So, why do we love a good murder?
Exhibit A is the countdown below, 50 of the finest examples
of the genre from its accepted conception in 1841 to the present day. The
reason I describe the list as 50 OF the best rather than just the 50 best is because
I have set myself the restriction of including only one work per author thus
necessarily excluding a number of classics from the most prolifically brilliant writers. But by doing this I have hopefully made the selection broader and more
interesting than it would otherwise have been.
50
KIM - RUDYARD KIPLING (1901)
It may be as much a coming-of-age novel as a spy thriller but Kipling's evocative account of India-set espionage during the 'great game' is a pioneering work of the genre.
49
MISS SMILLA’S FEELING FOR SNOW – PETER HOEG (1992)
Miss Smilla is a Danish spinster whose intimate
understanding of the white stuff leads her to question the ‘accidental’ death
of a boy based on the tracks that he left behind. A proto-Scandi crime novel
with literary depth and an authentically wintry atmosphere.
48
THE BLACK DAHLIA – JAMES ELLROY (1987)
THE BLACK DAHLIA – JAMES ELLROY (1987)
Ellroy’s breakout work is an audacious mixture of fact and fiction, taking inspiration from the real life murder of Elizabeth Short – the Black Dahlia of the title.
47
DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS – WALTER MOSLEY (1990)
The great African-American gumshoe novel. Mosley’s
protagonist Easy Rawlins begins the story as an unemployed bum and finishes up
a successful private investigator, a journey which some critics have read as a
parable for black empowerment.
46
One of the most enduring alternate reality thrillers, Harris
imagines a Germany that won the Second World War and desperate to hide the full
scale of Nazi atrocities at any cost.
45
PRESUMED INNOCENT – SCOTT TUROW (1987)
An engrossing courtroom thriller whose narrator is a
prosecutor on trial for the murder of a colleague. Its twists and turns won
plaudits and facilitated a big screen adaptation starring Harrison Ford.
44
THE EAGLE HAS LANDED – JACK HIGGINS (1975)
Based on the premise of an attempted abduction of Churchill
by the Nazis Higgins’ gripping wartime yarn is a complex tale of infiltration,
double cross and derring-do.
43
THE GALTON CASE – ROSS MACDONALD (1959)
Considered by many the equal of Chandler and Hammett
MacDonald ploughed a similarly hardboiled furrow with his cynical yet
empathetic PI Lew Archer.
42
THE MINISTRY OF FEAR – GRAHAM GREENE (1943)
One of Greene’s ‘entertainments’ which manages to smuggle an
atmospheric study of paranoia and loss of identity into a rollicking espionage
thriller.
41
THE HOLLOW MAN – JOHN DICKSON CARR (1935)
A magnificently implausible Golden Age howdunit which is
also the ultimate locked room mystery. If you manage to work out the incredibly
convoluted payoff then you deserve some kind of medal.
40
LAST SEEN WEARING… - HILARY WAUGH (1952)
THE FALSE INSPECTOR DEW – PETER LOVESEY (1982)
Lovesey’s comic crime novel takes inspiration from the infamous case of Dr. Crippen as a pair of lovers plot the perfect murder aboard an ocean liner – with a completely unforeseen, and elegantly witty, outcome.
39
A pioneering and highly influential police procedural that
dramatised the daily slog of detective work and the fact that the job is most
definitely 99% perspiration.
38
The fifth Inspector Morse novel was the first to be
televised, and for a reason. This typically literary whodunit is the peak of
Dexter’s sophisticated Oxford-set series.
37
THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE – RICHARD CONDON (1959)
The classic tale of Commie brainwashing is the ultimate ‘Red
Threat’ novel and every bit as nightmarish and paranoid now as it was at the
height of the Cold War.
36
THE MOVING TOYSHOP – EDMUND CRISPIN (1946)
A deliciously light and witty confection from one of the
Golden Age of Crime’s most playful practitioners. The urbane Oxford don sleuth
Gervase Fen is one of the great unsung fictional detectives.
35
ABOVE SUSPICION – HELEN MACINNES (1941)
MacInnes penned a number of terrific espionage novels that exploited
the sense of impending doom and darkness that lingered over Europe in the
lead-up to World War II, the most fully realised of which is ‘Above Suspicion’.
