Snapshot Reviews: Mysteries

I have been a bad blogger. I am remiss in my reviewing.

I have a hard time reviewing books; I mean, who really cares what I think? But to technically finish most of my challenges, reviews are required. Besides, I know that I like to know what my friends think about books, it helps keep me from wasting my time! So I am doing a few quick reviews of my recent reads.

Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey: This was a very different sort of mystery; no crime occurred until very late in the book, and yet I enjoyed it quite a bit. The setting was interesting, being set in a College of Physical Training for young ladies in the first half of the 20th century. (In fact, I found the setting interesting enough that I found a book on this aspect of British education and it's impact on women's lives that I want to read.)
This is a quiet book. Lots of observation of characters. I am finding that I enjoy Josephine Tey quite a bit. Four stars.
 (Note: There are occasional glimpses of historically accurate yet still disturbing ways of thinking, such as when the very lovely protagonist describes a dress as "nigger brown." It is jarring. I see a lot of this in British writing from that era.)

A Christmas Hope by Anne Perry: I received this book as a review copy, so I supposed I'd better review it! I really like Anne Perry's Victorian mysteries, but I had never read any of her Christmas series. After this one, I will.
Claudine is a comfortable, well-to-do lady who is only really happy when she is volunteering at Hester Monk's clinic, a place very familiar to Perry fans. In this story she stands up to society to save the life of a man wrongfully accused of murder. The story was well-done and enjoyable.
Four stars.

The Grey Mask by Patricia Wentworth: Even though Agatha Christie was writing in the same era as Patricia Wentworth, her books don't read as dated as Wentworth's do. This was a perfectly acceptable, if outlandish, story. I will probably try another of Wentworth's Miss Silver books at some point, and see if they are better than this one.
Three stars.

Another 100 Top Crime Novels List

In 1995, the Mystery Writers of America comprised a list of:

