The
100 Favorite Mysteries of the 20th Century
As
selected by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association's online members
Return to IMBA Home
Mystery booksellers have looked back at a century
of murder and compiled a list of the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the
Century. Please feel free to print and use this list for any non-commercial
purpose. See our membership directory for where to buy the
selections.
Members of the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association's
online discussion group spent nearly two months considering and
debating hundreds of titles recommended by mystery booksellers throughout
the country.
"Fortunately, since we were working online, no
blood was spilled in the creation of this list," commented
IMBA director Jim Huang. "It was a lively and contentious process,
with each of us pulling for cherished books."
"We agreed that each author would appear on the
list only once," Huang added, "in order to represent as
many of our favorite writers as possible." Some of the genre's
greatest and most prolific writers had several titles nominated.
IMBA's book, 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century,
was published in December 2000 by The Crum Creek Press / Drood Review
Books. Click here for more information
about the book.
IMBA WINS AN
AGATHA AWARD!
Malice
Domestic has announced winner of the Agatha Award for best non-fiction
of 2000: it's IMBA's 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century,
our book published by The Crum Creek Press / Drood Review Books
and edited by Jim Huang based on our 100 Favorite Mysteries of the
Century list. The book has also been nominated for the Anthony and
Macavity Awards for best nonfiction of 2000.
Click
here for more information about our book.
IMBA WINS AN
ANTHONY AWARD
We did it again. This time it's the Anthony Award for IMBA's 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century,
our book published by The Crum Creek Press / Drood Review Books
and edited by Jim Huang based on our 100 Favorite Mysteries of the
Century list. The award was received for the Best Non-Fiction/Critical Work for the year 2000. The Anthony's were announced November 3, 2001 at the 32nd Annual Bouchercon in Crystal City, Virginia (that's just across the river from Washington, DC for those of you not from the Mid-Atlantic region).
The 100 Favorite Mysteries
of the Century
(listed by author; current paperback publisher is noted for in-print
titles)
Allingham, Margery. The Tiger in the Smoke
(Carroll & Graf)
Ambler, Eric. A Coffin for Dimitrios (Carroll & Graf)
Armstrong, Charlotte. A Dram of Poison (currently unavailable)
Atherton, Nancy. Aunt Dimity's Death (Penguin)
Ball, John. In the Heat of the Night (Carroll & Graf)
Barnard, Robert. Death by Sheer Torture (currently unavailable)
Barr, Nevada. Track of the Cat (Avon)
Blake, Nicholas. The Beast Must Die (currently unavailable)
Block, Lawrence. When the Sacred Ginmill Closes (Avon)
Brand, Christianna. Green for Danger (Carroll & Graf)
Brown, Frederic. The Fabulous Clipjoint (currently unavailable)
Buchan, John. The 39 Steps (Dover)
Burke, James Lee. Black Cherry Blues (Avon)
Cain, James M.. The Postman Always Rings Twice (Vintage/Black
Lizard)
Cannell, Dorothy. The Thin Woman (Bantam)
Carr, John Dickson. The Three Coffins (currently unavailable)
Caudwell, Sarah. Thus Was Adonis Murdered (Dell)
Chandler, Raymond. The Big Sleep (Vintage)
Christie, Agatha. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (HarperPaperbacks)
Connelly, Michael. The Concrete Blonde (St. Martin's)
Constantine, K.C.. The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes (David
R. Godine)
Crais, Robert. The Monkey's Raincoat (Bantam)
Crispin, Edmund. The Moving Toyshop (Penguin)
Crombie, Deborah. Dreaming of the Bones (Bantam)
Crumley, James. The Last Good Kiss (Vintage)
