What are the Best Mystery Novels of the Past 25 Years?

Over 25 years have passed since 1990 when the Crime Writers' Association of Britain compiled their list of the 100 Best Mystery Novels. It has been 20 years since the Mystery Writers of America undertook a similar effort. These lists, which included several entries that are short story collections, have been commented on and analyzed in past posts.

The lists.
Analyses.

This post presents the question: What novels of recent years are worthy to be included on a list of the best mystery novels? Combined, the 1990 and 1995 lists contained 156 novels spanning approximately 130 years. Therefore, it seems reasonable to add at least one novel for each year. How to narrow down a list to 26 entries? 

Below are the main competitors. I have unfairly included only one novel per author and even with this limitation the number swells rapidly to over fifty. 

One of the greater points of contention is why I chose a particular volume to represent an author's work. I did have a method, albeit a flawed one. I looked for the highest ratings on Goodreads among the top vote-getters for a particular author. Other times, I included the first in a series because that work defined them.

I tried to keep this list impersonal. I have read approximately half of these and could not judge those I did not read, and I did include several which were popular, but not my favorites.

Automatic Inclusions:

• The Firm by John Grisham (1991)
•  Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Moseley (1990)

These two are the sole mysteries on the MWA list that were published too late to be considered for the CWA list.

The Juggernauts.

Often when a book is too successful, it invites scorn. Other times it is worthy of every sale.
(This list, along with the others, is alphabetical by author)

• The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (2002)
• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (2012)
• Millennium series (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. . .) by Stieg Larssen (2005-2007)
• The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (2002)
• Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (2001) Although lesser known than the above choices, this is the second best-selling novel in the history of Spain, after Don Quixote, and one of the top 90 best-selling books (not just novels) of all time.

People's Choice.

Other quality works that were immensely popular or are representative of best-selling authors.

• The Alienist by Caleb Carr (1994)
• Worth Dying For by Lee Child (2010)
• Tell No One by Harlan Coben (2001)
• All That Remains by Patricia Cornwell (1992)
• The Cold Moon by Jeffery Deaver  (2006)
• One for the Money by Janet Evanovich (1994)
• In the Woods by Tana French (2007)
• Girl on a Train by Paula Hawkins (2015)
• Kiss The Girls by James Patterson (1995)
• The Cabinet of Curiosities by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (2002)
• Buried Prey by John Sandford (2011)
• The #1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith (1998)

Other Acknowledged Masters.

My intent for this group is to include representative works from others who are acknowledged as the best in the field. Some of these could qualify as people's choice above while others peaked below the bestseller lists.

• Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death by MC Beaton (1992)
• The Glass Rainbow by James Lee Burke (2010)
• Loves Music, Loves to Dance by Mary Higgins Clark (1992)
• The Black Echo by Michael Connelly (1992)
• The Chatham School Affair by Thomas H. Cook (1996)
• L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy (1990)
• M is for Malice by Sue Grafton (1996)
• Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow by Peter Høeg (1992)
• Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane (2003)
• The Last Detective by Peter Lovesey (1991)
• No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy (2005)
• The Redbreast by Jo Nesbø, Don Bartlett (2000)
• The Judas Child by Carol O'Connell  (1998)
• 1974 by David Peace (1999)
• Right As Rain by George Pelecanos (2001)
• A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny (2011)
• Clock Watchers by Richard Price (1992)
• A Simple Plan by Scott Smith (1993)
• The Secret History by Donna Tartt (1992)
• Affinity by Sarah Waters  (1999)

Masters in the Later Parts of their Careers.

Although most of these authors were included on the MWA and CWA lists, they continued to put out memorable works.

• The Cat Who Came to Breakfast by Lilian Jackson Braun (1994)
• To the Hilt by Dick Francis (1996)
• The Private Patient by P.D. James (2008)
• The Constant Gardener by John le Carré (2000)
• Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard (1990)
• Body Work by Sara Paretsky (2010)
• Night Passage by Robert B Parker (1997)
• Anna's Book by Barbara Vine (1993)

 

Mixed-Genre.

• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (2003)
• Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris (2001)
• The City and the City by China Mieville (2009)
• Naked In Death by JD Robb (1995)

If Non-Fiction is Considered.

• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: A Savannah Story by John Berendt (1994)
• And the Sea Will Tell by Vincent Bugliosi (1991)
• The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (2003)
• Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon (1991)

MWJ

The Mystery Writers of Japan did update their list of best Western mystery novels in 2012. Below are the choices that were published after the 1990 cut-off of the CWA list. Many of these are already listed above.

