'TKAM' listed among 'Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time'

A little over a week ago, on Jan. 22, I posted a list of the nominees for this year’s Edgar Allan Poe Awards, which are given annually by the Mystery Writers of America.

While researching that subject, I ran across a reference to a best-of list I’d never heard of, “The Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time,” which the MWA released in 1995. I was more than a little surprised by some of the books that made the list, for example, “To Kill A Mockingbird,” “The Godfather,” “Dracula,” “The Hunt for Red October” and “Rosemary’s Baby.”

This list was originally published in “The Crime Crown Companion: The Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time,” which was annotated by Otto Penzler and compiled by Mickey Friedman. Published by Three Rivers Press in 1995, this guidebook provides a synopsis for each book on the list plus dates of publication.

Below you’ll find the complete list, which I gleaned from Wikipedia. You’ll probably be surprised by how many of these novels you’ve read or watched on the big screen. Here they are.

1. The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (1887-1927)
2. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (1930)
3. Tales of Mystery & Imagination by Edgar Allen Poe (1852)
4. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Trey (1951)
5. Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow (1987)
6. The Spy Who Came In From the Cold by John le Carre (1963)
7. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (1868)
8. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (1939)
9. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (1938)
10. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (1939)

11. Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver (1958)
12. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (1926)
13. The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler (1953)
14. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain (1934)
15. The Godfather by Mario Puzo (1969)
16. The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris (1988)
17. A Coffin by Dimitrios by Eric Ambler (1939)
18. Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers (1935)
19. Witness for the Prosecution by Agatha Christie (1948)
20. The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth (1971)

21. Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (1940)
22. The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan (1915)
23. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (1980)
24. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevski (1866)
25. Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett (1978)
26. Rumpole of the Bailey by John Mortimer (1978)
27. Red Dragon by Thomas Harris (1981)
28. The Nine Trailors by Dorothy L. Sayers (1934)
29. Fletch by Gregory McDonald (1974)
30. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John Le Carre (1974)

31. The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett (1934)
32. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (1860)
33. Trent’s Last Case by E.C. Bentley (1913)
34. Double Indemnity by James M. Cain (1943)
35. Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith (1981)
36. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers (1930)
37. Dance Hall of the Dead by Tony Hillerman (1973)
38. The Hot Rock by Donald E. Westlake (1970)
39. Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (1929)
40. The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart (1908)

41. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (1934)
42. The Firm by John Grisham (1991)
43. The IPCRESS File by Len Deighton (1962)
44. Laura by Vera Caspary (1942)
45. I, the Jury by Mickey Spillane (1947)
46. The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo (1968)
47. Bank Shot by Donald E. Westlake (1972)
48. The Third Man by Graham Greene (1950)
49. The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson (1952)
50. Where Are the Children? by Mary Higgins Clark (1975)

51. “A” is for Alibi by Sue Grafton (1982)
52. The First Deadly Sin by Lawrence Sanders (1973)
53. A Thief of Time by Tony Hillerman (1989)
54. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (1966)
55. Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household (1939)
56. Muder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers (1933)
57. The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesteron (1911)
58. Smiley’s People by John le Carre (1979)
59. The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler (1943)
60. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960)

61. Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene (1958)
62. The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens (1870)
63. Wobble to Death by Peter Lovesey (1970)
64. Ashenden by W. Somerset Maugham (1928)
65. The Seven Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer (1974)
66. The Doorbell Rang by Rex Stout (1965)
67. Stick by Elmore Leonard (1983)
68. The Little Drummer Girl by John le Carre (1983)
69. Brighton Rock by Graham Greene (1938)
70. Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897)

71. The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith (1955)
72. The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin (1946)
73. A Time to Kill by John Grisham (1989)
74. Last Seen Wearing… by Hillary Waugh (1952)
75. Little Caesar by W.R. Burnett (1929)
76. The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins (1972)
77. Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers (1927)
78. From Russia, with Love by Ian Fleming (1957)
79. Beast in View by Margaret Millar (1955)
80. Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert (1950)

81. The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey (1948)
82. Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters (1975)
83. Shroud for a Nightingale by P.D. James (1971)
84. The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy (1984)
85. Chinaman’s Chance by Ross Thomas (1978)
86. The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad (1907)
87. The Dreadful Lemon Sky by John D. MacDonald (1975)
88. The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett (1931)
89. A Judgement in Stone by Ruth Rendell (1977)
90. Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey (1950)

91. The Chill by Ross MacDonald (1963)
92. Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley (1990)
93. The Choirboys by Joseph Wambaugh (1975)
94. God Save the Mark by Donald E. Westlake (1967)
95. Home Sweet Homicide by Craig Rice (1944)
96. The Three Coffins by John Dickson Carr (1935)
97. Prizzi’s Honor by Richard Condon (1982)
98. The Steam Pig by James McClure (1974)
99. Time and Again by Jack Finney (1970)
100. A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters (1977) and Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin (1967) (tie)

In the end, how many of these books have you had a chance to read? What did you think about them? Which did you like? Dislike? Which would you recommend? Let us know in the comments section below.