Crime, Mysteries & Thrillers discussion

Found an item this morning: Lucy Worsley, the author of The Art of the English Murder: From Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes to Agatha Christie and Alfred Hitchcock, has come up with a list of the 10 Best Detectives in Books. She has some very interesting choices:

Catherine Morland -- Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Susan Hopley -- Susan Hopley, Or, The Adventures of a Maid-servant: Or, the Adventures of a ... by Catherine Crowe
Inspector Bucket -- Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Sergeant Cuff -- The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
Mrs Paschal -- Revelations of a Lady Detective by William Stephens Hayward
Sherlock Holmes -- A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
Hercule Poirot -- The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
Harriet Vane -- Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
Philip Marlowe -- The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Ida Arnold -- Brighton Rock by Graham Greene

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by...

I love Ellie MacIntosh from Kate Watterson' s series, Alex Kava' s Maggie O'Dell, Tess Gerritsen' s Jane Rizzoli, Marie Force's Sam Holland and Allison Gaylin' s Brenna Specter, to name a few. Who did I miss?

Debbie wrote: "I love Ellie MacIntosh from Kate Watterson' s series, Alex Kava' s Maggie O'Dell, Tess Gerritsen' s Jane Rizzoli, Marie Force's Sam Holland and Allison Gaylin' s Brenna Specter, to name a few. Who ..."<

Karin Slaughter's Will Trent?

This thread:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
covers 'gaslight' detectives pretty comprehensively. I would pick all of mine from here, probably.

The author of that PublishersWeekly article has very odd selections indeed; seems to me. Phillip Marlowe? Ida Arnold (appears in one novel)?... how can a modern-era character who makes only one appearance, be considered impactful? Some of the early gaslight detectives appear in upwards of one hundred tales.

I keep coming to this discussion wanting to comment but back off each time. I have actually written something several times just to delete it without posting it. My "BEST DETECTIVES" really do not look anything like your list. I have never read any of the "Classic" detective stories. I have seen them on TV (PBS is Big on some of these) and liked them but they are not to my taste in reading. My list of best would consist of contemporary writers and stories. Karin Slaughter's Will Trent, Debra Webbs Jess Harris, Tess Gerritsen' s Jane Rizzoli and Harlen Coben Myron Bolitar.

Just to be clear, it's not MY list. I was quite surprised at some of the choices Lucy Worsely came up with. Mine would be completely different... and I would have a hard time limiting myself to 10. I'll have to think about that.

Feliks wrote: "This thread:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
covers 'gaslight' detectives pretty comprehensively. I would pick all of mine from here, probably.

The author of that PublishersWee..."

How is Marlowe an odd choice? I think he's an obvious choice.

Very easy to answer. Did Marlowe work in Southern California or Great Britain? Were those Marlowe stories genteel, old-spooky-mansion, drawing-room mysteries or were they gritty, 'hard-boiled', mean-streets style?

I love Harry Hole. He's so... human.

I'd have to agree that Marlowe doesn't belong on that list. I love him and the all the books, but he hardly belongs on a list on "English Murder". My list would definitely look pretty different than that one though. (I'd keep a couple though like Poirot, Holmes and Harriet vane).


Donna wrote: "I love Harry Hole. He's so... human."

Harry Hole is one of my fav detectives.

Seriously. The compiler of that list could've mentioned Simon Templar instead. Anything.

What about Harry Bosch (Michael Connolly)

Vikki wrote: "What about Harry Bosch (Michael Connolly)"

I love Harry Bosch

Harry Bosch is the BEST detective!!!

Kirsten wrote: "a list of the 10 Best Detectives in Books"

Best at what?

I know it probably seems obvious, but looking at this thread's responses, it is clear that people are answering for different reasons.

Best at catching criminals? Best at solving mysteries?

Does "best detective in a novel" mean "the most interesting character"? Most unique? Smartest? Funniest?

I nominate Dirk Gently.

I think it would have to be agreed that he's the best Holistic Detective out there.

It looks to me like she just grabbed what names she could think of from some classics.

Inspector Bucket is an inspired choice. Bleak House is such the mystery (though not really viewed as such). The list is a bit light on Americans. Sam Spade, Nick and Nora Charles and Ree Dolly of Winter's Bone, who in my opinion needs a series of her own, maybe as a state trooper or bail bondsmen solving crimes in the Ozarks.

