An interesting list, but really notable for it's absences. Henning Mankell doesn't make an appearance until #412 (as of Oct 17th, 2008), but his fellow Scandinavians, Indriadson, Nesser, Fossum, Ericksson, et. al. don't make an appearance at all. It's safe to say that, for one example, every of Nesser's books is superior to John MacDonald, just to name one author. I'd say he's better than Chandler, Christie, Stout, Hammett and many others. Also, the fact that anything by Dan Brown is listed as number 2 is just disturbing to me.

Can't find alot of Caleb Carr or Kathy Reichs

I read a few Crime and Mystery books but not enough to be a good judge on who writes the best. I would end up voting for Christie, Poe or Koontz just because I recognize their name and have read some of the books, not because I truly knew they were the best.

Chillwater Cove Lakeman has the pacing of Dan Brown, but with literary chops as well! I believe I have stumbled upon the next James Lee Burke. I look forward to reading Lakeman's next novel in this series, BROKEN WING.

Andrew : Mankell might be good but Chandler is one of the most literary talented american writers of the last century. To compare him is too much imo....

John D. Macdonald is great too.

You must hate Hardboiled fiction....

I like Motherless Brooklyn, so funny and entertaining!

This is a great list, but there are some pretty stark omissions, IMO. First, nothing by Ross Thomas? Really? Could he have been forgotten already? He was one of the best satirical/political mystery writers ever. And the list is a bit skimpy on the the Donald Westlake/Richard Stark oeuvre. I would put his relatively recent book The Ax, about a downsized chemist who conspires to kill all of his potential rivals in the job market, in the top 5 best all-time mystery books. Also, many of James Lee Burke's excellent early books did not make the list. Surely anything he has written outshines most of what passes for good mystery writing these days. He's at least as good as, say, Dennis Lehane (who I also love.) Also Michael Dibdin deserves much more of a presence. Finally, where's Robert Wilson? He's written at least three really excellent mystery novels this decade.

Why don't you add them? The form is at the right hand side of the page.

In Cold Blood and Fatal Vision are both TRUE CRIME non-fiction works.....IF we put True Crime on this list, then clearly Anne Rule and Doc Olsen should listed.

Susanna wrote: "Why don't you add them? The form is at the right hand side of the page."

Thanks - I will.

I cannot find anything by Harlan Coben on this list, maybe I did not look far enough, but he is too good of a suspense writer NOT to be included

Why don't you add him?

I'm not an Isaac Asimov reader, but isn't he sci-fi rather than crime/mystery?

Isaac Asimov wrote several novel-length mysteries (albeit often ones with a science fiction setting): The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, and Murder at the ABA, are the ones I can think of. From what I recall of reading my grandfather's Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazines while I was growing up, he was a pretty frequent contributor. I remember the "Black Widower" stories in particular.

Did not know that.

He was pretty prolific, Asimov, and wrote in a number of genres.

Lobstergirl wrote: "Did not know that."

Susanna wrote: "Isaac Asimov wrote several novel-length mysteries (albeit often ones with a science fiction setting): The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, and [book:Murder at the ABA|470356..."

Murder at the ABA is a readable non-SF mystery....If I remember rightly, ABA is the American BOOKSELLERS Assoc.

It's been years since I've read it, but I think you're right, Thom.

Thom wrote: "In Cold Blood and Fatal Vision are both TRUE CRIME non-fiction works.....IF we put True Crime on this list, then clearly Anne Rule and Doc Olsen should listed."

I found In Cold Blood but not any by Ann Rule and was wondering. There is nothing so terrifying as The Stranger Beside Me!..... and it took them so long to catch him!

I went to 781 or so and NEVER found Ann Rule! Did overlook her? She should be number ONE!

As wrote: "I went to 781 or so and NEVER found Ann Rule! Did overlook her? She should be number ONE!"

Ann Rule is probably listed under TRUE CRIME

Think I created a list like that last night but will double check in case I duplicated lists.

falling asleep,
Alice

Yes, I did a dup list. How can I delete it?

totally cool book, THO

Where in the world is John Sandford? He is arguably among the top five active American mystery writers.

You could vote for him.

Really sad that Crime and Punishment is hundreds of spaces below Dan Brown. And what the hell is Interview with the Vampire doing here?

I am a little surprised that (1) Robert B. Parker's Looking for Rachel Wallace, Mortal Stakes, Small Vices, etc. and (2) Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Identity, or The Janson Directive... are not here.
Well, I'll vote for them!

I agree with Luis, Robert B. Parker belongs on the list on the basis of his great body of work.

haha..never thought interview with the vampire was a book.LOL.i recommend you guys to read list of 7 by mark frost,,,,best book i've ever read...better than the lost symbol,though it's also satisfactory.:))

Doug wrote: "Where in the world is John Sandford? He is arguably among the top five active American mystery writers."

Agreed. His 'Prey' series with Davenport is excellent.

My Scorpio Soul

Great debut novel. Could hardly put it down.

You add books to the list up at the top, next to "all votes."

Tell No One

You add books to the list up at the top, next to "all votes."

Andrew wrote: "An interesting list, but really notable for it's absences. Henning Mankell doesn't make an appearance until #412 (as of Oct 17th, 2008), but his fellow Scandinavians, Indriadson, Nesser, Fossum, Er..."

to andrew:
will try more scandinavians. list is not by quality
of writing, obviously. where are martha grimes, len
deighton, le carre, steinhauer, and many others ?
agree with dan brown observation. so illiterate that he used 'from vinci' rather than leonardo in his title, as in 'the from vinci code'. not even a writer. popular only because his 'sacred feminine' gimmick appealed to u.s. women's vanity.
larsson not so good, either. pubishing these days
is getting to be like a hollywood insider called the
movie business - 'all hype'.

Senordaffy wrote: "where are martha grimes, len
deighton, le carre, steinhauer, and many others ?"


You could try voting for them.

Im normally into historic fiction

I'd love to have a list with just the title/author for all of 'em - yeah, I'm quite mad, but I love lists! (and mysteries...) Anybody know how I might arrange for that? The only way I've thought of is extremely cumbersome - going through, one-by-one and adding them to a new shelf! ick. Please, please tell me that *somewhere* there's an actual list (no covers or blurbs, etc.) just the titles and authors???

You can add books to the list at the top of the page, next to where it says "all votes."

Abbey wrote: "I'd love to have a list with just the title/author for all of 'em - yeah, I'm quite mad, but I love lists! (and mysteries...) Anybody know how I might arrange for that? The only way I've thought o..."

I would like a downloadable list of this kind as well. and/or the ability to "select all" of the books and add them to a category like "For consideration."

Flashes of Revenge

I managed to get a quarter of the way through this list before deciding it was a) too long and b) incoherent. Why is Diary of Anne Frank on here? Or Lolita? For a list to be meaningful, its entries should conform to the definition. Since the list was created by a "deleted user," has it gone feral?

This is my favourite genre! My favourites are The Three Investigators (because they introduced me to the genre) and Agatha Christie because her use of psychology and human nature to solve mysteries.

So I was thinking of reading either is Dark materials or The Millennium trilogy. I already read materials 1 & 2, and Millennium 1. Any recommendations?

This list is laughable. It is full of books that shouldn't be there and books that are basically horrible written.

The "only vote for the first volume of a series" instruction wasn't originally on this list. I believe it is wrong to change it now and start deleting books.

Furthermore, especially in mystery series, the books are often stand alone, even if they are part of a series. It makes perfect sense, therefore, to vote for each volume separately.

Anyone know of a mystery series set in Germany, preferably Frankfurt, that they can recommend?