Yesterday, I posted “The Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time,” a best-of list compiled by the Mystery Writers of America in 1995. That list was originally published in “The Crime Crown Companion,” and I later learned that this list was compiled in response to a similar list that came out five years before.In 1990, the Crime Writers’ Association, which is based in England, published a best-of list called “The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time,” which appeared for the first time in a book called “The Hatchards Crime Companion.” This book was edited by British suspense writer Susan Moody with a foreword by British novelist Len Deighton.
Below you’ll find a list of the books that were named among “The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time.” As you might imagine, more than a few of the books on this list were also on yesterday’s list. By my count, 42 titles made it onto both lists, and I’ve indicated the books on both lists with an asterisk. Here’s the list.
1. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (1951)*
2. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (1939)*
3. The Spy Who Came In From the Cold by John le Carre (1963)*
4. Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers (1935)*
5. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (1926)*
6. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (1938)*
7. Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (1940)*
8. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (1868)*
9. The PICRESS File by Len Deighton (1962)*
10. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (1930)*
11. The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey (1948)*
12. Last Seen Wearing… by Hillary Waugh (1952)*
13. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (1980)*
14. Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household (1939)*
15. The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler (1953)*
16. Malice Aforethought by Francis Iles (1931)
17. The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth (1971)*
18. The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers (1934)*
19. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (1939)*
20. The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan (1915)*
21. The Collected Sherlock Holmes Short Stories by Arthur Conan Doyle (1892-1927)
22. Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers (1933)*
23. Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe (1852)*
24. The Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler (1939)
25. The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin (1946)*
26. The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham (1952)
27. The False Inspector Dew by Peter Lovesey (1982)
28. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (1860)*
29. A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine (1986)
30. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain (1934)*
31. The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett (1931)*
32. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (1902)
33. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre (1974)*
34. Trent’s Last Case by E.C. Bentley (1913)*
35. From Russia, with Love by Ian Fleming (1957)*
36. Cop Hater by Ed McBain (1956)
37. The Dead of Jericho by Colin Dexter (1981)
38. Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith (1950)
39. A Judgement in Stone by Ruth Rendell (1977)*
40. The Hollow Man by John Dickson Carr (1935)
41. The Poisoned Chocolates Case by Anthony Berkeley (1929)
42. A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters (1977)*
43. The Leper of St. Giles by Ellis Peters (1981)
44. A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin (1953)
45. The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith (1955)*
46. Brighton Rock by Graham Greene (1938)*
47. The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler (1943)*
48. Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow (1987)*
49. A Demon in My View by Ruth Rendell (1976)
50. The Devil in Velvet by John Dickson Carr (1951)
51. A Fatal Inversion by Barbara Vine (1987)
52. The Journeying Boy by Michael Innes (1949)
53. A Taste of Death by P.D. James (1986)
54. The Eagle Has Landed by Jack Higgins (1975)
55. My Brother Michael by Mary Stewart (1960)
56. Bertie and the Thin Man by Peter Lovesey (1987)
57. Penny Black by Susan Moody (1984)
58. Game, Set & Match by Len Deighton (1984-1986)
59. The Danger by Dick Francis (1983)
60. Devices and Desires by P.D. James (1989)
61. Underworld by Reginald Hill (1988)
62. Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart (1958)
63. A Running Duck by Paula Gosling (1978)
64. Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert (1950)*
65. The Rose of Tibet by Lionel Davidson (1962)
66. Innocent Blood by P.D. James (1980)
67. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers (1930)*
68. Hamlet, Revenge! By Michael Innes (1937)
69. A Thief of Time by Tony Hillerman (1989)*
70. A Bullet in the Ballet by Caryl Brahms & S.J. Simon (1937)
71. Dead Heads by Reginald Hill (1983)
72. The Third Man by Graham Greene (1950)*
73. The Labyrinth Makers by Anthony Price (1974)
74. The Quiller Memorandum by Adam Hall (1965)
75. Beast in View by Margaret Millar (1955)*
76. The Shortest Way to Hades by Sarah Caudwell (1984)
77. Running Blind by Desmond Bagley (1970)
78. Twice Shy by Dick Francis (1981)
79. The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon (1959)
80. The Killings at Badger’s Drift by Caroline Graham (1987)
81. The Beast Must Die by Nicholas Blake (1938)
82. Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith (1981)*
83. Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie (1945)
84. Green for Danger by Christianna Brand (1945)
85. Tragedy at Law by Cyril Hare (1942)
86. The Collector by John Fowles (1963)
87. Gideon’s Day by J.J. Marric (1955)
88. The Sun Chemist by Lionel Davidson (1976)
89. The Guns of Navarone by Alistair MacLean (1957)
90. The Colour of Murder by Julian Symons (1957)
91. Greenmantle by John Buchan (1916)
92. The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers (1903)
93. Wobble to Death by Peter Lovesey (1970)*
94. Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (1929)*
95. The Key to Rebecca by Ken Follett (1980)
96. Sadie When She Died by Ed McBain (1972)
97. The Murder of the Maharajah by H.R.F. Keating (1980)
98. What Bloody Man Is That? By Simon Brett (1987)
99. Shooting Script by Gavin Lyall (1966)
100. The Four Just Men by Edgar Wallace (1906)
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.
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