34
A TASTE FOR DEATH – PD JAMES (1986)
James’ corpus of work is so consistently strong that
singling out any one of her novels is near impossible, but for complexity and
ultimate satisfaction this Adam Dalgliesh double murder investigation just
edges it.
33
THE NAME OF THE ROSE – UMBERTO ECO (1980)
A JUDGEMENT IN STONE - RUTH RENDELL (1977)
A Ruth Rendell novel always possesses more layers than your conventional crime potboiler and this late 70s classic seamlessly combines a social critique of the British class system with an edge of the seat psychological thriller.
32
Is this heady mix of medieval monastic murder mystery,
biblical critique and examination of semiotics philosophical literary fiction
or high concept whodunit? When the result is this engrossing who really cares?
31
McBain is the king of the police procedural with his string
of 87th Precinct novels running to over 50 publications. ‘Cop Hater’
is the original, where we meet Detective Steven Carella and the other
detectives of fictional Isola.
30
CASINO ROYALE – IAN FLEMING (1953)
MALICE AFORETHOUGHT – FRANCIS ILES (1931)
A pioneering ‘inverted detective novel’ where the murderer’s identity is revealed early on and the suspense derives from the implementation of his fiendish plan and the subsequent mechanics of his comeuppance.
29
The novel that kick-started the whole Bond phenomenon. The
dashing and ruthless 007 does glamourous battle with the sinister supervillain Le Chiffre in the casinos of Northern France.
28
THE TIGER IN THE SMOKE – MARGERY ALLINGHAM (1952)
Allingham is frequently overshadowed by her Golden Age
contemporaries Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers but her sophisticated
Campion mysteries – of which this comparatively late entry is the finest – are
giants of the genre in their own right.
27
THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL – IRA LEVIN (1976)
Levin specialised in sensational thrillers that stretched
the bounds of credibility to the limit. The brilliantly bonkers ‘Boys From
Brazil’ posits the idea of Hitler’s artificially created progeny taking over
the world.
26
THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE – JAMES M. CAIN (1934)
A pair of young lovers embark on a reckless affair and plot to murder the girl’s aging husband. Cain’s novella is the archetypal pulp fiction: short, sharp, sleazy and packing one hell of a punch.
25
GORKY PARK – MARTIN CRUZ SMITH (1981)
Nobody has captured the criminal milieu of the Cold War USSR as authentically as Cruz Smith and the first Arkady Renko story also has a lot
to say about the differing ideologies of East and West.
24
ASHENDEN – W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM (1928)
A lot of what we now take for granted in Secret Service novels and films stems from Maugham’s groundbreaking collection of short stories revolving around the titular agent. Loosely based on the author’s own experiences ‘Ashenden’ possesses an authenticity that was entirely new to the fledgling genre.
23
A cracking ‘Boys Own’ adventure novel Childers’ book is also
the daddy of the spy story. With characteristic Edwardian pluck and resolve, two
amateur sailors foil a German plot to invade the British Isles.
22
Leonard produced a huge body of work in his lifetime which
straddled the pulpy and the poetic in a way nobody except Chandler could match.
’52 Pickup’ is a typical tale of adultery, blackmail and vengeance, wrapped in
razor sharp prose.
21
MY FRIEND MAIGRET – GEORGES SIMENON (1949)
THE KILLER INSIDE ME – JIM THOMPSON (1952)
So utterly chilling is this first person account of the psychology of a serial killer that it nearly tips over into full-on horror. What makes it so disturbing is Thompson’s ability to get the reader to empathise with such a twisted mind.
20
Selecting an individual Maigret mystery seems somewhat
irrelevant as it was Simenon’s entire oeuvre that was so revolutionary within
crime fiction. ‘My Friend Maigret’ stands as an archetypal example of his
genius but, really, anybody who loves crime novels should read the whole lot.
19
We all know that French President Charles de Gaulle was not
killed by an assassin’s bullet but, as the suspense builds in Forsyth’s
landmark novel, we temporarily forget what we know to be true. There can be no
higher recommendation of a thriller than that.
18
THE THIRTY NINE STEPS – JOHN BUCHAN (1915)
THE INNOCENCE OF FATHER BROWN – G.K. CHESTERTON (1911)
The idea of having a priest as your detective is a stroke of genius and Chesterton fully exploits the ramifications of sin, forgiveness and confession in his intelligent and warm stories.
