5 Classic Authors (in crime fiction) Whose Work I Should Have Read, But Have Not
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Chester Himes
Ellery Queen
Erle Stanley Gardner
Mary Roberts Rinehart
What are your gaps?
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Stolen from J.Kingston Pierce
5 Classic Authors (in crime fiction) Whose Work I Should Have Read, But Have Not
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Chester Himes
Ellery Queen
Erle Stanley Gardner
Mary Roberts Rinehart
What are your gaps?
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24 comments:
The thing is, Patti, the more I think about how big the genre is, the more classic authors I'm aware of not having read...
Mary Roberts Rinehart
Maj Sjowall
Edwin Crispin
Josephine Tey
Elizabeth Peters
Funny, I have read all of yours here, George, except Rinehart. But haven't read any of the science fiction or fantasy writers you do on FFB. Read THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR and DAUGHTER OF TIME by Tey. And ROSEANA by Sjowall if nothing else.
Not that crazy about what I read of Crispin or Peters.
I'll take two from your list and add a few more:
Mary Rogers Rinehart
Ellery Queen
John Dickson Carr
Walter Gibson (Shadow)
Theodore Tinsley
Ooh, I have never even heard of Tinsley.
Wait, Patti - you have never read a single Sherlock Holmes story? Not even in school? Really? Go read "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" right now! ;^)
I had to look up Tinsley. He was the other prolific pulp writer of the Shadow stories.
The first two in my list easily popped into my head. I had to consult the Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone list (I figured it would be a good sampling of what we "should have" read) to find three others, but it took some searching! Those other three probably are all considered obscure by everyone but the most devoted fans.
Margery Allingham
Mickey Spillane
Ronald A. Knox
R. A. J. Walling
Manning Coles
If you want a list contemporary crime fiction writers I've never read but should have I can come up with a list of about twenty five immediately. That's much more embarrassing!
My face is so red from embarrassment--reading these lists and processing the implications--the librarians are peeking at me, considering, I'm sure,calling 911.
I have read a lot of Allingham. But not much of the rest, John. I went to his house in London if that counts. And I have seem a lot of the films. But never read and I am not sure why. I guess there has always been more books we should have read than we did read. The human condition. A lot on my list I associated with my mother's tastes and they seemed old fashioned like Frances Parkinson Keyes who she also favored.
I don't feel compelled to read anyone I haven't read yet.
It's Edmund Crispin.
Chester Himes is the one on that list I haven't read, though I have started them more than once.
I can't think of any others offhand that interest me. If they do, I've probably already tried them.
An exception might be some of the Scandinavians I haven't read yet.
If we're counting 19th Century the top of my list would be Wilkie Collins.
Chester Himes is the one on that list I haven't read, though I have started them more than once.
I can't think of any others offhand that interest me. If they do, I've probably already tried them.
An exception might be some of the Scandinavians I haven't read yet.
If we're counting 19th Century the top of my list would be Wilkie Collins.
It's Edmund Crispin.
The only one of his I've read is THE MOVING TOYSHOP (store?) and not much of it stuck. Although not much of anything sticks.
There is nothing worse than being out with six people over sixty (as I was yesterday) that all like books and movies and watch for them to come up with titles and names. What did they ever do without cell phones?
Not only have I never read some of the authors listed above but I've never heard of a few of them.
Conan Doyle's stories really hold up after 100+ years.
Emma Latham
George Pelecanos
Phyllis Whitney
Henning Mankell
Ennis Willie
Phyllis Whitney for me too. Don't even no Willie. Mankell is great and Lathen is great fun for that era. So much about money with a banker as hero.
Read a story yesterday by Dorothy Salisbury Davis. Tree Near L'Havre. Hadn't heard of her, but now I'm looking for one of her novels.
This could be a bit embarrassing, but we're all friends here, right? Well, I have not read anything by:
EC Bentley
John Rhode (aka Miles Burton)
Anne Hocking
Anthony Gilbert
Sax Rohmer
The only name on your list that I've even heard of, Sergio, is Sax Rohmer, and I suspect if I've read anything by him it would have been one of his Fu Manchu novels, which must not have impressed me enuf to read any more of his stuff. But I was so much older then. I'm younger than that now.
Have never heard of Anne Hocking. Isn't that strange? Off to look her up. (Not another name for Anne Perry, I hope).
Patricia Highsmith
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Chester Himes
William DeAndrea
Elmore Leonard
(I guess the last two are not classic.)
Damn, folks. There's barely anyone mentioned I haven't read a bit of, though usually only a bit. Considerably more of favorites such as Highsmith, but not so much as to leave me expert, in her case (or at least to let me rattle windily on as with, say, Borges or [barely] Muller or Gregory Macdonald or Robert Bloch. And there are so many I've barely read that I could rattle off, but I'll stretch here for the ones I've yet to read at all, most more popular than Classic:
Jonathan Kellerman
Stieg Larsson (I'm waiting for competent translation)
James Patterson
Alexander McCall Smith (might've read one short story so far, but I suspect not)
Donna Leon (as with Smith, I've seen some of the adaptations of her Brunetti stories)
Have never read Patterson but the rest I have read at least one, Todd.
So there is another person who has not read SACD. Relived. Interesting what constitutes a classic.
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