50 crime writers to read before you die

Thanks to Dec at Crime Always Pays for this post.  Otherwise, I'd have missed The Daily Telegraph's 50 crime writers to read before you die.  A bit more debate can be found here, at Crime Scraps.  At the time of writing, The Telegraph's comment section had attracted 226 comments on its article.

Comments are often intriguing.  I loved this one:

"I don't read crime books - I find them to be mostly violent and upsetting.

I prefer to read historical and political biographies, such as that of Dr Livingstone and Jackie Kennedy.

I think people who like to read about murder and rape are mentally unhealthy."

There must be plenty of mentally unhealthy people out there then; all wandering around undiagnosed.

But oh, go on, such lists are subjective aren't they?  Great to see John Lawton on the list.  Odd to see Frances Fyfield, with this comment - "Fyfield emerged as a rival to Minette Walters when publishers in the mid-1990s were obsessed with grim, cod-psychological nasties inspired by Ruth Rendell. She's relaxed into a more comfortable format." - but no Minette Walters.

Glaring omissions for me include: Robert Wilson; Michael Connelly (ye gods, had the panel taken too many Mogadons?); Ian Rankin; John Harvey; Harlan Coben; John Sandford; Andrew Taylor; Minette Walters; Patricia Cornwell (for her early work) and lastly, someone no one has suggested in the comments there, Ridley Pearson (his Boldt/Matthews novels were excellent and I miss them).

Comments

[Melissa]

I have always loved a good crime. To pick up a book and not be able to put it down, to the point where nothing gets done around the house and not even care about it, is what I strive for. Thanks for the list.

[James Bashkin]

I thought your list of missing people was perfect (well, it was also almost identical to the one I sent to detectivesbeyondborders).

I think that Robert Wilson is a particular treasure, though I had to score The Vanished Hands with extra points for social relevance for it to reach alpha-plus status- I found it weaker than the others.

I love Minette W., except sometimes she really scares me in ways that stick with me for years. Anyway, she is quite brilliant.

I have wondered about the psychology of loving crime fiction, but, for all those critics of us, it's better than not loving at all!

Also, many of us go entire days without murder (for example, now I'm reading Gates of Fire, which as you know is historical fiction about Thermopylae, so I can feel superior and still enjoy evisceration).

My mother loves a good murder.

That could be a bumper sticker for many of us. It is certainly how I started.

All the best, Jim

[Norm]

"The crime connoisseur is more likely to be of the XX persuasion."

I wonder why? Is it that the female brain more devious?
My mother was one of seven sisters so I will disqualify myself from answering that question.

[cfr]

Well it certainly drummed up debate. The comments now stand at nearly 300 on there.

I've now noticed another and far more interesting comment:

"Having noted the names of the gentlemen who compiled this list, I respectfully suggest that the
Telegraph ensure that, in future, any committees compiling these entertaining assessments be more gender balanced. Or perhaps you should have issued a warning at
the top of the article: 'This list has been compiled by an all male jury who have tried their best to present their point of view but who somehow managed to omit many of the great women crime writers and who also managed to include a snide comment about the abilities of women to write crime. Please forgive them. They were doing their best.

In other words, I do not admire a publication which publishes a list which is so obviously skewed.

To make amends, why don't you, in the Very Near Future, assemble an all female jury to present their list of the fifty best crime writers?? I think that would be most entertaining, and would perhaps keep your offices from being picketed by modern day suffragettes.
Linda K.
Posted by linda kupecek on February 25, 2008 8:12 AM"

I think she makes a good point with one aspect. The Times published an article in 90s in which it was stated that 70% of crime fiction readers in the UK are women in the ABC1 category. A couple of years ago at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, a similar statistic was noted.

The crime connoisseur is more likely to be of the XX persuasion.

[Anne Brooke]

Yes, there did seem to be plenty missing - and more of the traditional author, I think?

A
xxx

[Peter]

I admire the measured tone of your comments. It's almost pointless to object to a list like that, since its purpose is at least as much for marketing as anything else. Perhaps the editors of the list made a deliberately outrageous ommision or two just to generate debate.
===================

Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

[Norm]

I had not noticed the missing Ian Rankin and John Harvey, I was too busy puzzling out Denise Mina in, and PD James out?
You are right Andrew Taylor, Robert Wilson and even Patricia Cornwell for almost creating a subgenre before her implosion.