17
It may be wildly improbable and rely far too heavily on
coincidence but Richard Hannay’s flight across the British countryside pursued
by enemy agents is still one of the greatest rollercoaster rides in fiction.
16
THE MASK OF DIMITRIOS – ERIC AMBLER (1939)
These days Ambler is something of a forgotten man but his
series of inter-war espionage thrillers are absolute gems. ‘The Mask of
Dimitrios’ skilfully combines a searching examination of European corruption
with a gripping quest to find the eponymous enigma.
15
Sjowall and Wahloo were committed Marxists and the Martin
Beck series is as much a political treatise as a collection of crime novels.
Fortunately, they also function brilliantly as wry, realistic and captivating
depictions of the mundanity and occasional high drama of police life.
14
ROGUE MALE – GEOFFREY HOUSEHOLD (1939)
THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE – EDGAR ALLAN POE (1841)
Where it all began. The very first detective story is melodramatic, overblown and has one of the most laughable culprits in literature. But it is also profoundly influential on everything that came afterwards.
13
The ultimate ‘man on the run’ story ‘Rogue Male’s account of
a would-be assassin desperately trying to survive is so raw and full-blooded
you can practically taste the blood and sweat pouring off the page.
12
THE SECRET AGENT - JOSEPH CONRAD (1907)
Conrad's prose may feel a little cumbersome to modern readers but this tense tale about a reluctant anarchist brilliantly fuses the spy thriller with a literary account of existential dread.
Conrad's prose may feel a little cumbersome to modern readers but this tense tale about a reluctant anarchist brilliantly fuses the spy thriller with a literary account of existential dread.
11
THE IPCRESS FILE – LEN DEIGHTON (1962)
Inhabiting the middle ground between the cynicism of Le
Carre and the sensationalism of Fleming Len Deighton is one of the very finest spy
novelists. ‘The IPCRESS File’ is cold war paranoia served up with wit,
flamboyance and characters that you can actually care about.
10
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN – PATRICIA HIGHSMITH (1950)
Too many novels are described as psychological thrillers
just because the protagonist has some kind of badly realised breakdown. A true
psychological thriller is a forensic examination of the mind of a credible
character and the plausible escalation of suspense based upon whatever that
examination uncovers. Patricia Highsmith knew this and that is why her psychological
thrillers have endured so well. ‘Strangers on a Train’s concept of an exchange
of murders is brilliantly simple but Highsmith’s genius is to explore the
nature of guilt and complicity from all angles and with electrifying tension.
9
THE MALTESE FALCON – DASHIELL HAMMETT (1930)
Hammett made Chandler look like a Sunday School teacher in
comparison, so jaded, vicious and cynical were his best works. ‘The Maltese
Falcon’ is one of the very best, an intricate web of lies and betrayal that has
as good a claim as any to inventing the hardboiled genre. Hammett creates one
of the greatest casts of characters in crime fiction, all of whom are
inextricably linked in one way or another to the titular object – a beacon for
greed and duplicity. Unlike Chandler’s Marlowe Hammett’s gumshoe Sam Spade is a
whisper away from being as nefarious as his antagonists and his motivations are
always ambiguous at best.
8
REBECCA – DAPHNE DU MAURIER (1938)
Blessed with one of the most perfect opening lines in all of
literature (‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again’) as well as one of
the most memorable villains in the uber-sinister housekeeper Mrs. Danvers, Du
Maurier’s masterpiece has become a kind of shorthand for gothic melodrama. In
truth it is almost impossible to pigeonhole; it is undoubtedly a mystery novel
but it is also a romance and a work of psychological horror. The first wife of
wealthy Maxim de Winter proves a tough act to follow for our nameless narrator
as the aforementioned Mrs. Danvers wages a campaign of terror against her
beloved’s successor.
7
THE MOONSTONE – WILKIE COLLINS (1868)
Poe may have invented the genre but the detective novel
really came of age with Collins’ magnificent slice of ‘sensation fiction’ (as
it was known to the Victorians). Told by multiple narrators it is the first
time that a number of tropes that would become standard amongst crime novels
were introduced, including red herrings and the professional investigator
(stand up Sergeant Cuff). The Moonstone is a priceless Indian jewel stolen from
the young Rachel Verinder’s possession on her eighteenth birthday and the rest
of the novel relays the complex investigation to retrieve it. Regarded by many
crime writers to be the finest example of the genre ever written its influence
cannot be overstated.
