The History of Mystery

Before unveiling my selection for Best Mystery Novel ever written (at least that I have read), I have some honorable mentions.  These are authors for whom I have read at least two of their books, and enjoyed them (or why would I read a second one), but just didn't find their best work to quite crack the Top 20.  In some cases, I'll leave out an author who will be featured in my next extended list - I will be going through a list, in order, of the novels that have won the Edgar for Best Novel - at least the ones I have read.  I am in the midst of reading them in order and I am up to 1977...  There are also some authors for whom I have only read one book but am looking forward to reading another.  But to be on this list below, two is the minimum.  Presented in alphabetical order...

CARL HIAASEN - Love me my Hiaasen, and I'm pleased that there is a new one right now in the bookstores.  Hiaasen is one of those rare chaps (James Patterson and Jane Langton are two more of this small set) who excels at stories for grownups and stories for kids.  Hiaasen is the master of the wacky caper where the hero, nonrecurring but always put-upon and sarcastic, finds himself in the midst of chaos as multiple teams of baddies, lawmen, and nut jobs converge on a disaster in the making.  While the hero is always different - one hero is the son of one of the villains from an earlier book, there is one occasionally returning and unforgettable character - the former governor of Florida known as "Skink."  Not all are great - my favorites are Double Whammy and Skin Tight.  But all are funny.

WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER - His myseries, set in the Great North Woods of Minnesota and featuring part-Ojibwe detective Cork O'Connor, are beautifully written and the scenery is spectacular and convincing.  The three I have read so far have not been super puzzling, and they have some elements I dislike, such as recovered memories, and the old Pelican Brief phenomenon where seemingly everyone who loves or tries to help the hero is murdered.  But the suspense works, often painfully so.  Vermilion Drift is my favorite so far.

JANE LANGTON - Langton's mysteries are gentle ones, set in New England, often featuring the people at Harvard or a thinly-veiled depiction of it.  They feature Homer and Mary Kelly.  The best of her children's books are outstanding - your nieces and nephews should be reading The Swing in the Summerhouse and The Diamond in the Window.  I have read over a dozen of the Homer Kelly mysteries - like many series (and Steely Dan albums), the earliest are generally the best.  My favorites are Dark Nantucket Noon, Emily Dickinson is Dead and Divine Inspiration.  Some ask thought-provoking questions, such as contrasting a serial mercy killer with a middle aged woman who deliberately leads her inoffensive husband to a fatal heart attack.  And Emily Dickinson is Dead has one of the funniest, but most poignant depictions of the frustrations of academic life (for those not teaching at Harvard) that I've ever read, in the character who believes that a photograph of a youthful Emily Dickinson will free him from his life at a (very, very) directional college...

ALASTAIR MacLEAN - A good straddler author, fun for adults but pretty reasonable for book-loving tweens and teens, too.  Which is to say that some of them are a little corny.  Some are not corny though - H.M.S. Ulysses is effectively tragic as well as exciting and Puppet on a Chain is another one with some grit.  But even the corny ones are fun and suspenseful.  MacLean's trademark is the team - the leader always seems to be an avatar of the author, but the team might have hulking strongmen, sharpshooters, safe crackers, explosive experts, fearless female spies, etc.  In Circus, the team literally includes circus people (acrobat, strongman, etc).  Does it sound kitschy?  It is, but it works.  With MacLean's best, it almost always works.  Two other things you can count on.  First, someone on the team is a traitor.  Second, they will botch the movie.  Many movies have been made from MacLean's novels - The Guns of Navarone is a great one and Where Eagles Dare featured a fetal Clint Eastwood (he may have been 38).  But Ice Station Zebra and Break-heart Pass are two that were badly botched - a great script for the taking for a filmmaker who wants to actually film the story that was written!

ELLERY QUEEN - I read quite a lot of these in my teens but haven't read one for a while, especially when I discovered that the name had become a brand and many of the Ellery Queen novels I had read were not writen by the original authors.  How much you like them depends on how much you like gimmicks (starting with the decision to use the same name as their pseudonym and the name of their character).  Many of the novels feature serial killers who select victims based on obscure patterns, or dying clues given by the victim with his last breath.  Some of these gimmicks worked very well.  And I liked the conceit of the detective who works with his father, who is a Chief of Police. 

R.D. ROSEN and TROY SOOS - Both write mysteries that feature baseball players as detectives, so I am combining them.  And they have recently been joined by T T Monday.  Soos' are set in baseball's distant past and that in and of itself is a lot of fun.  Rosen's are better plotted - Strike Three You're Dead is absolutely the best baseball mystery ever - as opposed to a generic mystery that is just set in the baseball world for atmosphere.  And I still want to write my own novel based on how I thought Fadeaway should have ended...

GEORGES SIMENON - Creator of the unforgettable Inspector Maigret, Simenon wrote a ton of these mysteries and they are all short and tight.  Characterization and scene are brilliantly done and in some cases the plots are every bit as fiendish as Christie and Cruz Smith.  For example, in The Hanged Man of St Pholien, Maigret has to figure out why a suspicious stranger commits suicide when Maigret takes his suitcase, which contains a dirty and tattered suit.  My plan is to read one Maigret a year until I run out - I believe I will be over 100 when that happens since I just started last year...