50 Greatest Crime Writers

I always thought I was a prolific reader of mystery novels. I use Stop You're Killing Me all the time to find new authors. I found this list of the 50 greatest crime writers on line and felt the need to post it here. To me, crime writers ARE mystery writers. While I recognize a lot of the author’s names from my bookseller days, I’ve only read books by a handful of these authors: Agatha Christie, Patricia Cornwell, Scott Turow, and Dick Francis.

If I’ve read multiple books by an author, I figure I like them. If I’ve only read one title because I was out of things to read and never picked up another one or put them on my “books to read” list, that tells me they weren’t all that great. There are a few of those authors on this list as well. Hmm, what does that say about my reading tastes?

I started to put together my own list of top 50 mystery writers I like, but stopped when I got to 50 and I was only in the Ks. I have a lot of authors I like apparently. But just to tantalize you, I’ll give you 10 of my favorite authors.

1. Elizabeth Peters – Funny, historical and fun. Where Bastet’s name came from.
2. Carole Nelson Douglas – Who couldn’t love a gumshoe sleuth named Midnight Louie and his trusty sidekick, Temple Barr?
3. Rita Mae Brown – Mrs. Murphy, Tee Tucker, and Pewter are the best 4-legged team around.
4. Donna Andrews – Splendid mix of mystery and sci-fi. Turing Hopper and Meg Langslow are milk-out-your-nose-from-laughing great!
5. Marian Babson – Love, love, love this author! They may be British cozies, but I don’t care. Trixie & Evangeline can make me smile any day. This woman knows her cats, that’s for sure!
6. Nevada Barr – I’ve learned a lot about the National Park Service from Ms. Barr and Anna Pigeon.
7. William DaAndrea – Wish this guy wasn’t dead so he would write more books!
8. Dorothy Gilman – A classic writer. Who doesn’t love Mrs. Pollifax? I can read these books again and again and still come back for more. I don’t know if she is still alive, but I keep looking for news!
9. Joan Hess – She has a couple of series I really like.
10. Rex Stout – I really wish I could meet Archie Goodwin sometime. I don’t think Mr. Wolfe would like me much, but I bet Archie & I would get on.

I have many, many more authors I like and will most likely look at this list tomorrow and say, “Dang! I forgot so-and-so!” but this will have to do for now.

So anyway, check out this list of the 50 Greatest Crime Writers and see what you think.