank     Author     Title     (Year)

  1  Ellery Queen  The Tragedy of Y  (1932)
  2  Agatha Christie  And Then There Were None  (1939)
  3  William Irish  Phantom Lady (1942)
  4  Raymond Chandler  The Long Goodbye  (1953)
  5  Agatha Christie  The Murder of Roger Ackroyd  (1926)
  6  Thomas Harris  The Silence of the Lambs  (1988)
  7  John Dickson Carr  The Burning Court  (1937)
  7  Jack Higgins The Eagle Has Landed  (1975)
  9  S. S. Van Dine  The Bishop Murder Case (1929)
10  Frederick Forsyth  The Day of the Jackal  (1971)
11  Ira Levin  A Kiss Before Dying     (1953)
12  Gavin Lyall  Midnight Plus One  (1965)
13  Ross Macdonald  The Chill (1964)
14  Freeman Wills Crofts  The Cask     (1920)
15  Ellery Queen  The Tragedy of X  (1932)
16  John Dickson Carr  The Hollow Man aka The Three Coffins  (1935)
17  Jeffery Deaver The Bone Collector (1997)
18  Agatha Christie  Murder on the Orient Express (1934)
19  Lucien Nahum  Shadow 81 (1975)
20  Dick Francis  For Kicks  (1965)
20  James Ellroy  White Jazz  (1992)
22  Dashiell Hammett The Maltese Falcon  (1930)
23  Scott Turow  Presumed Innocent (1987)
24  Anthony Berkeley  The Poisoned Chocolates Case  (1929)
24  Eden Phillpotts  The Red Redmaynes  (1922)
26  Dashiell Hammett Red Harvest (1929)
27  Ellery Queen  The Egyptian Cross Mystery (1932)
28  Ellery Queen  The Greek Coffin Mystery  (1932)
29  Carter Dickson  The Judas Window (1938)
30  Alistair MacLean  HMS Ulysses (1955)
31  Josephine Tey The Daughter of Time (1951)
32  Anthony Berkeley  Trial and Error  (1937)
32  Raymond Chandler  Farewell, My Lovely  (1940)
32  Arthur Conan Doyle The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
35  Dick Francis  Whip Hand  (1979)
36  John Dickson Carr  The Emperor's Snuff-Box  (1942)
37  Stephen Hunter  Point of Impact  (1993)
38  James Ellroy  The Black Dahlia  (1987)
39  Ross Macdonald  The Wycherly Woman  (1961)
40  Desmond Bagley     High Citadel     (1965)
40  Tom Rob Smith  Child 44  (2008)
42  Christianna Brand Death of Jezebel (1948)
43  Carol O'Connell  The Judas Child  (1998)
44  Wilkie Collins The Moonstone  (1868)
45  Colin Dexter  Last Seen Wearing  (1976)
46  James Ellroy  The Big Nowhere  (1988)
47  Robert B. Parker  Early Autumn  (1981)
48  Stephen King Misery (1987)
49  William L. DeAndrea     The HOG Murders     (1979)
50  John Thomas Sladek Invisible Green (1977)
51  R. D. Wingfield  A Touch of Frost  (1987)
52  Lawrence Block   Eight Million Ways to Die  (1982)
53  S. S. Van Dine   The Greene Murder Case  (1928)
54  Craig Rice  Home Sweet Homicide  (1944)
54  Dan Brown  The Da Vinci Code  (2003)
56  James P. Hogan     Inherit the Stars  (1977)
57  Ellery Queen  Calamity Town  (1942)
58  Robert Goddard     Past Caring  (1986)
59  Robert Ludlum  The Bourne Identity  (1980)
60  Jeffery Deaver  The Cold Moon  (2006)
60  John le Carré  The Spy Who Came in from the Cold  (1963)
62  Jeffrey Archer  Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less (1976)
63  Kazuo Ishiguro  Never Let Me Go  (2005)
64  Robert R. McCammon  Boy's Life  (1991)
65  Christianna Brand  Tour de Force  (1955)
66  Stuart Woods  Chiefs (1981)
67  Brian Freemantle Charlie Muffin aka Charlie M  (1977)
67  Don Winslow  A Cool Breeze on the Underground (2001)
69  Raymond Chandler The Big Sleep  (1939)
69  R. D. Wingfield   Frost at Christmas  (1984)
71  Dorothy L. Sayers  The Nine Tailors  (1934)
72  Cornell Woolrich  Rendezvous in Black  (1948)
73  Anthony Berkeley  Jumping Jenny aka Dead Mrs. Stratton  (1933)
73  Joyce Porter   Dover and the Unkindest Cut of All  (1967)
73  Theodore Roszak  Flicker  (1991)
76  Sarah Waters  Fingersmith  (2002)
76  Ruth Rendell  A Judgement in Stone  (1977)
78  George Pelecanos  The Big Blowdown  (1996)
79  Scott Smith  A Simple Plan  (1993)
80  James M. Cain  The Postman Always Rings Twice  (1934)
80  Jack Higgins  Storm Warning  (1976)
82  Nicholas Blake   The Beast Must Die  (1938)
83  Anthony Berkeley  The Second Shot  (1930)
83  Gavin Lyall  The Most Dangerous Game  (1964)
85  Jack Higgins  A Prayer for the Dying  (1973)
86  Don Winslow  The Power of the Dog (2005)
87  Agatha Christie  The A.B.C. Murders  (1936)
88  Sarah Waters  Affinity  (1999)
88  Graham Greene  The Human Factor  (1978)
90  Ed McBain  Cop Hater  (1956)
91  Daphne du Maurier  Rebecca  (1932)
92  Clive Cussler  Raise the Titanic!  (1976)
92  Trevanian  Shibumi  (1979)
94  Eric Ambler  The Mask of Dimitrios aka A Coffin for Dimitrios (1939)
95  Dick Francis  Odds Against  (1965)
96  Richard Jessup  Threat  (1981)
97  Edmund Clerihew Bentley  Trent's Last Case (1913)
97  Thomas H. Cook  The Chatham School Affair  (1996)
99  Charlotte Armstrong  A Dram of Poison  (1956)
99  Eden Phillpotts  A Voice from the Dark  (1925)