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Top mysteries: changes and ranking

I’ve found a more reliable source for both the lists I am using and have discovered that the lists I was using weren't entirely correct, so I am changing the combination list accordingly. Out go 10 books and in go 9.
Interestingly, a book I read and reviewed as a Wednesday Reading Experience earlier in the year gets added to the list: The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad.

The lists I am now working from give the ranking of the books, and I think it would be useful to include this information with the reviews. However, I don’t want to repost the reviews I have already posted because it plays hell with the feed readers and annoys real readers, so here is an list of rankings for the books I have already reviewed, alphabetised by author. CWA stands for the British Crime Writer’s Association and MWA stands for the Mystery Writers of America.


Anthony Berkeley: The Poisoned Chocolate Case; CWA # 41
Christianna Brand: Green for Danger; CWA #84
Truman Capote: In Cold Blood; MWA # 54
Vera Caspary: Laura; MWA #44
Sarah Caudwell: The Shortest Way to Hades; CWA # 76
Joseph Conrad: The Secret Agent; MWA #86
Edmund Crispin: The Moving Toyshop; CWA # 25, MWA #72
Lionel Davidson: The Sun Chemist; CWA # 88
Colin Dexter: The Dead of Jericho; CWA # 37
Fyodor Dostoevski: Crime and Punishment; MWA # 24
Caroline Graham: The Killings at Badger's Drift; CWA # 80
Dashiell Hammett: The Maltese Falcon; CWA # 10; MWA # 2
Dashiell Hammett: The Thin Man; MWA # 31
Thomas Harris: Red Dragon; MWA # 27
Patricia Highsmith: Strangers on a Train; CWA # 38
Patricia Highsmith: The Talented Mr. Ripley; CWA # 45, MWA # 71
Michael Innes: The Journeying Boy; CWA # 52
Peter Lovesey: The False Inspector Dew; CWA # 27
Ed McBain: Cop Hater); CWA # 36
Ed McBain: Sadie When She Died; CWA # 96
James McClure: The Steam Pig; MWA # 98
Nicholas Meyer: The Seven Per-Cent Solution; MWA # 65
Susan Moody: Penny Black; CWA # 57
Ruth Rendell: Judgement in Stone; CWA # 39, MWA # 89
Hillary Waugh: Last Seen Wearing; CWA # 12, MWA # 74


And just for fun, the listed books I had read before I started the challenge:
Desmond Bagley: Running Blind; CWA # 77
James M Cain: Double Indemnity; MWA # 34
James M Cain: The Postman Always Rings Twice; CWA # 30
John Dickson Carr: The Hollow Man/The Three Coffins; CWA # 40, MWA # 44
G.K. Chesterton: The Innocence of Father Brown; MWA # 57
Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None; CWA # 19, MWA # 10
Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express; MWA # 41
Agatha Christie: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd; CWA # 5, MWA # 12
Wilkie Collins: The Moonstone; CWA # 8, MWA # 7
Arthur Conan Doyle: The Collected Sherlock Holmes Short Stories; CWA # 21
Arthur Conan Doyle: The Complete Sherlock Holmes; MWA # 11
Arthur Conan Doyle: The Hound of the Baskervilles; CWA # 32
Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose; CWA # 13, MWA # 23
Ian Fleming: From Russia with Love; CWA # 35, MWA # 78
Ken Follett: Eye of the Needle; MWA # 25
Ken Follett: The Key to Rebecca; CWA # 95
Sue Grafton: "A" is for Alibi; MWA # 51
John Grisham: A Time to Kill; MWA # 73
Thomas Harris: The Silence of the Lambs; MWA # 16
Jack Higgins: The Eagle Has Landed; CWA # 54
Tony Hillerman: A Thief of Time; CWA #69, MWA # 53
Tony Hillerman: Dance Hall of the Dead; MWA # 37
P.D. James: Shroud for a Nightingale; MWA # 83
Alistair MacLean: The Guns of Navarone; CWA #89
J.J. Marric: Gideon's Day; CWA # 87
John Mortimer: Rumpole of the Bailey; MWA # 26
Elizabeth Peters: Crocodile on the Sandbank; MWA # 82
Ellis Peters: A Morbid Taste for Bones; CWA # 42, MWA # 100 (tie w. Rosemary’s Baby)
Edgar Allan Poe: Tales of Mystery and Imagination; CWA # 23, MWA # 32
Mario Puzo: The Godfather; MWA # 15
Mary Roberts Rinehart: The Circular Staircase; MWA # 40
Maj & Per Wahlöö Sjöwall: The Laughing Policeman; MWA # 46
Mary Stewart: My Brother Michael; CWA # 55
Mary Stewart: Nine Coaches Waiting; CWA # 62
Bram Stoker: Dracula; MWA # 70
Josephine Tey: The Daughter of Time; CWA # 1, MWA # 4

I had posted reviews of some of these books online before I started the challenge and will be working on reposting them under the appropriate label.
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Comments

Dorte H said…
What a varied list! I like that.

I have just tried my first Josephine Tey and my first Mary Steward because I found them on the shelves in our holiday cottage. A great opportunity to try something new!
July 20, 2009 8:32 pm
Bibliophile said…
I like Tey very much. At her best she rivals or even surpasses Agatha Christie, and she only wrote a fraction of the number of mysteries Christie did.

When I was a teenager I devoured every Mary Stewart book that was published in Iceland. I found her combination of suspense and romance irresistible, but the book I really loved was The Crystal Cave. Imagine my delight when I found out it was the first in a series of four!
July 20, 2009 9:22 pm
Dorte H said…
I enjoyed all the new authors I found during my holiday, but Mary Stewart was the best, and the one I plan to read more by first!
July 21, 2009 1:49 pm
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