Crime Novels to Read Before You Die

[J. Kingston Pierce]

What are the crime, mystery, and thriller novels that every fan of this genre should be sure to read before he or she dies? That's the question Britain's Daily Telegraph asked a couple of weeks back, but its answers were ... well, let's be generous and call them unspectacular.

Hoping to do a better job, The Rap Sheet is putting together its own list of must-reads -- but we need your help. Which books and authors do you think should be included? We won’t limit our list falsely to 50 books and authors, as the Telegraph did, but will instead feature as many names as seems appropriate. And we'll publish the results sometime in the near future.

The floor is now open to suggestions, folks.

[Angie]

Hmm. A few that matter to me (mostly leaving alone the lengthy list of classics)...
THE KILLER INSIDE ME - Jim Thompson
Just about anything by James Lee Burke
Just about anything by Ken Bruen (though I'd say THE GUARDS if pressed to pick just one)
SILENCE OF THE LAMBS - Harris

Each of these writers made (or is continuing to make) a contribution to the genre that is significant. Nobody (IMO) does criminal insanity quite like Thompson. I can't even go into Burke without writing a tome, so I won't. Bruen consistently shakes up form, mixing pop culture references, poetry and fantastic writing in a way that is totally unique. And while I'm not a fan of serial killer novels, SOTL broke open a whole new sub-genre. Yes, there were books written previously about serial killers, but none in quite this way. Oh yeah, and all these books/writers tell damn fine stories.

[John Dishon]

Which Ken Bruen novel would you say is the most representative of his work as a whole?

[Angie]

I'd suggest THE GUARDS. It has all of the elements I mentioned, and is the start of his Jack Taylor series. Bruen also has several stand-alones, his Inspector Brant series, and the collaborations he's done with Jason Starr for Hardcase Crime (BUST & SLIDE).

While I love his writing pretty much across the board, the Jack Taylor books are my faves. THE GUARDS is one of the few contemporary novels that completely blew the top off my head (in a good way).

[I. J. Parker]

I have liked all the Jack Taylor novels equally well so far.

[Elizabeth Zelvin]

I too am fascinated that so far not everybody is rushing to post his or her own list. The topic was "mystery, crime, and thriller," so here are some of mine from the mystery end of the spectrum, starting on the British side:
Dorothy L. Sayers: Gaudy Night, Murder Must Advertise, The Nine Tailors, and Busman's Honeymoon
Margery Allingham: The Tiger in the Smoke
Josephine Tey: Brat Farrar, Miss Pym Disposes, The Franchise Affair
Ngaio Marsh: Death in a White Tie, A Surfeit of Lampreys (can't remember the American title), A Clutch of Constables
Patricia Moyes: Murder Fantastical
Peter Dickinson: The Glass-Sided Ants' Nest, Sleep and His Brother
Reginald Hill: Underworld, Child's Play, On Beulah Height
Janet Neel: Death's Bright Angel
PD James: An Unsuitable Job for a Woman
In the US, I'd rather list whole series--these have all gotten better and better
Sara Paretsky: V.I. Warshawski
Marcia Muller: Sharon McCone
Nevada Barr: Anna Pigeon
Dana Stabenow: Kate Shugak
Julie Smith: Skip Langdon
Laura Lippman: Tess Monaghan
Margaret Maron: Judge Deborah Knott
All of the above are brilliantly character-driven, beautifully written and plotted; most have themes that address larger issues; none is trivial.

[I. J. Parker]

Reginald Hill, yes.

[Sue Dawson]

Too many to list, but since I am an old gal, how about some Erle Stanley Gardner novels. I am sitting here looking at The Case of the Velvet Claws (picked up at my local library's sale shelf), plus James Lee Burke, Lisa Scottotline, Lee Child, Ed McBain, John le Carre', Robert B. Parker and many more. If I mention authors that are members of CrimeSpace, I am sure to offend at least one. Since I am only a reader/librarian who has fun writing letters to newspaper editors and with no books published or planned, I'll leave my list unfinished. Oh, but I will put a plug in for the YA set: Nancy Drew --not great shakes as literature, but the series has stood the test of time with teens.

