1001 Mysteries to Read Before? Nominations

First we need to define mystery. I'm willing to discuss changes to the following rules, but in the end - the organizer (me) gets to define.

Per Wikipedia:

Mystery fiction is a loosely-defined term that is often used as a synonym for detective fiction or crime fiction— in other words a novel or short story in which a detective (either professional or amateur) investigates and solves a crime. Sometimes mystery books are nonfiction.

Within that loose definition, anything goes.

Please keep in mind the difference between mystery and thriller/suspense:

Thrillers often overlap with mystery stories but are distinguished by the structure of their plots. In a thriller, the hero must thwart the plans of an enemy rather than uncover a crime that has already happened. While a murder mystery would be spoiled by a premature disclosure of the murderer's identity, in a thriller the identity of a murderer or other villain is typically known all along. Thrillers also occur on a much grander scale: the crimes that must be prevented are serial or mass murder, terrorism, assassination, or the overthrow of governments.

~~~~~

Second, the rules on nominations.

Please include the TITLE and the AUTHOR, preferably in Last Name, First Name order.

The best way to nominate to make it easy for me to copy/paste each entry rather than having to type everything in:

Title, Last Name, First Name

Only include the first book if part of a series. If you nominate, for instance, the third book of the series, I WILL change it to the first book before the voting process. I know that sometimes the first book isn't always the best, but this is the best compromise I can come up with.

After some discussion, it is decided that you can pick any book in a series to nominate; however, please keep your nominations to no more than three by the same author. Feel free to go back and edit your posts for now.

Lastly, try to keep nominations to books you have read and enjoyed rather than just heard were good.

Oh, if I think a huge list is copy/pasted from somewhere else, I'll probably not count it. You know, the "100 Best Mysteries Ever Written" things. This is supposed to be "our" list, not someone else's list!

Have fun!

And Then There Were None, Christie, Agatha

(also published as Ten Little Indians)

The Beekeeper's Apprentice, King, Laurie R.

A Great Deliverance, George, Elizabeth

edited to delete The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax. The Pollifax stories are more spy/thriller than mysteries.

Mistress of the Art of Death, Franklin, Ariana

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Larsson, Stieg

I would nominate all of the books in both of these series but putting in the first to represent all.

The Maltese Falcon, Hammett, Dashiell

Silence of the Lambs, Harris, Thomas

Oooo! There are so many!

One for the Money, Evanovich, Janet
And Then There Were None, Christie, Agatha
1st to Die, Patterson, James
Shakespeare's Landlord, Harris, Charlaine
Naked in Death, Robb, J. D.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Larsson, Stieg
Storm Front, Butcher, Jim
The entire series isn't mystery, but the first one qualifies.
The Woman in White, Collins, Wilkie
Guilty Pleasures, Hamilton, Laurell K.
Again, the entire series isn't mystery, but the first one qualifies.
Grave Sight, Harris, Charlaine
Along Came a Spider, Patterson, James
Tempting Danger, Wilks, Eileen

The Five Red Herrings, Sayers, Dorothy L.

Strong Poison, Sayers, Dorothy L.

Murder Must Advertise, Sayers, Dorothy L.

There are others ...

hfglen, remember, only nominate the first book in a series. In this instance...

Whose Body?, Sayers, Dorothy L.

The Moonstone Collins, Wilkie

The Complete Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan
The Daughter of Time by Tey, Josephine
The Crocodile on the Sandbank by Peters, Elizabeth (and all the Amelia Peabody series)
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Bradley, Alan
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Smith, Alexander McCall
The Suspect by Wright, L.R.
The Way Through the Woods by Dexter, Colin

Mystery Mile Allingham, Margery

The Caves of Steel, Asimov, Isaac
The Cat Who Could Read Backwards, Braun, Lilian Jakson
The long good-bye, Chandler, Raymond
The Name of the Rose, Eco, Umberto
Run Man Run, Himes, Chester

Absolution by Murder, Tremayne, Peter
Body Bags, Golden, Christopher
Nero Wolfe, Stout, Rex (Haven't read the first but I've enjoined all the ones I have read)
A Morbid Taste for Bones, Peters, Ellis
The ABC Murders, Christie, Agatha
Dead Watch, Sandford, John
The Big Over Easy, Fforde, Jasper
Dissolution, Sansom, C. J.
