Saturday, October 1, 2011

Wilkie Collins X Agatha Christie: M for Mysteries

100 Best Mysteries of All Time:

01. The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

02. The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett

03. Tales of Mystery and Imagination, Edgar Allan Poe.

04. The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey

05. Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow

06. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, John le Carré

07. The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins

08. The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler

09. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier

10. And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie

11. Anatomy of a Murder, Robert Traver

12. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Agatha Christie

13. The Long Goodbye, Raymond Chandler

14. The Postman Always Rings Twice, James M. Cain

15. The Godfather, Mario Puzo

16. The Silence of the Lambs, Thomas Harris

17. A Coffin for Dimitrios, Eric Ambler

18. Gaudy Night, Dorothy L. Sayers

19. Witness for the Prosecution, Agatha Christie

20. The Day of the Jackal, Frederick Forsyth

21. Farewell, My Lovely, Raymond Chandler

22. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan

23. The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco

24. Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevski

25. Eye of the Needle, Ken Follett

26. Rumpole of the Bailey, John Mortimer

27. Red Dragon, Thomas Harris

28. The Nine Tailors, Dorothy L Sayers

29. Fletch, Gregory Mcdonald

30. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, John le Carré

31. The Thin Man, Dashiell Hammett

32. The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins

33. Trent’s Last Case, EC Bentley

34. Double Indemnity, James M. Cain

35. Gorky Park, Martin Cruz Smith

36. Strong Poison, Dorothy L Sayers

37. Dance Hall of the Dead, Tony Hillerman

38. The Hot Rock, Donald E Westlake

39. Red Harvest, Dashiell Hammett

40. The Circular Staircase, Mary Roberts Rinehart

41. Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie

42. The Firm, John Grisham

43. The Ipcress File, Len Deighton

44. Laura, Vera Caspary

45. I, The Jury, Mickey Spillane

46. The Laughing Policeman, Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo

47. Bank Shot, Donald E. Westlake

48. The Third Man, Graham Greene

49. The Killer Inside Me, Jim Thompson

50. Where Are The Children?, Mary Higgins Clark

51. “A” is for Alibi, Sue Grafton

52. The First Deadly Sin, Lawrence Sanders

53. A Thief of Time, Tony Hillerman

54. In Cold Blood, Truman Capote

55. Rogue Male, Geoffrey Household

56. Murder Must Advertise, Dorothy L Sayers

57. The Innocence of Father Brown, GK Chesterton

58. Smiley’s People, John le Carré

59. The Lady in the Lake, Raymond Chandler

60. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

61. Our Man in Havana, Graham Greene

62. The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Charles Dickens

63. Wobble to Death, Peter Lovesey

64. Ashenden, W Somerset Maughan

65. The Seven Per-Cent Solution, Nicholas Meyer

66. The Doorbell Rang, Rex Stout

67. Stick, Elmore Leonard

68. The Little Drummer Girl, John le Carré

69. Brighton Rock, Graham Greene

70. Dracula, Bram Stoker

71. The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith

72. The Moving Toyshop, Edmund Crispin

73. A Time to Kill, John Grisham

74. Last Seen Wearing, Hillary Waugh

75. Little Caesar, W.R. Burnett

76. The Friends of Eddie Coyle, George V Higgins

77. Clouds of Witness, Dorothy L Sayers

78. From Russia, With Love, Ian Fleming

79. Beast in View, Margaret Millar

80. Smallbone Deceased, Michael Gilbert

81. The Franchise Affair, Josephine Tey

82. Crocodile on the Sandbank, Elizabeth Peters

83. Shroud for a Nightingale, PD James

84. The Hunt for Red October, Tom Clancy

85. Chinaman’s Chance, Ross Thomas

86. The Secret Agent, Joseph Conrad

87. The Dreadful Lemon Sky, John D MacDonald

88. The Glass Key, Dashiell Hammett

89. Judgment in Stone, Ruth Rendell

90. Brat Farrar, Josephine Tey

91. The Chill, Ross Macdonald

92. Devil in a Blue Dress, Walter Mosley

93. The Choirboys, Joseph Wambaugh

94. God Save the Mark, Donald E Westlake

95. Home Sweet Homicide, Craig Rice

96. The Three Coffins

97. Prizzi’s Honor, Richard Condon

98. The Steam Pig, James McClure

99. Time and Again, Jack Finney

100. A Morbid Taste for Bones, Ellis Peters

 

P/S:

01. The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Including these individual high vote-getters:

  • The Hound of the Baskervilles
  • A Study in Scarlet
  • The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
  • The Sign of Four

03. Tales of Mystery and Imagination, Edgar Allan Poe.

Including these individual high vote-getters:

  • The Gold Bug
  • The Murders in the Rue Morgue

The Top 100 Best Mysteries of All Time was compiled by

the ‘active members’ of the Mystery Writers of America

during 1995 taken from Best Crime Books

 

crime/mystery/suspense/thriller

something i always enjoy reading

classic or contemporary or bestseller

it doesn’t really matter

 

found myself progressing faster

when reading according to such list

and don’t ever give myself excuses like

i don’t really know which book to read

 

from the list

pick a novel i feel like reading

and hence going on further

to delve into the author more

 

and they always say

the more you read

the more you realize

how little have you read

 

undoubtedly

there are familiar names like

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie

 

Charles Dickens, Willkie Collin

Mary Higgins Clark and etc..

 

some..

yes i have heard of

yet have never read any

so what’s the point

hearing the names alone

doesn’t really mean anything

 

yet comes to think of it

there are more authors which

i have never heard of

 

therefore

there are whole lots more of books

waiting to be discovered