[Patrick Balester]

You have a copy of "The Case of the Velvet Claws"!!!! (Drool...) Any chance we could start a lending library so I could borrow that from you?

I have been looking for that classic for ages. Congratulations on your good taste.

[Naomi Johnson]

I could never have a complete list, and that's a good thing. There are always new authors with original ideas coming along to shape and re-shape crime fiction. But if I had to start on a list of must-read books in my favorite genre it would begin something like this (and in no particular order):


Erle Stanley Gardner: The Case of the One-Eyed Witness, and under his pseudonym AA Fair: The Bigger They Come
James Lee Burke: Jole Blon's Bounce, or The Tin Roof Blowdown
Donald E. Westlake: Any of the Dortmunder novels, and under his pseudonym Richard Stark: The Hunter
Dashiell Hammett: The Glass Key, or The Thin Man, or The Maltese Falcon
Raymond Chandler: The Big Sleep
John D. MacDonald: The Deep Blue Good-by
Robert Crais: LA Requiem
John Sandford: Rules of Prey
Peter O'Donnell: any of the Modesty Blaise series but especially I, Lucifer, and A Taste For Death
Thomas Harris: Red Dragon
Robert B. Parker: Mortal Stakes
Earl Emerson: The Million-Dollar Tattoo, or Help Wanted: Orphans Preferred, or Into the Inferno
Ken Bruen: The Guards, or The Dramatist, or Calibre
Lee Child: One Shot
Charles Willeford: Miami Blues, or The Way We Die Now
Ross MacDonald: The Drowning Pool
Jim Thompson: The Killer Inside Me
Steve Perry: The Man Who Never Missed (generally listed as science-fiction, but trust me, this is still 'must-read' crime fiction)
Thomas Perry: Butcher's Boy, and Metzger's Dog
Tony Hillerman: Dance Hall of the Dead
Cornell Woolrich: Rendezvous In Black
Fredric Brown: The Fabulous Clipjoint
Nelson DeMille: The General's Daughter
Robert Bailey: Dead Bang
Michael Connelly: Angels Flight


And if you actually read them all (or most of them), you might enjoy this one as well, because it's strictly for fans of the PI sub-genre. But you have to have a sense of humor. If you don't like books intended to make you laugh you won't enjoy it:
Ross H. Spencer: The Compleat Chance Purdue

[I. J. Parker]

Hillerman is good, but more so the early ones. Lee Child: One Shot has a great beginning, but generally the books are just good reads (and occasionally unbelievable). Fir Michael Connelly, only THE LINCOLN LAWYER qualifies for me.

How about Van De Wetering?

[Naomi Johnson]

Have not read Van De Wetering.

Anything of Connelly's written after 'Angels Flight' is mighty suspect IMO. LINCOLN LAWYER, I liked the character of Mickey, but thought the plot was really weak. I could see the answer to that mystery coming early so there was no surprise for me at the end, just confirmation of what had long been obvious.

I will agree that the early Hillermans are to be preferred over the latter works.

In Lee Child's books, I think he carries on a rather interesting dialogue that began at least as early as CS Forester's Hornblower series, if not before, about the "man alone." In fact, there's a term paper for someone to write...

[Karen from AustCrime]

Sandra's right - taste is everything. But so is wideness of choice and surely influence has got to come in to it

Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo - really anything by them
Peter Corris - got Australian Crime fiction kicking along again
Reginald Hill - On Beulah Heights
Charlotte Jay - Beat Not the Bones
Points and Lines by Seicho Matsumoto
Henning Mankell - Faceless Killers (let's look at the refugee situation for what it is)

But then these sorts of lists never work well for me - if somebody wants to do a list of 50 considered / thought provoking novels that just "worked" then count me in.