'Classic' Detective Stories you have enjoyed.

[salymap]

Many more I have enjoyed on my shelves but can't see now. Emma Lathen about a Wall Street,US banker who solved crimes as well as doing a top job.

V.C Clinton-Baddeley. Surely a broadcaster as well? I have 'My foe outstretch'd beneath the tree' Only a matter of time' and I think there was another I can't find. All good reads.

[Rolmill]

Count me in as a lover of detective stories, glad to see that I'm not alone in such low-brow tastes on this forum. Part of the fascination is the number of sub-genres, as evidenced by the stylistic range of the recommendations already made on this thread (Julian Symons has written well on this). Slightly embarrassed to admit that I have never really got into Sherlock Holmes (despite living close to Crowborough, where Conan-Doyle lived for his last 20-odd years!) , but enthusiastically endorse vinteuil and StephenO's recommendation of the evocative Father Brown stories - The Sign of the Broken Sword still chills me 25 years after first reading it.

I am also, like Salymap and Don Basilio, a Crispin fan - I must have missed the discussion Salymap refers to, but I imagine many boarders know of his musical links; as well being a composer, one of his stories (I think it's called "Swan Song") is set during rehearsals for an opera. Actually, another very good writer of crime stories, Robert Barnard, also used opera rehearsals as the setting for one of his witty and well-written books - rather nicely titled "Death on the High Cs".

Other more modern detective novelists I particularly enjoy include Reginald Hill, Peter Lovesey and Donna Leon. For lighter fare, Simon Brett and Colin Watson are both unfailingly amusing. As for Agatha Christie, my personal favourite is "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" - one of those rare stories where the final twist was so surprising that it pretty much forced me to re-read the entire book immediately...surely the ultimate accolade for a "classic" detective story!

[Petrushka]

V.C Clinton-Baddeley. Surely a broadcaster as well? I have 'My foe outstretch'd beneath the tree' Only a matter of time' and I think there was another I can't find. All good reads.

That's a completely new name to me. Look interesting.

[salymap]

I think the original Crispin conversation was on the thread 'Colin Fishwick: dead' I looked at it to find out who Colin is/was but still don't really know , except he's in Corrie. Sorry if I went off topic.

[antongould]

Wonderful thread salymap - like you I love Sayers and Crispin and if I had to take one book to a desert island I guess it would be The Nine Tailors!

[Ferretfancy]

Petrushka

Green for Danger pops up regularly on Film4, usually during the daytime. The setting is in a small cottage hospital manned by RAF nurses and doctors played by the likes of Rosamund John and Leo Genn. It must be one of the first films to feature the great Trevor Howard, and of course Alastair Sim is the detective. I remember it very well from my childhood, and it stands up very well even today. I would say that it's rather more a thriller than a comedy, quite scary in fact, but Sim is at his best, and there's a nice running gag featuring a V-1 Well worth recording next time it appears on TV.
I'm ashamed to say I have never read the original novel. one for the list!

[johnb]

In the past I've read most of Margery Allingham's novels. They are enjoyable, even comforting.

Recently I've had a spell reading Nordic thrillers (Stieg Larsson, Jo Nesbo, etc) - quite different!

[Don Basilio]

Count me in as a lover of detective stories, glad to see that I'm not alone in such low-brow tastes on this forum. Part of the fascination is the number of sub-genres, as evidenced by the stylistic range of the recommendations already made on this thread (Julian Symons has written well on this). Slightly embarrassed to admit that I have never really got into Sherlock Holmes (despite living close to Crowborough, where Conan-Doyle lived for his last 20-odd years!) , but enthusiastically endorse vinteuil and StephenO's recommendation of the evocative Father Brown stories - The Sign of the Broken Sword still chills me 25 years after first reading it.

I am also, like Salymap and Don Basilio, a Crispin fan - I must have missed the discussion Salymap refers to, but I imagine many boarders know of his musical links; as well being a composer, one of his stories (I think it's called "Swan Song")

It is and it's the most recent Crispin I've read: that was one where the denoument was very weak, to my mind, but the rest was such fun that it didn't matter.

[Eudaimonia]

Great thread! If anyone feels like taking a crack at a "top 10/must read" list, I'd be much obliged.

I'm not sure if it counts as real detective fiction, but I like Patricia Highsmith and Gore Vidal writing as Edgar Box-- anyone remember those? The latter were more of a campy send-up of the genre than anything else, but the characters were well-done and quite funny. If anyone is interested, here's an interview with him about it...

GORE VIDAL, P.I.

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/gore-vidal-p-i/

[aeolium]

There's also arguably the originator of the detective fiction genre, Edgar Allan Poe and his Dupin stories, and much more recently Sara Paretsky's V I Warshawski books.

[Don Basilio]

Margery Allingham's More Work for the Undertaker is the one I particularly remember and would recommend.

I like Iain Pears' Italian art history comedy whodunnits, Giotto's Hand and so forth. (The ineffective art historian is called Jonathan Argyll.)

I have heard a lot of praise for Josephine Tey, The Daughter of Time and so forth. I must say they left a very nasty taste in my mouth, for reasons I can't put my finger on.

[salymap]

[QUOTE=Don Basilio;53717]Margery Allingham's More Work for the Undertaker is the one I particularly remember and would recommend.

I like Iain Pears' Italian art history comedy whodunnits, Giotto's Hand and so forth. (The ineffective art historian is called Jonathan Argyll.)

Most of my paperbacks seem to be on such poor paper that I can't see to read them now. I remember 'More Work for the undertaker' Wasit Jas Bowles and Rolly, really sinister, going down the street. I read the J.Tey,don't know the Italian art history ones, they sound good.

[Mahlerei]

Read Christie and Sayers but tended to go for the American 'tecs, Chandler's Marlowe and McDonald's Travis McGee. As for changing the titles of Christie's novels it seems pretty pointless when the dated attitudes in the books are unchanged.

There was also a (gay) British 'tec called Duffy - anyone remember him? There were just a few books and then they dried up. P. J. Kavanagh was the author, but I have a feeling that may have been a pseudonym for someone more famous.

[vinteuil]

There was also a (gay) British 'tec called Duffy - anyone remember him? There were just a few books and then they dried up. P. J. Kavanagh was the author, but I have a feeling that may have been a pseudonym for someone more famous.

... Dan Kavanagh rather than PJ. Someone much more famous - Julian Barnes.

[Thespian]

christie is for me the best whodunnit writer. I think I have read them all apart from half a dozen. From her i went to Sayers and Ngaio Marsh.

Edmund Crispin I found a bit weak to be honest. As others have said upthread, His endings are weak but his setting up is entertaining.

My recent discovery is John Dickson Carr, The great "locked room" mystery writer - His classic is "The Hollow Man"

I love scouring Charity Shops for mystery books from that age.