6
GAUDY NIGHT – DOROTHY L. SAYERS (1935)
In Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane Sayers created a crime
fighting duo with real chemistry and spark. Indeed her best work has a depth of
characterisation and theme which the rest of her Golden Age peers simply could
not match and ‘Gaudy Night’ is the apex of this psychological acuity and
compassion. It is the first time that Harriet Vane, invited back to her Oxford
alma mater only to discover poison pen letters and targeted vandalism, takes
centre stage; Sayers’ brilliant depiction of her female sleuth leading to
claims for ‘Gaudy Night’ to be considered the first feminist crime novel.
5
THE DAUGHTER OF TIME – JOSEPHINE TEY (1951)
As far as high concept crime fiction goes having your
detective attempt to solve the murder of the Princes in the Tower is about as
audacious as it gets. Having the lion’s share of the ‘action’ take place from a
hospital bed is braver still and the fact that it all works so well is
testament to Tey’s literary talent as a writer of strong characters and the
innate fascination that the medieval whodunit still engenders. As well as being
a unique form of crime novel ‘The Daughter of Time’ poses wider questions about
the nature and presentation of history and the distortions passed down through
the centuries by those in positions of power.
4
THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES – SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
(1902)
Is there a more famous novel of detection? Certainly there
can be no more iconic sleuth than Sherlock Holmes, the opium addicted, violin
playing, deductive genius who became the first undisputed superstar of the
crime story. These days it is difficult to come to ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’
fresh such is the baggage and familiarity that it has accrued over the decades.
The denouement consequently feels a little obvious and the fact Holmes is
absent for much of the narrative seems rather incongruous given that this is
his most archetypal tale. But for all that it still possesses a potency and
brooding darkness which justify the monolithic reputation.
3
THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD – JOHN LE CARRE (1963)
The greatest of all espionage novels and a match for just
about any ‘literary’ work you care to mention ‘The Spy Who Came in From the
Cold’ is a profound meditation on trust, loyalty, disillusionment and the
inhuman cruelty that a state is capable of enforcing on the individual. In the
same way that Sjowall and Wahloo revelled in the boring minutiae of police work Le Carre is determined to portray a Cold War landscape that is far away from the
shoot-outs and explosions of 007. The novel’s protagonist, Alec
Leamas, inhabits a world where those who give you your orders could be
sacrificing you to the enemy and any kind of morality is a luxury that can be
ill-afforded.
2
THE BIG SLEEP – RAYMOND CHANDLER (1939)
Hammett got there first but Raymond Chandler gave the
hardboiled genre heart and humour and created the coolest fictional detective
ever in Phillip Marlowe. While many may argue that Chandler’s swansong ‘The
Long Goodbye’ is his deepest, most satisfying work, all of the hallmarks of the
Chandler oeuvre - femme fatale, colourful turns of phrase, labyrinthine plot
structure – are most in evidence in this his astonishing debut. Marlowe’s
dealings with the Sternwood clan – in particular the two troublesome daughters –
are so legendarily convoluted that Chandler himself didn’t know who bumped off
one character, but when you are reading a book with this much style, wit and
street poetry that doesn’t matter one jot.
1
THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD – AGATHA CHRISTIE (1926)
Or ‘And Then There Were None,’ or ‘Murder on the Orient
Express,’ or indeed any one of the Queen of Crime’s numerous classics.
Everybody has their favourite Christie but for the fact that it turned the
writing of crime fiction on its head the greatest of them all has to be ‘The
Murder of Roger Ackroyd.’ To give away the twist would be intolerable but
suffice it to say that nothing that had come before had had the nerve or vision
to do anything remotely similar; overnight the parameters of what was possible
in detective fiction were irrevocably changed and new ways in which to fit the
jigsaw puzzle together were unlocked. So what if the characters are largely two
dimensional, the purpose of a great whodunit is to enthral, bamboozle and
ultimately shock the reader at the inventiveness of its resolution and in this ‘Roger
Ackroyd’ succeeds like no other piece of crime fiction.
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