I admit it. It is great fun being a member of Mystery Writers of America (MWA). Conferences and seminars on the schedule during the year are informative and… I get to hobnob with some great writers at those events.
Back in the mid 90s, voting members of the MWA community selected their 100 favorite mysteries of all time and for mystery lovers, it is a marvelous list! Take a look and see how many you have read.
TOP 100 MYSTERY NOVELS OF ALL TIME Selected by Active MWA Members (mid 1990s)
1. The Complete Sherlock Holmes, 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
2. The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
3. Tales of Mystery and Imagination, Edgar Allan Poe
Including these individual high vote-getters:
The Gold Bug
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
4. The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey
5. Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow
6. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, John le Carré
7. The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins
8. The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler
9. 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, E.C. 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 Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö
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, G.K. 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 Maugham
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
82. Crocodile on the Sandbank, Elizabeth Peters
86. The Secret Agent, Joseph Conrad
87. The Dreadful Lemon Sky, John D. MacDonald
89. Judgment in Stone, Ruth Rendell
90. Brat Farrar, Josephine Tey
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, John Dickson Carr
97. Prizzi’s Honor, Richard Condon
The MWA members are in the process of voting for their current faves of all time. I don’t know about you, but I wonder which older titles will pop up on the new list. There are some truly classic mysteries here, several of which went on to be made into movies and/or TV series. But the intervening twenty years have given us some remarkable writers and deliciously wicked new mysteries.
Save this list and compare it with the new one when it is announced later this year. In the meantime, cozy up to a great mystery and happy page-turning!
But, better keep the lights on. 😉