Snow Blind, Tracy, P. J. (I know it's the 4th but it's the only one I've read!)
The Eyre Affair, Fforde, Jasper
Last Call, Seamus, JD
Sworn to Silence, Castillo, Linda
Snow Angels, Thompson, James
Eye of the Red Tsar, Eastland, Sam
At Witt's End, Solheim, Beth
Think of a Number, Verdon, John
Rules of Prey, Sandford, John (not sure if this is a Mystery or only a Thriller)

On Nero Wolfe, the first is:
Fer de Lance, Stout, Rex
It's good as a template for the series, but there are others which are better.

The Innocence of Father Brown, Chesterton, G. K.
The Novice's Tale, Frazer, Margaret
The Blessing Way, Hillerman, Tony
The Murders in the Rue Morgue, Poe, Edgar Allen

We don't need to nominate an author more than once in this thread for it to be on the voting thread, do we? If we do, then I'll come back and second many of the nominations in the above threads.

No, one nomination gets it in for voting.

Also, you are nominating a title or series. So if an author has more than one series, be sure to nominate the first title in each series you want to nominate.

For non-series titles, be sure to nominate each book.

The Cater Street Hangman, Perry, Anne

The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl

Still Life, Penny, Louise

The Neon Rain by Burke, James Lee

A Drink Before the War by Lehane, Dennis

The Mermaids Singing by McDermid, Val

Mallory's Oracle by O'Connell

I'm wondering if there will be a problem later, voting between "cosies", and the darker type of myteries such as those I've listed above. Can you guess which type I prefer? ;)

The Chinese Gold Murders, Van Gulik, Robert
Yellowthread Street, Marshall, William Leonard
The Janissary Tree, Goodwin, Jason
A Morbid Taste for Bones, Peters, Ellis
The Mamur Zapt and the Return of the Carpet, Pearce, Michael
A Study in Scarlet, Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur
Bangkok 8, Burdett, John
Belshazzar's Daughter, Nadel, Barbara
The Blessing Way, Hillerman, Tony
The Yellow Claw, Rohmer, Sax
The Last Templar, Jecks, Michael
The Disappeared, Rusch, Kristine Katherine

Endless Night, Christie, Agatha
Master of the Day of Judgment, Perutz, Leo
A New Leaf and Other Stories, Ritchie, Jack
The Horizontal Man, Eustis, Helen
The Red House Mystery, Milne, A.A.
The Chatham School Affair, Cook, Thomas H.
Trent’s Last Case, Bentley, E. C.
The Crooked Hinge, Carr, John Dickson
The Bishop Murder Case, Van Dine, S. S.
Home to Roost, Garve, Andrew

Street of the Five Moons Peters, Elizabeth
Crocodile on the Sandbank Peters, Elizabeth
The Man With a Load of Mischief Grimes, Martha
The Moonstone Collins, Wilkie

Artists in Crime Marsh, Ngaio
Surfeit of Lampreys Marsh, Ngaio

#7 er, Morphy, although they all feature the same sleuth, they're standalone novels.

>23 hfglen: Most mystery series stand alone but include the same sleuth. You still want to stick with the first one else, for instance, I might have to count all 17? of the Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum series.

#24 - Hmm, I see your point, but with some prolific authors, two or three of their works stand alone and above. For instance, Rex Stout wrote over 70 Nero Wolfe novels. I would rarely give his first, Fer de Lance, to introduce a new reader to him. I would more likely start with one of the later ones where the character and formula were smooth, like Some Buried Caesar. This doesn't work for series where there are significant character changes and developments, but for many of the mysteries like Agatha Christie, Stout, Earl Stanley Gardner and so on, the characters don't change much.

So, food for thought, rather than the first book on the character, how about the book about the character which you would introduce a new reader with. In other words, one of the better stories?

