This list was complied from passionate reader’s suggestions on facebook, after I published an oddball top 10 list that had many people protesting. I can see that facebook folks LOVE their classic and traditional mysteries – as do I – but I also see there aren’t many recent novels on this list (Naomi Hirahara and Richard Osman being exceptions). Enjoy this list but I put it to you readers – there have been other great books published recently! In the traditional category it’s hard to discount Anthony Horowitz’s Magpie Murders; new books by E.J. Copperman and Gigi Pandian that are experimenting and pushing the traditional form; new series from S.J. Bennett and Harini Nagendra that I feel may become as beloved as some of these books listed; and books by Ann Cleeves, Peter Robinson and Allison Montclair that honor the form and deepen it. Thanks to readers who brought new titles to my attention – Ronnie Bannerjie posted two lists including authors I haven’t yet read. Thank you! Read on!
The Gryth Chalice Mystery (aka Look to the Lady), Margery Allingham
Police at the Funeral, Margery Allingham
The Menagerie, Saradindu Bandyopadhyay
Death on the High C’s, Robert Barnard
The Poisoned Chocolates Case, Anthony Berkley
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Alan Bradley
Green for Danger, Christianna Brand
The Running Woman, Patricia Carlon
The Case of the Constant Suicides, John Dickson Carr
And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie
Death on the Nile, Agatha Christie
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Agatha Christie
Bloodwork, Michael Connelly
The Moving Toy Shop, Edmund Crispin
Dreaming of the Bones, Deborah Crombie
The Hotel of Three Roses, August DeAngelis
He Wouldn’t Kill Patience, Carter Dickson
The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier
Dolly and the Bird of Paradise, Dorothy Dunnett
A is for Alibi, Sue Grafton
B is for Burglar, Sue Grafton
The Crossing Places, Elly Griffiths
The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
Tragedy at Law, Cyril Hare
A Killing Kindness, Reginald Hill
Clark and Division, Naomi Hirahara
Hamlet, Revenge! Michael Innes
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, P.D. James
Beat Not the Bones, Charlotte Jay
Death in the Andamans, M.M. Kaye
The Hidden Staircase, Carolyn Keene
Folly, Laurie R. King
Composition for Four Hands, Hilda Lawrence
The Uninvited, Dorothy Macardle
Death of a Peer (aka Surfeit of Lampreys), Ngaio Marsh
Light Thickens, Ngaio Marsh
When Last I Died, Gladys Mitchell
The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman
How the Light Gets In, Louise Penny
Finishing Stroke, Ellery Queen
Beyond the Dark, Helen Reilly (aka Kieran Abbey)
A Judgement in Stone, Ruth Rendell
The Wall, Mary Roberts Rinehart
Gaudy Night, Dorothy L. Sayers
Murder Must Advertise, Dorothy L. Sayers
The Nine Tailors, Dorothy L. Sayers
In the Bleak Midwinter, Julia Spencer-Fleming
A Cold Blooded Business, Dana Stabenow
The Tattoo Murder Case, Akimitsu Takagi
Brat Farrar, Josephine Tey
The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey
Miss Pym Disposes, Josephine Tey
A Dark Adapted Eye, Barbara Vine
The Sculptress, Minette Walters
The Clock Strikes Twelve, Patricia Wentworth
The Happy Hollisters, Jerry West
Maisie Dobbs, Jaqueline Winspear
Under the Lake, Stuart Woods
Rendevous in Black, Cornell Woolrich