'Classic' Detective Stories you have enjoyed.

[Rolmill]

Lots of new names for me to follow up

A couple more recommendations to throw into the mix: Boris Akunin's absurd but amusing Erast Fandorin stories, and Bill James's viciously laconic Harpur and Iles series.

As for particular books, Ira Levin's "A Kiss before Dying" is one of my favourites not yet mentioned (I think) - a whodunnit which shades into a thriller, off-beat and memorable.

I quite agree about AC's "Tommy & Tuppence" books, Salymap - wearisome and rather feebly plotted!

[Petrushka]

'Trent's Last Case' by E C Bentley - highly recommended as a classic.

Thanks for the reminder of this. I read it very many years ago and would suggest that this book and 'A Question of Proof' by Nicholas Blake are the acme of the classic detective story. High time I read both again. Just off to Amazon to order.

[DoctorT]

Thanks Petrushka. Haven't read the Nicholas Blake: sounds like my sort of book.
No-one has mentioned Rebus or Morse yet. Any Ian Rankin or Colin Dexter fans out there?

[Ferretfancy]

Does anybody remember James Thurber's The Macbeth Murder Mystery? An American lady in a rush for a train picks up the wrong coloured Penguin Book at Smith's, and it turns out to be Macbeth. However, as an inveterate reader of detective fiction she soon twigs that Macbeth didn't do it!

By the way, I haven't seen a comment on Ruth Rendell yet.

[amateur51]

I think that Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford mysteries put P D James' Adam Dalgleish stories to shame. However it is in her guise as Barbara Vine that I think she really excels - gripping 'why dunnits' often, more than 'who dunnits', frequently starting at the end and gradually unravelling the mystery by going back towards the beginning. Clever stuff!

[Petrushka]

Any...Colin Dexter fans out there?

I read the Morse books long before TV got hold of him and had the great pleasure of meeting Colin Dexter some years ago in Oxford.

[salymap]

I have all the Colin Dexter books on video [remember those?] but don't own the books.

[Flosshilde]

I think that Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford mysteries put P D James' Adam Dalgleish stories to shame. However it is in her guise as Barbara Vine that I think she really excels - gripping 'why dunnits' often, more than 'who dunnits', frequently starting at the end and gradually unravelling the mystery by going back towards the beginning. Clever stuff!

Mmm yes - Barbara Vine is excellent - I once met her (well, Ruth Rendell I suppose); or at least, I said 'hello' & 'thank you' when she signed my copy

Talking of Adam Dalgleish - there's another posh detective - titled, even - of about the same vintage & I can't remember his name (I should add that my poor memory is rather an advantage when it comes to detective novels - I can read them several times & the end is always a surprise )

DoctorT - yes, I'm a Rankin fan; & have you read Kate Atkinson's books? Jackson Brodie is in the same mould as Rebus.

[salymap]

Morning Flossie, there are several posh detectives from that time. Ngiao Marsh's Roderick Alleyn has a titled mother, Allingham's Albert Campion even has connections with royalty in the early books. The author was apparently mocking other writers, I gather. And of course Lord Peter Wimsey.

[Pianorak]

Just remembered another rivetting yarn: Tragedy at Law by Cyril Hare (not sure if he's been mentioned before).

[amateur51]

(I should add that my poor memory is rather an advantage when it comes to detective novels - I can read them several times & the end is always a surprise )

Same here, flossie, even with Christie whose solutions always outrage me because of her cheating "You never mentioned dark circles under her eyes until 5 pages before the end, you cheating madam" I rage as I hurl another paperback across the room

I long ago gave up trying to work out who dunnit: I regard it as a triumph if I can remember who all the characters are

May I say what a joy this thread is, and how much it has extended my Amazon wishlist - why, I've even had to create a crime/thriller wishlist to accommodate all the recommendations that I can't find in the public library

No-one has yet mentioned Alexander McCall Smith's Number One Ladies Detective Agency stories with Precious Ramotswe.

[salymap]

Morning am51 daerk.....lonmg...ity .... re your comments on another thread [in colour] Let he who is without fault cast the first stone ......or summit. And yes I am human and make lots of mistakes.

[amateur51]

Morning am51 daerk.....lonmg...ity .... re your comments on another thread [in colour] Let he who is without fault cast the first stone ......or summit. And yes I am human and make lots of mistakes.

Remonstration accepted, saly except I tried to sort mine out immediately and I wasn't making mock of a Romanian gent's broken English at the time. Is that poster who I think he is?

[french frank]

As a child, I followed in my elder brother's footsteps, first with Sherlock Holmes, then with Father Brown. Of both I have vivid memories of certain stories (The Man with the Twisted Lip, The Red-Headed League, The Dancing Men, The Speckled Band (of course), The Wrong Shape, hmmm, more Holmes than Brown, on reflection): I wonder if that's because one remembers things from the distant past more clearly?

My 'Christie' equivalent was the silliness of Maurice Leblanc's Arsène Lupin, and also from student days, Gaston Leroux (Le mystère de la chambre jaune, Le parfum de la dame en noir - and, naturally, Le fantôme de l'Opéra).

Lots of names, like Crispin, which have been mentioned and two or three from the 'classic' era who (possibly?) haven't:

Nicholas Blake (C Day Lewis): e.g. The Beast Must Die
Francis Iles: e.g. Before the Fact - which I see was the novel on which Hitchcock's Suspicion was based.
Ronald Knox: The Footsteps at the Lock

Re Dornford Yates: My parents had reams and reams of his works which were published in a book club edition, bound in a greeny grey buckram. I don't think they ever read them (they never read anything), and I never got further than the titles in the bookcase.



(Auctioned this month starting at $6 but didn't sell)

[Don Basilio]

A last thought on Agatha Christie. Does anyone agree with me; I mostly enjoy Miss Marple and Poirot stories but cannot stand 'Tommy and Tuppence'. They are not worthy of her IMO.

They are before she got into her stride. Poirot and Miss Marple could be trotted out in the 50, but Tommy and Tuppence are so, SO 20s.

Mind you, like P G Wodehouse, Dame Agatha's post WW2 works are not a patch on the golden 20/30s period, although still worth a read for afficionados.

What Christie could do like nobody else was a plot. Characters and dialogue are so cardboard (although vividly done) as to be funny. But at playing a game witht he reader, she was unique.