Obviously, it's your baby Morphy, so whatever you decide is fine by me, by giving their first work, at least the author's name in in the list, and that is a good thing to have for anyone who loves mysteries.

The Case of the Velvet Claws by Earle Stanley Gardner
The Saint Meets the Tiger by Leslie Charteris

FLOOD by Vachss, Andrew (Burke series)

FACELESS KILLERS by Mankell, Henning (Wallander series)

ROSEANNA by Wahloo, Per & Sjowall, Maj (Beck series)

DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS by Mosley, Walter (Easy Rawlins series)

>25 MrsLee: So then, what is done when two books in a series are nominated? Which one do I pick? How do I keep track of which series they go with? I would have to research and track each one. I can do it, but you see the issues.

I don't know which Stephanie Plum is the best - I just nominated the first one. So how would it compare with the best of Nero Wolfe? Won't just picking the first one in a series make it representative? Or are mysteries different because there can be so many in a series whereas with fantasy it's usually a trilogy?

This might not be as much as an issue as it was for fantasy where I had over a thousand nominations and I simply couldn't administer it if I had to track which book went with which series.

I'm not convinced that my original way is the best, so I'm open to changing it.

ETA: There is also the issue of having something like each of the 70 Nero Wolfe books nominated. That would be a really pain to deal with.

A Dark-adapted Eye - Vine, Barbara (Rendell, Ruth)
Gorky Park - Cruz-Smith, Martin
Chinaman's Chance - Thomas, Ross

two aren't traditional sleuth/cop mysteries, but are excellent. GP is much more traditional, but manages to break the mold.

oh and how could I forget
Mr. White's Confession by Clark, Robert - little-known, but outstanding. While it involves cops (one dirty, one not-so-dirty) it can't be called traditional either.

ETA corrections to author names

#27 - There is also the issue of having something like each of the 70 Nero Wolfe books nominated. That would be a really pain to deal with.

Yes, that would be a big drawback.

Mysteries are of two types (at least), some build the character with each story. Even Dorothy L. Sayers did that somewhat with the characters around Lord Peter, then she did it big time with the trilogy where she tried and miserably failed to ruin him by marrying him off. So you wouldn't want to start it in the middle of that particular trilogy, though it wouldn't make a difference where else you read one.

With Stout, the times change, but the characters, never. So it really doesn't matter which one you pick up, there will never be spoilers to the others.

Ellis Peters, though her books stand alone, still has character growth which it is nice to read in order, as does Anne Perry and Patricia Cornwell.

So for practical purposes, your way is probably best, then each reader can do their own research to decide which way they want to go. :)

>29 MrsLee: Yeah. It's not that I think that the first book is "best," it's just for all practical purposes, it's the clearest.

If I was doing something more than a list such as the 1001 Books where I could explain that THIS book was picked because it was the first in a series and you really need to read the books in order, but with THAT book, it is the best of 10 or 25 or 70, then I could do something other than "only the first book in the series."

#30 and previous. Now that I've spent an afternoon thinking (while also working ;-P ), I'd like to make a suggestion.

How would it be if instead of naming any books in a case like that, we were to nominate

&Lord Peter Wimsey or
&Hercule Poirot or
&Miss Marple ...

where we say that the & stands for 'all books featuring' (whoever is named on that line) ?

Then I'd nominate those three.

The Mask of Ra by P.C. Doherty

Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie

Okay . . . her earlier work, not so much, but the later stuff is pretty good for a little light mystery reading.

A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton

>31 hfglen: I don't know. I don't particularly like the idea but can't put my finger on why.

Other people's thoughts?

Okay -- pretty much all of the mysteries I read are in series, so I'm going to put the series/main character name first, with the title of the first book of the series following that in parenthesis.