Most of the great ones are on that list. I also like Bosch and Gently, but my pick for one of the greatest is George Smiley in the le Carre Smiley trilogy. Of course it is espionage, but Smiley is truly a great detective.

Other favorites of mine are Leaphorn and Chee, Spenser and Dave Robicheaux.

Back in the early 1970s, the country of Nicaragua asked Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (EQMM) “to set up a poll to establish the dozen greatest detectives of all time” in anticipation of that nation’s issuing a commemorative set of twelve postage stamps to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Interpol.

EQMM conducted three polls of mystery critics and editors, professional mystery writers, and mystery readers. It was from the last group that an unexpected result came:

“Only one fictional detective was voted for unanimously by mystery critics, mystery editors, and mystery writers — not surprisingly, Sherlock Holmes. But, surprisingly, the vote for Sherlock Holmes by mystery readers was not unanimous: no less than 64 readers out of 1,090 failed to rank Holmes as one of the 12 best and greatest. Surprising, indeed."

Here are the poll results, in order of popularity:
1-Sherlock Holmes
2-Hercule Poirot
3-Ellery Queen
4-Nero Wolfe
5-Perry Mason
6-Charlie Chan
7-Inspector Maigret
8-C. Auguste Dupin
9-Sam Spade
10-Father Brown
11-Lord Peter Wimsey
12-Philip Marlowe
13-Dr. Gideon Fell
14-Lew Archer
15-Albert Campion
16-George Gideon
17-Miss Jane Marple
18-Philo Vance
19-The Saint (Simon Templar)
20-Roderick Alleyn
21-Luis Mendoza
22-Sir Henry Merrivale
23-Mike Hammer
24-James Bond
25-Sergeant Cuff
26-Inspector Roger West

Meanwhile: The Top Ten favorite mystery writers of 1941, as reported by the New York Times on April 18, 1941, based on a survey conducted by Columbia University:

1. Dorothy L. Sayers
2. Agatha Christie
3. Arthur Conan Doyle
4. Ngaio Marsh
5. Erle Stanley Gardner
6. Rex Stout
7. Ellery Queen
8. Margery Allingham
9. Dashiell Hammett
10. Georges Simenon

Feliks wrote: "Back in the early 1970s, the country of Nicaragua asked Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (EQMM) “to set up a poll to establish the dozen greatest detectives of all time” in anticipation of that nati..."

That makes a lot more sense.

No George Smiley ?

Smiley's a spy, not a detective.

I think you can make a case for Smiley. He has to figure out who the mole is, after all.

As further evidence, there's "A Murder of Quality," where Smiley investigates a murder at a British public (private) school. Straight up detective fiction.

Another angle.

The following is a tally of 'most often anthologized authors' taken from survey of authors and stories in 2,244 published mystery anthologies.

(The only exclusions are: stories reprinted in 'single-author collections', round-robin novels, and magazines).

Authors with 40 or more stories that have appeared in mystery anthologies:

40 Collins, Max Allan
40 Crider, Bill
41 Fish, Robert L.
41 Highsmith, Patricia
42 Sayers, Dorothy L.
43 Allingham, Margery
43 Bankier, William
43 Barnard, Robert
43 Chesterton, G. K.
43 Ellin, Stanley
43 Oates, Joyce Carol
44 Asimov, Isaac
44 Blochman, Lawrence G.
44 Brown, Fredric
46 Boucher, Anthony
46 Gilford, C. B.
46 Howard, Clark
46 MacDonald, John D.
47 Breen, Jon L.
48 Estleman, Loren D.
48 Wallace, Edgar
48 Westlake, Donald E.
49 Simenon, Georges
51 Charteris, Leslie
52 Stout, Rex
53 Holding, James
54 Deming, Richard
57 Bloch, Robert
58 Gorman, Ed
58 Symons, Julian
62 Treat, Lawrence
63 Lovesey, Peter
66 Keating, H. R. F.
67 Rendell, Ruth
69 Pentecost, Hugh
81 Block, Lawrence
81 Doyle, Arthur Conan
87 Woolrich, Cornell
88 Ritchie, Jack
89 Slesar, Henry
102 Lutz, John
103 Pronzini, Bill
115 Christie, Agatha
119 Queen, Ellery
131 Gilbert, Michael
273 Hoch, Edward D.

Walter Longmire
Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin

two of my favorites.

