10 Crime Novels to Read Before You Die

The British Telegraph created a list of “Fifty Crime Writers to Read Before You Die,” which was interesting but not very definitive. There were also some surprising exclusions.

Here’s my list, shortened to just ten: five classics and five contemporary crime novels.

THE CLASSICS
Wilkie Collins – The Moonstone
T.S. Eliot called it “the first and greatest English detective novel.” The suspenseful tale of this stolen diamond is a classic that no one should miss.

Arthur Conan Doyle – The Study in Scarlet
This is the first published story involving the legendary Sherlock Holmes, arguably the world’s best-known detective.

Agatha Christie – The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Agatha’s superbly executed Poirot mystery is something no mystery fan should miss.

Dashiell Hammett – The Maltese Falcon
No true mystery fan should go without meeting Sam Spade. In the end, he shows us what being a detective is all about.

Raymond Chandler – The Big Sleep
The best hard-boiled mystery ever written. This is where all those classic one-liners came from.

CONTEMPORARY CRIME FICTION
Val McDermid – A Place of Execution
One of the most heavily awarded (and well-deserved) mysteries to date, this chilling tale, set in rural Derbyshire, is the quintessential English village mystery.

Dennis Lehane – Gone Baby Gone
This enthralling, hard-boiled detective novel is a modern masterpiece. (Read the book and avoid the movie.)

Robert Crais – L.A. Requiem
This one has it all. A plot that’s multi-layered and satisfying, plus engaging characters.

Michael Connelly – The Lincoln Lawyer
Simply the best legal thriller ever written.

Joe R. Lansdale – The Bottoms
An enthralling, eerie tale about life in the old South by a masterful storyteller.

REVEW: The Unquiet by John Connolly

This is the best novel I’ve read so far in 2008. It is unlike the vast majority of mysteries written today and unlike anything else I’ve ever read. While P.I. Charlie Parker is a likable, but flawed character, it was the plot, which was most memorable and unique. Connolly’s use of Frank Merrick as a character is also nothing short of genius. A self-described killer, Merrick keeps crossing Parker’s path in his search for his missing daughter. While Parker is looking into the disappearance of Dr. Daniel Clay, Merrick’s appearances are intense and unpredictable. At times, the subject of child abuse is hard to read and yet it was also educational. Connolly takes you into a world where evil exists, but there are other forces at work and you have no idea which side they’re on. Highly Recommended! *****

And the Winners Are…

The Edgar Winners were announced this weekend. The Edgar Allan Poe Award is awarded every April by the Mystery Writers of America (MWA). Eligible novels must be published in the U.S. in English and nominated by the publisher.

Best Novel

Down River by John Hart

Adam Chase has a violent streak, and not without reason. As a boy, he saw things that no child should see, suffered wounds that cut to the core and scarred thin. The trauma left him passionate and misunderstood—a fighter. After being narrowly acquitted of a murder charge, Adam is hounded out of the only home he’s ever known. For five long years he disappears. Now he’s back and nobody knows why, not his family or the cops, not the enemies he left behind.
But Adam has his reasons.
Within hours of his return, he is beaten and accosted, confronted by his family and the women he still holds dear. When bodies start turning up, the small town rises against him and Adam again finds himself embroiled in the fight of his life.

Best First Novel

In the Woods by Tara French

As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers, and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours.
Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a twelve-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox—his partner and closest friend—find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.

Best Paperback Original

Queenpin by Megan Abbott

A young woman hired to keep the books at a down-at-the-heels nightclub is taken under the wing of the infamous Gloria Denton, a mob luminary who reigned during the Golden Era of Bugsy Siegel and Lucky Luciano. Notoriously cunning and ruthless, Gloria shows her eager young protégée the ropes, ushering her into a glittering demimonde of late-night casinos, racetracks, betting parlors, inside heists, and big, big money. Suddenly, the world is at her feet—as long as she doesn’t take any chances, like falling for the wrong guy. As the roulette wheel turns, both mentor and protégée scramble to stay one step ahead of their bosses and each other.