Best Crime Books

In 1987, HRF (Henry Raymond Fitzwarren) Keating (1926- ) compiled his list of the ’100 Best Crime & Mystery Books’ for the London Times, for whom he reviewed crime fiction for 15 years.

1845: Edgar Allan Poe, Tales of Mystery and Imagination
1868: Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone
1870: Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood
1892: Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
1899: E W Hornung, The Amateur Cracksman
1902: Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles
1907: Jacques Futrelle, The Thinking Machine
1908: Mary Roberts Rinehart, The Circular Staircase
1911: G K Chesterton, The Innocence of Father Brown
1918: Melville Davisson Post, Uncle Abner
1925: Edgar Wallace, The Mind of J. G. Reeder
1926: Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
1929: Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest
1929: C H B Kitchin, Death of My Aunt
1930: Dorothy L Sayers, The Documents in the Case
1930: Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon
1931: Arthur W Upfield, The Sands of Windee
1932: Francis Iles, Before the Fact
1933: Erle Stanley Gardner, The Case of the Sulky Girl
1934: Agatha Christie, Murder on the Orient Express
1934: James M Cain, The Postman Always Rings Twice
1934: Dorothy L Sayers, The Nine Tailors
1935: John Dickson Carr, The Hollow Man (T Three Coffins)
1935: Rex Stout  , The League of Frightened Men
1936: Ethel Lina White, The Wheel Spins
1938: Nicholas Blake, The Beast Must Die
1940: Cornell Woolrich, The Bride Wore Black
1940: Ngaio Marsh, Surfeit of Lampreys or Death of a Peer
1942: Ellery Queen, Calamity Town
1942: Cyril Hare , Tragedy at Law
1942: Raymond Chandler, The High Window
1944: Christianna Brand, Green for Danger
1945: Michael Innes, Appleby’s End
1946: Elizabeth Ferrars, Murder Among Friends
1946: Helen Eustis, The Horizontal Man
1946: Edmund Crispin, The Moving Toyshop
1947: Frederick Brown, The Fabulous Clipjoint
1948: Josephine Tey, The Franchise Affair
1948: John Franklin Bardin, Devil Take the Blue-Tail Fly
1948: Margery Allingham, More Work for the Undertaker
1949: Georges Simenon, My Friend Maigret
1949: W R Burnett, The Asphalt Jungle
1950: Michael Gilbert, Smallbone Deceased
1950: Georges Simenon, The Stain on the Snow, The  Snow Was Black.
1951: Josephine Tey, The Daughter of Time
1952: Hillary Waugh, Last Seen Wearing…
1952: Margery Allingham, The Tiger in the Smoke
1953: John Bingham, Five Roundabouts to Heaven
1953: Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye
1953: Guy Cullingford, Post Mortem
1954: Shelley Smith, The Party at No. 5
1955: Patricia Highsmith, The Talented Mr. Ripley
1955: Margaret Millar, The Beast in View
1956: John Creasey (JJ Marric)  Gideon’s Week
1956: Stanley Ellin, Mystery Stories
1960: Georges Simenon, Maigret in Court
1960: Michael Innes, The New Sonia Wayward
1963: Nicholas Freeling, Gun Before Butter
1963: Dorothy Hughes, The Expendable Man
1964: Jim Thompson, Pop. 1280
1966: E B Eberhart, R. S. V. P. Murder
1967: Julian Symons, The Man Who Killed Himself
1967: Emma Lathen, Murder Against the Grain
1967: Maj Sjowall, Per Wahloo: Roseanna
1967: George Sims, The Last Best Friend
1968: Peter Dickinson, The Glass-Sided Ants’ Nest
1968: Helen McCloy, Mr. Splitfoot
1969: Patricia Highsmith, The Tremor of Forgery
1969: Chester Himes, Blind Man With a Pistol
1970: Joan Fleming, Young Man, I Think You’re Dying
1970: Margaret Millar, Beyond This Point are Monsters
1972: Ed McBain, Sadie When She Died
1972: George V Higgins, The Friends of Eddie Coyle
1972: Julian Symons, The Players and the Game
1972: Stanley Ellin, Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
1973: Tony Hillerman, Dance Hall of the Dead
1974: Peter Dickinson, The Poison Oracle
1974: Gregory McDonald, Fletch
1975: P. D. James, The Black Tower
1975: Celia Fremlin, The Long Shadow
1975: Colin Watson, The Naked Nuns or Six Nuns and a Shotgun.
1976: Ross Macdonald, The Blue Hammer
1976: Agatha Christie, Sleeping Murder
1976: Dorothy Salisbury Davis : A Death in the Life
1976: Dorothy Uhnak, The Investigation
1977: Ruth Rendell, A Judgement in Stone
1977: William McIlvanney, Laidlaw
1977: Donald Westlake, Nobody’s Perfect
1978: Reginald Hill, A Pinch of Snuff
1979: Joseph Hansen, Skinflick
1979: P. M. Hubbard, Kill Claudio
1979: John D. MacDonald, The Green Ripper
1981: John Wainwright, All On a Summer’s Day
1981: Amanda Cross, Death in a Tenured Position
1981: Joseph Wambaugh, The Glitter Dome
1982: June Thomson, To Make a Killing
1982: Peter Lovesey, The False Inspector Dew
1984: James McClure, The Artful Egg
1986: P D James, A Taste for Death

Featured, Lists