Lord Peter Wimsey (Whose Body?) by Dorothy L. Sayers

Roderick Alleyn (A Man Lay Dead) by Ngaio Marsh

Hercule Poirot (The Mysterious Affair at Styles) by Agatha Christie

Brother Cadfael (A Rare Benedictine) by Ellis Peters

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear

EDIT: See post below

Cut to the Quick, Ross, Kate

Thus Was Adonis Murdered, Caudwell, Sarah

#34 -- It seems like mysteries will be hard to list because they are so often written in series . . . and the series can be uneven in quality. For instance, I would highly recommend all of Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie, but would be able to pick out a stand-alone favorite or two of each author's works, and not necessarily the first in the series. For instance, I love the Hercule Poirot series, but I would recommend Murder on the Orient Express or The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (or both!) instead of The Mysterious Affair at Styles in a "best of" list like this one.

On the other hand, I would recommend only the first 10 or 15 "Cat Who" mysteries by Lilian Jackson Braun, and would say that The Cat Who Saw Red was the best of that series, though The Cat Who Could Read Backwards is pretty good, too. The fact that the last four or five books in the series are unintelligible dreck would probably really make me question whether I should vote for it, if the entire series was indicated by the presence of the first book on the list.

Perhaps it would be good to have people nominate their favorite book, no matter where it falls in a series, asking people not to nominate more than three books by any one author. That way, you may end up with all 11 of Dorothy Sayers' books on the list of nominations (if MrsLee picks her favorite three, and hfglen picks his favorite three, and I pick my favorite three, and so on) -- but you're less likely to end up with all 70 Nero Wolfe mysteries on the list. And the final list will then (hopefully) have the best by each author.

The Guards, Bruen, Ken (series: Jack Taylor)

I think that most of the rest I would've mentioned here would be classed more in the thriller genre so I'll leave it at that for now.

>37 foggidawn: I think that's probably best.

Pick your favorite book in a series, but no more than three by one author.

Here are some more:

Devil in a Blue Dress Mosley, Walter
The Shape of Water Camilleri, Andrea

Anatomy of a Murder Traver, Robert
The Last Good Kiss Crumley, James

The Skull Mantra Pattison, Eliot
The Man Who Was Thursday Chesterton, G.K.

The Name of the Rose Eco, Umberto
Presumed Innocent Turow, Scott

The Thin Man Hammett, Dashiell
The Woman in White Collins, Wilkie

Hide and Go Seek, Garve, Andrew
The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn, Dexter, Colin
Club: A Detective Colin Harpur Novel, James, Bill
The Great Impersonation. Oppenheim, E. Phillips
The Killer Inside Me, Thompson, Jim
A Blunt Instrument, Heyer, Georgette
Plot It Yourself, Stout, Rex
The Sign of Four, Doyle, Arthur Conan
Death Has Deep Roots, Gilbert, Michael
The monkey's Mask, Porter, Dorothy

#39 -- In that case, I would pick:

Strong Poison, Five Red Herrings, and Gaudy Night, Sayers, Dorothy

Artists in Crime, Marsh, Ngaio

Murder on the Orient Express and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Christie, Agatha

A Rare Benedictine, Peters, Ellis

Maisie Dobbs, Winspear, Jacqueline

The Cat who Saw Red, Braun, Lilian Jackson

Edit: I checked my catalog and found a few more . . .

The Ruby in the Smoke, Pullman, Philip

The Westing Game, Raskin, Ellen

Aunt Dimity's Death, Atherton, Nancy

All of the above and...
The ritual bath, Kellerman, Faye
The sins of the fathers, Block, Lawrence
The silver pigs, Davis, Lindsey
Odds against, Francis, Dick
Laidlaw, McIlvanney, William
...I'm afraid my tastes are fairly simple when it comes to mysteries :-)

Burglars Can't Be Choosers , Block, Lawrence

What?! Nobody's recommended Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep? I had to read through that one three times to figure out what was going on, but Raymond Chandler's writing is beautiful and it introduced the world to Philip Marlowe.

I'd also recommend Steven Saville's Roman Blood. It's an excellent book and is based on an actual incident in ancient Rome.

I'm stuck on whether I should recommend John Dickson Carr's The Burning Court. I gave it a so-so review, because I prefer hard-boiled mysteries myself. But it is a masterpiece of a 'classic' mystery.

