David Montgomery has generated some discussion over on his excellent blog with his list of Ten Greatest Detective Novels. I like lists, of course, so I had to start thinking about that. I'm a little leery of words like "greatest" and "best" and even "favorite", but these are ten novels that stand out in my memory of more than forty years of reading mysteries:
THE BIG SLEEP, Raymond Chandler
MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, Agatha Christie
THE BLACK ECHO, Michael Connelly
THE MALTESE FALCON, Dashiell Hammett
THE WAY SOME PEOPLE DIE, Ross Macdonald
THE PUSHER, Ed McBain
THE FINISHING STROKE, Ellery Queen
ONE LONELY NIGHT, Mickey Spillane
SOME BURIED CAESAR, Rex Stout
THE DAUGHTER OF TIME, Josephine Tey
Obviously, most of these are older books. Really older books, in some cases. And I think it shows I tend to like earlier books in a writer's career. The wide swing in sub-genres and styles is indicative of the fact that I grew up in the Sixties reading mysteries from the local libraries, and I just considered myself a mystery fan, not a fan of any particular kind of mystery. The thing about these books is that I can remember where I was when I read each of them, so they must have made an impression on me.
And of course, the list would probably be different tomorrow.
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4 comments:
I haven't read very many from your top ten but I've never been a huge mystery fan. I'm surprised there wasn't anything by John D. MacDonald, though. I'd have to include a number of his on my favorite mystery list.
How could I have forgotten JDM? On reflection, I'd have to substitute DARKER THAN AMBER for either the Christie or the Tey. It's not the best of the McGee series, but it's the first McGee, and the first MacDonald, that I ever read, bought off the spinner rack in Lester's Pharmacy when it was brand-new and so was I, at least compared to now.
See, I said the list would be different today, and so it is.
I'd have to throw in, hmmm:
"I" is for Innocent by Sue Grafton
"Searching for Rachel Wallace" by Robert B. Parker
"The Deep Blue Goodbye" by John D. MacDonald
"L.A. Requiem" by Robert Crais
Oh, I'm sure I could go on.
Best,
Mark Terry
www.markterrybooks.com
THE DEEP BLUE GOODBYE is a really good book, no doubt about that. I remember liking A PURPLE PLACE FOR DYING quite a bit, too. Heck, I've liked all the JDM novels I've read, I guess.
I like Parker's books, but for me none of them rise to the same level as the books in my list. If one did, it would probably be THE GODWULF MANUSCRIPT, simply because it's the first.
I haven't read any of Crais' Elvis Cole books, but I liked the two stand-alones by him that I've read.
And I've tried to read Grafton three or four times but never got very far in any of the books. She's one of those writers whose work just doesn't resonate with me, but I'm clearly in the minority.
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