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)
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