Mystery Writers Choose Their Favorite Mysteries, Part Two

In Part One of this series I offered up several lists that I had personally come across. The reality is: when it comes to collecting lists, I am merely an amateur enthusiast.

In 1995, Kate Stine assembled The Armchair Detective Book of Lists (Otto Penzler Books) and in 2011, Roger Sobin compiled The Essential Mystery Lists: For Readers, Collectors, and Librarians (ReadHowYouWant). Among their other content, both of these books gathered together records of a variety of mystery authors presenting their favorite mysteries. In Writing Mysteries, edited by Sue Grafton, (2d edition, 2002, Mystery Writers of America), thirty-seven authors were interviewed and, on occasion, the subject of favorite mysteries was addressed. 

One source with a catalog of mystery writers' favorites is www.Detective-Fiction.com where the recommendations of thirteen prominent authors are presented, specifically: Isaac Asimov, Robert Barnard, George Baxt, James Ellroy, Michael Gilbert, Sue Grafton, Reginald Hill, Tony Hillerman, HRF Keating, Peter Lovesey, Charlotte Macleod, Sue Paretsky, and Julian Symons. Their lists are reproduced below.

But first, my top ten list.

Martin Hill Ortiz

Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. His mystery, Never Kill A Friend, will be available June 27th from Ransom Note Press. His epic poem, Two Mistakes, recently won second place in the Margaret Reid/Tom Howard Poetry Competition. My top ten*:

1. Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (1902)
2. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (1962)
3. The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins (1970)
4. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (1930)
5. The City and the City by China Miéville (2009)
6. The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris (1988)
7. The Man Who Was Thursday by GK Chesterton (1908)
8. The Getaway by Jim Thompson (1958)
9. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carré (1963)
10. The Specialty of the House and Other Stories by Stanley Ellin (1979)
*Thumbnail reasons for their inclusion on my list is presented at the bottom of this post.

The Detective-Fiction.com lists:

Isaac Asimov
Best known for his science fiction, the extremely prolific Asimov also wrote many mysteries.

Wilders Walk Away by Herbert Brean (1948)
Case for Three Detectives by Leo Bruce (1936)
The Innocence of Father Brown by GK Chesterton (1911)
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (1928)
Ten Little Indians by Agatha Christie (1939)
The Judas Window by Carter Dickson (1936)
The Horizontal Man by Helen Eustis (1946)
Pick Your Victim by Pat McGerr (1946)
Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L Sayers (1933)
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (1951)

Robert Barnard
In a productive and varied career, Barnard authored mystery novels featuring contemporary detectives and historical detectives, including Mozart. 

Bleak House by Charles Dickens (1853)
Emma by Jane Austen (1816)
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (1902)
Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie (1942)
Strong Poison by Dorothy L Sayers (1930)
More Work for the Undertaker by Margery Allingham (1948)
Tour De Force by Christianna Brand (1955)
How Like an Angel by Margaret Millar (1962)
A Judgement in Stone by Ruth Rendell (1977)
Dover One by Joyce Porter (1964)

George Baxt (Best Theater-Related Mysteries)
Baxt wrote for television, the cinema and, in the 1960s, began a pioneering series of mystery novels featuring a gay-black detective.

Death and the Chaste Apprentice by Robert Barnard (1989)
Dead Heat by Linda Barnes (1984)
Murder in the Title by Simon Brett (1983)
Death Mask by Jane Dentinger (1988)
Murder in the Wings by Edward Gorman (1986)
The Skull Beneath the Skin by PD James (1982)
The G String Murders by Gypsy Rose Lee (1941)
Show Red for Danger by Richard Lockridge (1960)
The Dark Wheel by Philip Macdonald and A. Boyd Correll (1948)
Repeat Performance by William O' Farrell (1942)

James Ellroy
A master of the tabloid dystopia that haunts our age, Ellroy through his hard-boiled novels have chronicled the underbelly of the American dream. His choices reflect his works.

Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (1929)
Double Indemnity by James M Cain (1936)
Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (1940)
Compulsion by Meyer Levin (1956)
The Chill by Ross Macdonald (1964)
The Diggers Game by George V Higgins (1973)
No Beast So Fierce by Edward Bunker (1973)
The Choirboys by Joseph Wambaugh (1975)
True Confessions by John Gregory Dunne (1977)
Red Dragon by Thomas Harris (1981)

Michael Gilbert
Writing mysteries for over a half-century, Gilbert struck gold early with Smallbone Deceased, considered one of the all-time classics in the genre.

The Fashion in the Shrouds by Margery Allingham (1938)
The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler (1943)
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (1926)
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (1868)
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (1902)
The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing (1946)
The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett (1931)
A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin (1953)
Strong Poison by Dorothy L Sayers (1930)
The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey (1948)

Sue Grafton
After learning to recite the alphabet at an early age, Sue Grafton went on to publish a best-selling series of mystery novels, beginning in the early 1980s and continuing today.

Double Indemnity by James M Cain (1936)
The High Window by Raymond Chandler (1942)
Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (1920)
Berlin Game by Len Deighton (1983)
Nerve by Dick Francis (1964)
Death Drop by BM Gill (1979)
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt by CW Grafton (1950)
Cat Chaser by Elmore Leonard (1982)
The Drowning Pool by Ross Macdonald (1950)
Talking to Strange Men by Ruth Rendell (1957)

Reginald Hill
Using several pseudonyms, Reginald Hill published over 50 mysteries. In 2011, he received a Crime Writers Association Diamond Dagger Award for Lifetime Achievement. 

