More of the Favorite Mysteries of the CenturyIn case you've forgotten, the 100 favorites were chosen by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. The book was published in 2000 and edited by Jim Huang.
1960-1969
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960)
A Stranger in My Grave by Margaret Millar (1960)
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by John le Carre (1963)
The Deep Blue Good-Bye by John D, MacDonald (1964)
The Chill by Ross MacDonald (1964)
In The Heat of the Night by John Ball (1965)
Cotton Comes to Harlem by Chester Himes (1965)
1970-1979
Time And Again by Jack Finney (1970)
The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo (1970)
No More Dying Then by Ruth Rendell (1971)
An Unsuitable Job For a Woman by P.D. James (1972)
Sadie When She Died by Ed McBain (1972)
Dark Nantucket Noon by Jane Langton (1975)
Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters (1975)
The Sunday Hangman by James McClure (1977)
Edwin of the Iron Shoes by Marcia Muller (1977)
The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley (1978)
Chinaman's Chance by Ross Thomas (1978)
Whip Hand by Dick Francis (1979)
One Corpse Too Many by Ellis Peters (1979)
1980-1989
Looking For Rachel Wallace by Robert B. Parker (1980)
Thus Was Adonis Murdered by Sarah Caudwell (1981)
The Man With a Load of Mischief by Martha Grimes (1981)
Death by Sheer Torture by Robert Barnard (1982)
The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes by K.C. Constantine (1982
"A" Is For Alibi by Sue Grafton (1982)
The Thin Woman by Dorothy Cannell (1984)
Deadlock by Sara Paretsky (1984)
Strike Three You're Dead by R.D. Rosen (1984)
When the Bough Breaks by Jonathan Kellerman (1985)
Sleeping Dog by Dick Lochte (1985)
When the Sacred Ginmill Closes by Lawrence Block (1986)
Tourist Season by Carl Hiaasen (1986)
The Ritual Bath by Faye Kellerman (1986)
Rough Cider by Peter Lovesey (1986)
The Monkey's Raincoat by Robert Crais (1987)
Old Bones by Aaron Elkins (1987)
The Killings at Badger's Drift by Caroline Graham (1987)
Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow (1987)
A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George (1988)
The Silence of the Lamb by Thomas Harris (1988)
A Thief of Time by Tony Hillerman (1988)
Death's Bright Angel by Janet Neel (1988)
Black Cherry Blues by James Lee Burke (1989)
1990-1999
Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard (1990)
If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O by Sharyn McCrumb (1990)
Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley (1990)
Sanibel Flats by Randy Wayne White (1990)
Aunt Dimity's Death by Nancy Atherton (1992)
Booked to Die by John Dunning (1992)
Bootlegger's Daughter by Margaret Maron (1992)
The Ice House by Minette Walters (1992)
Track of the Cat by Nevada Barr (1993)
The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King (1993)
Child of Silence by Abigail Padgett (1993)
The Concrete Blonde by Michael Connelly (1994)
The Yellow Room Conspiracy by Peter Dickenson (1994)
One For The Money by Janet Evanovich (1994)
Mallory's Oracle by Carol O'Connell (1994)
A Broken Vessel by Kate Ross (1994)
Who in the Hell is Wanda Fuca? by G. M. Ford (1995)
Vanishing Act by Thomas Perry (1995)
Blue Lonesome by Bill Pronzini (1995)
Concourse by S.J. Rozan (1995)
Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane (1996)
The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte (1996)
A Test of Wills by Charles Todd (1996)
Dreaming of the Bones by Deborah Crombie (1997)
Blood at the Root by Peter Robinson (1997)
On Beulah Height by Reginald Hill (1998)
I know some of you might complain that your favorite author isn't listed. Please remember this list was compiled by the mystery bookstore owners or managers or staff. The bookstores were all members of the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. And the selections were not necessarily best-sellers. These were the favorites of each store and some members picked on the criteria of "what books would I want to have if I were stranded on a desert island." Sometimes, if the author had a continuing character, then the first in the series was listed, when that author had repeats from more than one store. Another criteria was an author or book was one the bookseller recommended to their customers most often. That was one of the fun things for me in our bookstore...when a customer asked for a new author. New to them, although the book might have been written years ago. Most mystery readers enjoy an author who had a series and naturally they wanted the first book in the series.
This was a fun project. We owe Jim Huang a big debt. For getting the IMBA members to compile this list and publishing it.
Okay, class, how many to you know and/or have read?
I've read 28, and agree with a lot of the chosen authors, but usually I would have picked different books. But of course, half the fun of these things is the arguments they start.
ReplyDeleteI've read at least 40, and a few are on my all-time favorites list: Janet Neel's Death's Bright Angel, Margaret Maron's The Bootlegger's Daughter, Laurie King's The Beekeeper's apprentice. It is indeed an idiosyncratic list. The three I've mentioned were firsts in series that make my shortlist on their own merits. Some of the others listed were firsts in series that got better and better, in some cases much better, eg Marcia Muller, Nevada Barr, SJ Rozan, Deborah Crombie, Elizabeth George. And some are the book many think is the best in the series, eg Reginald Hill's On Beulah Height (my favorite is Underworld) and Robert Parker's Looking for Rachel Wallace (I agree). I'd have picked Peter Dickinson's Glass Sided Ant's Nest or Sleep and His Brother rather than The Yellow Room Conspiracy. Two firsts and a best: Booked to Die, yes; The Killings at Badger's Drift, yes. An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, yes. And I didn't count one I didn't finish, Mallory's Oracle--I disliked the protagonist. As we observe over and over, readers' tastes differ. :)
ReplyDelete"Rift" by Liza Cody. "The Servant's Tale" by Margaret Frazier (one of the best motives for murder I've ever read - wish I'd thought of it). "Death of a Doxy" by Rex Stout. "Summer's Lease" by John Mortimer. "The Seven Percent Solution" by Nicholas Meyer. "The First Eagle" by Tony Hillerman. "Playing for the Ashes" by Elizabeth George. And many others. We all have our favorites!
ReplyDeleteIt's odd, but only five from the 90's, and a lot more from the earlier years. Showing my age, or my crankiness, perhaps. (Or the fact that I used to read more.)
ReplyDelete