I will second Asimov's The Caves of Steel.

And while I think nominating The Complete Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes is a bit of a cheat, I'll second that too. How do you pick and choose from Sherlock Holmes?

#39 - * bouncing up and down*

Goody! Only, I don't have time right now, this will require serious thought this evening. :)

Why don't we just go whole hog and nominate The Complete Sherlock Holmes?

And how then do we nominate series that do depend on being read in order for the character/plot developments? Mostly I'm thinking of Stephen R. Donaldson's The Man Who series (4 books) and, to a lesser extent, Glen Cook's Garrett, P.I. series (13 books).

Not to be opening a whole 'nother room but I think your definition allows for True Crime books, too. So, I'm going to nominate The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule

I am wondering if you want to have two separate lists - one for those authors who clearly are writing a series of mysteries focused on one, memorable, character (Agatha Christie, etc.) and another for good mysteries that pretty much are a "one of".

Obviously, this will need to be your call, Morphy. Thanks for taking this on....

The Inspector and Mrs. Jeffries by Brightwell, Emily

and I know you are looking for adult mysteries but I think everyone should read at least one
Encyclopedia Brown by Sobol, Donald J.

No, not two lists. If a series depends on being read in order, then nominate the first book. If not, nominate your favorite.

Yes, my first post says that non-fiction is allowed. If there is a crime and there is "detective work" going on, then more than likely, it will fit.

And no, I'm not looking for adult mysteries only. In fact, I think it would be really cool to have children's and YA's.

I already nominated one children's mystery (The Westing Game), but let me add:

The London Eye Mystery, Dowd, Siobhan

and

Chasing Vermeer, Balliett, Blue

In that case:

Sweet Silver Blues by Glen Cook (13 books)
The Man Who Killed His Brother by Stephen R. Donaldson (4 books)

edit for copy-paste:

Sweet Silver Blues, Cook, Glen
The Man Who Killed His Brother, Donaldson, Stephen R.

#39 Many thanks, Morphy. In that case I'll stick to my original 3 nominations (and maybe keep quiet for a bit, which would be unusual).

If we are going to include Encyclopedia Brown, we have to include Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.

> 54. OK -- I'll submit the Hardy Boys with the very first title.

The Tower Treasure, Dixon, Franklin W.

I've never read a Nancy Drew, so I'll leave that pleasure to someone more experienced.

First was The Mystery of the Old Clock

The Monkey's Raincoat, Crais, Robert
The Deep Blue Goodby, MacDonald, John D.
The Godwulf Manuscript, Parker, Robert
The Yiddish Policeman's Union, Chabon, Michael
The Maltese Falcon, Hammett, Dashiel
The Black Echo, Connelly, Michael
Baltimore Blues, Lippman, Laura

No Medals for the Major, Yorke, Margaret
The Third Encounter, Woods, Sara
An Instance of the Fingerpost, Pears, Iain
The Black Mountain, Stout, Rex
Smallbone Deceased, Gilbert, Michael
She Walks These Hills, McCrumb, Sharyn
A Free Man of Color, Hambly, Barbara
Odds on Miss Seeton, Carvic, Heron
Creature Discomforts, Conant, Susan
The Case of the Journeying Boy, Innes, Michael
But He Was Already Dead When I Got There, Paul, Barbara

The Strange Files of Fremont Jones, Day, Dianne
Brat Farrar, Tey, Josephine
The Franchise Affair, Tey, Josephine
Carson's Conspiracy, Innes, Michael
Treachery in Type, Bell, Josephine
Basil of Baker Street, Titus, Eve
Miss Melville Regrets, Smith, Evelyn E.
