(From Ed Gorman's blog, 2010) This also appeared in The Thrilling Detective just weeks ago. Funny how we synchronize sometimes.
Dick Lochte's Top 20 Private Eye Novels
Ed here: In addition to being both a fine novelist and short story
writer as well as a very perceptive critic, Dick's list is especially
interesting to me because he includes novels I've never seen on any
other list before. And now I want to read or reread them. (This was originally published in the PWA newsletter)
TOP 20 PRIVATE EYE NOVELS (in alphabetical order – one per author or Chandler, Hammett and Macdonald would use up the 20)
1. Charles E. Alverson - Goodey’s Last Stand
2. Lawrence Block – Eight Million Ways to Die
3. Howard Browne – The Taste of Ashes
4. Raymond Chandler – The Long Goodbye
5. Robert Crais – L.A. Requiem
6. James Crumley – The Last Good Kiss
7. Stanley Ellin – The Eighth Circle
8. Earl W. Emerson – The Rainy City
9. Loren D. Estleman - Every Brilliant Eye
10. Joe Gores – Dead Skip
11. Sue Grafton – ‘K’ Is For Killer
12. Dashiell Hammett – The Maltese Falcon
13. Arthur Lyons – Hard Trade
14. Ross Macdonald – The Way Some People Die
15. Walter Mosley – Devil in a Blue Dress
16. Warren Murphy – Trace # 1
17. Robert B. Parker – The Judas Goat
18. T. Jefferson Parker – Silent Joe
19. Brad Solomon – The Open Shadow
20. Jonathan Valin – Day of Wrath
8 comments:
Good list. I've read fifteen of them and have several others buried on Mount TBR. The only title I don't recognize is Brad Solomon's THE OPEN SHADOW -- I'll have to fix that real soon.
Good list. I agree with quite a few of them, but I am not a LONG GOODBYE lover. As compared with other Chandlers, I've always considered it overlong and overrated. The Gores and the Crumley are excellent choices.
I, of course, would like to see more women on the list.
True. Where is Margaret Millar, at least?
And she did have a PI. Or what about Val McDermid. Or Sara Paretsky.
Otto Pensler's disdain for female crime writers looms large.
I agree with Jeff Meyerson. THE LONG GOODBYE rambles around for 379 pages. I prefer Chandler's shorter novels. And, like Jerry House, I'm not familiar with Brad Solomon's THE OPEN SHADOW. And, like Jerry, I'll track down a copy.
Pretty good list. The only ones I have not read-Grafton, Browne and Murphy. Tried a Paretsky and didn't care much for it. Like Grafton, just haven't read that one.
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