Dickinson, Peter. The Yellow Room Conspiracy (currently unavailable)
Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Hound of the Baskervilles (Berkley)
DuMaurier, Daphne. Rebecca (Avon)
Dunning, John. Booked to Die (Avon)
Elkins, Aaron. Old Bones (Mysterious)
Evanovich, Janet. One for the Money (HarperPaperbacks)
Finney, Jack. Time and Again (Scribner)
Ford, G.M.. Who in Hell Is Wanda Fuca? (Avon)
Francis, Dick. Whip Hand (Jove)
Fremlin, Celia. The Hours Before Dawn (Academy Chicago)
George, Elizabeth. A Great Deliverance (Bantam)
Gilbert, Michael. Smallbone Deceased (currently unavailable)
Grafton, Sue. "A" is for Alibi (Bantam)
Graham, Caroline. The Killings at Badger's Drift (currently
unavailable)
Grimes, Martha. The Man With the Load of Mischief (currently
unavailable)
Hammett, Dashiell. The Maltese Falcon (Vintage)
Hare, Cyril. An English Murder (currently unavailable)
Harris, Thomas. The Silence of the Lambs (St. Martin's)
Hiaasen, Carl. Tourist Season (Warner)
Highsmith, Patricia. The Talented Mr. Ripley (Vintage)
Hill, Reginald. On Beulah Height (Dell)
Hillerman, Tony. A Thief of Time (HarperPaperbacks)
Himes, Chester. Cotton Comes to Harlem (Vintage)
Innes, Michael. Hamlet, Revenge (currently unavailable)
James, P.D.. An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (Warner)
Kellerman, Faye. The Ritual Bath (Avon)
Kellerman, Jonathan. When the Bough Breaks (Bantam)
King, Laurie. The Beekeeper's Apprentice (Bantam)
Langton, Jane. Dark Nantucket Noon (Penguin)
le Carre, John. The Spy Who Came in From The Cold (Ballantine)
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird (Warner)
Lehane, Dennie. Darkness, Take My Hand (Avon)
Leonard, Elmore. Get Shorty (Delta)
Lochte, Dick. Sleeping Dog (Poisoned Pen Press)
Lovesey, Peter. Rough Cider (currently unavailable)
MacDonald, John D.. The Deep Blue Good-by (Fawcett)
MacDonald, Philip. The List of Adrian Messenger (currently
unavailable)
Macdonald, Ross. The Chill (Vintage/Black Lizard)
Maron, Margaret. Bootlegger's Daughter (Mysterious)
Marsh, Ngaio. Death of a Peer (St. Martin's)
McBain, Ed. Sadie When She Died (currently unavailable)
McClure, James. The Sunday Hangman (currently unavailable)
McCrumb, Sharyn. If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O (Ballantine)
Millar, Margaret. Stranger in My Grave (currently unavailable)
Mosley, Walter. Devil in a Blue Dress (Pocket)
Muller, Marcia. Edwin of the Iron Shoes (currently unavailable)
Neel, Janet. Death's Bright Angel (currently unavailable)
O'Connell, Carol. Mallory's Oracle (Jove)
Padgett, Abigail. Child of Silence (currently unavailable)
Paretsky, Sara. Deadlock (Dell)
Parker, Robert. Looking for Rachel Wallace (Dell)
Perez-Reverte, Arturo. The Club Dumas (Vintage)
Perry, Thomas. Vanishing Act (Ivy)
Peters, Elizabeth. Crocodile on the Sandbank (Warner)
Peters, Ellis. One Corpse Too Many (Mysterious)
Pronzini, Bill. Blue Lonesome (Walker)
Queen, Ellery. Cat of Many Tails (currently unavailable)
Rendell, Ruth. No More Dying Then (Vintage)
Rice, Craig. The Wrong Murder (International Polygonics)
Rinehart, Mary Roberts. The Circular Staircase (Kensington)
Robinson, Peter. Blood at the Root (Avon)
Rosen, Richard. Strike Three You're Dead (currently unavailable)
Ross, Kate. A Broken Vessel (Penguin)
Rozan, S.J.. Concourse (St. Martin's)
Sayers, Dorothy. Murder Must Advertise (HarperPaperbacks)
Sjowall & Wahloo. The Laughing Policeman (currently unavailable)
Stout, Rex. Some Buried Caesar (currently unavailable)
Tey, Josephine. Brat Farrar (Scribner)
Thomas, Ross. Chinaman's Chance (currently unavailable)
Todd, Charles. A Test of Wills (Bantam)
Turow, Scott. Presumed Innocent (Warner)
Upfield, Arthur. The Sands of Windee (currently unavailable)
Walters, Minette. The Ice House (St. Martin's)
White, Randy Wayne. Sanibel Flats (St. Martin's)
Woolrich, Cornell. I Married a Dead Man (Penguin)