My Favs
1-Sherlock Holmes
2-Hercule Poirot
3-Philip Marlowe
4-Nero Wolfe
5-Sam Spade
6-Charlie Chan
7-Dirk Gently

I'm totally in love with Dirk Gently. Please don't tell my husband because I'm in love with him too. He is so solid, and yes, gentle.

What about Garrison Keillor as "Guy Noir, Private Eye"

*just a guy trying to find the right questions*

I like Elvis Cole, created by Robert Crais.
I just find smart alec detectives fun.
He lives in the same neighborhood as Harry Bosch in the hills above LA.

Lord Peter Wimsey!

Richard wrote: "I just find smart alec detectives fun."

Then you should check out the Toby Peters mysteries, by Stuart M. Kaminsky. They're about a private eye in 1930s LA. His clients tend to be famous actors, scientists, gangsters and sports figures of the time.

And he's definitely one of those guys who can't turn the smart ass off long enough to save themselves.

I love the Toby Peters mysteries. Sadly, they are out of print now, but libraries still stock them. I buy them used whenever I can get my hands. Have they been put out for ereader yet, like so many of the Ed McBain 87th Precinct series?

All I know is that the detective I would least want after me for a crime is probably...Columbo. My god.

Yesterday, on BBC Radio 3's program(me) focused on Detectives. From Radio 3's website:

Readings and pieces inspired by some of fiction's greatest detectives, including Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe and Inspector Morse

Music includes works by Wagner, Janacek and Rimsky-Korsakov, with songs from Chet Baker, Sarah Vaughan and Charles Mingus

Extracts - from noir classics, Charles Dickens and Sara Paretsky - read by Hayley Atwell (Agent Carter in "Agents of SHIELD) and Mark Strong (Frank Agney in "Low Winter Sun")

Available for streaming here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05qyjsn

How does anyone feel about J.K. Rowling's (Robert Galbraith's) new detective, Cormoran Strike? I have only read the first book in the series so I don't know him that well yet.

I'm in the middle of the first book and I'm not sure, either. Right now, my favorite character is actually Robin.

actually, I liked him a lot-not you usual detective,

Vikki wrote: "What about Harry Bosch (Michael Connolly)"

I love that series,just started read it.

Andy wrote: "My Favs
1-Sherlock Holmes
2-Hercule Poirot
3-Philip Marlowe
4-Nero Wolfe
5-Sam Spade
6-Charlie Chan
7-Dirk Gently"
I love to read the Sherlock Holmes books and to watch the Charlie Chan movies

Margaret wrote: "actually, I liked him a lot-not you usual detective,"

Margaret--or anyone--do you know why Rowling came up with him specifically? I always find it fascinating to hear how writers develop the characters the way they do.

The choice of a detective's name often invokes or diminishes interest in me. When a character name is too obviously one 'carefully selected' by the author...eh

My first musing is, 'h'mmm, does that really sound like a real-life detective'?

There are so many good ones, that it's hard to choose. But, I do Love Rankins' Insp. Rebus.

Paula wrote: "How does anyone feel about J.K. Rowling's (Robert Galbraith's) new detective, Cormoran Strike? I have only read the first book in the series so I don't know him that well yet."

I enjoyed the first book, but found it a bit of a difficult read. I have the second book on my Kindle, but find it even more of an uphill effort. (Not sure why.) Then again, same issue with "The Casual Vacancy," which I so wanted to finish before it hit HBO. For all three, there seem to be too many elements entered into the mix. (But I have bought all three, so obviously there is something there, or so I tell myself.)

I'd like to add Donna Leon's Comissario Brunetti and Elizabeth George's Insp. Lynley to my list.

When it comes to detectives my first choice has to be MARTIN BECK; i'm honestly surprised nobody above me mentioned him

Brendan wrote: "Feliks wrote: "This thread:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
covers 'gaslight' detectives pretty comprehensively. I would pick all of mine from here, probably.

The author of tha..."

"How is Marlowe an odd choice? I think he's an obvious choice."

I was going to say the very same thing! If for no other reason, he should be on here for how many other detectives he spawned, the most notable being Robert B. Parker's Spenser, who would probably be at the very top of my list.

Deborah Crombie's KINCAID & JAMES
J.A. Jance's J.P. Beaumont series & her Joanna Brady series.

Love Harry Bosh & Mickey Haller by Michael Connelly.

James wrote: "Smiley's a spy, not a detective."

So is James Bond.