The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time

1. Arthur Conan Doyle: The Complete Sherlock Holmes (1887-1927)
2. Dashiell Hammett: The Maltese Falcon (1930)
3. Edgar Allan Poe: Tales of Mystery & Imagination (1852)
4. Josephine Tey: The Daughter of Time (1951)
5. Scott Turow: Presumed Innocent (1987)
6. John le Carré: The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1963)
7. Wilkie Collins: The Moonstone (1868)
8. Raymond Chandler: The Big Sleep (1939)
9. Daphne du Maurier: Rebecca (1938)
10. Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None (1939)
11. Robert Traver: Anatomy of a Murder (1958)
12. Agatha Christie: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
13. Raymond Chandler: The Long Goodbye (1953)
14. James M. Cain: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934)
15. Mario Puzo: The Godfather (1969)
16. Thomas Harris: The Silence of the Lambs (1988)
17. Eric Ambler: A Coffin for Dimitrios (1939)
18. Dorothy L. Sayers: Gaudy Night (1935)
19. Agatha Christie: Witness for the Prosecution (1948)
20. Frederick Forsyth: The Day of the Jackal (1971)
21. Raymond Chandler: Farewell, My Lovely (1940)
22. John Buchan: The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915)
23. Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose (1980)
24. Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Crime and Punishment (1866)
25. Ken Follett: Eye of the Needle (1978)
26. John Mortimer: Rumpole of the Bailey (1978)
27. Thomas Harris: Red Dragon (1981)
28. Dorothy L. Sayers: The Nine Tailors (1934)
29. Gregory Mcdonald: Fletch (1974)
30. John le Carré: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974)
31. Dashiell Hammett: The Thin Man (1934)
32. Wilkie Collins: The Woman in White (1860)
33. E. C. Bentley: Trent’s Last Case (1913)
34. James M. Cain: Double Indemnity (1943)
35. Martin Cruz Smith: Gorky Park (1981)
36. Dorothy L. Sayers: Strong Poison (1930)
37. Tony Hillerman: Dance Hall of the Dead (1973)
38. Donald E. Westlake: The Hot Rock (1970)
39. Dashiell Hammett: Red Harvest (1929)
40. Mary Roberts Rinehart: The Circular Staircase (1908)
41. Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express (1934)
42. John Grisham: The Firm (1991)
43. Len Deighton: The Ipcress File (1962)
44. Vera Caspary: Laura (1942)
45. Mickey Spillane: I, the Jury (1947)
46. Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö: The Laughing Policeman (1968)
47. Donald E. Westlake: Bank Shot (1972)
48. Graham Greene: The Third Man (1950)
49. Jim Thompson: The Killer Inside Me (1952)
50. Mary Higgins Clark: Where Are the Children? (1975)
51. Sue Grafton: “A” is for Alibi (1982)
52. Lawrence Sanders: The First Deadly Sin (1973)
53. Tony Hillerman: A Thief of Time (1989)
54. Truman Capote: In Cold Blood (1966)
55. Geoffrey Household: Rogue Male (1939)
56. Dorothy L. Sayers: Murder Must Advertise (1933)
57. G. K. Chesterton: The Innocence of Father Brown (1911)
58. John le Carré: Smiley’s People (1979)
59. Raymond Chandler: The Lady in the Lake (1943)
60. Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)
61. Graham Greene: Our Man in Havana (1958)
62. Charles Dickens: The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870)
63. Peter Lovesey: Wobble to Death (1970)
64. W. Somerset Maugham: Ashenden (1928)
65. Nicholas Meyer: The Seven-Per-Cent Solution: Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson (1974)
66. Rex Stout: The Doorbell Rang (1965)
67. Elmore Leonard: Stick (1983)
68. John le Carré: The Little Drummer Girl (1983)
69. Graham Greene: Brighton Rock (1938)
70. Bram Stoker: Dracula (1897)
71. Patricia Highsmith: The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955)
72. Edmund Crispin: The Moving Toyshop (1946)
73. John Grisham: A Time to Kill (1989)
74. Hillary Waugh: Last Seen Wearing … (1952)
75. W. R. Burnett: Little Caesar (1929)
76. George V. Higgins: The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1972)
77. Dorothy L. Sayers: Clouds of Witness (1927)
78. Ian Fleming: From Russia, with Love (1957)
79. Margaret Millar: Beast in View (1955)
80. Michael Gilbert: Smallbone Deceased (1950)
81. Josephine Tey: The Franchise Affair (1948)
82. Elizabeth Peters: Crocodile on the Sandbank (1975)
83. P. D. James: Shroud for a Nightingale (1971)
84. Tom Clancy: The Hunt for Red October (1984)
85. Ross Thomas: Chinaman’s Chance (1978)
86. Joseph Conrad: The Secret Agent (1907)
87. John D. MacDonald: The Dreadful Lemon Sky (1975)
88. Dashiell Hammett: The Glass Key (1931)
89. Ruth Rendell: A Judgement in Stone (1977)
90. Josephine Tey: Brat Farrar (1950)
91. Ross Macdonald: The Chill (1963)
92. Walter Mosley: Devil in a Blue Dress (1990)
93. Joseph Wambaugh: The Choirboys (1975)
94. Donald E. Westlake: God Save the Mark (1967)
95. Craig Rice: Home Sweet Homicide (1944)
96. John Dickson Carr: The Three Coffins (1935)
97. Richard Condon: Prizzi’s Honor (1982)
98. James McClure: The Steam Pig (1974)
99. Jack Finney: Time and Again (1970)
100. Ellis Peters: A Morbid Taste for Bones (1977) Tied with Ira Levin: Rosemary’s Baby (1967)

100 Top Crime Novels

I'm always looking for ideas for good books to read. I've read some of these, but there are a lot of authors here that I haven't even heard of.

 In 1990, the Crime Writers’ Association (British) comprised a list of:

The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time

1. Josephine Tey: The Daughter of Time (1951)
2. Raymond Chandler: The Big Sleep (1939)
3. John le Carré: The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1963)
4. Dorothy L. Sayers: Gaudy Night (1935)
5. Agatha Christie: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
6. Daphne du Maurier: Rebecca (1938)
7. Raymond Chandler: Farewell, My Lovely (1940)
8. Wilkie Collins: The Moonstone (1868)
9. Len Deighton: The Ipcress File (1962)
10. Dashiell Hammett: The Maltese Falcon (1930)
11. Josephine Tey: The Franchise Affair (1948)
12. Hillary Waugh: Last Seen Wearing … (1952)
13. Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose (1980)
14. Geoffrey Household: Rogue Male (1939)
15. Raymond Chandler: The Long Goodbye (1953)
16. Francis Iles: Malice Aforethought (1931)
17. Frederick Forsyth: The Day of the Jackal (1971)
18. Dorothy L. Sayers: The Nine Tailors (1934)
19. Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None (1939)
20. John Buchan: The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915)
21. Arthur Conan Doyle: The Collected Sherlock Holmes Short Stories (1892-1927)
22. Dorothy L. Sayers: Murder Must Advertise (1933)
23. Edgar Allan Poe: Tales of Mystery & Imagination (1852)
24. Eric Ambler: The Mask of Dimitrios (1939) (aka A Coffin for Dimitrios)
25. Edmund Crispin: The Moving Toyshop (1946)
26. Margery Allingham: The Tiger in the Smoke (1952)
27. Peter Lovesey: The False Inspector Dew (1982)
28. Wilkie Collins: The Woman in White (1860)
29. Barbara Vine: A Dark-Adapted Eye (1986)
30. James M. Cain: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934)
31. Dashiell Hammett: The Glass Key (1931)
32. Arthur Conan Doyle: The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
33. John le Carré: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974)
34. E. C. Bentley: Trent’s Last Case (1913)
35. Ian Fleming: From Russia, with Love (1957)
36. Ed McBain: Cop Hater (1956)
37. Colin Dexter: The Dead of Jericho (1981)
38. Patricia Highsmith: Strangers on a Train (1950)
39. Ruth Rendell: A Judgement in Stone (1977)
40. John Dickson Carr: The Hollow Man (1935) (aka The Three Coffins)
41. Anthony Berkeley: The Poisoned Chocolates Case (1929)
42. Ellis Peters: A Morbid Taste for Bones (1977)
43. Ellis Peters: The Leper of Saint Giles (1981)
44. Ira Levin: A Kiss Before Dying (1953)
45. Patricia Highsmith: The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955)
46. Graham Greene: Brighton Rock (1938)
47. Raymond Chandler: The Lady in the Lake (1943)
48. Scott Turow: Presumed Innocent (1987)
49. Ruth Rendell: A Demon in My View (1976)
50. John Dickson Carr: The Devil in Velvet (1951)
51. Barbara Vine: A Fatal Inversion (1987)
52. Michael Innes: The Journeying Boy (1949)
53. P. D. James: A Taste for Death (1986)
54. Jack Higgins: The Eagle Has Landed (1975)
55. Mary Stewart: My Brother Michael (1960)
56. Peter Lovesey: Bertie and the Tin Man (1987)
57. Susan Moody: Penny Black (1984)
58. Len Deighton: Game, Set & Match (1984-1986)
59. Dick Francis: The Danger (1983)
60. P. D. James: Devices and Desires (1989)
61. Reginald Hill: Under World (1988)
62. Mary Stewart: Nine Coaches Waiting (1958)
63. Paula Gosling: A Running Duck (1978)
64. Michael Gilbert: Smallbone Deceased (1950)
65. Lionel Davidson: The Rose of Tibet (1962)
66. P. D. James: Innocent Blood (1980)
67. Dorothy L. Sayers: Strong Poison (1930)
68. Michael Innes: Hamlet, Revenge! (1937)
69. Tony Hillerman: A Thief of Time (1989)
70. Caryl Brahms & S. J. Simon: A Bullet in the Ballet (1937)
71. Reginald Hill: Deadheads (1983)
72. Graham Greene: The Third Man (1950)
73. Anthony Price: The Labyrinth Makers (1974)
74. Adam Hall: The Quiller Memorandum (1965)
75. Margaret Millar: Beast in View (1955)
76. Sarah Caudwell: The Shortest Way to Hades (1984)
77. Desmond Bagley: Running Blind (1970)
78. Dick Francis: Twice Shy (1981)
79. Richard Condon: The Manchurian Candidate (1959)
80. Caroline Graham: The Killings at Badger’s Drift (1987)
81. Nicholas Blake: The Beast Must Die (1938)
82. Martin Cruz Smith: Gorky Park (1981)
83. Agatha Christie: Death Comes as the End (1945)
84. Christianna Brand: Green for Danger (1945)
85. Cyril Hare: Tragedy at Law (1942)
86. John Fowles: The Collector (1963)
87. J. J. Marric: Gideon’s Day (1955)
88. Lionel Davidson: The Sun Chemist (1976)
89. Alistair MacLean: The Guns of Navarone (1957)
90. Julian Symons: The Colour of Murder (1957)
91. John Buchan: Greenmantle (1916)
92. Erskine Childers: The Riddle of the Sands (1903)
93. Peter Lovesey: Wobble to Death (1970)
94. Dashiell Hammett: Red Harvest (1929)
95. Ken Follett: The Key to Rebecca (1980)
96. Ed McBain: Sadie When She Died (1972)
97. H. R. F. Keating: The Murder of the Maharajah (1980)
98. Simon Brett: What Bloody Man Is That? (1987)
99. Gavin Lyall: Shooting Script (1966)
100. Edgar Wallace: The Four Just Men (1906)