Roxana by Daniel Defoe (1724)
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (1868)
Bleak House by Charles Dickens (1853)
Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope (1867)
Trent's Last Case by EC Bentley (1913)
The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett (1931)
Maigret in Montmarte by Georges Simenon (1954)
At the Back of the North Wind by Nicolas Freeling (1871)
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (1983)
The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson (1952)

Tony Hillerman
Hillerman's popular and acclaimed mysteries helped expand the world of mystery to feature other cultures, focusing on the Native Americans of the Southwest.

The Little Sister by Raymond Chandler (1949)
A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler (1939)
The Third Man by Graham Greene (1950)
Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household (1939)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John Le Carré (1963)
Unknown Man #89 by Elmore Leonard (1977)
The Will of the Tribe by Arthur Upfield (1962)
New Hope for the Dead by Charles Willeford (1985)
The Alvarez Journal by Rex Burns (1975)
The Limits of Pain by K Arne Klom (1979)

HRF Keating
A prolific mystery writer, many of Keating's novels were based in India and featured the detective, Inspector Ghote.

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (1868)
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (1892)
Uncle Abner, Master of Mysteries by Melville Davisson Post (1918)
My Friend Maigret by Georges Simenon (1949)
Beyond This Point are Monsters by Margaret Millar (1970)
The Private Wound by Nicholas Blake (1968)
Mirror Mirror on the Wall by Stanley Ellin (1972)
The Poison Oracle by Peter Dickinson (1974)
The Artful Egg by James McClure (1984)
A Taste for Death by PD James (1986)

Peter Lovesey
The creator of Sgt. Cribb and Peter Diamond, Lovesey's novels have focused on the classic, puzzle style mystery. His works have won three Silver and one Gold Dagger award from the Crime Writers Association.

Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (1892)
Malice Aforethought by Francis Iles (1931)
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M Cain (1934)
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler (1953)
Deadly Percheron by John Franklin Bardin (1946)
Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith (1950)
My Friend Maigret by Georges Simenon (1949)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John Le Carré (1974)
Stronghold by Stanley Ellin (1975)
Fletch by Gregory Macdonald (1974)

Charlotte MacLeod
A master of the cozy mystery, MacLeod has published over thirty novels.

Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters (1975)
Case of the Journeying Boy by Michael Innes (1949)
More Work for the Undertaker by Margery Allingham (1948)
Death of a Fool by Ngaio Marsh (1956)
Tragedy at Law by Cyril Hare (1942)
The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie (1961)
Riddle in the Sands by Erskine Childers (1903)
The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain (1884)
Corpse in a Gilded Cage by Robert Barnard (1984)
Miss Melville Regrets by Evelyn Smith (1986)

Sara Paretsky
Like her protagonist, V.I. Warshawski, Sara Paretsky is been a force to be reckoned with. She has 20 novels and short story collections. She was honored as a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 2011.

The Leavenworth Case by Anna Katharine Green (1878)
Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (1902)
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (1930)
Smiler with the Knife by Nicholas Blake (1939)
More Work for the Undertaker by Margery Allingham (1948)
Johnny Underground by Patricia Moyes (1965)
The Spoilt Kill by Mary Kelly (1961)
The Poison Oracle by Peter Dickinson (1964)
The Assault by Harry Mulisch (1985)
Under Contract by Liza Cody (1986)

Julian Symons

Julian Symons was the author of over a score of mystery novels including the award-winning The Colour of Murder and The Progress of a Crime.

The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett (1931)
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (1860)
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (1894)
The Two Faces of January by Patricia Highsmith (1964)
Doctor Frigo by Eric Ambler (1974)
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carré (1963)
Cogan's Trade by George V Higgins (1974)
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler (1953)
Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allen Poe (1852)
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (1926)


Brief notes regarding my top ten placed here so as not to intrude. 


1. Hound of the Baskervilles 
Holmes is the most dominant figure in all of detective fiction. Acknowledgment must be made.
2. We Have Always Lived in the Castle
A lyrical account of living in the disintegrating world of the aftermath and notoriety of a murder.
3. The Friends of Eddie Coyle
Yes, I got this through Elmore Leonard's recommendation. A revelatory, gut-honest and yet stylized work.
4. The Maltese Falcon
I often measure the quality of a book by how much it mobilizes my writing lust. This was a chief aphrodisiac.
5. The City and the City 
Some find Miéville's works too densely written. I love the density and sheer madness of his visions.
6. The Silence of the Lambs
Kept me awake for many a night shaking in my bed and spraying the room with Lecter Repellant.
7. The Man Who Was Thursday
In my consideration, Chesterton is the most literary of mystery writers.
8. The Getaway 
Some find Thompson amoral. I find a wounded morality. The ending veers into a surreal hell.
9. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
A masterwork that follows Poe's advice that all elements are there to put forward a unity of tone.
10. The Specialty of the House and Other Stories
Each of Ellin's stories are polished to a fantastic brilliance.

Continued in Part Three.