• The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown  (2003)
• The Chatham School Affair by Thomas H. Cook  (1996)
• The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver  (1997)
• The Cold Moon by Jeffery Deaver  (2006)
• White Jazz by James Ellroy (1992)
• Point of Impact  by Stephen Hunter  (1993)
• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro  (2005)
• Millennium series by Stieg Larsson  (2005-2007)
• Boy's Life by Robert R. McCammon  (1991)
• The Judas Child by Carol O'Connell  (1998)
• The Big Blowdown  by George Pelecanos (1996)
• Flicker  by Theodore Roszak (1991)
• A Simple Plan by Scott Smith (1993)
• Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith (2008)
• Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (2002)
• Affinity by Sarah Waters  (1999)
• A Cool Breeze on the Underground by Don Winslow (1991)
• The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow (2005)

If you do consider two or more entries from worthy authors (as did MWJ), this combination of lists could grow into 100 mystery novels in the past 26 years.

A Predator's Game, now available, Rook's Page Publishing.

A Predator's Game is available in soft-cover and ebook editions through Amazon and other online retailers.
 -----------------------
Nikola Tesla, Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Henry H. Holmes are all characters in my thriller, A Predator's Game.

Back page blurb of A Predator's Game.

Manhattan, 1896.

When the author Arthur Conan Doyle meets Nikola Tesla he finds a tall, thin genius with a photographic memory and a keen eye, and recognizes in the eccentric inventor the embodiment of his creation, Sherlock. Together, they team up to take on an "evil Holmes." Multi-murderer Dr. Henry H. Holmes has escaped execution and is unleashing a reign of terror upon the metropolis. Set in the late nineteenth century in a world of modern marvels, danger and invention, Conan Doyle and Tesla engage the madman in a deadly game of wits.

Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. Its sequel, set in 1890s Manhattan and titled A Predator's Game, will be available from Rook's Page Publishing, March 30, 2016. It features Nikola Tesla as detective.

His recent mystery, Never Kill A Friend, is available from Ransom Note Press. His epic poem, Two Mistakes, recently won second place in the Margaret Reid/Tom Howard Poetry Competition. He can be contacted at mdhillortiz@gmail.com.

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CWA, MWA and MWJ: Mystery Novels That Made All Three Lists.

The Top Twenty

I have now made a score of posts presenting and analyzing The 100 Top Mystery Novels lists from the Crime Writers' Association (British, 1990), the Mystery Writers of America (1995), and the two lists of "Western" (American and European) Novels from the Mystery Writers of Japan (1985, 2012).

I believe these lists to represent a historical mind-set of the best in mystery from a time when lists did not overwhelm us. (The exception being the 2012 list.) Yes, once upon a time, lists had important things to say. These statements were not a definitive declaration of which is the best, but did put forward what mystery lovers considered were the best. 

In the posts I've made, I've noted that the lists tell stories of their own: how appreciated are female writers? (not appreciated enough). What was the golden age of writing? (these are the good old days).

Here are the twenty novels which made the lists from all three sources. (Note: any book written after 1990 could not have made all three lists.) For the sake of ranking, the MWJ 1985 and 2012 were combined as one and had one vote. The three individual rankings were summed and then ordered. 

Arthur Conan Doyle was shortchanged because each of the lists had a different way of dealing with his works. The British list lumped all of the Holmes short stories together and included The Hound of the Baskervilles, separately. The American list lumped together all of Sherlock Holmes works together, short stories and novels (and ranked it number one). The Japanese lists considered individual Holmes' novels and short story collections.

Rank     Author     Title     (Year)

  1  Agatha Christie  The Murder of Roger Ackroyd  (1926)
  2  Agatha Christie  And Then There Were None  (1939)
  3  Raymond Chandler  The Long Goodbye  (1953)
  4  Dashiell Hammett The Maltese Falcon  (1930)
  5  Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose (1980)
  6  Josephine Tey The Daughter of Time (1951)
  7  Frederick Forsyth  The Day of the Jackal  (1971)
  8  Raymond Chandler  Farewell, My Lovely  (1940)
  9  John le Carré  The Spy Who Came in from the Cold  (1963)
10  Scott Turow  Presumed Innocent (1987)
11  Raymond Chandler The Big Sleep  (1939)
12  Daphne du Maurier  Rebecca  (1932)
13  Dorothy L. Sayers  The Nine Tailors  (1934)
14  James M. Cain  The Postman Always Rings Twice  (1934)
15  Eric Ambler  The Mask of Dimitrios aka A Coffin for Dimitrios (1939)
16  Edmund Clerihew Bentley  Trent's Last Case (1913)
17  John Dickson Carr  The Hollow Man aka The Three Coffins  (1935)
18  Dashiell Hammett Red Harvest (1929)
19  Ruth Rendell  A Judgement in Stone  (1977)
20  Dashiell Hammett  The Glass Key  (1931)

Next up: How long should a mystery novel be?