Death Shall Overcome, Lathen, Emma
The Bone Is Pointed, Upfield, Arthur
The Death of a Lake, Upfield, Arthur
The Leper of St. Giles, Peters, Ellis
Who is Simon Warwick?, Moyes, Patricia
Gideon's Day, Marric, J J
When in Greece, Lathen, Emma
The Wooden Overcoat, Branch, Pamela

Mrs. Pargeter's Point of Honor, Brett, Simon
Biggie and the Poisoned Politician, Bell, Nancy
The Twelve Deaths of Christmas, Babson, Nancy
The Stalking Lamb, Babson, Nancy
The Lord Mayor of Death, Babson, Nancy
Toby's Folly, Arnold, Margot
We'll Always Have Parrots, Andrews, Donna
Murder with Peacocks, Andrews, Donna
The Gyrth Chalice Mystery, Allingham, Margery
Traitor's Purse, Margery Aliingham
Lament for a Maker, Michael Innes

ETA: all fixed, plus I removed a few. Sorry about that, Morphy!

I promise these are really all mine! I will cull a few if you think there are too many. And I tried not to duplicate, but I won't promise that I didn't.

The Judas Pair, Gash, Jonathan
March Violets, Kerr, Philip

Just to repeat, it would be really helpful if you use the format below, else I'll need to hand type all the nominations,

Title, Last Name, First Name

fixed mine... sorry bout that ;-)

Sorry, forgot that. I'll try to fix mine soon.

Not really my genre but I'll nominate The Caves of Steel (Asimov, Isaac) and Pashazade (Grimwood, Jon Courtenay) (only the first one - the other two in the trio is more thrillers than mysteries but the first is definitely a detective story. It even starts with the crime scene investigation...)

The Nine Tailors Sayers, Dorothy L.
Some Buried Caesar Stout, Rex
Too Many CooksStout, Rex
A Play of Isaac Frazer, Margaret
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency Adams, Douglas
Full Dark House Fowler, Christopher
The Virgin in the Ice Peters, Ellis
Absolution by Murder Tremayne, Peter
Rebecca du Maurier, Daphne
The Testament Grisham, John
The Three Coffins Carr, John Dickson

As this is my favorite genre ever,

Still Life by Penny, Louise
The Lake of Dead Languages by Goodman, Carol
Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Christie, Agatha
Murder on the Orient Express by Christie, Agatha
Promise Not to Tell by McMahon, Jennifer
Hound of the Baskervilles by Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan
The Lace Reader by Barry, Brunonia
The 19th Wife by Ebershoff, David
Death on Demand by Hart, Carolyn G.
The Murder Room by James, P.D.
Some Danger Involved by Thomas, Will
The Italian Secretary by Carr, Caleb
An Instance of the Fingerpost by Pears, Iain

A few more:

Murder on Grub Street, Alexander, Bruce
Blind Justice, Alexander, Bruce
269705::Henrietta Who?, Aird, Catherine
269855::Parting Breath, Aird, Catherine
Flight of a Witch, Peters, Ellis
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, Summerscale, Kate

Stupid touchstones! I tried moving a few down here, because this group down at the end of the other post wasn't working, but it didn't help.

Past Caring, Goddard, Robert
Painting the Darkness, Goddard, Robert
In Pale Battalions, Goddard, Robert
Season of the Monsoon, Mann, Paul
The Raphael Affair, Pears, Iain

My favourite by Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost, has already been nominated.

are we supposed to nominate just the first book in a series? Or the ones we think are the best books in the series?

because Robert Parker, John D. MacDonald, Jonathon Gash, Robert Crais, Michael Connelly.... all have very good books all through.

In the Last Analysis, Cross, Amanda

(as well as the rest of the Kate Fansler series.)

Can't wait to vote!

Edited to fix formatting -- sorry, Morphy!

If the series needs to be read in order, nominate the first book.

If the series can be read in any order, nominate your favorite.

But nominate no more than three books by the same author.

And I'm BEGGING here, please use the following format (no "by" and include the commas):

Title, Last Name, First Name

The Last Coyote, Connelly, Michael
The Green Ripper, MacDonald, John D.
Dress Her in Indigo, MacDonald, John D.

The Reaper, Lovesey, Peter

One of the best and most offbeat mysteries I've come across in a long, long while.

The English School of Murder, Edwards, Ruth Dudley

Probably the funniest mystery I've read.

This is a great idea, Morphy. Good going!