'Classic' Detective Stories you have enjoyed.

[salymap]

I hesitate to put this on Arts and Ideas but recent discussion on Edmund Crispin made me realise that there are many people on the boards who are interested in the subject of good who-dun-its.

My favourites [when I could see paper-backs] were Crispin, Margery Allingham, Sayers and several others like Ngaio Marsh. I think I have read enough Christie and her mannerisms are getting tiresome.

Any comments welcome.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I think I have read enough Christie and her mannerisms are getting tiresome.

There is one Agatha Christie that rises above all others and that is "And then there were None".

[doversoul1]

There was a time, a long time ago, when I read almost nothing but Ellery Queen. I expect my taste has changed. When I think about it, I can hardly remember the stories now.

[Don Basilio]

I missed the Edmund Crispin reference earlier, but yes, I'd read anything by him. The Moving Toyshop is eminently re-readable if you like that sort of thing. The denouments are a bit feeble, but the batty setting up is great fun.

Do Raymond Chandler and Michael Dibden count as "classic" or are they too gritty.

I found Gladys Mitchell sounded better on the blurb than when actually read.

[Norfolk Born]

There is one Agatha Christie that rises above all others and that is "And then there were None".

I wonder how many, if any, copies remain with the original title?

[mangerton]

There is one Agatha Christie that rises above all others and that is "And then there were None".

Ah, the new politically correct title. I read it under its original cover. I agree that it is head and shoulders above the rest of Dame Agatha's output.

Of the genre, D L Sayers is by far my favourite.

I remember half scaring myself to death by reading Conan-Doyle's "The Speckled Band" at the age of about nine.

[mangerton]

I wonder how many, if any, copies remain with the original title?

That's a very good question. For reasons of space, I gave away a lot of books about ten years ago, including that one. Rather careless of me in retrospect.

[Ferretfancy]

I've rather gone off traditional detective fiction, but there's no mistaking the quality of books like Margery Allingham's The Tiger in the Smoke, or Dorothy L Sayers The Nine Tailors. I do find the period attitudes in Sayers and Christie a bit difficult to take, particularly the casual anti-semitism of the former, and the belief that all actresses are tarts in the latter! During the last year I've re-read quite a lot of Sherlock Holmes, just for the fun of re-aquaintance, and also caught up finally with The Moonstone and The Woman in White, which really started it all.

In the case of crime stories, I like American noir, and in particular the Parker novels of Richard Stark. He wrote a series of these in the 60s and 70s before leaving Parker, and then returned after a gap of 20 years or so to bring the character back, rather as Doyle did. If you liked the film Point Blank, based on Stark, you'll enjoy the booksThey have the darkness that you find in Patricia Highsmith, but are much more violent

[DracoM]

Michael Innes - aka J.I.M Stewart - don at The House.

[aeolium]

I remember enjoying quite a few of the Michael Innes books when I read them ages ago. Some of Reginald Hill's crime stories are good, much better than the TV adaptations would suggest. There's also Dashiel Hammett and - much more than just detective stories - Friedrich Dürrenmatt. Going back a bit, the Dickens-Collins collaboration on No Thoroughfare is well worth reading. And Dickens' unfinished Edwin Drood , though not a 'who-dun-it' (it's obvious who the criminal is), is still tantalising in that there's disagreement about what actually was done and how it would have turned out.

[Petrushka]

I remember half scaring myself to death by reading Conan-Doyle's "The Speckled Band" at the age of about nine.

Me too though I think I was a little older. You can read the Sherlock Holmes stories over and over and never tire of them. Read most of Agatha Christie in my teens and Dorothy L. Sayers a bit later then graduated up to John Le Carre and Len Deighton.

I used to like the novels of John Dickson Carr (Inspector French), R. Austin Freeman (Dr Thorndyke) and Margery Allingham amongst others. Of modern practitioners I like the Inspector Banks novels of Peter Robinson.

Does anyone remember that bookshop along Charing Cross Road that was devoted to crime novels? I used to pick up some good second hand ones from there.

[salymap]

I think Margery Allingham is my favourite but her books vary widely from the 'silly ass' capers of Campion and his friends in the early novels to really good stories with a detective element in some of the later books. Her descriptions of parts of London and Suffolk and her sometimes macabre characters remain with me always.

[DracoM]

Edwin Drood is one of the incrementally creepiest books I have ever read. Quiet, but deadly. Dickens setting out on a whole new area? Influence of Wilkie Collins strong? Actually, I'm quite glad he left it unfinished.

[aeolium]

Edwin Drood is one of the incrementally creepiest books I have ever read. Quiet, but deadly. Dickens setting out on a whole new area? Influence of Wilkie Collins strong? Actually, I'm quite glad he left it unfinished.

Oh no, how can you say that, Draco? It might have been a memorable ending, with the criminal confronted by the man he thought he had killed. The title page illustration by Fildes shows what might be such a confrontation. And though in some respects the work seems to indicate a new direction, there do seem to be familiar themes such as the doppelgänger, the man whose life - like Sydney Carton's - might have been, and perhaps the 'recalled to life' theme where someone thought to have been dead resurfaces.

[Ferretfancy]

Petrushka

The shop that you remember in Charing Cross Road was called Murder One. They moved to smaller premises almost opposite three or four years ago, with far fewer titles in stock. I now find that they now only operate as mail order on line, but it's much more fun to browse real shelves. Still, I'll probably have a look.
Incidentally, although we all love books, do we find that somehow we get through fewer of them than we used to do? I tend to read in bed, and find myself dozing off these days!