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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)

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The Case of the Middle-Aged Author - Youth's Revenge

Cold Youth Soup.

In a previous post regarding the list of the Top 100 Mystery Novels assembled by the British Crime Writers' Association (CWA, 1990), I examined the ages of the authors when they wrote their celebrated works. In that analysis, I emphasized the success of middle-aged authors. The average age was 44 and, in deference to the elderly, the extreme age was 69. Furthermore, some of these authors continued to write thrilling mysteries through their eighties and into their nineties.

That previous post: The Case of the Middle-Aged Authors

However, to quote someone who must have been very confused when they said it, youth must be served and they are a dish best served cold. Youth are vichyssoise.

Another way to look at the numbers is to examine the median age (the midpoint between high and low) and the mode (the most frequent occurrence). These can tell you something average won't tell you, something which that number is hiding. While the average of 44 is bumped up by those twenty years older, those authors who are in their thirties can not have their influence lowered by authors in their teens and preteens. In other words, the peak production of these authors lives as measured by having an entry on the CWA list ranges from 23 to 69, not over the whole of their lives.

Let's add in the Mystery Writers of America (1995) and Mystery Writers of Japan (1985 and 2012) lists and see how the ages string out.

Ages:     Mean     Median    Mode   Range
CWA       43.5       42       46    23-69
MWA       43.0       40       34    25-79
MWJ '85   40.8       40       36    25-70
MWJ '12   41.5       40       36    23-60

Here the thirties fair better. The ages can be represented graphically.

The individual bars represent the number of authors who fit in the specified age range (e.g. 30s). In each case, twenties plus thirties have more authors than do the forties.

The MWJ lists are skewed by the fact that they loved the early Ellery Queen (5 entries from their twenties, 9 overall). Perhaps the takeaway message is good news: you can succeed old or young.

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An Analysis of the Lists of the Best Mystery Novels

A History of Mystery: Top Mystery Novel Lists. 

In 1990, the Crime Writers' Association (CWA), based in England, presented a list of the top 100 crime novels of all time. In 1995, the Mystery Writers' of America (MWA) undertook a similar task, compiling their own list of the top 100 mystery novels. Companion guides were published for both the CWA and MWA of these lists with a synopsis and essays.

Both of these venerable organizations were beaten to the punch by Shukan Bunshun magazine of Japan which, with the help of the Mystery Writers of Japan (MWJ), published a list of the top 100 all-time best Western mysteries in 1985 which they followed up with in 2012. At the same time they also included separate surveys of the best Japanese mysteries.

Although today, everyone makes and posts lists, these represent historical documents, illuminating the mind-set of the selectors and providing insights into what was considered the best of mystery writing. 

I am going to make a series of posts which analyze these lists to see what they say about the worldwide impact of the mystery genre and its most recognized authors and works. I have no intention of critiquing the lists for which authors are included and which are neglected.

I believe the following lists represent the first time they have been sorted by author.

CWA 1990 (in ranked order) (by author)
MWA 1995 (in ranked order) (by author)
MWJ 1985 (in ranked order) (by author)
MWJ 2012 (in ranked order) (by author)

Comparisons and Exclusions

First, although the compilations stressed novels, these rules were broken. The British list includes Conan Doyle's The Collected Sherlock Holmes Short Stories and Poe's Tales of Mystery & Imagination. The British list also includes Deighton's trilogy, Berlin Game, Mexico Set and London Match, as a single entry. 

The American list includes a short story/novel compilation with The Complete Sherlock Holmes, a novel, short story, and poem compilation in Tales of Mystery & Imagination, and short story collections in Mortimer's Rumpole of the Bailey, Christie's Witness for the Prosecution, Chesterton's The Innocence of Father Brown, and Maugham's Ashenden. 

The Japanese list includes individual short stories, short story collections and the Millennium trilogy by Larsson (Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, etc.) as single entries.

To compare lists, I have made the following choices. First, short stories and collections will not be considered. It is likely that many more collections would have been chosen if this were part of the selection criteria up front. 

