The 100 Favorite Mysteries of the 20
th
Century
As selected by International Mystery Booksellers Association online members
1
The Tiger in the Smoke - Margery Allingham
2
A Coffin for Dimitrios - Eric Ambler
3
A Dram of Poison - Charlotte Armstrong
4
Aunt Dimity's Death - Nancy Atherton
5
In the Heat of the Night - John Ball
6
Death by Sheer Torture - Robert Barnard
7
Track of the Cat - Nevada Barr
8
The Beast Must Die - Nicholas Blake
9
When the Sacred Ginmill Closes - Lawrence Block
10
Green for Danger - Christianna Brand
11
The Fabulous Clipjoint - Frederic Brown
12
The 39 Steps - John Buchan
13
Black Cherry Blues - James Lee Burke
14
The Postman Always Rings Twice - James M. Cain
15
The Thin Woman - Dorothy Cannell
16
The Three Coffins - John Dickson Carr
17
Thus Was Adonis Murdered - Sarah Caudwell
18
The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler
19
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie
20
The Concrete Blonde - Michael Connelly
21
The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes - K.C. Constantine
22
The Monkey's Raincoat - Robert Crais
23
The Moving Toyshop - Edmund Crispin
24
Dreaming of the Bones - Deborah Crombie
25
The Last Good Kiss - James Crumley
26
The Yellow Room Conspiracy - Peter Dickinson
27
The Hound of the Baskervilles - Arthur Conan Doyle
28
Rebecca - Daphne DuMaurier
29
Booked to Die - John Dunning
30
Old Bones - Aaron Elkins
31
One for the Money - Janet Evanovich
32
Time and Again - Jack Finney
33
Who in Hell Is Wanda Fuca? - G.M. Ford
34
Whip Hand - Dick Francis
35
The Hours Before Dawn - Celia Fremlin
36
A Great Deliverance - Elizabeth George
37
Smallbone Deceased - Michael Gilbert
38
"A" is for Alibi - Sue Grafton
39
The Killings at Badger's Drift - Caroline Graham
40
The Man With the Load of Mischief - Martha Grimes
41
The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett
42
An English Murder - Cyril Hare
43
The Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris
44
Tourist Season - Carl Hiaasen
45
The Talented Mr. Ripley - Patricia Highsmith
46
On Beulah Height - Reginald Hill
47
A Thief of Time - Tony Hillerman
48
Cotton Comes to Harlem - Chester Himes
49
Hamlet, Revenge - Michael Innes
50
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman - P.D. James
51
The Ritual Bath - Faye Kellerman
52
When the Bough Break - Jonathan Kellerman
53
The Beekeeper's Apprentice - Laurie King
54
Dark Nantucket Noon - Jane Langton
55
The Spy Who Came in From The Cold - John le Carre
56
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
57
Darkness, Take My Hand - Dennie Lehane
58
Get Shorty - Elmore Leonard
59
Sleeping Dog - Dick Lochte
60
Rough Cider - Peter Lovesey
61
The Deep Blue Goodbye - John D. MacDonald
62
The List of Adrian Messenger - Philip MacDonald
63
The Chill - Ross Macdonald
64
Bootlegger's Daughter - Margaret Maron
65
Death of a Peer - Ngaio Marsh
66
Sadie When She Died - Ed McBain
67
The Sunday Hangman - James McClure
68
If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O - Sharyn McCrumb
69
A Stranger in My Grave - Margaret Millar
70
Devil in a Blue Dress - Walter Mosley
71
Edwin of the Iron Shoes - Marcia Muller
72
Death's Bright Angel - Janet Neel
73
Mallory's Oracle - Carol O'Connell
74
Child of Silence - Abigail Padgett
75
Deadlock - Sara Paretsky
76
Looking for Rachel Wallace - Robert Parker
77
The Club Dumas - Arturo Perez-Reverte
78
Vanishing Act - Thomas Perry
79
Crocodile on the Sandbank - Elizabeth Peters
80
One Corpse Too Many - Ellis Peters
81
Blue Lonesome - Bill Pronzini
82
Cat of Many Tails - Ellery Queen
83
No More Dying Then - Ruth Rendell
84
The Wrong Murder - Craig Rice/a>
85
The Circular Staircase - Mary Roberts Rinehart
86
Blood at the Root - Peter Robinson
87
Strike Three You're Dead - Richard Rosen
88
A Broken Vessel - Kate Ross
89
Concourse - S.J. Rozan
90
Murder Must Advertise - Dorothy Sayers
91
The Laughing Policeman - Sjowall & Wahloo
92
Some Buried Caesar - Rex Stout
93
Brat Farrar - Josephine Tey
94
Chinaman's Chance - Ross Thomas
95
A Test of Wills - Charles Todd
96
Presumed Innocent - Scott Turow
97
The Sands of Windee - Arthur Upfield
98
The Ice House - Minette Walters
99
Sanibel Flats - Randy Wayne White
100
I Married a Dead Man - Cornell Woolrich