Secondly, I have excluded works translated to English. These lists leaned so heavily on English-first works, that it is clearly the mission of the selectors. For example, I believe it unlikely that the CWA would exclude Crime and Punishment if they were compiling the best mysteries worldwide. Indeed, the CWA included only one novel originally written in a foreign language (Eco's The Name of the Rose). The MWA included three. The MWJ, whose goal was noted as Western mysteries, included six translated to English language novels in their 1985 list and eight (counting Larsson's Millennium series as one entry) in 2012.


With these minimal exclusion criteria, the CWA has 97 novels, the MWA has 92. The 1985 and 2012 iterations of MWJ list have 85.

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The MWJ (Japan) Top 100 Western Mystery Novels (1985), By Author.

Tozai List. The Mystery Writers of Japan
Top 100 Western Mystery Novels (1985) by author

In 1985 Shukan Bunshun Magazine, together with the Mystery Writers of Japan put together a list of the Top 100 Mystery Novels. It is presented below, alphabetically, by author. This poll was updated in 2012.
 

Rank  author name  book title  (year) 

72 Eric Ambler The Mask of Dimitrios aka A Coffin for Dimitrios (1939)
52 Jeffrey Archer Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less (1976)
23 Catherine Arley Woman of Straw (1956)
61 Isaac Asimov Black Widowers (short stories) (1974)
21 Desmond Bagley High Citadel (1965)
92 Bill S. Ballinger The Tooth and the Nail (1955)
75 Edmund Clerihew Bentley Trent's Last Case (1913)
46 Anthony Berkeley The Poisoned Chocolates Case (1929)
61 Anthony Berkeley Trial and Error (1937)
58 Nicholas Blake The Beast Must Die (1938)
38 Christianna Brand Tour de Force (1955)
91 Christianna Brand Death of Jezebel (1948)
56 James M. Cain The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934)
        Curt Cannon (see Ed McBain)
3 Raymond Chandler The Long Goodbye (1953)
13 Raymond Chandler Farewell, My Lovely (1940)
43 Raymond Chandler The Big Sleep (1939)
24 G. K. Chesterton The Innocence of Father Brown (short stories) (1911)
4 Agatha Christie And Then There Were None (1939)
8 Agatha Christie The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
34 Agatha Christie Murder on the Orient Express (1934)
51 Wilkie Collins The Moonstone (1868)
10 Arthur Conan Doyle  The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (short stories) (1892)
45 Arthur Conan Doyle  The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
94 Edmund Crispin Buried for Pleasure (1948)
99 James Crumley The Wrong Case (1975)
71 Clive Cussler Raise the Titanic! (1976)
37 Roald Dahl Someone Like You (short stories) (1953)
64 William L. DeAndrea The HOG Murders (1979)
77 Henry Denker Outrage (1982)
39 Colin Dexter Last Seen Wearing (1976)
35 Carter Dickson The Judas Window (1938)
14 John Dickson Carr The Burning Court (1937)
26 John Dickson Carr The Hollow Man aka The Three Coffins (1935)
69 John Dickson Carr The Emperor's Snuff-Box (1942)
68 Daphne du Maurier Rebecca (1932)
85 Ken Follett Eye of the Needle (1978)
12 Frederick Forsyth The Day of the Jackal (1971)
70 Frederick Forsyth The Devil's Alternative (1979)
98 Frederick Forsyth The Odessa File (1972)
19 Dick Francis For Kicks (1965)
48 Dick Francis Whip Hand (1979)
73 Dick Francis Odds Against (1965)
41 Brian Freemantle Charlie Muffin aka Charlie M (1977)
78 Brian Freemantle Goodbye to an Old Friend (1973)
63 Graham Greene The Human Factor (1978)
19 Dashiell Hammett The Maltese Falcon (1930)
29 Dashiell Hammett Red Harvest (1929)
88 Dashiell Hammett The Glass Key (1931)
5 Jack Higgins The Eagle Has Landed (1975)
56 Jack Higgins Storm Warning (1976)
60 Jack Higgins A Prayer for the Dying (1973)
        William Irish (see Cornell Woolrich)
67 Sébastien Japrisot Trap for Cinderella (1962)
74 Richard Jessup Threat (1981)
86 Harry Kemelman The Nine Mile Walk (short stories) (1967)
89 Tony Kenrick Stealing Lillian (1975)
33 John le Carré The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963)
41 Maurice Leblanc 813 (1910)
16 Gaston Leroux The Mystery of the Yellow Room (1907)
17 Ira Levin A Kiss Before Dying (1953)
32 Robert Ludlum The Bourne Identity (1980)
6 Gavin Lyall Midnight Plus One (1965)
59 Gavin Lyall The Most Dangerous Game (1964)
 24 Ross Macdonald The Chill (1964)
54 Ross Macdonald The Wycherly Woman (1961)
11 Alistair MacLean HMS Ulysses (1955)
80 Alistair MacLean The Guns of Navarone (1957)
64 Ed McBain Cop Hater (1956)
82 Curt Cannon I Like 'em Tough (short stories) (1958)
87 A. A. Milne The Red House Mystery (1922)
15 Lucien Nahum Shadow 81 (1975)
28 Robert B. Parker Early Autumn (1981)
18 Eden Phillpotts The Red Redmaynes (1922)
76 Eden Phillpotts A Voice from the Dark (1925)
36 Edgar Allan Poe The Murders in the Rue Morgue (short story) (1841)
40 Edgar Allan Poe The Gold-Bug (short story) (1843)
64 Edgar Allan Poe The Purloined Letter (short story) (1845)
49 Joyce Porter Dover and the Unkindest Cut of All (1967)
1 Ellery Queen The Tragedy of Y (1932)
27 Ellery Queen The Tragedy of X (1932)
31 Ellery Queen The Egyptian Cross Mystery (1932)
53 Ellery Queen Calamity Town (1942)
54 Ellery Queen The Greek Coffin Mystery (1932)
90 Ellery Queen The Dutch Shoe Mystery (1931)
94 Ellery Queen Halfway House (1936)
93 A. J. Quinnell Man on Fire (1980)
94 A. J. Quinnell Blood Ties (1984)
49 Craig Rice Home Sweet Homicide (1944)
99 Lawrence Sanders The First Deadly Sin (1973 )
83 Georges Simenon A Man's Head (1931)
30 Sjöwall & Wahlöö The Laughing Policeman (1968)
79 John Thomas Sladek Invisible Green (1977)
84 W. Somerset Maugham Ashenden: Or the British Agent (1928)
44 Josephine Tey The Daughter of Time (1951)
81 Steven L. Thompson Recovery (1980)
9 S. S. Van Dine The Bishop Murder Case (1929)
22 S. S. Van Dine The Greene Murder Case (1928)
7 Freeman Wills Crofts The Cask (1920)
97 Freeman Wills Crofts  The 12.30 from Croydon aka Wilful and Premeditated (1934)
46 Cornell Woolrich Rendezvous in Black (1948)
2 William Irish Phantom Lady (1942)

 Repeat numbers indicate ties. Bold indicates collections. Italics indicates translation.

via Wikipedia.

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The MWJ (Japan) Top 100 Western Mystery Novels (2012), By Author.

Tozai List. The Mystery Writers of Japan
Top 100 Western Mystery Novels (2012) by author

In 2012 Shukan Bunshun Magazine, together with the Mystery Writers of Japan put together a revised list of the Top 100 Mystery Novels. It is presented below, alphabetically, by author.
 

Rank  author name  book title  (year) 

95 Jeffrey Archer Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less (1976)
53 Catherine Arley Woman of Straw (1956)
76 Charlotte Armstrong A Dram of Poison (1956)
66 Isaac Asimov Black Widowers (short stories) (1974)
100 Isaac Asimov The Caves of Steel (1954)
91 Desmond Bagley High Citadel (1965)
20 Anthony Berkeley The Poisoned Chocolates Case (1929)
31 Anthony Berkeley Trial and Error (1937)
49 Anthony Berkeley Jumping Jenny aka Dead Mrs. Stratton (1933)
59 Anthony Berkeley The Second Shot (1930)
21 Lawrence Block Eight Million Ways to Die (1982)
24 Christianna Brand Death of Jezebel (1948)
69 Dan Brown The Da Vinci Code (2003)
6 Raymond Chandler  The Long Goodbye (1953)
79 Raymond Chandler  Farewell, My Lovely (1940)
8 G. K. Chesterton The Innocence of Father Brown (short stories) (1911)
86 G. K. Chesterton The Poet and the Lunatics (short stories) (1929)
1 Agatha Christie And Then There Were None (1939)
5 Agatha Christie The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
11 Agatha Christie Murder on the Orient Express (1934)
62 Agatha Christie The A.B.C. Murders (1936)
99 Agatha Christie Death on the Nile (1937)
67 Wilkie Collins The Moonstone (1868)
3 Arthur Conan Doyle   The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (short stories) (1892)
47 Arthur Conan Doyle The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
96 Arthur Conan Doyle A Study in Scarlet (1887)
94 Thomas H. Cook The Chatham School Affair (1996)
64 Roald Dahl Someone Like You (short stories) (1953)
63 William L. DeAndrea The HOG Murders (1979)
22 Jeffery Deaver The Bone Collector (1997)
73 Jeffery Deaver The Cold Moon (2006)
80 Colin Dexter Last Seen Wearing (1976)
44 Carter Dickson The Judas Window (1938)
10 John Dickson Carr The Burning Court (1937)
16 John Dickson Carr The Hollow Man aka The Three Coffins (1935)
37 John Dickson Carr The Emperor's Snuff-Box (1942)
7 Umberto Eco The Name of the Rose (1980)
27 James Ellroy White Jazz (1992)
55 James Ellroy The Black Dahlia (1987)
60 James Ellroy The Big Nowhere (1988)
17 Frederick Forsyth The Day of the Jackal (1971)
46 Dick Francis Whip Hand (1979)
35 Dick Francis For Kicks (1965)
72 Robert Goddard Past Caring (1986)
38 Dashiell Hammett Red Harvest (1929)
36 Dashiell Hammett The Maltese Falcon (1930)
9 Thomas Harris The Silence of the Lambs (1988)
85 Thomas Harris Red Dragon (1981)
19 Jack Higgins The Eagle Has Landed 1975)
26 James P. Hogan Inherit the Stars (1977)
54 Stephen Hunter Point of Impact (1993)
74 Kazuo Ishiguro Never Let Me Go (2005)
41 Sébastien Japrisot Trap for Cinderella (1962)
68 Harry Kemelman The Nine Mile Walk (short stories) (1967)
61 Stephen King Misery (1987)
12 Stieg Larsson Millennium series (2005-2007)
92 Maurice Leblanc The Hollow Needle (1909)
28 Gaston Leroux The Mystery of the Yellow Room (1907)
13 Ira Levin A Kiss Before Dying (1953)
25 Gavin Lyall Midnight Plus One (1965)
15 Ross Macdonald The Chill (1964)
57 Ross Macdonald The Wycherly Woman (1961)
70 Alistair MacLean HMS Ulysses (1955)
75 Robert R. McCammon Boy's Life (1991)
32 Lucien Nahum Shadow 81 (1975)
98 Richard Neely A Madness of the Heart (1976)
58 Carol O'Connell The Judas Child (1998)
93 Robert B. Parker Early Autumn (1981)
83 George Pelecanos The Big Blowdown (1996)
48 Eden Phillpotts The Red Redmaynes (1922)
34 Edgar Allan Poe The Murders in the Rue Morgue (short story)   (1841)
2 Ellery Queen The Tragedy of Y (1932)
14 Ellery Queen The Tragedy of X (1932)
23 Ellery Queen The Greek Coffin Mystery (1932)
42 Ellery Queen The Egyptian Cross Mystery (1932)
78 Ellery Queen Cat of Many Tails (1949)
90 Ellery Queen Calamity Town (1942)
51 Ruth Rendell A Judgement in Stone (1977)
89 Craig Rice Home Sweet Homicide (1944)
81 Theodore Roszak Flicker  (1991)
45 Dorothy L. Sayers The Nine Tailors (1934)
30 Sjöwall & Wahlöö The Laughing Policeman (1968)
50 John Thomas Sladek Invisible Green (1977)
84 Scott Smith A Simple Plan (1993)
56 Tom Rob Smith Child 44 (2008)
39 Josephine Tey The Daughter of Time (1951)
71 Trevanian Shibumi (1979)
29 Scott Turow Presumed Innocent (1987)
18 S. S. Van Dine The Bishop Murder Case (1929)
52 Ferdinand von Schirach Crime (2009) Short stories.
82 Sarah Waters Fingersmith (2002)
88 Sarah Waters Affinity (1999)
97 Donald E. Westlake The Hot Rock (1970)
33 Freeman Wills Crofts The Cask (1920)
43 R. D. Wingfield Frost at Christmas (1984)
65 R. D. Wingfield A Touch of Frost (1987)
77 Don Winslow A Cool Breeze on the Underground (1991)
87 Don Winslow The Power of the Dog  (2005)
4 William Irish Phantom Lady (1942)
40 Stuart Woods Chiefs (1981)

Repeat numbers indicate ties. Bold indicates collections. Italics indicates translation.

via Wikipedia.

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